Sitting down with Carlos Arango of Casa Aztlán

I recently sat down with Carlos Arango of Casa Aztlán at his office. From the moment I began speaking with Carlos, it became evident that he enjoyed the interactions with community members that his position allows. Several times during our meeting, you could hear young children—at Casa Aztlán for one of its many summer activities for kids—calling for ‘Carlos!’ It is a testament to the multiple generations impacted by the Alliance’s Core Members.

Casa Aztlán combines art programming and social services offerings for Mexican Americans in Chicago. Being situated in its current location on S. Racine for over thirty years, Casa Aztlán’s immediate vicinity has certainly had time to undergo great amounts demographic change. The area, however, is still predominantly inhabited by Mexican American immigrants. This community, then, geographically is situated well to take advantage of Casa Aztlán’s social service offerings—including ESOL and citizenship classes and pro bono legal consultations.

In addition to these programs, Casa Aztlán gives the Mexican American population to enjoy and experience the arts. Children in one of the organization’s many after-school and summer programs are exposed to tools of media communication and development. For example, one class of students developed their own radio program while learning technological, writing, and speaking skills.

It’s not just with the day-to-day programming that Casa Aztlán organizes artistic endeavors. Each year around Christmastime, Mexican Americans come together with the help of Casa Aztlán for a night of caroling and festive cheer throughout their neighborhood.

All of these events contribute to a lively and exciting atmosphere, one which Carlos Arango does his best to cultivate. We look forward to many more interesting developments at Casa Aztlán!

'Talking About Im/migration' - Swedish Dialogue

This Saturday the Swedish American Museum hosted the second dialogue in the ‘Talking About Im/migration’ series. The session was held in the Museum’s first floor gallery, against the colorful backdrop of Swedish-American artist Peter Åström’s ‘Roundtrip: New York – Gotland’ exhibition, where coffee and Swedish cake were served before an interesting and engaging discussion. The participants included both Swedish citizens living in Chicago and Americans whose families migrated from Sweden many generations ago, who shared fascinating stories and discussed what Swedish culture and identity mean to them.

Letter from the Chairperson of the Swedish American Museum

My second year as chair of the museum's board of directors has been a fascinating story both of evaluation and of planning for the future. Our membership in the Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA), a collection of more than 20 ethnic museums in the Greater Chicago area, gave us a flying start at the beginning of 2008. We were the first member museum to participate in CCA's smARTscope process, a professionally conducted survey to analyze where we stand and where we want to go.

With those findings as a basis, the whole board met for a retreat in eary September to build the foundation of our new strategic plan. It was that terribly wet weekend, when all of Chicagoland seemed to flood, but we managed to be quite productive! At our retreat, we outlined our Vision and Mission Statements to keep us focused on the right direction in the years to come.

Before and after the retreat, several staff and board members participated in CCA-sponsered workshops to improve our knowledge and understanding of brand indentity, fund raising, budgeting, and other topics designed to help us run a succesful institution. We also formed two new committees- Marketing and Strategic Planning- and recruited competent new members to move us forward.

Thanks to major donations from our 30th Anniversary Campaign, we are now in the process of completing the reonvoation of our facade. We call it "A New Face in Andersonville" in the spirit of the ambitions for the future.

The troubled economic times are hitting us all, but together we can weather the storm. Because of sound fiscal management, the Museum is fortunate to be reasonably well prepared during the economic downturn. Like all non-profits institutions, however, we will need all the help we can get. To assit our members in leaving a lasting legacy for the Museum, we have a Planned Giving campaign in the pipeline that you will hear more about during 2009.

We are proud of our Museum and invite you to share your ideas for the future!

This is adapted from the Swedish American Museum 2008 Annual Report

Meet Justin

Hi, I am interning with the Cultural Alliance until September 2009. This summer with the Alliance I am working on the development of a joint services plan for our core members. I am also working with the Field Museum on crafting a civic engagement program for our members.

