When Art Changed a City

“When Art Changed a City” is a research-based project and public lecture featuring a conversation with Michael Dorf, director of Chicago’s first Cultural Plan (1986), examining how culture shapes civic life. Centered on the Plan’s development, the project revisits a landmark moment when thousands of residents helped define the city’s cultural future through grassroots participation. By bringing archival research into a live public format, the project explores access to the arts, cultural policy, and the role of public dialogue.