Keith Parham
Lessons in Lighting Design
Keith Parham's career has all the hallmarks of the classic Chicago theatre success story: an East Lansing, Michigan, native, he moved to Chicago to attend DePaul's Theatre School, cut his teeth in the city's storefront and regional theatres, rode the wave of a prominent hit (Next Theatre's 2007 musical adaptation of The Adding Machine) to a run in New York and a raft of awards, and is now enjoying the sometimes frenetic life of artist-in-demand. What makes Keith's story unusual is his role: lighting designer. more...
A Guide to Affordable Health Care in Chicago
For artists in all disciplines and their families!
Health care is critical for artists and their families.
Learn how to get affordable health care in Chicago from this 2010 publication by the Actors Fund and AHIRC: The Artists Health Insurance Resource Center.
How can you get health insurance in Illinois and what are employment-related options? What can you do if you have a pre-existing condition? What about freelancers? Why do you need health insurance? more...
Lucia Mauro, Arts Writer and Critic
How did you develop your niche as an Arts Writer and Dance Critic?
Like many aspiring dancers, one of my earliest inspirations came in the form of the unapologetically melodramatic 1948 film, The Red Shoes, featuring Moira Shearer as art- and love-torn ballerina, Victoria Page. When asked why she dances, Shearer’s character famously responds, “Why do you want to live?” I became captivated by the movie’s strange and glamorous universe, more...
Paul Botts
TEN COMMON MISTAKES ARTS GROUPS MAKE WHEN SEEKING GRANTS (from somebody who spent years seeking grants before joining a foundation and gradually learning how much he’d been doing wrong)
1) Basing your specific pitch to a foundation or corporate funder on anything other than what that funder says they want to fund. more...