Meeting minutes were approved at the Cultural Advisory Council Meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park Room, 5th Floor North, 3pm.

Attendees:

Cultural Advisory Council ("CAC") Members:

Present: Chair Coya Paz, Vice Chair Blake-Anthony Johnson, Alison Cuddy, Amina Dickerson, Juan Díes, Brooke Flanagan, Bob Faust, Robert Gomez, Esther Grimm, Kevin Iega Jeff, Bill Michel, Cesáreo Moreno, Margaret Murphy-Webb, Vivian Teng, Omar Torres-Kortright, Kaoru Watanabe, Tanner Woodford

Absent: Akilah Halley, Tonika Lewis Johnson, Josephine Lee, Claire Rice, Silvia Rivera, Debra Yepa-Pappan

Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events ("DCASE") Staff:

Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth, First Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Johnson Washington, Deputy Commissioner Tahira Baig, Deputy Commissioner Jonah Zeiger, Assistant Commissioner Lisa Lorick, Amanda Carlson, Meida McNeal, Mariam Thiam, Laura Trejo Lozano, Melanie Wang, Ebony Johnson, Karroll McFern, Tenisha Wilkins

Proceedings:

I. Welcome and Introduction

Coya Paz, Chair of the Cultural Advisory Council (CAC) at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), welcomed attendees to the meeting held on June 11, 2024. She introduced herself and the purpose of the meeting, ensuring compliance with open meetings regulations. While the opportunity for public comment was provided, no public comments were received. The meeting proceeded as planned. Paz acknowledged Vice Chair Blake-Anthony Johnson to share information about the meeting.

Blake-Anthony Johnson, Vice Chair, thanked all the CAC members in attendance, recognized DCASE staff in attendance, thanked DCASE staff support for the meeting, and welcomed Commissioner Hedspeth and the opportunity to connect.

Coya Paz noted that quorum was established, and the minutes of the previous meeting on December 5, 2023 were unanimously approved.

II. DCASE Leadership Greetings and Introductions

Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth greeted the group and shared that she is looking forward to connecting with everyone. She emphasized that this is a service role for her, that she serves at the pleasure of the Mayor, and that she has an amazing team. Commissioner Hedspeth shared that moving forward she will support the things that the team is doing well. She shared that her office will be open to everyone and that she expects drop-ins from CAC members.

To support further introductions, Blake-Anthony Johnson invited all CAC members present to introduce themselves to the Commissioner and to share any particular areas of interest or focus. Introductions proceeded around the table.

After the introductions, Coya Paz moved the conversation on to an open discussion about the arts and culture ecology in the city, and where the members of the CAC would like attention devoted. Commissioner Hedspeth emphasized that this was a conversation to understand CAC members’ hopes and to form a wish list that could inform strategy and planning. She shared that the conversation was also an opportunity to understand where DCASE can do better.

CAC members spoke to the following ideas and issues:

Recovery Challenges, Trends in Arts Funding and Sustainability

• Highlighting that post pandemic support is coming to an end, and the concerns associated with this moment:
  • The incredibly significant change for small arts organizations that came from DCASE when it switched to providing multi-year support, and the jump to funding at current levels. Emphasis on keeping this and asking how to sustain it.
• Continuing the transformative work that DCASE has been doing, and as organizations are under pressure, infusing investments into arts organizations, championing the arts here and to the rest of the world.
• Thinking about the funding landscape, and funding challenges - reminding funders about the role of the arts to all kinds of priorities, highlighted by the examples of DCASE’s partnerships in recent years.
  • There’s more work to do to help funders think through these issues as they deal with larger issues like inflation, violence, etc.
• Recognizing and addressing the reality that there are arts organizations that appear to be functioning well that are actually struggling, and creating spaces to share challenges in order to avoid closures of these organizations.
• Rooted in the experiences of CAC members and others, creating spaces for leadership and leadership transitions within arts organizations to be discussed, so the brain trust and history aren’t lost, while still keeping space for those new voices to feel that their leadership is supported.
• Recognizing the impact of the pandemic on musicians, and the departure of artists into other jobs, and how the arts today are not what they were pre-pandemic.
  • When considering investment in the arts and to fertilize the ground for the performing arts, the sector needs commissions that get artists working.
• Completing the theatre sector work and finishing the project that was launched earlier in 2024.

Investing in Communities & Specific Disciplines

• Ensuring that arts economies on the South and West sides move beyond simply programming to developing sustainable pipelines for people to stay and work in Chicago, and specifically reinvesting in South and West side communities.
• Seeing IAP fund in all 77 community areas.
• Recognizing that the Mexican community continues to not be very visible in Chicago despite its size. How to build markers like other communities have, like the presence of festivals downtown or comparable numbers of cultural organizations.
• Making music accessible throughout the city, and how to do this.
• Continuing to build on work like Healing Arts Chicago, and continue its leadership in multidisciplinary and community participatory programs across the City that focus on the power of the arts in healing.
• Positioning Chicago as the hub of disability aesthetics, disability arts, culture, and accessibility. The city is lacking in access to stages and access to training programs. Chicago could be a hub of training for people with disabilities to get into the arts.

Arts Education and Workforce Pipeline

• Supporting young people (19-24) in the critical transition period after high school.
• Ensuring elementary school children have access to arts education (dance, ceramics, painting, music, etc).
• Needing to rebuild the robust performing arts sector, including ensuring that the dollars are there:
  • Ensuring that young artists, artists leaving art schools, think about Chicago as the place to go, as the place to create something from the ground up.
  • Supporting teaching artists, including investment and training.
  • Developing tech training and internships for young people (lighting, tech, set building).
• Breaking down silos between the arts office at CPS and DCASE.
• Using this moment with the CPS arts education plan to become engaged and support the visioning process.
• Focusing on robust workforce development by thinking about artistic internships, particularly for individuals from neighborhoods that do not traditionally see the arts as a pathway to a professional career.

