The Cultural Asset Mapping Project (C.A.M.P. for short) is an ongoing effort to map the artistic and creative landscape of Chicago through storytelling. It is part of a larger, ongoing initiative within Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and the League of Chicago Theatres that aims to build a deeper understanding and clearer visualization of the cultural assets on the South and West sides of Chicago. This community story-telling and data visualization project consists of two separate maps: the Chicago Creatives Network, or CCN, and the Cultural Asset Map itself.
The Chicago Creatives Network (CCN) is an online map where Chicago-based artists, organizers, organizations, and creatives can upload their personal information, such as location, practice or medium, and any current projects as well as future plans. The CCN functions as a repository for the Chicago arts landscape on a more personal/individual level. Most importantly, the CCN facilitates network building between arts workers and artists as a place where creatives can find like-minded collaborators by filtering for certain practices, mediums, skills, and/or locations. Participants put themselves on the map through this survey.
The Chicago Creatives Network (CCN) is an online map where Chicago-based artists, organizers, organizations, and creatives can upload their personal information, such as location, practice or medium, and any current projects as well as future plans. The CCN functions as a repository for the Chicago arts landscape on a more personal/individual level. Most importantly, the CCN facilitates network building between arts workers and artists as a place where creatives can find like-minded collaborators by filtering for certain practices, mediums, skills, and/or locations. Participants put themselves on the map through this survey.
The Cultural Asset Map is the second branch of this data visualization project. This map was the focus of most of our team’s efforts during the course of this project. The Cultural Asset Map involves uploading stories, as text, images, or video, about cultural experiences throughout Chicago. Similar to the CCN, participants fill out a survey form about their experience. The story-telling map locates all of the stories on a map of Chicago, and users can filter based on location, medium, organization, and art form (theater, dance, or painting, for example). The Cultural Asset Map provides a way to personalize the Chicago arts landscape and speaks to the power of art and arts organizations to impact communities as a whole and on an individual level.
While C.A.M.P. is nominally aimed towards gathering stories and highlighting the cultural vibrancy of Chicago’s south and west side neighborhoods, it is not exclusive to those areas. Our research focused heavily on these geographical areas, but the network of Chicago creatives and arts workers expands beyond them, as is visible on the map.
S.A.I.C. students worked with C.A.M.P on their Cultural Asset Map to develop a network of cultural producers with an online database. This online database includes stories from community members all over Chicago from specific community cultural hubs, hubs that artists of the community are helping to facilitate. The database also helps connect artists all over Chicago. The purpose of this project is to promote 15 performing art centers around Chicago, to promote different stories from different members of the community in Chicago showcasing the diversity of Chicago, and to help connect artists from different communities with one another.
While C.A.M.P. is nominally aimed towards gathering stories and highlighting the cultural vibrancy of Chicago’s south and west side neighborhoods, it is not exclusive to those areas. Our research focused heavily on these geographical areas, but the network of Chicago creatives and arts workers expands beyond them, as is visible on the map.
S.A.I.C. students worked with C.A.M.P on their Cultural Asset Map to develop a network of cultural producers with an online database. This online database includes stories from community members all over Chicago from specific community cultural hubs, hubs that artists of the community are helping to facilitate. The database also helps connect artists all over Chicago. The purpose of this project is to promote 15 performing art centers around Chicago, to promote different stories from different members of the community in Chicago showcasing the diversity of Chicago, and to help connect artists from different communities with one another.