WVON-AM 1690 The Rufus Williams Show: Culture Forward Chicago Gifts with IFF’s Vickie Lakes Battle
May 5, 2025
Vickie Lakes-Battle, executive director of IFF’s Chicago Metro Region, spoke with Rufus Williams on WVON-AM to discuss the final round of gifts given to 77 Chicago arts and culture organizations through Culture Forward Chicago.
“We find ourselves at yet another one of these points in time when the funding landscape for general reasons is very uncertain,” Vickie says. “The total intent of this program was to inspire action by the broader philanthropic community and government to think more expansively about who was in the in-crowd for artistic funding — and to actually illustrate that there are treasures that reside outside of downtown Chicago.”
Listen to the full interview below.
