37-year love affair with Chicago by Melissa Cherry

I have had a nearly 37-year love affair with Chicago. One that is so deep, as I began my career fifteen years ago promoting Los Angeles as a cultural destination, I somehow felt as if I was cheating on my home town. I will be the first one to admit that I love this great city, but who doesn’t. During my time in LA, I would routinely take a Friday red-eye from LA to get back to a city that I called home. So why this love affair? I remember the moment I knew I was in love. Arriving into Midway airport and driving into the city north along Lake Shore Drive at night, you pass the light at Roosevelt and look up. There it is. This gorgeous skyline, all lit up and sparkling. Sometimes the buildings that line the park have a  message….a pink ribbon, heart disease awareness, or a tribute to our city’s fallen heroes. Then there’s this beautifully landscaped garden with a gigantic fountain, rejoicing as you cross Balbo Avenue.  What other city has one of the most beautiful front yards you’ve ever seen. Now, as a permanent resident of Chicago’s Woodlawn community, I reminisce more about this city and its great many attributes.

Enjoying a classic Chicago summer day, I think back to my first exposure to Chicago’s cultural scene. Just to be clear, I was raised in Evanston, but spent my teen years exploring the streets of Chicago. My mom never missed an opportunity to expose me to Chicago’s cultural treasures; those memories have long stuck with me. With spring came trips to our world-class museums; the summers meant any number of neighborhood festivals and concerts; fall was filled with theater; and finally the holidays…well, there’s no other city that celebrates the holidays like Chicago.

Even though Chicago has been on the world stage for many years, we should all be excited about the new opportunity that the cultural plan lays out for Chicago. It gives us a chance to grow and position our city as an even more prominent global cultural destination. The cultural plan is a blueprint that puts art at the heart of what we do. So what does this all mean? Who should care? Everybody. This is about claiming Chicago. How we set ourselves apart from other cultural destinations is crucial. We need to claim what is unique only to Chicago and invite the world to experience it.

This is an exciting moment for Chicago. There is much work to be done, investments to be made and time for us to roll up our sleeves. A city doesn’t embark down a path to position itself as one of the great global destinations in the world, without already knowing the foundation is already in place. It is time for usual and unusual partnerships to blossom and reveal the power and intensity that Chicago’s cultural community has to offer. Culture is what makes a city unique. Chicago’s assets are not only defined as museums, theaters, dance, architecture, history, music, festivals, neighborhoods and more; but also dining, shopping, and nightlife. And let’s not forget the depth of our creative industries and academic programs developed at the city’s prominent colleges and universities. All of this makes Chicago truly a unique cultural destination.

Chicagoans love this city, and want to share it with the world. We want people to experience the interesting and inviting corners of this great city. Cultural travelers seek enriching experiences, whether aesthetic, intellectual, or emotional. They are motivated to better understand the places they visit and the cultures and events that formed those destinations. The lifestyle of the people, the history of those people: our art, our music, our architecture, our thriving cultural community all have shaped Chicago into an amazing city.

And yes, this is about economic impact. Impact that is much needed not only within the cultural community, but within the actual neighborhoods that host some of Chicago’s most cherished treasures. There is a lot to be said about artists and cultural organizations that move in to Chicago communities and the magic that follows. There is a lot to be said about $2.2 billion in annual spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences in Chicago. There’s a lot to be said about how that supports more than 60,000 full time jobs, generates $1.3 billion in household income, and delivers $214 million in local and state government revenue.

Chicago must define its own voice and silence the misconceptions of this great city. We are more than a gangster town; we are a city with big shoulders that is blessed with both demographic and geographic diversity, and an abundance of cultural assets. Chicago is a city of neighbors, festivals, block parties and apartment galleries. Chicago is about the people, the languages, the music, and the flavor of our neighborhoods. We have a great story to share, and the moment is now. As the famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham stated, make no little plans…..make big plans. It’s all right here.

Melissa Cherry is currently the Vice President of Cultural Tourism and Neighborhoods for Choose Chicago.  (www.choosechicago.com) Previously, Ms. Cherry was Vice President of External Affairs at the Chicago History Museum from 2002 through 2012, and  from 1997 to 2002 Director of Cultural Tourism and Consumer Promotions for LA Inc.