Championing Chicago as an Arts City & a Place for Creative Innovation

• Keeping Chicago competitive and leveraging Chicago as a cultural capital, thinking about Chicago’s soft power.
  • Focus on the Film Office, and investment in workforce, post-production.
• Emphasizing arts and culture as Chicago’s calling card, and the importance of the Mayor and Commissioner using their platforms as a way to celebrate the arts and point people to Chicago.
• Fulfilling Chicago cultural plans and other plans that have happened in the last 30 years.
• Positioning Chicago as the space for brand new, inventive work. Chicago has its own identity and draw for artists that is still untapped, compared to New York and LA.
• Creating an audacious vision of how much the city should be investing in arts and culture per resident, or per student.

Pathways for CAC to Support Transformative Work

• Ensuring that the CAC is doing strategic thinking, creative thinking, about this moment and what the future holds for arts and culture, because the landscape is changing.

III. DCASE Briefings

Melanie Wang, Director of Cultural Grants, transitioned the meeting into updates from DCASE team members.

Mariam Thiam, Director of Performing Arts, introduced CAC members to the staff on her team and then provided an update on a huge slate of Millennium Park programming, including Gospel Fest, Chicago House Music Festival, Queer Family Pride Jam, Chicago Blues Festival, Millennium Park Summer Music series, and the expanded weeklong celebration of the 20th Anniversary. She continued to share about the Millennium Park residency partners programming throughout the summer, and finally the Chicago Jazz Festival.

Jonah Zeiger, Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Film Office, provided an update on the inaugural Sundance Institute in Chicago, sharing the event’s tagline, “championing creative independence” as a way to underscore the recognition of Chicago’s independent film and festival community. He included updates about the event’s locations across the city, screenings, master classes, and advisory committee input.

Additionally, Zeiger provided updates on:

• two conferences taking place in Chicago, IND/EX and Filmscape Chicago;
• panels that the Film Office will be leading on sustainability in the film industry;
• the Millennium Park summer film series, kicking off July 16;
• the state of production and the return to work after shutdowns, with the return of all six long-running television series; and
• the Daily Show and The Late Show coming to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention.

Amanda Carlson, Senior Strategist, and Laura Trejo Lozano, Director of Cultural Resources, introduced the CAC to the creative worker rights, “Art is Labor.” campaign, which came about in response to citywide planning priorities and requests from the sector to provide education and awareness around worker rights. Carlson and Trejo Lozano shared information on the advisory committee process that informed the work, dates for the launch of the campaign, and information on webinars, office hours, and resources from partners in the sector.

Following this update, Carlson continued to provide a briefing on the recently announced programming from the Chicago Poet Laureate, avery r. young, including monthly workshops and an invitation to write Chicago Soul Poems. Carlson also shared that DCASE would be running another call for a new poet laureate in 2025.

Meida McNeal, Senior Manager of Arts and Community Impact Investments, shared an update on DCASE’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) programs. In 2022 and 2023, DCASE successfully designed and launched programs, and selected artists and arts organizations, so that programs were up and running in 2024. This included:

• $5.5 million for 47 Together We Heal Creative Place Program projects (TWH).
• $10 million for 77 arts organizations in Chicago Arts Recovery Program (CARP).
• $1 million for the Chicago Arts and Health Pilot, now called Healing Arts Chicago, which additionally received private dollars to support individual artists.

McNeal provided detailed updates on TWH and CARP, speaking about the new TWH website that shares information on all the awardees, and the technical assistance support that consultants are providing to the learning cohorts that have been convened as a part of CARP. Additional information was shared about upcoming site visits that would be open to stakeholders, including CAC members.

Finally, McNeal shared details about the Healing Arts Chicago program. Ten artists completed their community health worker certification and are now doing their 2,000-hour registered apprenticeships in City mental health clinics. CAC members were invited to register for a summer celebration and creative summit at Malcolm X College that will feature thinking about artists and employment in health, other intersections, and feature arts and health resources. McNeal highlighted that this program is a national model, and others are reaching out to learn about the program.

Melanie Wang, Director of Cultural Grants, shared news about the 2024 announcement of the Individual Artist Program awardees and provided highlights about the 200 artists who will receive grants. Grantees come from every ward. 60% reside in community areas that are low to moderate income, and 65% identify as BIPOC artists. Wang shared that the program requires 50 panel reviewers, who come from across Chicago communities to advise on the process, and thanked everyone involved for their work on the program. She also provided updates on annual grant programs including:

• Neighborhood Access Program, which increases access to funding, particularly in communities that have received less funding in the past, and is currently in panel reviews.
• CityArts, which is also in its final stages after panel reviews and selection, and remains a multi-year program, with increased grant amounts, in recognition of the needs of the community.
• Chicago Presents, which provides support to event organizers who are presenting arts and culture events throughout the city.

Wang completed her update with information on ways that the Cultural Grants program also supports other DCASE divisions to administer calls, including the Millennium Park Residency Program and the 2025-2026 Exhibition Call, in coordination with DCASE’s Visual Arts team.

As an end to the presentations, Coya Paz prompted a final round of CAC comments and questions.

A comment was shared asking about Mexican and Latino representation in DCASE programming, and the opportunity to ensure equal representation across DCASE’s investments. The comment also recognized the influx of people from Venezuela and the opportunity for the city to be learning more about the culture and people who are new to Chicago. Paz shared that the discussion on representation would be extended.

IV. Next Steps

Coya Paz reminded CAC members to continue to serve as advisors, ambassadors, and advocates, and to introduce audacity into their work – advocates with audacity.

V. Adjourn

With no further questions or comments, the meeting was adjourned.