Chicago Cultural Alliance

The Chicago Cultural Alliance (Alliance) is a consortium of community-based ethnic museums, cultural centers, and historical societies in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Incorporated in 2006, the mission of the Allliance is to "effect social change and public understanding of cultural diversity through first voice perspectives".

Background

The Alliance began through partnerships with ethnic and cultural organizations established at the Cultural Connections program at the Field Museum. The Alliance brings together ethnically grounded organizations in order to build relationships amongst the ethnic communities in Chicago, as well as asserting their existence to the wider public. Kerstin Lane, the first Alliance Board President, described The Reasoning behind the creation of the organization: "a lot of people in Chicago have no idea there are little jewels of ethnic museums all over the city. When these museums can go out and tell the city, state and others, ‘We exist,’ then each of them will be strengthened."

The Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) at the Field Museum "uses problem-solving anthropological research to identify and catalyze strengths and assets of communities in Chicago and beyond." Rosa Cabrera, the Public Involvement Manager of the CCUC, describes theCultural Connections program as "relationship-building" which led to them realizing that "by uniting they could have a stronger voice in Chicago on such matters as tourism, school curricula and funding".

Core members

The Core Members of the Chicago Cultural Allliance are: American Indian Center, Arab American Action Network, Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, Brazilian Cultural Center of Chicago, Bronzeville Children's Museum, Bronzeville/Black Chicagoan Historical Society, Cambodian American Heritage Museum and [...] Fields Memorial, Casa Aztlán, Chicago Japanese American Historical Society, Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago, Indo-American Heritage Museum, Indo-American Center, Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, Irish American Heritage Center, Italian Cultural Center at Casa Italia, Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, Latvian Folk Art Museum, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Polish Museum of America, Swahili Institute of Chicago, Swedish American Museum, The Illinois St Andrew Society, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and the Ukrainian National Museum. .

Partner institutions

The Partners of the Chicago Cultural Alliance are: Changing Worlds, Chicago 2016, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield Zoo, Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, North Park University, Pullman State Historic Site, Snapshot Chicago, The Field Museum, The University of Chicago - Center for International Studies, United African Organization and Children's Memorial Hospital.

Activities

The Alliance is currently working to develop collaborative programs and projects to provide organizational development assistance to its Core Members and establish cross-cultural creative opportunities for youth.