I call myself a “Creativity Champion” because I’ve been an advocate for the arts and creativity in America since 1990. Download my “Manifesto on Civic Creativity” (2 pages).
I wrote the above column, “The Artist as Citizen” for PerformInk, a Chicago newspaper serving the performing arts community, in 1991.

I wrote a short essay on “The Artist as Leader” for the publication Artworks in 2013.
Download it here->Tresser-Artist_As_Leader

Here’s a longer piece I wrote for the University of Oregon’s Institute for Community Arts Studies journal, CultureWork, in 2004, “A Call To Action for 2004 (and Beyond)“. I was proposing that the founding of America was a daring act of civic creativity and called for creative workers to lead in the public sector. Sadly, none of those ideas caught fire. Download here->A Call To Action-CultureWork-3-04

I had been a Shakespearean actor and theater producer since 1980. But as the National Endowment for the Arts came under attack in what came be to known as “Culture Wars,” I left my lucrative (smile) job in arts administration in 1990 to become an organizer in the cultural community. Some of the work I have done in this arena:

• Research models of arts empowerment in six cities (1990)
• Became an organizer for the League of Chicago Theatres and orchestrated our industry’s efforts to re-authorize the National Endowment for the Arts
• Attempted to create a center for cultural policy at Roosevelt University (1991)
• Developed and taught classes on arts and public policy for Roosevelt University (1992)
• Organized and led Greater Chicago Citizens for the Arts, a PAC that endorsed and helped elect candidates who supported the arts and freedom of expression (1991-1993). Download a PDF that describes the work of GCCA.
• Organized a community arts program that blended culture, education and micro-enterprise for Peoples Housing (1993-1995). Read about this program grew to serve 12,000 neighbors annually.
• Led the transformation of Douglass Park, a major regional facility on the near West Side of Chicago, into a community cultural center (1996-1997). Read how we launched over a dozen community-facing arts, gardening and community building programs.
• Organized the Creative America Project to inspire and prepare artists and creative professionals to lead in public life, including running for local office (2004-2007). I did training sessions and workshops in seven states. Download this PDF to get a sense of what this effort was all about. Download this PDF to see the training we offered and what inspired participants said.
• Self published a slim (50 pages) book, America Needs You!”, that lays out the arguments for creativity being a national value and priority and that artists and creative professionals would make excellent and desperately needed leaders in the public sector. Buy the book at Lulu.com.
  

You can read it it here via Issuu: