Michelle Boone, Chicago's cultural commissioner, on the city's bold new plan for arts programming
Excerpt:
What do you say to those who argue that money spent on the arts should go instead to schools or police?
It’s not a question about spending on this or that. It’s about helping people recognize—and I think the plan will do this—that the arts are a tremendous stimulator for economic development. Artists have a deep history in Chicago of invading derelict spaces and making them cool; then other folks start moving in. The mayor frequently cites the transformation that Lincoln Square went through with the Old Town School of Folk Music. One cultural institution drew coffee shops, restaurants, homebuyers, and young families.
Which [Chicago] neighborhood could be the next cultural hub?
Bronzeville. There are a number of African American art galleries doing some really creative things.
As a former grant maker with the Joyce Foundation, do you consider yourself more of an artist or a CFO?
I've always said that I'm not an artist but I am an arts crusader. I love this quote by Andy Warhol: "Good business is the best art." That's something I always keep in mind. You don't throw away good business practices for the sake of creating art.
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