Blog

By Lisa Ciota, Education Guide

Did you ever make the connection between skyscrapers and keypunch cards (for those too young to remember, keypunch cards were a means to enter data and run programs on early computers)?

It’s a connection vividly highlighted in the decades-old BBC/PBS educational series Connections, where a visual near the end of episode 4 inextricably links the idea of data and information with cities.

Similarly, exhibit host Charles (Chuck) Eiden serves as a link between visitors and CAC exhibits. He helps guests connect to information and concepts throughout our galleries, encouraging them to be curious, ask questions, and have fun while at our Center.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – Albert Einstein

Making connections, or making it possible to make connections, is something Chuck is an expert at, given his background. Chuck is a former computer and applications support consultant for a succession of north suburban healthcare corporations. This meant Chuck had to understand and develop the processes and systems behind how the company’s information system worked as well as train others on it. These training responsibilities had Chuck traveling to Canada and Mexico, working with translators and learning to pause to ensure employees understood what was being communicated. And, yes, he used keypunch cards early in his career.

This experience translates well to being an exhibit host at the CAC. Chuck is able to “translate” complex ideas about architecture, skyscrapers, and the City of Chicago for visitors. It’s the opportunity to connect and share stories with guests that he most enjoys about being an exhibit host. As an entrée to a conversation, Chuck often uses personal experience such as where he or guests have or currently live and locating it on the Chicago Model or Wall Map. Sometimes guests tell him interesting stories such as the gentleman who, after watching the film in the Chicago gallery, talked with pride about his grandfather – a stone mason – who immigrated to Chicago from Germany after the great fire because of the many opportunities to build with stone.

Chuck uses these conversations to encourage visitors to be curious, a virtue that Chuck exemplifies himself. It’s evident in his many travels from Spain and Portugal to Italy and Israel as well as visits to nine of the 21 original Spanish Missions in California. This curious nature is most visible in Chuck’s ongoing quest to learn about Chicago. It started many years ago, when Chuck and his wife Vicki – residents of far north suburban Lake Villa – owned a condo in Lakeview where they spent weekends (and two of his five children lived while attending college). They often used these weekends to explore the city and its neighborhoods, pulling a card from the Chicago City Walks Deck: 50 Adventures on Foot to start their own adventure. This coincided with a time when Chuck took a 16-week History of Chicago course at the College of Lake County, where he wrote a paper on Lakeview and its history. Chuck also took an Introduction to Architecture course at the same college.

An exhibit host for the CAC since 2014, Chuck is a member of the Volunteer Steering Committee. He also served on the CAC’s 2016 Strategic Planning Committee.

Outside the CAC, Chuck serves as chair of his church’s welcoming committee and is a volunteer at the Dunn Museum of History (Lake County Forest Preserve District) in Libertyville, where a recent comic book exhibit featuring artist Alex Ross drew thousands of fans. Even more important, Chuck celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary in fall 2018!

In all that he does and contributes, what’s most rewarding for Chuck is the opportunity to make conversations and connections.