Chicago — Governor JB Pritzker is encouraging Illinoisans to tune into the Sunday Arts Takeover tomorrow, a series of live at-home performances benefiting the newly-launched Arts for Illinois Relief Fund.
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Artists performing include Third Coast Percussion at 1o a.m., Jamila Woods at noon, and Steve “Silk” Hurley at 5 p.m. For more information, visit artsforillinois.org.
Gov. Pritzker also announced a slate of 21 appointments to the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois Humanities Board, including:
ILLINOIS ARTS COUNCIL
Les Begay will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Begayworks in Business Development for Wireless Solutions, a telecommunications company. He is the President of the Board of Directors for the American Indian Center of Chicago and serves on the organizing committee for the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival. Begay is also on the Administrative Oversight Committee for the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
Michael Conn will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Conn has served as Dean of Instruction at Olney Central College since 2017. He was an Art and Art History Instructor at Illinois Eastern Community College and an art teacher at two public schools. Conn has a Master of Art in Studio Art from New York University and is currently pursuing his PhD in Art Education at UIUC.
Nora Daley will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Daley is on the Board of Trustees of the Steppenwolf Theater Company. She serves on the board and executive committee of After School Matters, the Frances Xavier Warde School. She also serves on the board of the Terra Foundation for American Art and Navy Pier, Inc., the advisory board of the Illinois Justice Project, and is former chairwoman of the City of Chicago Cultural Advisory Council. Daley received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Fairfield University.
Richard Daniels will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Daniels has been the owner and conductor of City Lights Orchestra since 1974. Recently, he became the musical director of The Capitol Hill Orchestra which performs in Washington D.C. He is the current chairman of the board at Chicago's Mercy Home for Boys & Girls. Richard also chairs the Dean's advisory board at the DePaul University School of Music, is a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor and he is the senior board member at the Chicago Federation of Musicians. Daniels has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2013. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from DePaul University.
Gillian Flynn will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Flynn has published three novels, Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl, all of which have been adapted for film or television. Another novel, The Grown-Up, was released in 2015. Flynn wrote the adaptations for the 2014 Gone Girl film and the HBO limited series Sharp Objects. Flynn penned the script for Utopia, a drama series released on Amazon Prime in 2019. She was formerly a television critic for Entertainment Weekly. She received her undergraduate degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Kansas, and Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University.
Henry Godinez will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Godinez is an award-winning Cuban-American actor, director, and professor of theatre who is committed to the production of Latino theatre in Chicago. He is a professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University. Godine additionally serves as Resident Artistic Director at the Goodman Theatre, founded and serves as director of their biennial Latino Theater Festival, and has directed and performed in multiple productions at the Goodman. Godinez is the co-founder and former artistic director of Teatro Vista, a Latino Theatre company in Chicago. He was awarded the TCG Alan Schneider Directing Award (1999), the Distinguished Service Award by the Lawyers for the Creative Arts (2000), the Latino Professional of the Year Award by Chicago Latino Network (2008), and the Clarence Simon Award for Teaching and Mentoring (2013). Godinez serves on the Editorial Board of the Northwestern University Press and the Board of Directors of Albany Park Theatre Project. He has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2010. Godinez received his undergraduate degree from the University of Dallas and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Sarah Herda will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Herdahas served as Director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts since 2006. From 1998 until 2006, Herda was Director and Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture, an experimental exhibition space that is recognized internationally as a vital platform for emerging ideas. Before being named Director of Storefront, Herda was Director of the Center for Critical Architecture/Art and Architecture Exhibition Space in San Francisco. Herda teaches at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Architecture Organizations, as well as on advisory boards for The Architect’s Newspaper, LAXART, the Mills College Art Museum, and Storefront for Art and Architecture. Herda is an Emerging Leader, class of 2015, at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In 2009, she was named one of Icon magazine’s 20/20—a list of 20 architects and 20 designers who are changing the way we work and think.
Anne Kaplan will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Kaplanis Board Chair of the Joffrey Ballet. She joined the Board of Directors in 2011, previously served on the Executive Committee as Vice Chair and has also served on the Joffrey's Development, Strategic Planning, and Campaign Planning Committees. Kaplan has been a board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago since 2003 and was the board chair. She is a Trustee of the Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, which advances educational opportunities for students, as well as promotes the sustainability of the environment. She is an acclaimed interior designer whose work has been published by Architectural Digest and Chicago Magazine. She attended Connecticut College for Women. Jodie Kavensky will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Kavensky is the Founder and CEO of NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative. She was the President of CMC and Design, which provided creative, marketing and design services to start-up and non-profit organizations, primarily for health and arts organizations, including a start-up mail order pharmacy. She is a member of the Junior League of the Quad Cities. Kavensky also serves on the Board of Directors of Experience Quad Cities and the Rock Island Mayor’s Arts Advisory Committee. She has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2004. Kavensky earned her Bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in Journalism and Public Relations, and her Master of Science in Advertising from Northwestern University.
Valerie King will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. King has been Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at Ariel Investments since 2018. King was previously Director of Sales and Marketing at Holland Capital Management LLC and is also a member of the Chicago Urban League, Chicago United’s Leaders Council, and the Steering Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Financial Services Pipeline. King has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2009. She received a Bachelor’s in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Gary Matts will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Matts served four terms as President of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local 10-208 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, and currently serves as a trustee on the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund and the Chicago Federation of Musicians Employers Welfare Fund. As a freelance percussionist for more than 30 years, he performed for many theatrical productions both in Chicago and on national tours, and has performed with artists including Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Donnie Osmond, and Luciano Pavarotti. As an extra percussionist Matts has performed with the Chicago Lyric Opera and Grant Park Symphony Orchestras. He has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2013. Matts earned his Bachelor's of Music degree from Roosevelt University.
