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Community Programs Accelerator selects new nonprofits and announces Microsoft Digital Alliance
Community Programs Overview
Four-minute video featuring Community Programs Accelerator organizations describing their experience.
Eta Creative Arts Foundation, a 45-year-old theater and performing arts training program for African American youth and adults, is one of four South Side nonprofits to join the Community Programs Accelerator in 2016. The organization will receive a full suite of incubation support, as part of the Accelerator's core program. Prosperity House, Blue Gargoyle, and Project SYNCERE were selected for the Accelerator's associate program, which provides project-specific assistance.

The new organizations were introduced on January 21, during the grand opening of the Accelerator space at 52nd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. At the same event, Microsoft announced its Digital Alliance with the Accelerator, the first alliance in 35 cities to be focused on community organizations.

Civic Leadership Academy selects 30 nonprofit and government fellows for 2016 class
On January 13, the Civic Leadership Academy welcomed the 30 nonprofit and government fellows who make up its 2016 class. The University launched the innovative program last year, to develop a pipeline of talented public sector leaders. Beginning January 14, the fellows began the rigorous six-month program that will provide them with essential skills, as well as the time and space to collaborate on capstone projects that address practical challenges in their organizations. In February, the fellows will travel to the University of Chicago Center in Delhi, India, for a weeklong global practicum.
University signs new Memorandum of Understanding with City of Chicago to increase opportunities

In December, the University of Chicago signed a new agreement with the City of Chicago that outlines ways UChicago will work with the city, local aldermen, and South Side communities to advance economic development and create jobs. The MOU builds on a similar 2011 agreement between UChicago and the city.


Event Spotlight:
Professional Disrupters: Changing the WORK of art - 
featuring Theo Edmonds, Co-Founder, IDEAS xLab

Wednesday, January 27, 2016
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Chicago Innovation Exchange
1452 E. 53rd St., 
2nd Floor 

What does it mean to be healthy in America? How do we think about it? Define it? Create it?  

With systemic racism in clinical drug trials, inequality in access to care, and discrepancies between how medical practitioners define health and different communities do, new approaches must come forth that empower both people and systems to fully realize a new culture of health.

This is where artists can become a catalyzing force for making new options visible for an industry in transition and for the communities it serves. 

But in order to do this, we must first examine the role of an artist in America. How we think about it? Define it? Create it?

IDEAS xLab has created a framework for artists to become a new kind of catalytic force in the American economy: outcomes-driven innovation consultants within corporations like Humana and GE, community nonprofits like YouthBuild, and even within government. Artists have an amazing ability to synthesize seemingly disparate resources, reframe challenges, and expand possibilities. IDEAS xLab's artist co-founder Theo Edmonds is seeking to tap into the talents of more than 2 million BFA/MFA degreed artists in the United States in order to change the WORK of art and, in the process, disrupt both the healthcare industry and higher education's approach to training the next generation of artists.

This talk kicks off the Arts & Innovation Series, quarterly lectures co-sponsored by the Chicago Innovation Exchange and Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. The series allows artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators to learn about the increasingly important intersection between the arts and business. It will explore new business models for the arts, how artists can reach broader and more diverse audiences, and what trends will drive the growth of the arts in the 21st century. Featured speakers include artist-innovators, entrepreneurs in the arts, and business experts passionate about the arts. The Arts & Innovation Series is generously supported through a gift by Evan Trent AB ’02, MBA ‘06.
Professional Disrupters: Changing the WORK of art is free and open to the public, but please RSVP to reserve a spot.
Upcoming events
After the Plan

Fifteen years after the Plan for Transformation, questions still remain about the relocation of resident families from demolished high-rises into four distinct housing situations. A panel of academics, a public housing resident representa-tive, and a housing non-profit will discuss the implementation of the Plan for Transformation and its ultimate effects on Chicago's public housing families. Co-sponsored by UChicago Urban Network and the National Public Housing Museum.

Fourth Presbyterian Church
126 E. Chestnut Street
Bumpus Activity Room

Wednesday, January 27
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Brinson: Ice Fishing

IceCube is a huge, strange telescope, located at the South Pole, which looks down rather then up. It recently discovered a flux of neutrinos reaching us from deep in the cosmos, with energies more than a million times greater than those humans can produce in accelerators. Explore the IceCube telescope, its recent scientific results, and working at the South Pole. Co-sponsored by UChicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

SAIC, MacLean Ballroom
112 South Michigan Ave.

Tuesday, February 9
6 p.m.
2016 Kent Lecture: A Conversation with Ryan Coogler

Coogler is director of the critcally acclaimed film "Fruitvale Station" and this year's "Creed," which continues the “Rocky” franchise. He was also recently selected to direct Marvel's “Black Panther.” At this event, he will discuss blackness in mixed forms of media, specifically film; the importance of representation; and why stories such as these are so important to tell. The Kent Lecture is sponsored by UChicago’s Organization of Black Students. 

Mandel Hall
1131 E. 57th St.

Tuesday, February 9
7-8 p.m.
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About us
The University of Chicago is shaped and inspired by the city of Chicago. Our growing partnership with our neighbors has the potential to enhance the quality of life and economic development of the South Side and the global reach of this vibrant city. UChicago has devoted the research and creative thinking of some of the nation’s top scholars, as well as millions of dollars in investment in recent years, to support local schools, jobs, health care, arts, housing, and public safety. Learn more about our civic engagement work at civicengagement.uchicago.edu.
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