Printing at the Illinois Arts Alliance Annual Meeting
I printed for the first time the “Free Speech Artists Movement” patch which emphasizes that there are zero open air art scenes in Chicago. Despite initial nervousness by host and building management - to their credit - they allowed me to continue. I was able to speak briefly after a panel discussed the talk and achieved a wide distribution of patches to a cross-section of Illinois arts administrators.
The topic was as follows:
“What roles do arts organizations play in making our cities and regions more livable, competitive and sustainable places?” The featured speaker was Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City. The title of her talk was “The Creative City.”
In brief she said that if Chicago wishes to compete with other cities worldwide it must emphasis its distinctive character. This fit into our argument for encouraging Chicago’s artists to be seen and heard from on its streets. Only with a lively open-air arts presence will the character of Chicago’s diversity be on display for visitors and the public to see.
Naturally, when I spoke about the few opportunities for artists on Chicago’s streets and the missing first rung of grass-roots opportunities latter for artists in Chicago, the initial knee jerk reaction was to deny this fact.
Yet, after the talk my beautiful patches were accepted by all but two or three people. One man even put his arm on my shoulder and recommended my words to panelist Tony Jones, President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This was a great session, I thought.
However, it was the young person who approached me afterward representing CYMP, the Chicago Coalition of Youth Media Partners, who was the most important person for me to meet at this event. I believe it is artists near the street and the creative voices of the youth are who will lead Chicago to become more friendly to artists. They need to know it is their right - their First Amendment right to do so.