I graduated in May 2009 from Columbia University in New York City with a B.A. in History. Over the past summers, I have worked with the National Endowment for the Humanities in its Federal-State Partnership office and also with the Illinois Humanities Council. With the IHC, I compiled a resource database that was used in the Council’s 2008-2009 year-long series All Consuming: Conversations on Oil and Water.

In October, I will start at Oxford University, pursuing M.Phil and D. Phil degrees in early modern European history. My main scholarly interests are in seventeenth-century English cultural and intellectual movements, particularly the relationship between literary history and gender relations.

Away from academia--and trying as much as possible not to sound like a Lonely Hearts ad—I scuba dive and play club-level tennis. And, owing to Chicago’s active summer life, my cultural calendar while I’m here will certainly be full!

Meet Ritwik

My name is Ritwik Banerji and I have worked with the Chicago Cultural Alliance through the Indo-American Center, Indo-American Heritage Museum, and as a board member of the Alliance. Given the number of entities I have just named, I would like to say that my relationship with the Alliance has been as gratifying as it is confusing to explain to other people!

For the past two years, I have been working at the Indo-American Center as their youth program coordinator. Unlike the CCA, the Indo-American Center is an organization primarily focused on social services, rather than arts or culture programming. While most of our programs focus on social service needs of our community, a few programs, including ESL, seniors, and youth, always seem to be a space where culture is very much a part of us providing a quality social service. In this capacity, the youth program became more engaged in the work of the CCA. A highlight of this work was the gardening project of last summer where we brought together the cultural heritage of South Asia (and Latin America) through various gardening and horticultural awareness activities.

From my experience of working with youth development in a social service context, there can often be a tension of how to proceed around the question of developing more cultural activities or more services. What do we pursue next – classical dance classes or a full-time legal clinic? While these two are definitely very divergent paths for an organization to pursue, when working with young people there is a line between “service” and “culture” that often blurs. For example, our recent series of hip-hop production workshops for teens seem to function as both a social service and a cultural activity. When teens are with me making beats, they are not getting high or getting into other kinds of trouble. But my goal is more than just “saving” them from illicit activities. I’m particularly interested in how they understand their experiences as young, Pakistani, Muslim men going to high-school in an outlying neighborhood of Chicago. While none of them are great wizards of qawwali or any other South Asian musical art, the music we make is a reflection of a culture that was born there and is growing up here. As I “serve” them, we also provide a place for them to create.

To me, it is just as important to create culture as it is to preserve it. This is why I have always wanted to keep abreast of activities happening with the Chicago Cultural Alliance. I have continually seen a benefit for my program, and most importantly, the many young people that we have been able to work with.

Meet Cara

I grew up in Harrison, OH (near Cincinnati, for those of you unacquainted with Ohio's small towns), the oldest of six children (which proved a valuable way to gain important people skills). During high school, my family hosted an Irish student in our home through a program called the Ulster Project, an exchange program which paired Northern Irish teens from Protestant and Catholic families with students in various cities throughout the U.S. The goal of the project was to promote tolerance, friendship, and understanding between two historically troubled religious groups. I spent a month that summer with a group of American and Irish teens, participating in outings, picnics, and talent shows, as well as community service projects and serious discussions about relevant political and social issues. That experience sparked a lasting interest in and desire to learn about other cultures.

My educational background is in music: I received my bachelor's degree in piano performance from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and then attended Yale to pursue a PhD in music history. After many grueling hours of coursework, student teaching, and completing my dissertation, I decided to pursue a non-academic career that would incorporate my love of the arts and education. Last summer, I moved to Chicago to find work in the vibrant arts and culture community here. Following a freelance research position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I began my internship at the Alliance, which has been a phenomenal opportunity to learn the ins and outs of non-profit work. I enjoy the challenge and flexibility involved in tackling many different types of projects, from event planning and grant preparation to writing for the Alliance newsletter and blog. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this internship has been the chance to meet and interact with so many fascinating people and to get to know my new, adopted hometown through the eyes of Chicago's diverse communities.