Nurturing the Seed of Creativity by Juana Guzman

Nurturing the Seed of Creativity in Chicago’s Underserved Communities:

Chicago is a unique city of neighborhoods. A place where all you have to do is walk or drive in any direction to find many of the world’s cultures living right next to your community. It was in one of those neighborhoods, remotely hidden in Chicago’s near southeast side, where I grew up. Hidden by a steel mill, viaducts, railroad tracks and a stone’s throw from a forest preserve that would some day become Chicago State University it was a diverse, working class community brought together by the steel mill. A place where hard working people driven by the shared goal of a better life lived side by side in their little frame houses and cherished bungalows.  It was in is this place, far away from mainstream cultural institutions, that arts and culture thrived. A place where the seed of creativity was instilled in me and in so many of the people that I grew up with at that time.

I can remember the time many years ago when I first walked through the hallways of my Chicago Public School for the first time. Along the walls I could see reproductions of famous art works such as Seurat’s Afternoon in the Park or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. You could say it was my first cultural viewing of any artwork. Each day, classes would include music appreciation, where students sang the “Farmer in the Dell” and “Oh McDonalds had a Farm.” Later after math, science, and English, our teacher would provide us with some kind of hands on art project. She would encourage us to be creative and just be ourselves.

But my exposure to the arts did not end there. The community, despite its hardships and social issues, took time to celebrate each holiday from their homeland and newly adopted country. I can remember the beauty and artistry of those hand-made Ukrainian eggs every Easter, my mother making tamales at Christmas time and sharing them with the neighbors, listening to gospel music at the little African American church, and the yearly Polish polka and pirogues event.

Somehow, the lack of cultural centers and museums did not hinder our community. Field houses, church basements, VFW halls, social clubs, and schools served as catalyst for cultural and social preservation and change. Arts and culture brought us together in spite of economic difficulties and racial tensions. I still remember everybody coming together carrying their hand made lanterns and walking to the field house for activities and barn dancing during the harvest festival in the fall.

It was in this type of community where I grew up that the seed of creativity could be found and continues to be found in every Chicago neighborhood. I firmly believe that every community has a right to have their own cultural space, where residents can gather and celebrate the artistic and cultural experiences that mirror them as a people.  It’s cultural centers such as the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Irish Heritage Center, People’s Music School, Black Theater Ensemble, and many others that have proven to be important artistic and cultural anchors for their communities. These institutions draw thousands of visitors to these communities seeking a different cultural experience from their own and from the mainstream venues.  These cultural facilities serve as a catalyst for broader creativity, community engagement, and  economic development. More importantly, these cultural facilities nurture and support the seed of creativity. These organizations provide the community space to nurture the talents of the people who might one day be the artist you see in the gallery, the designer of your clothing, the hip hop musician you love to listen to on iPOD, or the playwright you are going to see at one of Chicago’s many theater houses.

To ensure the vitality of Chicago’s cultural and artistic productions, we must extend support beyond those established cultural districts in the Chicago’s Downtown and north side communities to areas that are isolated, without resources, but have so much talent. Places like Lawndale, Austin, Back of the Yards, South Deering, Eastside, West Pullman, Grand Crossing, Scottsdale and many, many others communities that have historically not received resources or support.

The Chicago Cultural Plan has an opportunity to shed light on the reality facing these underserved communities and to bring to the forefront an on-going discussion on ways that can highlight both the needs of these communities and their potential.

Juana Guzman

A native Chicagoan, has served as an arts manager, arts entrepreneur and arts activist for over thirty years, has championed local and national arts, culture and heritage as a quality of life resources for diverse American populations. Throughout her career, Ms. Guzman has devoted herself to the promotion and preservation of arts and culture within diverse communities. Her leadership has ensured a higher quality of life, social well-being and accessibility of the arts for all.

Since 1995, Ms. Guzman has developed and implemented strategies that focus on organizational capacity building, alternative sources of revenue, entrepreneurial and tourism initiatives and strategies for arts organizations in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, San Antonio Houston, Durban, South Africa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose California, Ajo, Arizona, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As result, of this work, in 2012, Ms. Guzman left her position as Vice-President of the National Museum of Mexican Art to start her company, “I Juana Know”, which focuses on “Enhanced Revenue for Creative Markets.”  

