Chicago is not the violent and rudderless place that the news, pop culture or President Donald Trump makes it out to be, some of the city\u2019s top cultural figures said Thursday at a city tourism event.<\/p>\n
At the invitation of Choose Chicago, the city\u2019s official tourism bureau, visual artist Theaster Gates, Plain White T\u2019s lead singer Tom Higgenson and actor, producer and Steppenwolf co-artistic director Glenn Davis made the case that Chicago is the place to be for creatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are moments when people want to stigmatize the city and I have to say, \u2018Oh, you just don\u2019t know the beautiful things there,\u201d said Gates, an internationally acclaimed visual artist who was born and raised on the West Side.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big part of my practice is the demonstration that there are great things happening all over the city,\u201d Gates said. \u201cIt requires people who really love [and] have a pride of place. \u2026 There\u2019s a real correlation between my love of Black things and my love of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Pat Nabong\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Although he came from a family that didn\u2019t have much, they were always proud, Gates told a room full of approximately 100 marketing and communications professionals from cultural and business groups.<\/p>\n \u201cA big part of my practice is the demonstration that there are great things happening all over the city,\u201d Gates said. \u201cIt requires people who really love [and] have a pride of place. \u2026 There\u2019s a real correlation between my love of Black things and my love of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s event, planned months before any talks of the National Guard coming to Chicago had begun, was intended to be a discussion about elevating the city\u2019s narrative as a global hub for arts and culture.<\/p>\n But with hundreds of federal agents expected to carry out early-morning immigration raids,<\/u><\/a> the need to portray Chicago in a more positive light nationally feels more urgent, some said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur tourism numbers are looking good regardless of what\u2019s happening in the world,\u201d Lisa Nucci, Choose Chicago\u2019s chief marketing officer, told a reporter Thursday.<\/p>\n Approximately 41% of the visitors coming to the city cite the culture as the reason for their visit, according to survey data collected by the tourism group.<\/p>\n \u201cThis narrative about Chicago will continue, and the National Guard and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] coming in is just yet another example about how we need to be ready to go and to promote Chicago to combat that polarizing narrative,\u201d Nucci said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis narrative about Chicago will continue, and the National Guard and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] coming in is just yet another example about how we need to be ready to go and to promote Chicago to combat that polarizing narrative,\u201d Nucci said.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Pat Nabong\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Thursday\u2019s panel was hosted at the Driehaus Museum and moderated by Poetry Foundation President Michelle T. Boone. Each of the featured artists hails from Chicago.<\/p>\n For the Plain White T\u2019s frontman Higgenson, who was born in suburban Villa Park, playing in a basement band with his high school friends and attending shows every weekend at venues like Metro, Double Door and Fireside Bowl were important steps in his development as a musician. He said he didn\u2019t come from a well-off family. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a kid that loved music, there was always just so much to do,\u201d he said. \u201c[I\u2019ve] kind of been around the world at this point, but \u2026 there\u2019s not too many places like Chicago.\u201dWhile he never played in the school band, Higgenson says having music education as a part of his school\u2019s curriculum was key to making a career in music a real \u201cpossibility.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that I\u2019m always kind of p\u2014- off about or advocating [for] is music in schools,\u201d he said, especially as music programs across the country are getting slashed. \u201cMusic is, I feel, just as much of a core thing and has as much benefit to you as any subject.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis, who is a member of the Broadway cast<\/u><\/a> of the Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf play Purpose,<\/u><\/a> recalled a conversation from his childhood in which he told his grandfather he wanted to be an actor. At the time, his grandfather worked as director of real estate for Cook County.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about that world,\u201d Davis recalls his grandfather telling him, \u201cbut I do know the Steppenwolf.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after that conversation, he went to the Steppenwolf for an introduction to theater and saw his first show, \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018That\u2019s what I want to do,\u2019\u201d Davis told the audience. \u201cI want to take the art that we do here, I want to take it around the world, and I want people to know and think of Chicago as a center of culture.<\/p>\n Tom Higgenson of the Plain White T\u2019s and Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Glenn Davis during the Choose Chicago panel.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Pat Nabong\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201dThe arts, since the beginning of time, are a reflection of what goes on in society,\u201d Davis told a reporter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to respond with our art. We have to put on stage what we think is valuable and good,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also a reflection of our values, our morality, our ethics, our civic duty to say, \u2018Hey, this is how we feel about what\u2019s happening currently in in the world, in our city, in our country.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n Hours after the event, Choose Chicago launched \u201cAll for the Love of Chicago,\u201d<\/u><\/a> a social media campaign that aims to highlight unfiltered stories by everyday Chicagoans. The tourism group hopes residents will share on Instagram and Tik Tok.<\/p>\n \u201cThis gives an opportunity for us to tell the story that only we can,\u201d Nucci said. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s never been a better time than today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/4daa61f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5175x3450+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F18%2Fad%2F8695aec7414b9e3c6507ddc9c2f6%2Fcityrep-090525-11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/4634eb7\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4248x2832+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Ff9%2F75%2F816313e94a8dba2fe3c89c0f8b3f%2Fcityrep-090525-23.jpg\")
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