The Creative Placemaking Advanced Leadership Certificate grows and nurtures entrepreneurial, collaborative and culturally competent leaders. It is the kind of leadership that can most effectively enhance places through local arts and cultural activities. It is the right type of leadership for these uncertain and challenging times. The most effective leaders are both deep thinkers and strong communicators. The Certificate will help you master the knowledge and craft of creative placemaking leadership.
This low-residency program is designed for busy community-based professionals and social practice artists anywhere in the world. You can complete it in eight to 10 months.
Themed Cafecito Placemaking Chats, 4th Monday of the Month
About this event
Placemakers, here’s a monthly opportunity to come together and refill each others’ tanks!
Bring your coffee, tea, or other drink, and your creative mind for free form discussion kicked-off by the following themes…
Lines and Divisions (January 24)
Bridge the Gap (February 28)
Healing the Democracy (March 28)
Engage your Citizens (April 25)
Use your Feet (May 23)
Let’s Talk about Pop-up (June 27)
Up your Alley (July 25)
Measure Up (August 22)
Find your Champion (September 26)
Teach Someone to Fish (October 24)
Difficult Conversations (November Date TBD)
Feed Your Mind (December Date TBD)
We’ll close-out each session with self-reflection: accepting what we must and finding our power to move things forward.
Inspired and Co-hosted by Sherryl Muriente, Initiator of the PlacemakingFL network and Director of Urban Placemaking, West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority
Facebook recently changed the tools you can use to manage your nonprofit on their platform. This short video from Candid walks you through how to use the Nonprofit Manager Dashboard:
CCA Partner Member The Peace School is launching a photo campaign to celebrate the beauty of all people and cultures in the 77 Community Areas of Chicago, and they are asking their fellow Members of the Alliance for help! Their goal is to spread peace and love by getting to know and understand each other better as we support positive actions for peace. They thought of you because they want to promote people, groups and businesses that are making their neighborhood a better place to live. (That is DEFINITELY the Members of the Alliance!)
It is easy to participate! Go to a place you love in your community and take a photo with your message of peace. You’ll find details and sample photos below. Your photo will become part of the Peace in Chicago Call to Peace series on social media, featuring one Community Area each day.
Here’s an example from the Swedish American Museum of Chicago, who already submitted their photo, and Ben from the Chinese American Museum of Chicago is the cover image for this post!
Here’s how to participate:
· Make a sign that says: Peace in [community area]
· Take a photo with the sign – here are some samples and ideas:
Celebrate something positive in your community:
· Your photo location could be on your own block or in front of a park, community garden, museum, school, public mural, community center, shop, restaurant… pick a spot in your Community Area you’d like to highlight. (This is a great way to represent your own cultural center or museum if you’d like!)
· Your photo can include one person or you can gather your family, neighbors, coworkers or members of your local organization. Please make sure that everyone in the photo gives permission for the image to be shared (including parent or guardian of children).
· Your sign can be on a piece of paper or on a large poster. It can be simple or artistic. Keep in mind that you’ll want the sign’s message to show up well in your photo.
2. Important! Include a statement in your email giving us permission to share the photo on social media.
3. Feel free to send us your Instagram and FACEBOOK @ handle so we can tag you when it’s time for your photo to be posted in the series. Then please share!
4. You can also send us @ handles of other places in your Community Area you’d like us to tag.
It would mean a lot to have you participate in this special Peace in Chicago Call to Peace as we celebrate The Peace School’s 50th Anniversary in Chicago. Email Lydia Howe with questions at lydiahowe@peaceschool.org. Together, let’s plant seeds of peace in Chicago and the world.
The Cultural Grants team seeks Chicago-area individuals to serve as grant application reviewers. Candidates must have arts and culture experience and be available for approximately 40 hours over several weeks. There is compensation for service. The application takes about 10 minutes to complete. You can help decide what arts and culture projects receive grants from DCASE!
We have a limited number of tickets, so to ensure that all Core Members have the ability to access this Member Benefit, we are giving out the Zoo tickets in two rounds this time. From now until August 5, 2022 all Core Members are allowed to request up to 200 tickets. If there are any tickets left, the second round of tickets will be open to all members (including Partner Members) on a first come, first serve basis. This will be announced on August 5, 2022 during the August Town Hall.
EDIT JULY 1: Thanks to many Members responding very quickly to our initial post, we are able to release ALL remaining Brookfield Zoo tickets ahead of schedule. Any Member (Core or Partner) may request any amount of zoo tickets, and they will be distributed on a first come, first served basis until they are gone.
The goal of the Brookfield Pass Program is to provide free access for Core Member communities to Brookfield Zoo. Please make sure to keep the follow Guidelines and Information in mind when requesting and distributing your tickets:
Information about the tickets
Each ticket provides free admission to Brookfield Zoo for one adult or one child
Tickets do not include free parking or admission to special exhibits
Tickets expire on March 31, 2023
Requirements
Zoo tickets are a Member Benefit, so a Member must be current on dues for 2022 to receive tickets. (If you cannot pay dues now or must pay in installments, that can be arranged.)
Any promotion of the program should include recognition of Chicago Cultural Alliance and Brookfield Zoo.
