Tara Townsend, president of IFF’s Social Impact Accelerator, and Carlos Hernandez, founder and executive director of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, sat down with Patton McDowell for the podcast, “Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership,” to discuss Chicago’s Cultural Treasures and the challenges facing arts and culture organizations of color. The conversation also focused on the ongoing need for systems change work to address decades of underfunding and shift the way that philanthropy approaches the arts space.
“I speak for all of my peers who are organizations of color who are still out there trying to sustain their own organizations, that are impacting so many people who represent the changing faces in American society,” said Hernandez. “And yet it is so horrible, terrible, that we’re still talking about finding equitable funding in this day and age, and that racism in the arts still persists. And what was very uplifting about Chicago’s Cultural Treasures was the fact that there were institutions who were beginning to get it, who were beginning to address it.”
Listen to the whole interview and read more about the interviewees here, or listen to Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership wherever you find podcasts.
CHICAGO (June 26, 2024) — Administered by IFF, Chicago’s Cultural Treasures (ChiTreasures) announced today a second round of grant funding, totaling $3 million, to be distributed to the 40 current ChiTreasures grantees.
Launched in 2021 as a regional component of the Ford Foundation’s America’s Cultural Treasures, and co-created with the Chicago arts community, ChiTreasures is a race-conscious initiative that aims to strengthen, grow, and preserve organizations whose mission is to enable the creation, preservation, and dissemination of art stemming from BIPOC traditions, leadership, and culture.
The first round of grantmaking awarded $14 million to 40 BIPOC-led and -focused arts and culture organizations representing a diverse group of artforms, neighborhoods, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and contributions to Chicago’s history, vibrancy, and identity. These organizations serve as important neighborhood anchors, helping to ensure that experiences and stories from the communities they serve are shared and heard. In addition to the funding, grantees were provided technical assistance to help further support their sustainability, covering topics such as fundraising, board development, marketing communications, financial management, and facilities planning and support. Funding is provided by the Ford Foundation as part of America’s Cultural Treasures; philanthropist MacKenzie Scott; and a Chicago-based funding collaborative comprising The Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art, and Walder Foundation.
“One of the goals of ChiTreasures is to provide the grantees with opportunities to reach financial sustainability — through grants and technical assistance,” said Tara Townsend, President of IFF’s Social Impact Accelerator. “Both grants and technical assistance have been provided over the last three years, but there is a need for more. We are excited to be able to award another round of funding to these organizations to further support their futures.”
“Funding for organizations that are elevating the traditions and culture of people from historically marginalized backgrounds and disinvested communities has never been sufficient. We need to do more to lift up organizations that have enriched Chicago for generations,” said Tara Magner, Director of the MacArthur Foundation’s Chicago Commitment Program, on behalf of the Chicago-based funding collaborative. “The Chicago funders made a commitment to support Chicago’s rich arts and culture scene, and this next round of grants provides an opportunity to continue to do that.”
According to an October 2023 report from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the past few years have seen a decline in philanthropic, private, and public funding for arts and culture organizations. This second round of funding aims to counter that by providing additional support to the current 40 ChiTreasures grantees and reflects ChiTreasures’ commitment to continuing to support Chicago’s BIPOC arts and culture scene.
To learn more about Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, visit www.chicagosculturaltreasures.org.
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ABOUT CHICAGO’S CULTURAL TREASURES
Chicago’s Cultural Treasures is a four-year initiative that aims to bolster the long-term financial resilience and sustainability of BIPOC arts and cultural organizations through a combination of critical general operating support as well as capacity-building and technical assistance.
Administered by IFF, a mission-driven lender, developer and real-estate consultant, the initiative launched in winter 2021 with a participatory grantmaking process, comprising a diverse group of community members, civic leaders, and artists whose common denominator is an appreciation for how art and culture fit into the fabric of community in the Chicagoland region.
The 40 ChiTreasures grantees include:
- Africa International House USA
- Aguijon Theater Company of Chicago
- American Indian Center
- Asian Improv aRts Midwest
- The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
- Black Ensemble Theater
- Chicago Blues Museum
- Chicago Jazz Philharmonic
- Chicago West Community Music Center
- Community Film Workshop of Chicago
- Congo Square Theatre Company
- Cuerdas Clasicas Inc.
