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Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago arts commissioner touts increased grants for artists, defends against criticism
As Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events gears up for another highlight-packed summer, its leader is laying out her vision for the city's arts community as she responds to criticism that has been simmering since she took office. A contentious exhibition, staff complaints and public flak from some arts leaders have tailed DCASE Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth since her March 2024 appointment by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Addressing the controversies in an interview with the Tribune for the first time, Hedspeth said she has reflected, but pushed back against much of it as unfounded. 'I think I did walk into a hostile situation,' she said. Meanwhile, Hedspeth is doubling down on a top focus to get artists more money. The department has earmarked an extra $500,000 for grants to artists, in addition to the $7 million allocated by the City Council last fall, she said. 'As much as we talk about water services, as much as we talk about infrastructure, this is the same. This is on par,' Hedspeth said of direct payments to artists and small arts organizations. 'This is vital. This is a service to be able to provide people with funding to create and capture who we are as a city.' Hedspeth is proud of having secured the extra money, given Chicago's thorny fiscal outlook. Johnson and the City Council budgeted $7 million for the grants, $1 million more than the year before, but less than the $10 million allocated in former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's 2023 budget, when the city's coffers were bolstered by a massive influx of federal COVID-19 funding. But she says the fund is far larger than pre-pandemic spending on such payments. Because it comes from the city, it is also now more stable, despite the fact federal support is becoming increasingly unreliable. Hedspeth pointed to the Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration as inspiration for her vision to increasingly pay artists directly and praised the federal government's pandemic stimulus spending on arts. 'It was not even enough then, but it was more than what we usually do,' she said, adding she believes the business community should 'absolutely be providing support too in a different way.' 'The goal is always to increase funding, sustainable funding, always.' To tack on the additional $500,000, Hedspeth found 'basic' cuts, such as using city services in place of outside contractors, but said she has not cut at what might be the department's crown gem: its always ambitious summer schedule, headlined by events, including Taste of Chicago, the Air and Water Show and, next week, the Chicago Blues Festival. As the new commissioner has zeroed in on a vision for her department, she has also faced a range of controversies and criticism in recent months. DCASE employees have submitted five formal complaints to the city's Inspector General's Office and Department of Human Resources accusing the commissioner of unfair treatment obtained by the Tribune via records request. Meanwhile, over 20 employees have left the department since Hedspeth's appointment, though the department's headcount has recently risen to levels near where it was when she took office. Hedspeth was summoned to the City Council for a tense hearing in January regarding a pro-Palestinian protest puppet displayed in a broader puppet exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, where she defended free expression and the process for selecting art against some aldermen who called the piece offensive and wanted it removed. And some arts industry leaders have publicly criticized the commissioner, arguing she has left a void in Chicago's arts community by not meeting with them and effectively communicating her plans. In April, the group Artists for Chicago sent a letter to Johnson signed by more than 200 arts and culture workers further faulting Hedspeth's leadership. Johnson has defended Hedspeth, his longtime friend. In April, he said he would 'take the feedback seriously' when asked about the letter. 'You know, look, there's a lot more engagement in government these days, and I welcome that,' Johnson said. 'Arts are incredibly important to me.' Asked about the criticism, Hedspeth pinned the hostility she has encountered in part on miscommunication that arose as she took office. She defended herself against most of the pushback and said she has discussed it with others. 'I reflect on, 'Oh, is there something there?'' she said. 'I would say, almost 85% of it, I'm like, 'No.'' She declined to discuss specific allegations made in the several formal employee complaints. They include accusations she cursed out employees in public, sought a retaliatory 'witch hunt' against mayoral critics and micromanaged the office. Human Resources staff determined investigations into each complaint should not go forward because of the absence of violations in protected categories and speculative allegations. 'But I will say,' Hedspeth said. 'I do wear a lot of black, but I am not a witch.' 'There's going to be complaints in any kind of organization,' she said. 'I value all of the staff. I think we are all human, we are all going to make mistakes. I also think there should be some accountability when we are not being responsible.' The commissioner said that she is 'happy to meet' with arts leaders and others in response to criticism that she is unresponsive, but added that some have been unwilling to meet with her, especially when she started the job. The cold reception she said she got may well have been a sign of the popularity of her predecessor, Erin Harkey, now CEO of the D.C. nonprofit Americans for the Arts, who was fired by Johnson. Hedspeth described her treatment since taking office as 'very political,' and in part a product of pre-existing employee frustrations in addition to miscommunication. 'I walked in without even a transition document,' she said. 'I've reached out to people, and they weren't interested in talking to me.' She also said a 'number of people' who signed the Artists for Chicago letter told her the published version appeared different than what they signed and cast doubt on the connections of some signees to the arts industry. A spokesperson for the group, who asked to remain anonymous, denied the letter changed as people signed it and criticized Hedspeth for discrediting the critical letter instead of addressing the issues it raised. Claims the department has not made payments to artists and organizations in a timely manner or that she is unresponsive are 'just not true,' Hedspeth said, adding that the arts community is understandably angry and anxious about funding amid federal pullback. Some arts leaders have called for Hedspeth to share how she will fight President Donald Trump's budget cuts. Her department has appealed the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to terminate grants awarded to the city. One lesson learned from the recent controversies is that she must be 'a little bit more forceful in getting support' from connections in the arts and government spaces she has worked in, Hedspeth said. 