Core Members are the responsible party for distributing the zoo tickets to their community by allowing 4 tickets per family.
Zoo tickets are not allowed to be distributed in bulk to organizations unaffiliated with the Chicago Cultural Alliance.
We expect Core Members to distribute tickets in such a way that they are not available for someone to sell illegally.
Rob Fojtik is Vice President for Neighborhood Strategy at Choose Chicago, the city’s official tourism and convention promotion bureau. In this capacity, Rob oversees efforts to promote and support Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods to visitors from near and far. Programs include the award-winning Neighborhood Content Creator program that leverages resident-made digital content, and Chicago Alfresco, a $2.5 million placemaking initiative created in partnership with the Chicago Department of Transportation to transform public spaces into community plazas for outdoor enjoyment.
Before coming to Choose Chicago, Rob was a Senior Advisor to Mayor Lightfoot on economic development and international relations at City Hall, as well as LGTBQ+ affairs and the expanded outdoor dining program. In this role, he also worked to recommend and place over 150 civic leaders and residents onto City boards and commissions. Prior to government service in the Lightfoot administration, Rob ran her winning campaign in the crowded 2019 Chicago mayoral race as Chief of Staff. In past lives, Rob has worked as a public affairs manager for a Fortune 500 company downtown; had misadventures in management consulting, art sales, and personal cheffing; and spent time in Washington DC working for former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Rob also served a one-year appointment at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence as a policy advisor on Central and Eastern Europe. In this role, he was part of the NSC’s interagency process to develop a comprehensive sanctions regime on Russia as a consequence of its 2014 invasion of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
After receiving his BA in Slavic Languages and Literature at Northwestern University, Rob lived and worked in the Czech Republic teaching English and tending bar before moving to Washington, D.C. to pursue a MA from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (CERES). He enjoys cooking, learning foreign languages, hiking with his partner and their dog, and visiting Chicago’s many neighborhoods.
Paul Durica
Board Member
Dr. Paul Durica is the Director of Exhibitions at the Chicago History Museums and worked in a similar capacity at The Newberry Library. From 2015-2020, he served as the Director of Programs and Exhibitions with Illinois Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Prior to that he drew upon his work as a writer, researcher, and teacher to produce a series of free and interactive talks, walks, and reenactments focused on narratives from Chicago’s past that resonate with its present.
These public history programs led to collaborations with cultural institutions in the city such as the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago History Museum, Newberry Library, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Chicago Cultural Center among others.
Each program made use of both his original research and the skills of the arts organizations, community groups, local businesses, and publications that acted as my partners. Some of these programs, such as the full-scale reenactment of the Haymarket Affair in 2011, involved recruiting and directing over 300 volunteers and 1,000 participants.
To produce these programs successfully, he wrote grants; managed budgets; generated web content; worked closely with program partners of varying sizes and resources; and identified, engaged, and sustained a diverse multi-generational audience.
Lynessa Rico
Board Member
Dr. Lynessa M. Rico is the Associate Chair of the Business Psychology Department at the The Chicago School of Professional Psychology Chicago campus. She is also a business mentor at 1871.
Lynessa is a results-driven Strategic Consultant with over 25 years of experience enabling leaders to meet strategic business objectives by identifying and aligning business growth opportunities with strategic direction of culturally diverse organizations. By leveraging her strategic experience in identifying and impacting business growth opportunities and maximizing profits in retail firms and higher education institutions, Lynessa leads workshops focused on the creative mindset, women’s entrepreneurship, emotional intelligence, and the value and application of design thinking within entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her services also include consulting with and educating leadership on emotional intelligence, the power of design thinking and the creative mindset, and leadership styles to support inclusive, creative workplaces. She has presented to leadership and innovation teams in small, mid-size, and Fortune 500 companies.
Lynessa received her undergraduate degrees in Marketing and Management from Wichita State University. She then went on to earn a master’s degree in Business Administration from Wichita State University with a focus in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. After earning her master’s degree, Lynessa received her doctorate in Business Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where she successfully completed her dissertation titled, “The Relationship Between Personality Types and Color Preference for Color Combinations.” Her current research interests include women’s entrepreneurship, design thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and entrepreneurship self-efficacy.
Outside of work and research, Lynessa enjoys mentoring start-ups and judging pitch competitions. Lynessa currently resides in Chicago, Illinois with her four cats. She is an avid long-distance runner, having completed 5 full marathons (and counting), and enjoys watching musical theater.
Briana Thomas
Board Member
Briana Thomas is the Museum Associate at the Abrahamic Center for Cultural Education (a core member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance). She wears many hats including developing exhibition content, facilitating community programs (children and adults), liaising with visitor artists, and other responsibilities. Her previous experience in the nonprofit space includes her tenure as the Financial Empowerment Coordinator at AMERICORPS Sharing Life Center as well as engaging with the public at the Dallas Arboretum. Her past professional experience has remained rooted in marginalized communities. It is their needs,discourse and histories that she has routinely been tasked with protecting and showcasing in the face of poor infrastructure, and willing ignorance. Creating safe spaces is an ancestral practice she has inherited.
