Chicago Case Studies Overview
Garfield Park Conservatory
By the mid 1990s, one of Chicago's most prized cultural assets, the Garfield Park Conservatory, had fallen into a state of disrepair. The conservatory turned the corner in late 2001 when it presented its first major exhibition, "Chihuly in the Park: A Garden of Glass," sponsored by Boeing. That exhibition drew people from the Chicago area as well as points beyond. More than 600,000 visitors saw the exhibition during its run, eclipsing the 300,000 that the conservatory drew in the previous year by 100 percent.
The exhibition is widely credited with catalyzing the renewal of the neighborhood and the conservatory by changing the way people think about the area. The project won an award from the National Conference of Mayors for its innovative approach to neighborhood revitalization.
Boeing has been an active partner in the conservatory since the earliest days of the Chihuly exhibit, sponsoring that first major exhibition and contributing funds towards the purchase of the permanent acquisition of the Chihuly piece, Persian Pool. Additionally, Boeing co-sponsored "Giants: African Dinosaurs" in 2003, as well as "Niki in the Garden" in 2007. To assist the organization with capacity building, Boeing also underwrote the redesign of the Conservatory's gift shop to become a stable source of earned income.
Field Museum -- New Allies for Nature and Culture
The Field Museum's remarkable new exhibit called Ancient Americas illustrates the ways our many predecessors, for better or worse, have interacted with nature. The Field Museum is using the Ancient Americas permanent exhibit to spark conversation in Chicago and its surrounding communities, with the goal of creating projects that will improve the quality of life for everyone. With financial assistance and encouragement from Boeing, when Ancient Americas was unveiled in 2007 The Field Museum simultaneously launched an ambitious project called "New Allies for Nature and Culture."
The concept is to bring Chicago-area environmental and cultural organizations together and engage them in solutions around the environment and sustainability. The first organizational phase of New Allies is completed--identifying and reaching out to the environmental and community groups in the greater Chicago area that have a mutual interest in environment-culture connections. The next step is to bring these groups together around common concerns and projects. The New Allies partners ultimately will create a unified voice that will contribute to policy decisions at the local, state and federal levels on issues such as transportation, infrastructure, open space preservation, wilderness protection, the creation of more sustainable livelihoods for economically diverse residents and sustaining cultural diversity.