The Chicago Community Trust, in a significant departure, is formally canvassing area cultural groups to help it establish two new funding priorities for the arts.
The trust, which gave $6 million to arts and culture in 2003, is using an online survey of a few hundred arts non-profits “to gauge what are their most pressing needs and what they may be in the future,” said trust spokeswoman Jennifer Jobrack. She said the survey (see the link at cct.org ) has been running a few weeks and ends Monday.
The trust plans to use the results in setting new three-year funding initiatives to replace two about to expire, excellence in dance and leadership succession. Those two areas still will be funded, but not with the same emphasis, Jobrack said.
She said this may be the first time the trust has used a quantitative, outreach approach in setting arts priorities. It previously relied on in-house research and anecdotal evidence.
She attributed the shift in direction to Terry Mazany, who was promoted to chief executive on July 1, and senior arts program officer Kassie Davis, the former Illinois Arts Council chief who joined the trust this summer.
The trust expects to share survey results with the community this fall and announce the new initiatives by winter.
BOUNDLESS: Parkways Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Chicago Park District, has raised more than half the $675,000 it is seeking to build the district’s first Boundless Playground, a spot where children with and without disabilities can play together.
The playground is to be built at Columbus Park, 500 S. Central Ave., chosen, said Parkways spokeswoman Lydia Hall, because “it is a regional park, one of our biggest and most historic.” The park was designed by Jens Jensen, the famed Prairie-style landscape architect.
According to Parkways, the playground might include swings with additional support, soft surfaces, extra wide slides and raised sandboxes with wheelchair access.
Parkways is working with the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds in Bloomfield, Conn. Ellen Zenke, a program administrator there, said several more are in varying stages of development in the Chicago area. There are 69 Boundless Playgrounds in North America.
PEOPLE: The Goodman Theatre board elects four new trustees: Leon Dreimann of Salton Inc.; William Richards Jr. of Bank of America; Patrick Wood-Prince of John Buck Co.; and Maria Wynne of Microsoft Corp. ….. Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Foundation names to its board Steven Fradkin of Northern Trust Corp., Jordon Katz of JR Katz, Dale Park Jr. of Park & Park LLP and Jeffrey Taylor of Cole Taylor Bank.
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Charles Storch is at cstorch@tribune.com.
