Part of Chicago to the World Convening

Friday, October 23, 2026, | Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago | 4:00 – 5: 00 p.m.

Moderator: Lisa Coleman, President, Adler University

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Panelists: Ra Joy, Executive Director, Bronzeville Center for the Arts, Milwaukee

Monique Brinkman-Hill, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago

Kenya K. Merritt, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)

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Panel Overview

Chicago and the broader Midwest are entering a pivotal moment for Black art and cultural leadership. With the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, renewed attention is turning toward the region’s artistic legacy, cultural institutions and capacity to shape the national and international conversation about Black creativity. For Chicago, this is more than a moment of visibility. It is an opportunity to build the infrastructure, partnerships and investment necessary to sustain Black arts institutions for generations to come.

Moderated by Lisa Coleman, President of Adler University, this leadership conversation brings together Ra Joy, Executive Director of Milwaukee’s Bronzeville Center for the Arts; Monique Brinkman-Hill of Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center; and Kenya Merritt, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Together, they will examine what it takes for Black arts institutions to grow, thrive and fulfill their missions in an evolving cultural and economic landscape.

The panel comes at a consequential time for two institutions with distinct but complementary trajectories. Founded in 2020, the Bronzeville Center for the Arts is advancing plans for a new museum in Milwaukee, building an institution intended to elevate Black art and cultural narratives. The South Side Community Art Center, celebrating 86 years of service, is rehabilitating its historic facility to sustain its legacy as a vital center for Black artistic expression and community engagement. The morning of the convening, SSCAC will mark a major milestone with its beam-raising ceremony—an expression of renewal, continuity and investment in its future.

These institutional milestones invite a larger regional conversation: What systems must be in place for Black cultural organizations to move beyond survival toward sustained abundance? How can public agencies, municipal leadership, philanthropy, universities, businesses and cultural partners support the facilities, staffing, programming, fundraising and long-term financial stability that thriving institutions require?

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Chicago’s history offers a powerful foundation for this discussion. From AfriCOBRA and the Black Arts Movement (BAM) to the city’s legacy of world-fair exhibitions, Black artists and cultural leaders have repeatedly shaped how Chicago and the nation understand art, identity and possibility. The Midwest has never been peripheral to this story. It has helped define it.

Now, with the Obama Presidential Center bringing renewed attention to Chicago and the region, the question is how to translate visibility into lasting opportunity. How can Chicago’s cultural leadership, including DCASE, strengthen Black arts organizations across the city while building partnerships that extend throughout the Midwest? What does it mean for a mayor to aspire to be known as an arts and culture mayor, and how can that ambition be reflected in sustained support for the institutions that make the city’s cultural identity possible?

Under the banner Chicago to the World, this conversation will explore how Black arts institutions can build the capacity, relationships and resources to meet this moment—not simply to be seen, but to lead. The goal is to identify the systems, commitments and collaborative strategies that will allow Chicago and the broader Midwest to transform historic cultural influence into a thriving, interconnected future for Black art.

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Historical Framing: The Midwest Has Helped Shape the Narrative

Chicago has been a center of Black artistic innovation, institution-building and collective action. AfriCOBRA helped define a distinctive visual language of Black liberation and identity. The Black Arts Movement expanded the relationship between artistic practice, community and political expression. The city’s history also includes the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the 1940 American Negro Exposition, which foregrounded Black achievement in different ways and within different historical circumstances.

The point is not simply that Chicago has a distinguished past. Black cultural leadership is part of the region’s institutional DNA. The current moment offers an opportunity to invest in the next generation of that leadership.