Windy City Times: Ambitious arts initiative uncovers ‘treasures’ created by BIPOC Chicagoans
Ivan Vega, co-founding director of UrbanTheater, Joseph Pindelski, interim director of Joel Hall Dancers & Center, and Molly Bartels-Roth, manager of capacity building programs at IFF, recently spoke with the Windy City Times about the support Chicago’s Cultural Treasures has offered some of Chicago’s BIPOC and LGBTQ+ led arts and culture organizations.
“Chicago is an arts city, and a significant part of that is arts and culture led by and for people of color,” said Bartels-Roth. “In order to help those organizations grow to be on the same level as some of the white counterparts in the city, additional investment is needed for that. And really working on long-term financial resilience and sustainability in order to ensure that they’ll be around and thriving for years to come.”
“The work that we’ve done, [it] really is focusing on preserving the Puerto Rican Humboldt Park voice,” said Vega. He also spoke about the value of networking and collective action through ChiTreasures: “Things that we started to do as an organization, but begin to do this collectively, creates more power to be able to help one another.”
“Joel Hall founded this company for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the LGBTQIA+ community makes up a large part of our company’s leadership,” said Pindelski. “Dance heals. The arts heal. These beliefs make up the core of Joel Hall Dancers & Center and [the Youth Empowerment Performance Project]’s work.”
Read the full story here.
