Create our Future

COVID-19 has created unprecedented turmoil for the arts and culture sector, but together we will overcome and build a stronger, more just Illinois.

Join us for our 40th Anniversary Celebration

Come celebrate four decades of collective accomplishments and toast 40 years of honorees!

June 1 | Harris Theater Rooftop Terrace

Tickets and Sponsorships

Arts Alliance Illinois fights for arts resources and policies that benefit our members and all Illinois residents.

With 25,000 active subscribers and hundreds of members, we connect the people and ideas that are shaping the future of the creative sector.

Apply to Join Our Team

We are looking for an experienced, energetic, and collaborative Director of Communications to join the Arts Alliance team. This is a full-time, exempt position.

#AskJonathan Office Hours - every Friday!

Have a policy question? Want to get some advocacy advice?

Connect with Jonathan VanderBrug, Deputy Director of Civic Engagement and resident Arts Alliance policy wonk.

$50M won for the Creative Sector!

It’s official! Governor Pritzker signed the Fiscal Year 2023 budget package, which includes $50 million for the creative sector. This funding is unprecedented in its scale and focus on our sector.

Read our full budget analysis here, including additional news for creatives and creative businesses.

Recent Research

COVID-19 Impact on the Creative Economy in Illinois

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Join us to celebrate 40 years!

Come celebrate four decades of collective accomplishments, toast 40 years of honorees, enjoy performances from local artists, and envision what we will accomplish together in the future.

Programs

Through our programming, Arts Alliance Illinois connects the people and ideas that
shape the future of the arts, culture, and creativity.

Membership

Members are the backbone of Arts Alliance Illinois: the largest connected state-level arts advocacy network fighting for arts resources and policies that benefit its members and all Illinois residents.

Due to the COVID crisis, and to center our commitment to equity and access, Arts Alliance Illinois is offering pay-what-you-can membership for ALL Illinois creative individuals and organizations for the next year.

Active Supporters

Advocacy Actions taken since 2020

Members of the Alliance

Stand with us to support the arts and support Illinois

Become a Member

From Our Community

Artists give so much to the world. Most people have been able to cope with this tragedy by watching television or rewatching plays or live streams of readings and work. This is what we have been called to do. […] All we are asking is that we have what we need to be able to continue to be “essential soul workers” ... “essential comfort workers” ... essential joy givers ... laughter inciters ... release ... escape.

We pour out so much daily and are often overlooked. Underpaid. Underappreciated. I ask that we all use this time of stillness to remember the value of art in our community and society.

Sydney Charles, Actress

We have had to make emotionally significant changes to personnel to ensure the future of the theater, which has resulted in 74 part-time positions eliminated, 14% of full-time staff laid off and 50% of staff furloughed for varying lengths of time. Like our peer organizations we are heartbroken to have to make these difficult decisions, but with the uncertainty of when we can safely return to live performance, the core of who we are is threatened.

The void we collectively feel in not being able to come together to share stories is vast—and has reinforced how essential the live arts are to our shared humanity.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

What is a state? What is a city? What is a neighborhood without arts vitality? That’s my message: don’t take it for granted, because it might not be here tomorrow.

Create our Future