Art & Business Council of Chicago

We "do" - to empower cultural workers and enterprises to fulfill their mission and sustain their visions.

We accomplish this by:

1. MODELLING ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY - to inspire accountability, persistence, integrity, and respect among our colleagues in the creative economy

2. EMPOWERING CREATIVES - through programming that helps grow capacity to fulfill their visions

The Arts & Business Council of Chicago (A&BC) began operations in Chicago in 1985 under the auspices of Business Volunteers for the Arts® which remains the core of its capacity building programming. A&BC’s programs focus on enhancing business acumen and developing leadership.

A&BC serves Chicagoans interested in giving back to their communities by providing voluntary consulting to small to mid-sized arts and culture not for profits and creative business of all disciplines, their staff and boards, prioritizing those that have been historically excluded from capacity building programs.

We accomplish this priority by committing to increasing our programs to serve creatives in all 77 of Chicago’s named communities, prioritizing historically excluded communities and organizations in the arts & culture landscape.

By focusing on small to mid-sized creative businesses A&BC acknowledges that limited human resources and specific business acumen hinders a business from becoming sustainable and thriving.

Our strategies to build the capacity include:
• Business Volunteers for the Arts® (BVA), a voluntary consulting program connecting skilled Chicagoans with arts, cultural, and creative communities in need of operational and management assistance
• Learning Labs, professional development & skill-build workshops to enhance management and leadership core competencies
• On BOARD®, unique nonprofit board leadership training program
• smARTscope®, a proprietary diagnostic tool that assesses the management core competencies of creative businesses
• Annexes, community-centered and co-created with creative entrepreneurs from populations that
have been historically marginalized, in partnership with the Chicago Park District’s Arts & Culture Unit

A&BC is Chicago's only organization with a mission to connect the culture and corporate communities, linking money and business expertise to community-level creative endeavors.

A&BC is structurally designed to act as a connector and encourage private sector investment within community.
A&BC’s position at this unique intersection creates the opportunity to develop prosperous communities, focusing on Main Street, with the support and collaboration of LaSalle Street.

A&BC harnesses the capacity of the private sector to build the capacity of the arts & culture sector through our corps of 130+ Business Volunteers for the Arts.

In 2022, A&BC served 300+ individuals and 50+ organizations, including 16 Arts Partner organizations’
capacity building through Business Volunteers for the Arts® (BVA). 50% of the projects supported
organizations that are led by or served by people of color or underrepresented people.

The value to an organization that completed a BVA project is approximately $35,000; Volunteer hours are
valued at $150/ hr. In 2022, 59 (of 130+) volunteers contributed 2,294 hours of pro bono consulting on the
following campaigns: 5 Marketing / Communications Plan, 2 Strategic Plans, 1 Concept Development
(mission, vision, values) Plans, 2 Board Development Plans, 1 Financial Plan, and 1 Succession Plan.
Additionally, 100+ people engaged with one of our Learning Labs or On BOARD® workshops. A total of
31 people engaged in a 2022 Annex activity in Englewood, North Lawndale/Little Village, or Austin. 11
participants in an Annex Listening Sessions receive a stipend ($50-100) as do Arts Partners who provide
testimonials at A&BC’s volunteer orientations and board meetings.

In 2022, A&BC concluded its three-year capacity-building engagement with the Chicago Community
Trust’s SMART Growth cohort, a capacity-building program founded upon the smARTscope® philosophy
developed by A&BC. Since the program was launched in 2006, CCT and A&BC supported four separate
cohorts totaling 127 organizations, of which 116 (91%) are still in business today, enduring the economic
downturns of 2001, 2008-2009, and 2020-2022.

From our unique point of service to the entire arts & culture sector, A&BC has filled the gap for hundreds
of understaffed and under-resourced organizations, leveraging 38 years of case studies that are data-driven
and human-centered across various artistic disciplines and drawn upon cross-sector collaboration. All this to
say, we know a thing or two about building long-term sustainable capacity of the creative community.