There are many things that distinguish the great city of Chicago from other metropolises across the United States. Though many that visit the our shores immediately gravitate towards our most commercially driven symbols like Wrigley Field, our signature deep dish pizza and the startling view into the great beyond from the top of the iconic Sears/Willis tower. The events that punctuate the seasons, like the Taste of Chicago, the Blues Festival and the Monday night Downtown Sound free concert series are truly the events that have made a deeper impact on those that walk our streets each day. Sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are to have such rich and diverse cultural events here, and over the past twenty years our lives are much richer by the one-woman machine that both founded and headed the Department of Cultural Affairs: Lois Weisberg. more ›

Tribune arts critic Howard Reich offers a near point-by-point rebuttal of last week's story from WBEZ's Jim DeRogatis regarding the exodus at the Department of Cultural Affairs. DeRo posited the story as a power struggle between the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mayor's Office of Special Events when, in fact, many of the jobs at the department, including that of respected programmer Mike Orlove, are being transferred to the non-profit Chicago Tourism Fund. more ›

WBEZ's Jim DeRogatis has been keeping tabs on the recent layoffs at the Department of Cultural Affairs as it prepares to consolidate with the Mayor's Office of Special Events and declares that Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg has been left with "a shell of a department, and raise questions about whether the city will able to present much-lauded events such as the World Music Festival, SummerDance, and Downtown Sound/New Music Mondays at the level they’ve been offered, if at all, in 2011 and beyond." more ›

Although many are happy about Mayor Daley's imminent departure from office, it's still hard to ignore his role in Chicago's physical landscape with multimillion-dollar art and sculpture contributions. From Millennium Park and "The Bean" to the Paris-style Metra entrance on Michigan Avenue and the Crown Fountain, Chicago would be exponentially different without Daley's commitment to the arts. "What is unusual is to have public art that creates the degree of public enthusiasm and interaction that Millennium Park creates," Tim Samuelson, a cultural historian for the Department of Cultural Affairs, said to the Chicago Tribune about the quality of art that Daley brought to Chicago. more ›

CityArts is the largest of four arts grant programs administered by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Other city-funded grant programs include the Neighborhood Arts Program and the Cultural Outreach Program, both of which provide assistance to educational arts programs directed towards the city's underserved communities. The two year NAP grants are given to individual teaching artists, while COP grants are awarded annually to organizations. Through NAP, the DCA is dispersing $64,177 to twenty-one people this year, and COP will provide twenty-seven groups a combined total of $593,333. more ›

Tonight at the much anticipated and already ill-fated Morse Theatre, the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International will headline the First Annual Global Warming Party, curated by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. more ›