'I've learned to bring in my network more. I've learned to continue to talk directly with people, regardless of others saying maybe that might not be a good idea. Being OK with that I won't be perfect at everything, I've learned that, and managing expectations with interest groups,' she said. 'And I think bringing people in, just critics in general, to have a direct conversation and say, 'OK, this is the problem that you see, what are your some of your thoughts?'' In the last decade, Hedspeth led curation at the DuSable Black History Museum, then worked as Johnson's legislative director at the Cook County Board of Commissioners before becoming a Phillips Auctioneers specialist. At the city, she has found government can be frustratingly slow, but the gig is a 'deep honor' that allows her to combine experiences in policy, museums and commercial art, she said. 'I get to build off of work that was already done, good work, and serve the city and serve artists that I know have not been at the table or been in the room and aren't part of the larger conversation,' said Hedspeth, who was raised by art collector parents in Seattle and collects rare books herself. While Hedspeth said she wants to build upon long-running and beloved DCASE efforts such as summer programming, she also wants to build new efforts in the department. 'There's a lot more ideas on the table,' she said. The increased grants for artists and small organization should come with greater 'giveback,' including longer-term relationships and more support from the city to connect artists with everything from collectors to lawyers to bolster their careers, she said. And she hopes to make sure that funding goes to a greater variety of artists and groups. That includes 'ensuring the large organizations understand, this partnership looks good, but it can look even better. And maybe you need to not take funding and utilize it for operational purposes, maybe it should actually go out directly to the artist,' she said. Speeding up the department's processes is another top goal, the commissioner said. She touted a push to quickly install art at Midway International Airport and efforts to waive fees for smaller organizations at the Chicago Cultural Center as bids to cut 'red tape' and bring the arts to more Chicagoans. Hedspeth also highlighted a new effort to have staff visit places such as ward offices and parks to help Chicagoans speed through paperwork, including grant applications. She similarly wants to streamline the film permit process to help foster the city's revenue-winning filming economy, echoing long-heralded hopes also aired by Gov. JB Pritzker. The goal on film is 'making sure we are not competing with Toronto, we should be the place,' she said. Hedspeth's film office appears to have been leaderless since December, when its head, Jonah Zeiger, left the job. He was in part tasked with recruiting films, shows and commercials to work in the city. She is also leading an effort to digitize the city's art collection and is 'leaning in on' sister agencies, such as Choose Chicago, to make sure taxpayers are getting more 'robust' offerings, she said.
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Pamela Maass: Chicago's beloved street festivals are struggling to survive
In 2023, Chicago lost one of its most beloved street festivals. The Silver Room Block Party, staged by Hyde Park community leader Eric Williams, announced it would not return in 2024. What began as a small neighborhood gathering blossomed into a massive cultural event, welcoming tens of thousands of people each year over nearly two decades before abruptly shutting down. Williams pointed to rising production costs and declining attendee donations as primary reasons the Silver Room Block Party could not continue, highlighting a reality that all street festival organizers face right now. The cost of producing a street festival in Chicago has skyrocketed. Security, entertainment, portable restrooms, insurance and even basics such as fencing and staffing have all become significantly more expensive. At the same time, donations at festival gates have dropped dramatically. Chicago's summer festivals are about more than just entertainment; they are economic engines that directly benefit the neighborhoods they're in and the city of Chicago as whole. Street festivals drive foot traffic to local businesses and foster the kind of cultural vibrancy that makes our city special. That is why the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce has formed a coalition with 20 nonprofit street festival organizers (and counting) in a critical effort to preserve our neighborhood street festivals and their futures. We often hear people ask why we solicit donations at our entry points, especially when the city's largest festivals, such as the Chicago Jazz Festival and Chicago Blues Festival, do not request donations. The fact is, unlike those large, city-produced music festivals, your neighborhood street festivals receive no city funding and rely on a combination of sponsorships, vendor fees and gate donations to cover their costs. Wicker Park Fest, now in its 21st year, has long been one of Chicago's most anticipated summer festivals, drawing upward of 70,000 attendees for a full weekend of live indie music, local art, small business vendors and, most importantly, community connection. In 2024, Wicker Park Fest saw record-breaking attendance. Despite the turnout, gate donations reached their lowest point in our history. This year, we've been forced to scale back the footprint of the fest. We are eliminating a stage, booking fewer performers and making additional cuts to reduce our costs, all while striving to keep the festival as vibrant as ever, as supportive of local artists and businesses, and as true to Wicker Park's unique spirit and reputation as festgoers have come to expect. That said, this is not a sustainable trend. If gate donations continue to decline, street festivals will continue to shrink or simply disappear. The economic and societal impact of this will extend far beyond the events themselves. Without these public events driving foot traffic and local spending in the area, small businesses, many of which rely on a single weekend of festival crowds for a significant portion of their annual revenue, will be severely affected. In turn, the unique cultural identity of each neighborhood will be at risk. Wicker Park Fest and our fellow nonprofit-run festivals are immensely grateful to attendees who have donated at the gates in past years. Your contributions have allowed Wicker Park Fest to come back each year and stand as a pillar in Chicago for more than two decades. However, as costs continue to rise, ensuring the future of these festivals depends on the generosity of attendees. This summer, as you enjoy your favorite neighborhood street festival, I hope you'll remember that they exist because of community support. A thriving summer festival season doesn't happen by accident; it happens when we all chip in.
