Chicago has no shortage of cultural events—with 77 neighborhood areas and an innumerable amount of cultural communities, there’s something for everyone. Financial assistance from Chicago Cultural Treasures, now in the final year of its four-year initiative, has focused on funding BIPOC groups—including LGBTQ+-centered organizations—so they can continue as part of the city’s cultural tapestry.
Launched in December 2020, the initiative is a regional connection to the Ford Foundation’s America’s Cultural Treasures. The larger organization’s goal is to support BIPOC-led arts organizations throughout the country and initially brought together $156 million from 16 major foundations, with one of their first grantees being Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art.
This past July, Chicago’s local branch received a second round of funding—totaling $3 million—from IFF, a Chicago-based Community Development Financial Institution, allowing the organization to send more financial assistance to each of its initial grantees from 2021. In the first round, 40 groups across Chicago received a total of $14.4 million.
Chicago Cultural Treasures also connects the grantees to each other to share ideas and experiences, along with providing further assistance and resources to them.
Molly Bartels Roth, manager of capacity building programs and initiatives for IFF, has been overseeing the day-to-day implementation of the program since 2022.
“Chicago is an arts city, and a significant part of that is arts and culture led by and for people of color,” she said. “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.”
Actor, producer and UrbanTheater’s Co-Founding Director Ivan Vega said he was “overjoyed” when he found out his company was selected as one of the 2021 grantees. He said this first round of funding, in which they received $140,000, about doubled the operations budget.
With that money, Vega said UrbanTheater was able to further compensate its team by setting aside funds that could be used to pay wages. Beyond that, he said a percentage was set aside towards an endowment.
“The majority went towards putting ourselves first, which certainly has got to happen,” he said.
Joseph Pindelski, interim director of fellow grantee Joel Hall Dancers & Center, said his organization got involved through its previous executive director. The group used the first round of funding to stabilize difficulties resulting from the pandemic—most of their revenue came from classes and being able to work with the community in person.
With the new second round, Pindelski said he and his staff were able to finalize plans for their 50th anniversary events, work towards rebuilding studio revenues and rebuild relationships with the philanthropic community. He said they’ve also been grateful to the training from Chicago Cultural Treasures, which gave them assistance in recruiting new board members.
For Joel Hall Dancers & Center, one of the main focuses is the LGBTQ+ community.
“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,” Pindelski said in an email interview with Windy City Times. “We continue to highlight the Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ experience through our work so our students—of all ages—experience the influences of the gay community on our shared culture.”
The group has also been working with the South Shore Cultural Center, Mayfair Arts Center and Chicago Multicultural Dance Center to bring long-term dance classes to communities around Chicago. It’s also worked with Center on Halsted to create programs and is currently preparing to launch a project with the Youth Empowerment Performance Project (YEPP) designed for LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing home and food insecurity.
“Dance heals. The arts heal,” Pindelski said via email. “These beliefs make up the core of Joel Hall Dancers & Center and YEPP’s work. Together, we will use weekly dance classes and rehearsals to give participants training, physical workouts, emotional support and creative outlets that build their communication skills, their confidence and their visibility.”
Vega said his organization wants to purchase a property in the community, grow its staff and produce even more work. Locating the organization in Humboldt Park was important to him as was keeping it strongly connected to the community.
“The work that we’ve done, [it] really is focusing on preserving the Puerto Rican Humboldt Park voice,” he said. “That is the mission … so for the youth in the community to be able to see themselves on stage in this organization is really important, because it gives them empowerment, it makes them feel like, ‘I belong, I’m here, I see myself.’”
One of the main projects in the organization’s future includes a performance about the Young Lords and Black Panthers. Hispanic Heritage Month starts in September, so Vega said there is an opportunity to further amplify the community and highlight the work people have done and are doing, but they want to celebrate their heritage all year long.
With the Chicago Cultural Treasures initiative coming towards its end in December 2024, Bartels Roth said this won’t be the end of their collaboration with the grantees. She said IFF plans to keep them connected with both the real estate solutions and capital solutions team—she said they don’t want to be “just someone who walks away at the end of this,” but a group that continues to set these organizations up for continued success.
Operating as a BIPOC organization, Vega said one of the biggest challenges the group faces is they “end up operating in silence.” As part of the Chicago Cultural Treasures collective, he said he gets to work with some of the prominent Chicago Latino theater companies to develop strategies that’ll ensure they can exist long term in their communities. It’s been important to him to connect, share resources and foster that collaboration.
“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,” he said.
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.