Arts And Cultural Initiative Provides Much Needed Support To BIPOC Arts And Cultural Organizations

Black is the Color, by Joel Hall, featuring the Joel Hall Dancers (a male and female dancer). PHOTO BY M_MONAGHAN.
Black is the Color, by Joel Hall, featuring the Joel Hall Dancers (a male and female dancer). PHOTO BY M_MONAGHAN.

Arts And Cultural Initiative Provides Much Needed Support To BIPOC Arts And Cultural Organizations


By Tia Carol Jones

The Joel Hall Dancers and Center has been training dancers for 50 years. This year the dance company and training studio celebrated that milestone and moved into a new studio space, which the organization rents from Black Ensemble Theatre.


The Joel Hall Dancers and Center was able to move into the new space because of the support the organization received from the IFF and Chicago Cultural Treasures.


“It made a world of difference for the preparation of our dancers, as well as the viability of our education and training programs,” said Joseph Pindelski, Executive Director of the Joel Hall Dancers and Center.


The Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, also known as Chicago’s Treasures, is an initiative that was launched in 2020, with the goal of providing capacity building and technical assistance to the city’s Black Indigenous People of Color led and focused arts and cultural organizations. The four-year initiative was launched at a time when arts and cultural organizations were facing challenges, especially those that were BIPOC-led and focused. There are 40 organizations that receive support as part of the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures initiative.


Kate Ansorge, Managing Director of Real Estate Solutions—Chicago at Illinois Facilities Fund, said that the arts and cultural organizations that receive support from the initiative are really important neighborhood anchors and it is important for them to be financially supported and to have resources. She said the goal of Chicago’s Cultural Treasures is to strengthen, grow and preserve these organizations. There was an initial round of grantmaking and second round of grantmaking because it was important those organizations remained sustainable and accessible to communities.

Kate said the Joel Hall Dancers and Center is a great example of an organization that was looking to identify a space and understood the importance of being present and available to the community it serves. The Chicago’s Cultural Treasures worked with the organization to help them with the technical aspect of finding a space, everything from how much it cost to what the space needed to look like to accommodate their programs. The support Joel Hall Dancers and Center received from the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures enabled them to make decisions about how to move forward and find a space that supported their mission and programming.


Pindelski said that in addition to the technical support the organization received, the coaching they received also included the administrative life and vitality of the organization, which helped them figure out how to sustain themselves and the essential needs and  desires they had as they continued their work. 


Pindelski said the coaching also helped the organization understand the importance of having a business model that could help them maintain as an organization.


“The training that we received from the Treasures really helped us take that external eye and apply it and be able to drill down more into the nitty gritty of going beyond being a place where people feel good and feel welcome, but also a place that can support itself and, in turn, support others with more robust services,” he said.


Pindelski said the education the Joel Hall Dancers and Center provides goes beyond dance technique and the organization has been re-evaluating its educational programs to make them more compatible and supportive in classroom study time. It means including STEM, humanities and medical sciences in the program so that students learn how all of those components are involved in dance. Having the support of the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures has also enabled the organization to host more free programming and provide more universal financial aid for those interested in the programs but have a significant financial need.

For more information about the Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, visit www.chicagosculturaltreasures.org. For more information about the Joel Hall Dancers and Center, visit www.joelhall.org.


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