Chicago Cultural Alliance
The Chicago Cultural Alliance (Alliance) is a consortium of community-based ethnic museums, cultural centers, and historical societies in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Incorporated in 2006, the mission of the Alliance is to "effect social change and public understanding of cultural diversity through first voice perspectives".[1]
Background
The Alliance began through partnerships with ethnic and cultural organizations established at the Cultural Connections program at the Field Museum in The Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC).[2] The Alliance brings together ethnically grounded organizations in order to build relationships amongst the ethnic communities in Chicago, as well as asserting their existence to the wider public. Kerstin Lane, the first Alliance Board President, described the reasoning behind the creation of the organization: "a lot of people in Chicago have no idea there are little jewels of ethnic museums all over the city. When these museums can go out and tell the city, state and others, ‘We exist,’ then each of them will be strengthened."[3]
Core members
The Core Members of the Chicago Cultural Alliance are:
- American Indian Center
- Arab American Action Network
- Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
- Bronzeville Children's Museum
- Bronzeville Historical Society
- Cambodian American Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial
- Casa de Cultura Brasileira (Brazil in Chicago)
- Casa Italia (Italian Cultural Center)
- Casa Michoacan
- Chicago Japanese American Historical Society
- Chinese-American Museum of Chicago
- DANK Haus German American Cultural Center
- Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
- Illinois Saint Andrews Society (Chicago Scots)
- Indo-American Heritage Museum
- Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture
- Irish American Heritage Center
- Japanese American Service Committee
- Korean American Resource and Cultural Center
- Latvian Folk Art Museum
- Mitchell Museum of the American Indian
- Polish Museum of America
- Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
- Southside Community Art Center
- Swahili Institute of Chicago
- Swedish American Museum
- Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
- Ukrainian National Museum
Partner Institutions
The Partner Institutions of the Chicago Cultural Alliance are:
Former Partner Institutions of the Chicago Cultural Alliance
- Chicago 2016 2008
- Snapshot Chicago2008-2009
Associate Members
The Associate Members of the Chicago Cultural Alliance are:
- Center on Civic Reflection
- Changing Worlds
- National Public Housing Museum
- Pullman State Historic Site
- Read/Write Library
Activities
The Alliance is currently working to develop collaborative programs and projects to provide organizational development assistance to its Core Members and establish cross-cultural creative opportunities for youth.[4] The Alliance provides four areas of programming: capacity building for its members, cross-cultural public programs, education programs, and advocacy and outreach.
Advocacy and outreach
The advocacy and outreach work has included collaborating with several other Chicago-based arts and culture organizations in the Arts Power Chicago campaign to inform the 2011 Chicago mayoral candidates about the significant role that arts and culture plays in Chicago's neighborhoods and in its international image.[5]
References
- ↑ CCA | Our Mission | Chicago Cultural Alliance Archived October 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
- ↑ Featured Articles From The Chicago Tribune
- ↑ "Chicago Cultural Alliance - About". chicagoculturalalliance.org.
- ↑ "Making a fist for the arts". wbez.org.