Robert Maguire will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Macguire is the Teacher Creativity Grant Consultant for the Eli Lilly Foundation. He is also an Adjunct Instructor in Art for Southwestern Illinois College and teaches a summer session in art for teachers through the Lilly Foundation at Indiana State University. He is a retired teacher of Fine Arts in Cahokia, IL and is a former ISBE Illinois Teacher of the Year.
Peggy Montes will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Montes is the founder of the Bronzeville Children’s Museum, which was the first African American children’s museum in the world. She served as the Executive Director of the Chicago Commission on Women and is the Chairman Emeritus for the DuSable Museum Board of Trustees. Montes has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2004.
Rhoda Pierce will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Pierce is the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Illinois Arts Council Agency and has been associated with it since 1986. She was the Executive Director of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra and a high school teacher in the Chicagoland area. Pierce has served as a Board Member of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) State Partnership Panel, and the NEA Arts and Disabilities Symposium, as well as, the federal General Services Administration Percent for Art Committee. She has been a member of the Fine Arts Review Committee for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, a panelist for the Art-in-Architecture Program in Illinois, and on the committee of the “Year of the American Craft.” Pierce is a life Trustee of Lake Forest College and is a past President of the Highland Park, Illinois Library Board of Trustees. She has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2004.
Pemon Rami will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Rami is a Producer/Director at P&M Studio and is the Directing Instructor at the Digital Storytelling Institute. He previously was Director of Education and Public Programs for the DuSable Museum of African American History. In 2012, he produced the feature film Of Boys and Men and in 2016 produced 93 Days which is now on Netflix. Rami served as Managing/Artistic Director for the Phoenix Black Theatre Troupe and General Manager for Marla Gibbs Crossroads National Education and Entertainment Complex in Los Angeles. He was the first African American film casting director in Chicago and provided talent for classic feature films and television movies; Blues Brothers,Mahogany, Cooley High, The Spook Who Sat by The Door, and Uptown Saturday Night. Rami has served on numerous state and national grant panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts.
Daniel Ronan will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Ronanis an arts, culture, and heritage professional based in Chicago. He founded Resilient Heritage, a consulting firm that works with nonprofit organizations in the arts, culture, and heritage sectors. He previously served as Manager of Public Engagement at the National Public Housing Museum. Ronan is member of The Association of Consultants to Nonprofits in Chicago and served on several nonprofit boards, including the International Council of Museums U.S., Docomomo Chicago, and the auxiliary board of the National Museum of Mexican Art. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon.
Barbara Saltzman will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Saltzman is head of the South Suburban College theatre program and has served as adjunct faculty of theatre and speech for over 85 courses at varying institutions between 1987 and 1999, including University of California at Davis, Western Career College, The College of St. Elizabeth, The Delancey Street Foundation, Bergen Community College, and Daley College of the City Colleges of Chicago. Appointed in 1999 to the Evanston Arts Council, she is an active member on the Committee for Cultural Diversity in the Arts.Saltzman is a member of the Actors Equity Association and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Davis in Dramatic Art & Performance.
Christina Steelman will continue to serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Steelman is a Facilitator of the McDonough County CEO Program in Macomb, Illinois. Previously, she was the founder and president of Art of a Social Nature, which is a nonprofit that brings community members more opportunities to connect over culture and the arts. Steelman was the Executive Director of the Springfield Area Arts Council (SAAC) and was Cultural Events Coordinator at Western Illinois University. She has been a member of the Illinois Arts Council since 2016. Steelman earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and Teaching from Trinity Christian College and Master of Arts in Student Affairs in Higher Education.
André Washington will serve on the Illinois Arts Council. Washingtonis an associate in the Global Finance group at Sidley & Austin's Chicago office. A classically trained flutist, Washington studied at the Eastman School of Music and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. He is a Board Member of SkyART, a nonprofit that provides free visual arts programming to under privileged children on the south side of Chicago. He is a Fulbright Scholar that studied the contributions of people from the African Diaspora to French Arts and Culture. While in France, he performed with theatre companies (Le Tarmac de la Villete), professional orchestras, and taught music to elementary school children. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School.
ILLINOIS HUMANITIES BOARD
Alyssa Rapp will serve on the Illinois Humanities Board. Rapp is CEO of Chicago-based healthcare services company, Surgical Solutions, and serves as a Managing Partner at AJR Ventures. She’s been a lecturer-in-management at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School. Rapp was the founder and CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., a leading interactive media company in the U.S. wine, craft beer, and artisanal spirit industries. She is also the author of Leadership and Life Hacks: Insights from a Mom, Wife, Entrepreneur, and Executive(ForbesBooks 2019). Rapp has served on various boards including the Spark Program, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and the History of Art from Yale University, and a Master's in Business Administration from Stanford University.
Stacy Streur will serve on the Illinois Humanities Board. Streur is the principal attorney at Streur Law, LCC representing software and Cloud service providers in connection with technology procurement contracts. She also serves as Director of Legal Services for Lawyers for the Creative Arts, advising clients regarding business and intellectual property issues. Streur has experience as a federal Small Business Administration attorney, fictional writer, and taught intellectual property law at Harper College. Streur received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from The University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law.
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