On the occasion of their 60th Anniversary
Staff members of the Illinois Arts Council, based in Chicago, landed in Macomb for a two-day visit last week to attend a reception in their honor hosted by IAC Board Member Christi Steelman and Western Illinois Museum Executive Director Sue Scott. The reception provided a fantastic opportunity for grant recipients and local leaders to socialize with each other and with the staff and board of the Illinois Arts Council who attended the event.
The Illinois Arts Council was created as a state agency by the Illinois General Assembly in 1965 through legislation sponsored by Senators Paul Simon, Thomas McGloon, and Alan Dixon. The agency is governed by up to twenty-one private citizens chosen for their demonstrated commitment to the arts and appointed by the Governor. Council members, including McDonough County resident Christi Steelman, serve in a voluntary, non-paid capacity and are charged with developing the state’s public arts policy, fostering quality culturally diverse programs, and approving grants expenditures. A small professional staff with in-depth knowledge of the arts develops and administers the agency’s programs, provides technical assistance, and ensures the responsible and impactful distribution of all funds.
Resources to support the Illinois Arts Council are provided by the Governor and General Assembly of Illinois and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2023, the IAC began a bold restructuring designed to better meet the needs of each unique region of the state.
Each of the five staff program directors have been assigned to one region of metropolitan Chicago and one region of the rest of the state. These stronger relationships have already facilitated improved communication and personal attention with the artists and organizations in Western Illinois, and has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of grant requests submitted and the amount of funding distributed in our area.
The IAC’s senior staff, regional program director, and several board members have used the occasion of the 60th anniversary to embark on a tour of each region. Macomb and Moline were selected as the site visit locations for the Western Illinois region. In addition to visiting with area artists, organizational leaders, and civic leaders at the reception held Wednesday, July 23 at the Western Illinois Museum, the group also scheduled organizational site visits with staff and volunteers at the Macomb Art Center, the Western Illinois Museum, the WIU Goldfarb Center, and the Macomb Park District Ceramics Studio. These visits provided the Arts Council with first-hand experiences with some of the excellent arts programming that occurs in our area.
For further information about IAC funding opportunities, call Western Region Program Director Jerome Grand at (312) 814-6766, email [email protected], or visit arts.illinois.gov
