Chicago arts leaders say they want to see Mayor Brandon Johnson appoint a cultural commissioner who will fight for arts funding and have the “gumption” to galvanize the sector.
Those calls come following this week’s leadership shakeup at the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. On Tuesday afternoon, Johnson’s handpicked cultural commissioner, Clinée Hedspeth, resigned her post.
The announcement was made by a co-chair of the department’s Cultural Advisory Council at a meeting of the advisory group. It came as a surprise, not only to council members in the room and the alderman who chairs the City Council cultural committee, but also the mayor’s office. A mayoral spokesperson told WBEZ Wednesday that Johnson had not requested Hedspeth’s resignation.
Hedspeth’s tenure, which lasted less than two years, was often marked by turmoil, including high staff turnover and bullying accusations from several staffers.
Still, theater artist Coya Paz, who chairs the advisory council, said Hedspeth “didn’t always get some of the credit she deserved.”
Paz said Hedspeth was focused on securing funding for the department and distributing to individual artists. “I just want to acknowledge that from that perspective, she did a good job,” Paz said Thursday.
However, Paz added there were “communication issues, which were real.”
“I think, where a lot of people would have liked to see a difference is in the public facing portion of that role,” Paz said. “I think the role of someone in this job is to really be in community with arts and culture makers in ways that are visible, like we can look at it and say, ‘Yes, I feel like I know what’s going on.’ ”
Now, as the city’s cultural department is in flux, Paz said she hopes Chicago’s internationally acclaimed arts and culture sector does not lose resources and political focus. Especially as the city has been catapulted into the national spotlight, amid President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement and deployment of National Guard troops.
“I worry a little bit that in the face of that true emergency, that something like the arts and culture might drop as a priority,” Paz said. “My hope is that the [Johnson] administration continues to recognize how important artists and culture workers are to telling the story of Chicago and to making Chicago the kind of beautiful, vibrant place that we’re all fighting for.”
Earlier this month, Choose Chicago reported a record-setting summer of tourism in Chicago, with hotel occupancy surpassing pre-COVID records. The report cited the city’s “festivals, concerts, and Chicago’s world-renowned cultural and culinary scene” as key factors in attracting tourism, which Choose Chicago said “remains a vital driver of the Chicagoland economy.”
In a statement Tuesday after Hedspeth’s resignation, the mayor’s office said the search for her replacement was immediately underway and that the next commissioner would be tasked with protecting “Chicago from the Trump administration’s cuts to cultural grants and institutions.”
Esther Grimm, who was the longtime leader of the Chicago arts nonprofit 3Arts and is an advisory council member, said she’d like to see a leader with “genuine zeal and grit and guts in representing our field.”
“I think the next commissioner needs to have a great deal of gumption and vision to help us see our way through these dark times,” Grimm said. “I think that role goes far beyond the grant making of artists and arts organizations. I think it is about galvanizing our field and that’s what I dream of when I think about who might be selected as the next commissioner.”
Jonah Zeiger, who previously led the city’s film office before being edged out last December, said in a statement to WBEZ this week that he sees this as “a moment of hope for Chicago’s arts and culture community.”
“With the cultural sector facing unprecedented threats from the federal level, it has become clear how important it is to have authentic and engaged local leadership,” Zeiger wrote. “Now Chicago needs a truly inclusive arts leader to bring our vibrant diverse community together and elevate our City’s role in the industries that shape our collective culture.”
The leadership change also comes as the city heads into the thick of budget season. This year, arts advocates will again lobby for sustained investment in Chicago’s cultural sector, said Claire Rice, the executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois.
Rice said she wants to see the next DCASE leader continue to champion grants that directly invest in Chicago’s artists.
“We have to protect the fraction of a percentage point of the budget that goes into direct investment or cultural grant making,” Rice said. “And really hope our next leader will continue to work toward right sizing their grants budget. Even in a really difficult budget time, increasing this investment renders incredible benefits for our city.”
Sangini Brahmbhatt, DCASE’s former deputy commissioner of programming who was recently appointed to lead the South Asia Institute, said “the arts sector in Chicago has always been built on the power of collective strength.”
“It is through collaboration and partnership that we find our way forward,” Brahmbhatt wrote in an email. “I hope to see a deepening of shared leadership and purpose, while remaining in dialogue with arts leaders across the city — all for the greater good of Chicago’s arts and culture community, especially as we navigate this moment of uncertainty together.”
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.