Four years ago, at the annual meeting of Arts Alliance Illinois, keynote speaker Ben Cameron told the assembled leaders that cooperation, rather than competition, would have to be their strategy going forward—if they were to survive.
If it doesn’t work, it won’t be for lack of planning. Creative Partners grew out of the frustration Lucky Plush artistic director Julia Rhoads was feeling three years ago, after a decade of “wearing all the hats” for her company. Rhoads says she had some part-time administrative help, but couldn’t pay more than $12 or $13 an hour, which meant she couldn’t hire anyone with experience and couldn’t hang on to the beginners she trained. Then she heard about a program that had three theater companies—Thomas’s, the Hypocrites, and the House Theatre of Chicago—sharing a finance director.
Jen Richards, Eighth Blackbird’s executive director, boils it at all down to the fact that “small and midsized arts organizations are typically run by artists. They have to do everything themselves, and it distracts from their ability to make art. The big bottom line here is that this kind of model allows more art to be made.”
Thu 4/25, 7 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, $40, cptheunexpected.eventbrite.com