Before bringing her skills and passion for the arts to NMMA, Ms. Guzman served as the Director of Community Cultural Development for the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). During her 18-year tenure with DCA (1981-1999),

Final Cultural Plan Is Here!

The Chicago Cultural Plan 2012 is ready for your review! The following three documents make up the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012:

1. Executive Summary (6.9mb PDF)
2. Final Cultural Plan (5.3mb PDF)
3. Infographic (14.8mb PDF)
4. Supplemental Materials (1.4mb PDF)

Click here If wish to download all 4 documents in a zip file (24.2mb)

The Chicago Community Trust by Suzanne Connor

Suzanne Connor, Sr. Program Officer for Arts and Culture

The Chicago Community Trust

If you missed seeing the maps and Community Profiles that illustrate the disparity of cultural assets across the City, it’s all available here: www.culturalindicators.org

Although this data served as a starting point for informed discussions about cultural planning, we also want to call your attention to an asset that is emerging as a prominent contributor to the creativity and productivity that define Chicago – higher education.  Did you know that there are 35 post-secondary institutions located within the City limits with combined enrollment figures that top 228,000?  When added to about 50,000 total employees, this is equivalent to one out of every ten people in Chicago.  Check it out here: http://www.culturalindicators.org/highereddata

Chicago is, in fact, a bustling “urban campus” where students from all over the world interact with each other and with the civic and cultural life around them.  From law schools to culinary schools, these institutions are attracting people from all over the world.  For example, did you know that 40% of the 7,700 students at IIT are international?  Some will put their skills to work in Chicago, while others will take that degree and all their Chicago experiences back to their homes around the world, strengthening the cosmopolitan image of our City.  

Demographically, Chicago is a young city, with only 10% of the total population aged 65 and over, according to the latest census data.  This extraordinary young talent is attracted, and in many cases, retained by the synergistic effect of a confluence of factors; everything from the lakefront bike path to Millennium Park concerts to stimulating internship opportunities and Benefits like the U-pass and student performance pricing.  The knowledge they acquire extends beyond the classroom; it is enriched by their exposure to the cultural diversity and upward mobility that is the hallmark of our communities.  Whether students arrive from Indiana or Indonesia, they enter an engaging environment where cross-pollination is the key to creativity.

In return, this vast market segment (along with doting parents) is dining, drinking, buying cultural and sports tickets, and shopping; keeping the cash registers and sales tax revenues rolling, particularly in the Loop.  College students are an attractive sector of our workforce, filling part-time jobs as cashiers, waiters, and even cab drivers while they are in school, and eagerly competing for corporate jobs once they graduate – unless, of course, they decide to start a dance company or jazz ensemble, take a class at Second City or Chicago Dramatist, or teach in one of the many arts programs offered in Chicago Public Schools.  

Beyond the well-placed network of City Colleges, there is still a surprisingly wide geographic spread with Chicago State and the University of Chicago anchoring the South Side; UIC on the West Side; Loyola and Northeastern up North – and so many others, too numerous to name!  This “urban campus” is a brand that should be showcased and celebrated, not only because it highlights the assets of our post-secondary institutions, but also because it can be better integrated into the infrastructure of lifelong learning for local residents in the arts and other fields.  

So what does this have to do with the 2012 Cultural Plan?  There is no greater missed opportunity than an undervalued asset.  Failing to leverage the synergy of these institutions of higher learning as centers for creative young talent, research, innovation, and upward mobility overlooks a relevant response to the challenge of positioning Chicago globally.  Forgetting to plant them firmly and prominently at the top of the P-20 educational continuum for all Chicago children in every aspect of City planning lessens the chance that an appropriate percentage of the 228,455 college students will come from our urban neighborhoods.  And leaving them out of the economic equation when mapping facilities and human capital would not be maximizing all the resources available to strengthen the cultural currency in Chicago.  Therefore, I am recommending that this information and the collective role of Chicago’s post-secondary institutions be incorporated in a significant way into the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan. 

Deb Clapp, Executive Director of the League of Chicago Theatres, on the priority in the plan “Optimize City Policies and Regulation so Creative Initiatives Thrive.”

