A SHORT HISTORY OF TOM TRESSER'S WORK IN ARTS, POLITICS, CREATIVITY AND PUBLIC POLICY
1991
This was the year I spent organizing two huge projects around arts and public life. The first was Greater Chicago Citizens for the Arts, which was our incarnation of the San Francisco Arts Democratic Club. I was the founding president and lead organizer. This was a volunteer effort and no one was paid for their time or services. We were very creative in our blending cultural events and venues and political education. We endorsed candidates, raised money for them, organized committees (e.g. Arts for Braun), wrote cultural policy platform statements, curated and produced events in arts spaces. Our biggest effort was Arts for Braun which raised over $25,000 for Carol's first Senate race. We also co-wrote her official campaign platform on arts and culture. We organized "Re-Imagining America" at the Randolph Street Gallery and trained 60 artists to be Deputy Registrars who then registered some 1,200 people to vote. We also organized on behalf of Luis Gutierrez's first campaign for Congress. After his election, we organized an arts town hall meeting for him at the Chopin Theater and organized the 4th Congressional District Arts & Culture Advisory Committee.
The other project was an attempt to organize a center for cultural policy at Roosevelt University. I approached Dr. Richard Krieg, the founder and director of the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs. Dr. Krieg had been Mayor Daley’s Health Commissioner and he had established the IMA to serve as a bridge between the academic community and the civic arena. He had recently completed a transition plan for the incoming president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. I spent most of 1991 at Roosevelt organizing a board and developing a two-year research agenda. Fred Fine, Mayor Washington's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, was my mentor and helped me conceptualize the program and strategize tactics for its organization. Read the case for the center, the mission statement, a proposed list of research projects, and an essay, "The Arts Need to Get Into Political Action." Dr. Krieg and I worked closely with grant officers at the MacArthur Foundation on a two-year, $200,000 operating grant. Unfortunately, the board of the foundation declined to fund the proposal and my year at Roosevelt ended in disappointment. I think I earned something like $4,000 that year. I ended up teaching "Arts and Public Policy" at Roosevelt for two years, with a great mix of theater students and public policy and public administration majors in the class.
Curated a special issue of "One City," the magazine of the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs, the first to deal with cultural policy issues. I was on the Editorial Board and advocated for this special issue. Click here to read the article I contributed, "25 Things We Can Do To Boost the Art Eco-System." Other contributors were Joan Gray, President of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago; Lois Weisberg, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Natalie Van Straaten, Executive Director of the Chicago Art Dealers Association; and Helen Valdez, President of the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.
1993
From April 1993 to December 1995 I was Director of Cultural Development at Peoples Housing, a community development organization located in the Rogers Park neighborhood in northeast Chicago. I organized a community arts program that combined elements of culture, education and micro-enterprise. Learn more.
Read an article I wrote in 1994, "Artists & Community Organizers: Possibilities for Partnerships"
Read a summary article written in 1997, "The Artistic Side of Sustainable Communities"
Meanwhile I organized the first Chicago City Council Arts Caucus. On April 26, in my capacity as President of Greater Chicago Citizens for the Arts, I chaired a meeting in the Press Room of City Hall. As I recall it, some 15 aldermen attended, including Ted Mazolla, Burt Natarus, Allan Streeter, Edwin Eisendrath, Joe Moore and Mary Ann Smith.
I presented an overview of the economic impact of the arts in the city. Alderman Joe Moore was the convener. Pat Johnson, of the MacArthur Foundation sponsored Arts and Community Development Project, presented a slide show on community-based arts programs. Sandra Furey, the Executive Director of Urban Gateways, presented the role of arts in the lives of young people, and Sandy Boyd, the President of the Field Museum, presented on the role of museums and major cultural institutions in the life of the city. Click here to see the agenda. The aldermen were interested in keeping the group together and a second meeting was held later in the office of the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, Lois Weisberg.
Fast forward ten years. Political circumstances in America has called me back to this work
