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Showing posts with label ILLINOIS HUMANITIES COUNCIL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ILLINOIS HUMANITIES COUNCIL. Show all posts
Friday, May 19, 2017
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
The Howard Tullman Lecture in Humanities and Business: A Conversation with Slava Rubin
The Howard Tullman Lecture in Humanities and Business: A Conversation with Slava Rubin
Event Details
When
05/27/2015
5:30pm - 7:30pm
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Now more than ever, our business culture celebrates change. Leaders in fields from technology to education are hailing "disruption" as the key to innovation and growth.
Join Illinois Humanities for an exciting conversation with Slava Rubin, co-founder and CEO of pioneering "crowdfunding" website Indiegogo, and Lisa Yun Lee, Director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, about the role of entrepreneurship and technological change in our society and culture.
How can technology fuel creativity and innovation in business, the arts, and public life? What does the rise of crowdfunding suggest about the future of social media in the global economy and in our democracy?
Remarks of Illinois Humanities Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre at our 2015 Benefit Award Luncheon
Remarks of Illinois Humanities Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre at our 2015 Benefit Award Luncheon
05/14/2015
As Sophie said, The Odyssey Project has been in existence for 15 years. In the ‘90’s, I read an article by Earl Shorris, who was researching a story on poverty in America. His 600th interview was with Viniece Walker, an inmate at a maximum security prison for women 50 miles north of New York City.
Odyssey Project Graduate Sophie RazoPhoto by Greg RothsteinNiecy had been in prison for over a decade. She was locked up in her early 20’s, poor, with HIV, no high school diploma, having been beaten up routinely since she was a child. In prison, however, she completed her high school requirements, enrolled in college, majoring in psychology but also taking a great interest in philosophy. She was reading the greats; her favorite was Dostoevsky. She was counseling inmates with a history of family violence. Comforting those with AIDS.
When Earl asked her why the poor were poor, Niecy told him that numerous forces -- hunger, isolation, illness, abuse, landlords, police, drugs, criminals, racism – exert themselves on the poor at all times and enclose them, making up a surround of force from which, it seems, they cannot escape. This surround of force prevents them from being political – not in the sense of voting, but from having meaningful activity with people at all levels, from the family to the neighborhood to the broader community to the city-state.
This, she said, prevented them access to what she called “the moral life of downtown.” Earl asked himself, How can a museum push poverty away? Who can dress in sculpture and eat history? And what about political action – the voting kind? And then she made it clear for Earl. No one, she said, could step out of the panicking circumstances of poverty directly into the public world. This surround of force robs the poor of opportunities to reflect on human concerns and constructs, what we call the humanities.
This article was the inspiration for The Odyssey Project. We operate five courses a year, one in Spanish. Students do close readings of some of the bedrock texts of our civilization, from Plato to the Declaration of Independence to Zora Neale Hurston.
Jack Keenan of Jones Lang LaSalle, 2015 PHA Recipient Howard Tullman, and Illinois Humanities' Executive Director Angel YsaguirrePhoto by Greg RothsteinPeople often ask me what action I want our programming to provoke. They might see the practice of the humanities as just talking. But Niecy did not talk about the need for acting as much as the need for reflection. Picking up a rock and throwing it through a store window is an action. Saying “they are just criminals and got what’s coming” and walking away is an action. People act all the time. We yell, or remain punishingly silent, so much more than we discuss, talking with others so that we might see it from different sides. Yet talking to strangers is the bedrock of democracy.
Illinois Humanities shapes discussions and enables reflection, so that our actions, when they come, are smarter, more productive.
Our programs focus specifically on issues of public policy, media and journalism, business, and art. They all seek to bring about political participation, not the voting kind per se, but the kind that Neicy spoke of -- the kind that’s about having meaningful interaction with people at all level.
The aim of our public policy programs is to bring people across lines of race, class and political ideology for constructive public policy discussions.
Through Capitol Forum, high school students across Illinois discuss U.S. foreign policy in their social studies classes. At the end of the school year, students from 15 of the high schools meet to debate specific case studies. Just a couple weeks ago in Bloomington, these students debated the role the U.S. should play in addressing issues like sex trafficking and terrorism.
