Putting Arts First

Arts First Founder Meg Leary introduces Arts First, a new model of collective arts funding, and why now is the time and Chicago is the place to put arts first.

The Power of Collectives: Building Power Together

Artist collectives, collaboratives, and artist-led organizations are inventing new models for creative social change and mobilizing artists toward collective action. Panelists will discuss how they are building movements and offering inspirational visions for the future. They will address what artist power means and how community-driven, collective work is critical to building financial, cultural, and political power for artists and the creative sector overall.

Artists Building, Critiquing, and Transforming Democracy

Over the last decade, artists, activists, and cultural producers have been key organizers and partners in social movements. Artists have provided mutual aid, emergency relief, thoughtful reflection, witnessing, and expressions of mourning around national events like federal immigration surges, legislative rollbacks of trans rights, and reversals in environmental protections. This panel will share stories of artists in Chicago and beyond intentionally using their creative practices and cultural platforms to educate, illuminate, and shift public sentiment on these and other topics.

Funding Movements: Big Ideas for Collective Abundance

Big movements need big money to support people doing the heaviest lifting. With shifts in focus toward funding the labor of creative work and the intersection of arts and democracy, Foundations are working in new ways and supporting new organizations. With these shifts, how can large nonprofits and funding institutions support movement building while remaining nonpartisan? Panelists from philanthropy, government, and nonprofits will discuss the ways they are working to support safe, fair, and equitably resourced spaces for artists to create while considering the legal, logistical, and ethical considerations of maintaining the mission, vision, and values of large philanthropic and nonprofit institutions.

Complete performer & speaker to come.