Building a Resilient Performing Arts Sector in Chicago
Chicago Dance Crash, Navy Pier, Chicago. Photo credit: Philamonjaro Studio.
Leveraging assets of creativity, ingenuity and community to survive the pandemic
Walder Foundation is committed to sustaining performing arts in the Chicago region. In direct response to COVID-19, the Foundation contributed to several collaborative funds, providing emergency relief during the pandemic’s early days. Looking beyond the crisis to consider the long-term sustainability of the sector, we invited a group of thought leaders and visionaries to consider what a new era of performing arts in Chicago might look like. Through a request for proposals (RFP), we invited arts service organizations to propose ideas for ways to support the sector by leveraging the field’s assets of creativity, ingenuity and community.
The RFP prioritized organizations whose work traditionally serves under-resourced populations, communities, and genres; that embrace system-wide change and collaboration; and look to sustain the livelihoods of artists.
These projects represent a nearly $2.5 million investment in the Chicago region’s performing arts sector:
3Arts helps artists take risks, experiment, and build momentum in their careers by providing cash awards, project funding, residency fellowships, professional development, and promotion. Funding will allow 3Arts to expand the distribution of its resources, including increasing their award amounts.
African American Arts Alliance
Support will allow the Alliance to appoint an executive director who will carry out the day to day business operations of the organization, implement programming and marketing, fundraise, and meet the needs of the membership. Since its inception in 1997, the Alliance has relied on its board and a small staff for this support.
The Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions Project (ACRE)
ACRE will create and disseminate the Chicago Arts Census, a complete census of the arts community, and develop resources including maps, a website, a publication, and public programs to demonstrate the interwoven and dependent relationships that comprise Chicago’s arts ecosystem.
The Alliance will develop and implement a coordinated statewide policy agenda that seeks to reimagine the creative sector’s role in a post-COVID-19 world, focusing on systems change that prioritizes racial justice and builds the infrastructure of arts advocates in the state, particularly in the Chicago region.
Arts + Public Life (University of Chicago)
Arts + Public Life will fund their continued efforts to provide artistic and administrative support for emerging theater companies, performance collectives, and directors in residence at the Green Line Performing Arts Center so they can continue to develop, incubate, and present work by and about underrepresented communities and gain increased visibility for South Side artists, directors, companies, collectives, and community members.
AWF is evolving its grantmaking strategy through a program called THINK EXPLORE SHARE. This new strategy will support arts organizations as they develop new approaches to artistic, managerial, production, and technological challenges resulting from COVID-19 and attempt to improve the systems that were not working well before the pandemic, such as lack of equity and accessibility for artists of color and artists with disabilities and declining ticket sales.
The Forum’s City-Wide Production Residency Pilot Project will employ artists and theater professional staff during the pandemic and position dancemakers for sustainable livelihoods after the pandemic by matching dance artists with empty performance venues, promoting new collaborations, artistic development, and innovative ways of sharing dance with audiences and other supporters.
Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA)
Funding will support CLATA to champion local Latino Chicago theater artists, promote their work, augment their audiences, forge collaborations, increase work opportunities, and showcase dynamic Latino stories on Chicago stages.
CPD will develop training and provide funding for community members to produce events at its 15 cultural sites, venues and a new artist residency program in the parks. Expanding park resources will provide access to artists in every neighborhood and increase the amount of performance space and creative expression across the city.
Constellation will provide production underwriting to Chicago-based musicians to film and record their performances and have professional quality digital documentation of their work for online distribution. These videos will serve to elevate the visibility of Chicago's diverse music section to a global level.
The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago
The Dance Center’s new digital residency program will provide validation, recognition, and financial support to choreographers. The project is designed to implement new strategies to bring dance to audiences digitally during the pandemic and beyond, and to support artists in new ways of making work and connecting with their peers.
Funding will allow EAF to record and live-stream programming from their Chicago performing arts space and develop the necessary digital media skills among members of their diverse community.
By providing anti-racism learning and capacity-building to advance institutional change and significantly improve racial equity in Chicago’s arts sector, Enrich Chicago will continue to expand, scale, and build sustainable structures to support initiatives that dismantle systemic racism.
Experimental Sound Studio (ESS)
Building off the momentum and lessons learned from the delivery of their live streaming series, ESS plans to create a series of interrelated initiatives aimed at increasing accessibility to live streaming and virtual performance for artists, and establish opportunities for continued collaboration and idea exchange across the music and performing arts sectors.
High Concept Laboratories (HCL)
HCL is a multi-performance venue and artist residency program that supports many types of performance including music, dance, performance art and theater. Artists in residence at HCL receive customized development, administrative, marketing, and production support, as well as access to studio space, technical equipment, artistic consultation and documentation services. Funding will allow HCL to support artists in an environment that encourages experimentation, risk and discovery.
This grant will enable Illinois Humanities to model robust integration of arts and humanities, create new opportunities for communities to have access to facilitated conversations about issues that matter, and support performing artists in engaging with diverse communities across the state.
Ingenuity Incorporated Chicago
Ingenuity is the coordinating body for Chicago’s arts education ecosystem, transforming the ways in which Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students experience and benefit from the arts in their lives. Funding will support Ingenuity to implement ArtsEd Response Collective (ARC), a collective impact movement to help the sector develop and coalesce around a shared agenda and action plan in response to COVID-19.
International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago
Funding will help the Center to meet the cultural needs of the thousands of people, Latinos and non-Latinos, who benefit from their multidisciplinary cultural offerings, and which also serve to promote positive images of Latinos. They intend to present their year-round programs either in-person or virtually, including the essential Latino Music Festival.
Jazz Institute of Chicago (JIC)
The JIC is the leading organization focused on educating, enlightening and supporting the artform of Jazz in Chicago. Support will allow the Institute to build upon the successes of its 2020 virtual programming, while broadening this vision to fully support musicians, students and educators.
Lawyers for the Creative Arts (LCA)
LCA helps over 1,000 organizations and artists annually by providing pro bono legal services and educational programs. This grant will support LCA’s Theater Assistance Project (TAP), created to help preserve the incredibly diverse community of Chicago’s theaters while COVID is preventing live theater performances. TAP brings the expertise of private lawyers, financial consultants, and LCA’s own non-profit experience to assist theaters in managing their expenses during this extended period of limited ticket sales and other earned revenue.
League of Chicago Theatres Foundation
The League is an indispensable resource to the Chicago Theater community. Funding will assist the League to continue its important work, which includes providing training, resources, access to professional opportunities, networking and more.
Links Hall will implement a comprehensive technology upgrade to support its artists as they seek new ways of developing, creating, and presenting work online during the pandemic. Digital connectivity will allow Links Hall to strengthen marketing efforts and expand donor and audience engagement.
Public Media Institute (PMI) will support musicians and performance artists through a live streaming video station in parallel to their FM radio station, WLPN Lumpen Radio. Funds will allow PMI to build out a permanent live streaming studio, a suite of mobile live streaming equipment as well as a set of custom software tools for remote performances, and an expanded team of A/V technicians/instructors.
Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA)
Funds will help PRAA provide opportunities to local musicians and artists to showcase their talents in and for the community. This will include new protocols for providing safe environments for artists, musicians, and audience members.
See Chicago Dance advocates for and strengthens a diverse range of dance organizations and artists through services and programs that build and engage audiences. Funding will support an initiative to cultivate sustainability and resilience for the Chicago dance field during and beyond the evolving public health crisis by making dance available through a digital platform, bridging the gap between live and virtual.
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