This fall, we will announce a year-long series of programs about the future of public education, asking the questions: What do young people need to succeed?; What was the original purpose of public schools? What is their current use? What can we really expect of them?; Can we achieve equity in funding, resources, and quality?; What is the relationship between poverty, the changing demographics in the U.S., and education reform?
2015 Public Humanities Award Recipient Howard TullmanPhoto by Greg RothsteinThe aim of our Media and Journalism programming is to empower the public to substantively reshape the media conversation.
Last year, we hosted a conversation that took stock of the blurring roles of journalism and activism, as evidenced in the coverage of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri.
Reporting Back pairs residents of Englewood, Woodlawn, Bronzeville, and Humboldt Park, communities that are disproportionately affected by gun violence, with journalists who cover this issue. This gives journalists access to people who are most impacted by the topics they cover and gives community members an opportunity to shape stories that are written about them.
Our Business programs aim to foster more meaningful discussion about the relationship between business and public life. Later this month, we will look at the relationship between debt and the American dream, specifically the role of personal debt in shaping the economic and cultural life of the middle class status, before and after the Great Recession.
Our art programs seek to strengthen the conditions in which art thrives by creating dialogue about works of art and by combating perceptions of exclusivity.
In Champaign, Carbondale, and Springfield, we operate book groups that give veterans an opportunity to connect with one another and to reflect on their experiences of war, using literature as a tool for reflection. The depth and breadth of our programming is unmatched. We reach the urban residents of Woodlawn and Lincoln Park in Chicago and the rural residents of Nokomis and Cobden. And every single program we produce is free.
Our mission is critical, but we do not live in a world where public funds come close to covering our needs. The National Science Foundation’s federal appropriation in FY15 was $72b. Combined, the NEA and NEH’s appropriation was a little over $290m.
Judy Tullman, Luq Muhammad, and Howard TullmanPhoto by Greg RothsteinSo many of you have generously supported our work by purchasing a table or a ticket today and for that I thank you. This luncheon is our only fundraising event, and all proceeds go directly to our programs. On your tables are donation cards and envelopes. Please considermaking a contribution to further this important work. If you feel moved to make a donation, Illinois Humanities staff will gladly take your envelope as you exit.
One of Illinois Humanities’ long-term partners has been Young Chicago Authors. We have funded their work for over a decade. When I asked Howard what kind of entertainment he might enjoy at the luncheon, he immediately answered “Louder Than A Bomb.” Finishing its 15th season, Louder Than A Bomb is the largest, youth poetry festival in the world. It attracts 1,000 participants from 120 schools in over 100 different Chicagoland zip codes. Imagine high school in-class and after school teams focused on a Literary Arts curriculum as a team sporting event — with reading and writing literacy as the goal. It’s an incredible program and you’re about to get a taste of it. Please welcome two of the finalists from this year’s competition (Kristyn Zoey Wilkerson (Zoe), "How to go natural amongst the creamy crackheads" and Luqman Muhammad (Luq), "PA").
Thursday, May 14, 2015
1871 CEO Howard Tullman Remarks at Illinois Humanities Council Award Benefit Luncheon
Before I start, I just want to say that all of our thoughts and prayers go out to Martha Lavey for a speedy and full recovery. No one in the City has been a greater advocate for the arts and for the humanities.
I want to begin by thanking the
Illinois Humanities Council for this great honor and the leadership and staff
of the IHC for doing all of the hard work that it takes to pull off something
as challenging as this program. I’m also thankful for the work the IHC does
every day because - in my life - art isn’t optional or nice to have – it’s
essential. A culture is measured by its aspirations and its dreams and those
dreams are dreamed by its artists.
I also want
to say how grateful I am to the 3 co-chairmen for today’s event – Joel Henning,
Murray Peretz and Richard Price – whose support, commitment and generosity are
unparalleled and who ALWAYS answer the call whenever I ask for their help. They
are good and steadfast friends and great humanitarians as well as consistent
supporters of the arts in their own right.