- Deeply Rooted Dance Theater
- Diasporal Rhythms
- DuSable Museum of African American History
- eta Creative Arts Foundation, Inc.
- Gingarte Capoeira
- Inner-City Muslim Action Network
- International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago
- Jazz Institute of Chicago
- Joel Hall Dancers & Center
- Little Black Pearl Workshop
- Live the Spirit Residency / Englewood Jazz Festival
- Mexican Folk Dance Company of Chicago
- Muntu Dance Theatre
- Musical Arts Institute
- National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial
- National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
- Natya Dance Theatre
- Puerto Rican Arts Alliance
- Red Clay Dance Company
- Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
- Silk Road Rising
- Sones de Mexico
- South Shore Drill Team
- South Side Community Art Center
- Teatro Vista
- Threewalls
- UrbanTheater Company
- West Point School of Music/Epic Stee
MEDIA CONTACT
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Several of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures are among 27 Chicago small arts organizations with budgets under $1 million to receive Cash Reserve Challenge Grants from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, according to a report from Broadway World.
Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Asian Improv aRts Midwest, Congo Square Theatre, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, Red Clay Dance Company, Sones de Mexico, and Threewalls are among the grantees mentioned.
Read more about the grants here.
Dr. Jeffreen M. Hayes, executive director of Threewalls, was recently interviewed as part of Authority Magazine’s series on women’s leadership, “Leading with Heart.” In addition to speaking about her own leadership style, she highlighted the holistic ways that Threewalls seeks to support its artists.
“We work with artists on deepening their artistic practice, and in doing so, we also help attend to their humanity and wellness,” she said. “Threewalls does not believe in the starving artist trope; instead, we believe in and practice paying artists and creatives a living or equitable wage for their artistic labor.”
Read the full interview here.
Print Magazine recently interviewed Tara Townsend, president of IFF’s Social Impact Accelerator, the department that oversees administration of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures. In the interview, Tara highlighted the initiative’s focus on advancing race equity in Chicago’s arts and culture scene.
“By design, ChiTreasures was not a standard grantmaking initiative. It was a race equity initiative for Chicago’s arts and culture sector,” she said. “Our hope is that the initiative’s collective impact will be the ongoing disruption of historical trends in funding for BIPOC-led and -focused cultural organizations as anchors in equitable community development.”
Read the interview here.
Kenya Thomas, executive director of eta Creative Arts Foundation and Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of IFF’s Chicago Metro Region, spoke about Chicago’s Cultural Treasures in an interview on Score Values 670AM.
“If I have to be extremely transparent, if Chicago’s Cultural Treasures had not happened, I don’t think eta would still be here right now, or I don’t know where we would be right now,” said Kenya. “It really helped us to be able to bring back our programming. We were really at a point where we didn’t know how we were going to make payroll that week — and we got the phone call. So it has been extremely instrumental.”
Listen to the whole interview here.
On Tuesday, March 5, Rufus Williams, host of the Morning Show on WVON 1690AM, spoke with Coco Elysses from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and Molly Bartels Roth from IFF about Chicago’s Cultural Treasures.
During the interview, Coco highlighted the work that she and AACM have been doing, as well as the value the organization has drawn from its involvement in Chicago’s Cultural Treasures. “Although there are a lot of organizations like us in different genres that provide such rich cultural content for the communities, when it comes to getting funding, we’re low on the totem pole,” she said. “So the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures grant was a wonderful, wonderful blessing to come at the time to our organization.”
Learn more about WVON, and listen to the full interview below:
Three of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures received grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Black Ensemble Theater was granted $15,000 for the Black Playwrights Festival; Sones de Mexico Ensemble received $30,000 to support a tour of performances featuring traditional Mexican music; and Teatro Vista received $15,000 to support the development of a work highlighting Latin American pop art artists.
Read more here in the Chicago Tribune.
Enterprise Podcast Network sat down with Charlique Rolle, Executive director of Congo Square Theatre, and Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of IFF’s Chicago Metro Region, to discuss how Chicago’s Cultural Treasures is focused on supporting the art and culture scene in Chicago.