It has been an honor to be a part of the creation of a new cultural plan for the City of Chicago.  I have enjoyed going to town hall meetings and hearing what all kinds of people are thinking about the plan and about the future of our city.  We will all have a role in the arts playing an important and significant role in the future of Chicago.

I have been asked to blog about the priority of the plan that calls for us to “Optimize City Policies and Regulation so Creative Initiatives Thrive.”  Can’t say no to that!  Recommendation 21 calls for us to “Develop the resources, systems, and coordination across city department that reflect a pro-culture government.”  Recommendation 23 calls for us to “Streamline city processes to simplify achievement of cultural initiatives.”  I think these two are so similar that they should probably be combined.  I would argue that many of the initiatives under these recommendations could be achieved if the entire culture of City government were transformed so as to be streamlined and service oriented.  This cuts across all business lines and I imagine would be most welcomed by all.  In fact, I don’t believe that any of these initiatives CAN be accomplished without changing the culture of City government.  It is difficult in the extreme to obtain complete and accurate instructions for any kind of permitting or licensing and, while I have certainly met City employees (especially DCASE staffers) who are kind and helpful (the tow truck driver who had to tow me off Lake Shore Drive when my car broke down, I will never forget that guy), let’s face it…many of them are not.  It doesn’t show up in the initiatives but I would love to see a DCASE staffer (or maybe more than one) charged with assisting arts organizations in navigating through other City departments.

Another of the initiatives in this area calls for Aldermanic arts initiatives and dedicated funding for that.  Aldermen can be extremely helpful in many ways already.  I know that many neighborhoods and wards are not adequately served by arts organizations and I think this would be a wonderful way to connect arts groups with neighborhoods and to strengthen arts groups that already serve neighborhoods.  Aldermen are given so-called menu money for infrastructure improvement in their wards – this money is currently not allowed to be allocated to the arts.  If a portion of that money (more than $1 million for each ward) was dedicated to the arts that would be transformative for neighborhoods and for arts organizations. 

Recommendation 22, Develop New Revenue Streams for Culture.  Fantastic!  Included in the initiatives are percent for art ordinances, real estate development incentives towards cultural contribution and augmentation of hotel occupancy taxes and dedicated tax for arts and culture.  All good ideas and should be done right away.  But I would also say here that direct grants for general operating support are the best way for the City to show support for arts and culture in Chicago.  It is the best way for organizations to grow and to innovate.  It shows that the City is willing to put its dollars where its ideals are.  Bringing more money into cultural organizations is the best way to achieve many of the goals of the plan.  These are difficult times and that is understood by all, but if Chicago truly wants to enhance its cultural assets, that is the way.  I don’t think the plan says it directly anywhere (it does for artists but not for organizations).

I know I talk a lot about money here but there is some truly astonishing art happening in this City within organizations that are constantly on the brink of financial ruin.  This leads companies to shrink, to not take chances and eventually, in some cases to stop, because they just can’t make it work.  That is a shame.  I believe that the tax dollar investment in these companies and these artists pays us back in an infinite number of ways.

The priorities of the plan are excellent.  I think the results of the process are well worth the effort that everyone has put into it.  I strongly urge everyone to read it.  So many of the priorities, recommendations and initiatives dovetail into each other it would seem that there is tremendous incentive to move forward.   The cost of the recommendations of the plan seem like a small investment in something that already makes our City great and can only enhance other efforts underway such as job creation, infrastructure improvement and making Chicago a global destination. 

"This feels like home." by Michael Patrick Thornton

Growing up in Jefferson Park, I believed the only place art happened was in large buildings downtown. Grammar school entailed trips to the Art Institute and in high school we were bused to Shakespeare Rep & Steppenwolf. These trips were beyond exciting—it was if I had been granted a one-day passport to a village to which I so desperately wished to be a full-time citizen. But eventually the curtain would come down and that magical village receded as our bus drove home.

After becoming a professional actor, I was fortunate to be working and playing in those magical villages with which I was so enamored as a kid, my passport now stamped for longer than just a day as I performed Shakespeare in Lakeview or improv in Old Town.