I also want to thank Marie Tillman and Joe Shenton for all their help
with today’s luncheon and especially Marie for agreeing to give a few closing
remarks on the program today.
I want to
thank my wife Judy for all her support, encouragement, patience and
understanding for many decades now and for only occasionally saying: “Are you
really going to buy THAT painting?” and only rarely saying: “Oh, no, not
another business.”
I want to
thank Kevin Coval and the crew from Louder than A Bomb for their participation
in today’s event. We’ve been friends and supporters of Kevin’s work for many,
many years and I continue to be amazed at the growth and the depth of his work
and its impact on our city and on all of our citizens.
And finally,
for our meals, my many friends at Lettuce (and especially our guest chef Andrew
Shedden from Mon Ami Gabi) as well as my long-time pal Marc Schulman from
Eli’s. Marc and I have worked together on many different things over the years
starting when I moved Kendall College from Evanston to its new home on Goose
Island.
I was
reminded of that particular adventure most recently when I was proud to see (in
connection with the recent hoopla here in the city) that more than a dozen of
my chefs from Kendall have been honored over the years by the James Beard
Foundation. I didn’t season the soup, but I like to think that I helped to set
the table. And I didn’t do it alone – Barb Pollack who’s here with us today was
an important partner in the creation and development of the “new” Kendall
College and in all our major projects since then.
I had a
similar flashback a few years ago when Christo’s wife, Jean-Claude passed away.
We had worked together more than 40 years ago on a series of multiples for the
Men’s Council of the Museum of Contemporary Art. I was also lucky enough to
support and see the realization of their Central Park Gates project in 2005
(which was only 26 years in the making) and it was truly a dream come true.
In fact, Christo
taught me a number of valuable lessons about passion, patience, persistence and
perseverance that I reference and rely on every day in my writings and in my work
with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are every bit as much dreamers as Christo.
He taught me
three things in particular that I would share with you:
(1) that you
should never agree to knowingly surrender your dreams;
(2) that
it’s a good plan to always have more dreams than memories; and
(3) that a
man isn’t really old until his regrets take the place of his dreams
I’m happy to
report that I’m still dreaming every day. And that I’ve learned over the years
that the development of dreams and their transition into concrete realities
always follows the same path:
(a)
initially, they seem impossible;
(b)
eventually, they seem improbable; and then
(c)
ultimately, they seem inevitable.
The most
important trick - while you’re waiting for the world to catch up - is to always
be drawn by your dreams rather than being pushed by your problems. The second
crucial element is to have the support of talented people beside you because
today no one accomplishes anything important all by themselves. Being an artist
or an entrepreneur may seem lonely at times, but you’re never really alone.
One other important
difference at 1871 is that our dreams come with deadlines and even the grandest
ideas are soon obliged to generate invoices. Great companies start with art and
end up with science. But actually I’ve found that there’s very little
difference between artists and entrepreneurs which is what makes my present work
so exciting.
Whether at
Kendall, Experiencia, Flashpoint or 1871, it turns out that the demands that
true art makes are really no different from what it takes to be a successful
entrepreneur. Three basic things: sacrifice; discipline and integrity. While
there are few things more intimidating than sitting before a blank canvas or an
empty sheet of paper and waiting for the light bulb and the inspiration to
strike; the truth is that the process of building a new business from scratch
really isn’t that much different. Mostly it’s about getting started and putting
one foot in front of the other. It’s a lot less about inspiration and a lot
more about perspiration.
In fact, the
most important thing that any good artist or entrepreneur will tell you is that
ultimately it’s not even about creativity. Creativity is often necessary for
great works, but it’s not sufficient. What ultimately gets the great work done
is a great deal of work.
You’ve got
to show up.
You’ve got
to sit down and get started.
And you’ve
got to have the strength to do that each and every day.
That’s the process. It never changes. You do what you have to
do. You do it the best you can. You do it that way every time. And it’s funny
how often things work out pretty well.
Because in
the end, it all comes down to a simple truth:
YOU DON’T GET WHAT YOU
WISH FOR,
YOU GET WHAT YOU WORK
FOR.
Thank you again for this honor and for honoring me with your
presence here today.
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