Listen to the episode and read more here.
Newcity Stage includes several of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures in their list of “The Fifty People Who Really Perform For Chicago.”
As part of their sub-list “Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts,” Newcity Stage highlights Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Teatro Vista, UrbanTheater Company, Congo Square Theatre Company, and Red Clay Dance Company. The Puerto Rican Arts Alliance and Jazz Institute of Chicago are also highlighted in the sub-list of “Programmers.”
Read more here.
CanvasRebel sat down with Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of IFF’s Chicago Metro region, to discuss IFF’s commitment to Chicago’s Cultural Treasures and some of the work that grantees are doing.
Read the full story here.
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater’s Artistic Director Nicole Clarke-Springer published a commentary piece in Crain’s Chicago Business discussing the challenges that Black-led and -serving arts organizations face in appealing to funders while maintaining their own authentic expression.
“Chicago has a broad range of arts organizations committed to their respective missions,” Clarke-Springer says. “It is imperative that we each prioritize authentic expression over conforming to traditional expectations that we hope will keep us relevant to funders.”
Read the whole piece here.
Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of IFF’s Chicago Metro Region, recently sat down with We Empower Magazine to answer some questions about Chicago’s Cultural Treasures.
“Chicago does indeed have a thriving BIPOC arts and culture scene, and we can’t emphasize enough for people to go out and experience the art,” says Lakes-Battle in the interview.
Read the full interview here.
Authority Magazine recently interviewed Vickie Lakes-Battle, IFF’s executive director of the Chicago Metro Region, where she discussed her and IFF’s involvement in Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, among other topics.
“One of the biggest takeaways is that ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ Lakes-Battle says in her interview. “As we look ahead, the collective impact of this initiative will be the ongoing disruption of historical trends in funding for BIPOC-led and -focused cultural organizations, as anchors in equitable community development.”
Read the full interview here.
The Citizen spotlighted Chicago’s Cultural Treasures and its work supporting BIPOC-led and -focused arts and cultural groups.
“What we’re trying to do is disrupt historical inequities in philanthropy,” says Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of the Chicago Metro region for IFF. “For many of the participating organizations, this Chi Treasures grant opportunity was the first grant they’d ever receive and for others, this was the largest grant they’d ever received.”
Read the full story here.
The MacArthur Foundation and Field Foundation recently announced 86 recipients of their A Road Together (ART) initiative, a regranting opportunity designed to advance social and racial equity through community arts and culture funding. Of that list of 86, 22 different members of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures will receive funding through this initiative.
Recipients of three-year ART grants include: eta Creative Arts Foundation, Jazz Institute of Chicago, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, Live the Spirit Residency, Muntu Dance Theatre, Musical Arts Institute, Silk Road Rising, South Side Community Art Center, and Teatro Vista.
Recipients of one-year ART grants include: Africa International House USA, Inc., Asian Improv aRts Midwest, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Chicago West Community Music Center, Congo Square Theatre Company, Diasporal Rhythms, International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, Natya Dance Theatre, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, Sones de Mexico Ensemble, Threewalls, UrbanTheater Company, and West Point School of Music.
Read more here.
The Chicago Tribune spotlighted Deeply Rooted Dance Theater ahead of a special November 3 performance showcasing the theater’s history.
Discussing the group’s plans for the future, Executive Director Makeda Crayton highlighted a current capital campaign to construct its own studio space, a 33,000 square foot facility in Washington Park called Deeply Rooted Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities. She also discussed the importance for arts groups to own a space of their own.
Quoted in the article, Crayton said, “When we build this building, it’s a different level of commitment, not only to us and the people who work with us, but to the community. We’re planting roots here. It’s a physical landmark. It’s making a bold statement we’re here to stay.”
The article also discusses the current and previous brick-and-mortar plans of Chicago Cultural Treasures Red Clay Dance Company Joel Hall Dancers & Center.
Read the full story here.
While many large or mainstream theaters have been struggling since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and other culturally-specific theaters — such as Chicago Cultural Treasures Congo Square Theatre Company and the Black Ensemble Theater — have managed to gain access to funding that has helped keep them afloat.
Read more here from The TRiiBE.