But now, strangely, that wistfulness was happening as I left Jefferson Park to perform and my neighborhood receded in the rear view mirror. Why, I thought, could my artistic home not also be my home? 

And so in December 2005, the company of which I serve as co-founder and Artistic Director, The Gift Theatre, decided to make our home in an abandoned shoe store in a Jefferson Park storefront. Over 30 productions later, The Gift is Chicago’s most intimate Equity theatre and an artistic beacon for the next generation of artists thru our education program, giftED.

The Gift is proof of the economic impact an arts organization can have on a neighborhood. The Gale Street Inn restaurant first welcomed us by creating a dinner/theatre subscription package for our subscribers and playing gracious host for our opening nights. After a few years of successfully collaborating, the owner of Gale Street, George Karzas, stepped up to become Board Chair of The Gift. We are a stronger company because of this relationship.

The tavern a few doors down from us—Fischman’s—has rebranded itself as a craft beer emporium, partly because the foot traffic The Gift brings in offered a new demographic of a beer-adventurous crowd. We tour our improv show, Natural Gas, to local high schools whose students then come to The Gift to see it every Wednesday. 

Driving to work at The Gift, I pass the Jefferson Park park district. My dreams these days are about using local public spaces as performance spaces and assisting the park district to be seen as more than just a great place to play, but also a great place to see great plays. The proposed 2013 season of The Gift includes an outdoor production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” in Jefferson Park directed by our ensemble member and Chicago legend Sheldon Patinkin. 

There is an appetite here for great theatre. I also believe that appetite is everywhere.  

The Gift started construction with the Field of Dreams ethos of “if you build it, they will come” and we supported that ethos through hard work. But we are interested in building more than a theatre. We are interested in building a community. We are interested in building a home. A defining moment in my life was in Dublin, getting ready to see a play at The Abbey. I asked my cousin Martin—a devout subscriber of The Abbey--what was playing. “Oh, I’m not sure, but it’s the new play at The Abbey.” The specific play didn’t matter, but just the fact that there was a new play by the theatre with which he felt community. 

That is the kind of theatre I am interested in building. Judging from the feedback we heard from our recent subscription drive, that is the theatre The Gift is becoming.

And as The Gift continues to thrive and expansion becomes necessary, we will look to additional spaces in Jefferson Park, similarly discarded shaggy dog architecture that has been surrendered to Time that thru a lot of love & hard work will create a new cultural district from which everyone benefits. 

The act of pioneering into underserved neighborhoods should be less unique. For the arts to thrive in a newly-energized way, I believe art needs to be democratized; supporting the arts must be seen as on the same level of buying groceries: something nutritive that is done regularly. One way to ignite this democratization is to consider building your utopia where you are. 

Recently, other theatrical “Lewis & Clarks” have made their own expeditions to the northwest side of Chicago wilds of empty storefronts. The devised theatre company Genesis Ensemble (full disclosure: the artistic director is my wife Lindsey Barlag Thornton) recently transformed three empty storefronts on Lawrence west of Milwaukee into whimsical, gorgeous performance spaces for their production of The Rest Unknown. Most recently, Filament Theatre laid their roots in a Six Corners Portage Park storefront.  Both endeavors were supported and assisted by 45^th Ward Alderman John Arena and Arts Alive 45’s Cyd Smilie who have proven to be kind, vocal, and genuine champions of the arts. 

I grew up in Jefferson Park wondering if the things I loved would ever be where I loved. The fact that Alderman Arena and Arts Live 45 share the same love for art, recognition that art creates commerce (and at its best, community) and that a kid from Jefferson Park gets to serve on Mayor Emanuel’s Cultural Advisory Council and share my voice to Chicago’s Cultural Plan and here with you...this feels magical. This feels like home.

My village is here, in no danger of receding. 

Yours can be where you are, too.

Passports to both come free of expiration.

Michael Patrick Thornton

Artistic Director

The Gift Theatre

thegifttheatre.org

MICHAEL PATRICK THORNTON is an actor, director, writer, and improviser. He is the co-founder/artistic director of The Gift Theatre, and lives in Jefferson Park.

Mr. Thornton is also a member of the Chicago Advisory Council on Cultural Affairs and Special Events. 

www.thegifttheatre.org

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