On April 28, IFF announced that 77 organizations were selected to receive financial gifts totaling $3 million through Culture Forward Chicago, the final round of funding through the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures (ChiTreasures) initiative. The recipients all share missions to create, preserve, or disseminate art stemming from the traditions, cultures, or communities of African, Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latin American peoples. Like the ChiTreasures initiative, Culture Forward Chicago was designed to support organizations that represent the full scope of Chicago’s vibrant and diverse cultural landscape, acknowledging that organizations representing artforms from African, Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latin American communities typically have not been offered the same opportunities for funding and support that white- and Euro-centric arts and culture organizations have received.
“From its start, ChiTreasures has sought to bolster Chicago arts and culture organizations that contribute to the city’s cultural vibrance yet have often been passed over for traditional forms of financial support,” said IFF’s executive director for the Chicago Metro Region, Vickie Lakes-Battle, in the announcement of the Culture Forward Chicago gifts. “Now, ChiTreasures is extending its impact beyond the initial 40 grantees at a time when the future of arts funding has become even more uncertain. We hope this final gift will serve as a call to action for other funders to meet this moment and increase their support for the organizations that enrich Chicago’s culture.”
“From its start, ChiTreasures has sought to bolster Chicago arts and culture organizations that contribute to the city’s cultural vibrance yet have often been passed over for traditional forms of financial support.”
Since the April announcement, IFF and various Culture Forward Chicago gift recipients have had the opportunity to discuss the importance of this funding and the work it’s supporting with local media outlets.
Vickie Lakes-Battle and Vanessa Sanchez, volunteer with Villapalooza’s Grant Writing Committee, spoke with Mike Stephen, host of WGN Radio 720’s show Outside the Loop, about the importance of funding for a variety of organizations to support a healthy nonprofit arts ecosystem in Chicago.
Vanessa spoke to the value of Villapalooza’s cultural programming for the community in Little Village, a largely Mexican and Latine community on Chicago’s Southwest Side. An arts and cultural collective that launched in 2011 as a pop-up block party celebrating the richness of Latine musical culture in Little Village, Villapalooza is operated by volunteers, such as Vaneesa, who share connections to the community. “It really is the dedication of Villapalooza’s volunteers to put together the pop-ups and festivals we host in Little Village,” Vanessa says. “Anything that we’re fundraising for goes back to the programming, back into the community and the artists that we’re supporting, both musicians and visual artists. So we were beyond excited that we were awarded through the Culture Forward initiative.”
“When we think about artistic forms, the mind goes to some very specific art forms, such as ballet and orchestra,” Vickie says in the interview, “and we’re overlooking where we encounter and engage with art on an everyday basis: murals in communities, or programs for children across our great city and region to get involved in. We don’t think of artists as activators in community.”
Supporting that diverse range of organizations has always been a goal of the ChiTreasures initiative, a goal that has only grown more important as the initiative launched Culture Forward Chicago. “Given recent shifts and developments through the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as in the humanities, this funding couldn’t have come at a more important time,” Vickie says.
Vickie also sat down with Fox 32 Chicago’s Good Day Chicago alongside Akeem Soyan, co-executive director of Circles and Ciphers, another Culture Forward Chicago gift recipient.
Akeem spoke to the impact the gift will have on Circles and Ciphers, a hip-hop infused restorative justice organization on Chicago’s North Side led by and for young people impacted by violence. “We see Circles and Ciphers as an incubation space for youth leadership development,” says Akeem. “So this money would be helpful in expanding our capacity to continue to support young people more directly impacted by violence and incarceration, so using hip hop and restorative justice to do that.”
Vickie reiterated the importance of the timing of these gifts. “While this particular initiative was never intended to be crisis funding, these gifts come at a critical time, when organizations that are rooted in community, rooted in BIPOC traditions, need access to capital — and they know what to do with it. It could not come at a more important or critical moment.”
Finally, Nakea West, IFF’s chief equity and diversity officer, spoke with Block Club Chicago about the initiative, alongside NaBeela Washington, founder and editor-in-chief of Lucky Jefferson, another gift recipient organization.
“The hope was really that [the ChiTreasures program] would serve as a catalyst for the broader philanthropic landscape to really take up the task of leaning in and supporting these arts and culture organizations in the ways that they need, particularly at a moment when they are so deeply under threat.”
“To receive that email, it was an inspiration to keep going,” NaBeela said in the article. Lucky Jefferson is an arts publisher and literary journal focusing on driving social change through literature and arts, and NaBeela spoke to the the importance of the Culture Forward Chicago gift for her work. “As the arts are dying in certain ways, I think that there are also opportunities to usher in a rebirth, and we want to be there for that,” Washington said. “This gift, it just helps us in so many ways because it allows us to invite more people in.” Lucky Jefferson will use the funding to support programs offering creative arts for Chicago high school and college students, as well as hyperlocal journalism training for Chicago residents.
Nakea underscored the importance of the work being done by ChiTreasures and Culture Forward Chicago organizations, along with the importance of the timing for the Culture Forward Chicago gift. “The current moment is … making these nonprofits vulnerable because of their mission, because of their programming, because of the populations that they serve. … So these gifts are really coming at a time when the art scene needs more support than ever.”
As ChiTreasures prepares to sunset at the end of the summer, IFF will continue its commitment to supporting arts and culture organizations. “We have always served the arts and culture sector through our facilities and finance technical expertise and that will not be going away,” Nakea says. At the same time, even after its conclusion, ChiTreasures, and the work being done by the extraordinary organizations that participated in the initiative, can serve as a call to action for philanthropic organizations and foundations to continue the important work of supporting arts and culture organizations whose work represents the diversity of communities across the U.S.
“The hope was really that [the ChiTreasures program] would serve as a catalyst for the broader philanthropic landscape to really take up the task of leaning in and supporting these arts and culture organizations in the ways that they need, particularly at a moment when they are so deeply under threat.”
Learn more about how IFF supports arts and culture across the Midwest