Today we released “Elevating the Influence of Arts and Culture.” 

The playbook is a story of our recent local arts and cultural history with which some of us may be more familiar than others. And in a time when we all would like to look forward, the famous quote by George Santayana applies: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Miss Bri works on poetry with some of the 3rd graders at Mound STEM during summer programming at Mound Elementary School.

I think about safety in two ways. There’s physical safety, which includes the safety of the body, the home, and environments that lend themselves to opportunity. Physical safety is you and I working and living without injury, our children getting through school without harm. This type of safety also incorporates the space around you: your right to exist, to take up space, to participate. It’s being in an environment that allows you to do what you want to do, to pursue goals and dreams.   

Ever since I can remember, music has been an important part of my life.  Playing an instrument since kindergarten empowered me to become a leader, showed me how to collaborate with others, and provided the perfect opportunity for me to develop creative problem-solving skills.  These skills play a role in every aspect of my personal and professional life.

Today we kick off Creative Intersections, our new series exploring arts and culture as a community partner - with a 2016 focus on safety. In honor of the kickoff, we thought we would take a moment to thank all of the people whose work and voices have so far contributed to the development of this year’s series.

A few weeks ago, Valerie and I had the opportunity to attend a presentation put on by the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium with guest speaker Nicole Losurdo Upton from Ingenuity. Ingenuity is an advocacy organization that has been working with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Department of Arts Education, certified teachers, students, parents and Chicago’s arts and culture community to ensure excellence in arts education for every student in Chicago’s Public Schools. Ms. Upton spoke on Ingenuity’s process on integrating the arts back into Chicago Public Schools through the CPS Arts Education Plan, a plan designed to bring the arts to every student, in every grade, in every school. Ingenuity started in 2011, and has since made strong progress in increasing the percentage of Chicago Public Schools that have arts programs.

We spend a lot of time analyzing the environment in which the arts and culture sector operates, both locally and nationally. We follow the news closely to understand what’s top of mind in our community and we meet with people outside of arts and culture to learn the same. We have conversations with artists and arts and cultural leadership to understand their priorities and challenges. Along the way, we identify those places where the priorities of the arts and culture sector serve the broader community. We call those creative intersections.