The African American Arts Alliance (AAAA) has been awarded $240,000 by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the Walder Foundation to provide salary support for its first Executive Director. The funding will be distributed over three years with the possibility of a two-year extension. The AAAA Executive Committee—which consists of the Board President, Vice President, and Treasurer—will implement the search, interview candidates, and select the person to fulfill the new position.
AAAA Board Chair Jackie Taylor comments, “We are so grateful to the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation and the Walder Foundation for this transformative support. Indeed, this funding will have a historical impact within the black arts community giving us the foundation that we need to strengthen and grow.”
"We have long valued the important role that networks such as the African American Arts Alliance have in connecting and supporting arts organizations to needed resources and training. We are extremely pleased to be a part of their important work," said J. David Farren, Executive Director of the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
“The African American Arts Alliance has been a vital service organization for Black artists in Chicago. We commend the hard work of its volunteer board and part-time staff who have built the Alliance into the organization it is today,” said Elizabeth Walder, President and Executive Director of the Walder Foundation. “We are pleased to support the Alliance with this new position so they can expand and strengthen the support of their membership.”
The African American Arts Alliance was started in 1997 by a group of leading African American artists who came together to discuss their commonalities and challenges as Black artists and arts organizations in the city of Chicago. The organization added structure to the conversations and developed strategies to address issues that were identified. Since its inception, the Alliance has grown from 15 members to its present membership of 186 individual artists and art organizations in the disciplines of dance, music, theater, film, visual arts, literary arts, and technical arts.
Since its inception 23 years ago, all of the important work of the Alliance has been implemented and carried out by its volunteer Board of Directors and a small part-time staff of two people. The African American Arts Alliance identified the need to hire an Executive Director to strengthen and expand service to its growing membership and carry out the mission of the organization. The Executive Director will perform the day-to-day business operations of the organization, implement programming and marketing, fundraise for the organization, and meet the needs of the membership.
The African American Arts Alliance annually produces four organizational developmental workshops, and two town hall meetings to ascertain the needs of the membership, evaluate effectiveness in meeting their needs, and discuss relevant issues. The AAAA produces Black Arts Month, a month long of arts activities produced by the membership and promoted by the Alliance, as well as the Black Excellence Awards, the Alliance Mentoring Program, and the Martin Luther King Annual Celebration.
About the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation supports land conservation, artistic vitality, and regional collections for the people of the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The Foundation seeks to sustain and build resilient, vital, engaged, and equitable communities in the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina by supporting conservation, arts, and collecting organizations in a variety of ways. Arts organizations – creatively accomplished and operationally strong – nurture our artists and help build vibrant communities. Art brings every type of person into the arena and invites them to find solace, engage with difference, and dream beyond the present moment. We value arts organizations across all disciplines, traditions, and communities, as they spark new ideas, bring forward voices, and challenge the way we see ourselves and think about the world.
About the Walder Foundation
The Walder Foundation was established by Joseph and Elizabeth Walder to address critical issues impacting our world. The Foundation’s five areas of focus—science innovation, environmental sustainability, the performing arts, migration and immigrant communities, and Jewish life—are an extension of the Walders’ lifelong passions, interests, and their personal and professional experiences.
The Foundation’s support of performing artists and arts organizations aims to sustain careers and cultural groups so artists can continue to create and perform for the betterment of our communities.
About the African American Arts Alliance
In 1997 a group of Chicago’s leading African American artists and arts organizations came together and formed a new organization; incorporated as the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago. This organization embraced the history of the original 1977 Chicago Black Theater Alliance while expanding their scope to include diverse groups of artistic mediums which includes theaters, dance, music, literature, film, visual arts organizations, and individuals.
The mission of the African American Art Alliance is to increase public awareness, interaction, communication, and development of African American arts organizations and artists within the city of Chicago.