Chicago Tribune
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Mavis Staples will headline Chicago Blues Fest 2025
The Grammy-winning singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples will headline the final night of this summer's Blues Fest, according to an announcement Wednesday by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The 2025 Chicago Blues Festival is slated for June 5-8 in Millennium Park, as well as opening concerts and events at the Ramova Theatre (3520 S. Halsted St.) in Bridgeport and a Sunday series on Maxwell Street. All performances and events are free and open to the public. The full schedule: June 5 Ramova Theatre 4 p.m.: 'Living Blues Panel Discussion' with Jim O'Neal, Scott Barretta, Brett Bonner, Bruce Iglauer and Deitra Farr, moderated by Dick Shurman. 5:30 p.m.: 'Up Close & Personal with Bobby Rush,' led by Julia Miller of Delmark Records. 7:30 p.m.: Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues in concert. 9 p.m.: Bobby Rush in concert. June 6 Jay Pritzker Pavilion 4 p.m.: D.K. Harrell 5:15 p.m.: Dawn Tyler Watson 6:30 p.m.: John Primer with Steve Bell 7:30: B.B. King Centennial Tribute with Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram, D.K. Harrell and Jonathan Ellison with the B.B. King Centennial Band Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage (South Promenade) Noon: Lady Adrena and LA Band 1:30 p.m.: Vick Allen featuring the Velvet Soul Band 3 p.m.: Johnny Rawls Soul Review 4:30 p.m.: Eddie Cotton Rosa's Lounge Stage (North Promenade) 12:30 p.m.: Ivan Singh 2 p.m.: Jamiah 'Dirty Deacon' Rogers and the Dirty Church Band 3:30 p.m.: Rico McFarland 5 p.m.: Sheryl Youngblood 6:30 p.m.: The Mike Wheeler Band June 7 Jay Pritzker Pavilion 4 p.m. – Women in Blues Tribute to Denise LaSalle with Nellie 'Tiger' Travis, Thornetta Davis, Nora Jean Wallace and Mzz Reese with Jonathan Ellison. 5:30 p.m.: Joey J. Saye, Stephen Hull and Harrell 'Young Rell' Davenport 6:30 p.m.: Latimore 7:45 p.m.: Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage (South Promenade) Noon: 2 Blues for You 1:30 p.m.: Jessie Robinson 3 p.m.: Vickie Baker, The V Souls and The Groove Crew 4:30 p.m.: John Primer & The Real Deal Blues Band Rosa's Lounge Stage (North Promenade) 12:30 p.m.: Stefan Hillesheim Band 2 p.m.: Michael Damani 3:30 p.m.: Lynne Jordan and The Shivers 5 p.m.: Joe Barr and The Platinum Band 6:30 p.m.: Theo Huff Harris Theater Rooftop Terrace – Next Generation of Blues 11 a.m.: Wendy & DB Noon: Chicago Blues Revival 1 p.m.: Curie Metropolitan High School 2 p.m.: Bandwith 3 p.m.: VanderCook College of Music June 8 Jay Pritzker Pavilion 3:45 p.m. – Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation celebrates the 75th anniversary of Chess Records 5:15 p.m.: C.J. Chenier and The Red Hot Louisiana Band 6:30 p.m.: Lurrie Bell and Frank Catalano 7:45 p.m.: Mavis Staples Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage (South Promenade) Noon: Stevie J and The Blues Eruption 1:30 p.m.: Nellie 'Tiger' Travis 3 p.m.: Jonathan Ellison 4:30 p.m.: Ms. Jody Rosa's Lounge Stage (North Promenade) 12:30 p.m.: Harrell 'Young Rell' Davenport 2 p.m.: Jimmy Burns Band 3:30 p.m.: Nick Alexander Blues Band 5 p.m.: Sonia Astacio 6:30 p.m.: 3 by 3 Crew with Freddie Dixon, John Watkins, Maurice Vaughn and Tim Taylor Harris Theater Rooftop Terrace – Next Generation of Blues 11 a.m.: Wiggleworms featuring Amanda Payne and Will Fancher of Old Town School of Folk Music Noon: Fernando Jones Presents the Knott Us Band 1 p.m.: Kenwood Academy High School 2 p.m.: Nicholas Senn High School 3 p.m.: A Patch of Blues Maxwell Street between Halsted Street and Union Avenue 10 a.m.: DJ James Porter 11 a.m.: Marty 'Big Dog' Mercer Duo Noon: DJ James Porter 12:30 p.m.: Omar Coleman Westside Soul 1:30 p.m.: DJ James Porter 2 p.m.: Harmonica Hinds Duo Originally Published: April 16, 2025 at 11:40 AM CDT
