Chicago Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg, the only remaining member of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s original cabinet, announced Wednesday that she’s resigning her post effective Feb. 1. Most Chicagoans probably took little notice. Too bad.
Weisberg, 85, isn’t a household name. But if you’ve attended the Taste of Chicago, any of the numerous music festivals in Grant Park, or any of dozens of summer neighborhood festivals in the city, you know her handiwork. Decades before her successes at the city, Weisberg co-founded Friends of the Parks, ran a theater troupe and worked for nonprofit legal groups.
After serving in Mayor Harold Washington’s administration, the Austin neighborhood native was a rare survivor who later made the jump into Daley’s administration.
Early in her tenure under Daley, she made certain that after the Harold Washington Library opened, the old central library — it had been saved by the mayor’s mother, Eleanor “Sis” Daley, in the early 1970s — gained new life as the Chicago Cultural Center.
Not all of Weisberg’s ideas have been innovative, even when they’ve been successful. The famous Cows on Parade public art project of 1999, mimicked throughout the world, was borrowed from Zurich, Switzerland. And who remembers the cows’ less successful follow-up, nicknamed Ping-Pong on Parade?
But Mayor Daley and all of us owe Weisberg a debt of gratitude for helping Chicago gain a global reputation as a city that understands, appreciates and supports the arts — especially arts activities for young people. Weisberg helped cement that reputation when she worked with Maggie Daley, the mayor’s wife, to create the Gallery 37 and After-School Matters programs.
As chief of Cultural Affairs, Weisberg believed her job was to provide “the citizens of Chicago with every opportunity to grow in spirit and knowledge,” as she said in a 2003 speech.
She’s done that well, as a private citizen and as the public face of taxpayer support for the arts for the last 22 years.
Thanks, Lois.
