You can see evidence of Cortney Lederer’s work all over Chicago, from the Magnificent Mile to skyscraper lobbies to park districts around the city. Lederer, the owner of arts consultancy CNL Projects, has made it her mission to give artists and organizations the platform to produce impactful art experiences—many of them in the public art sphere.
Here, she shares some of her favorites with us, including some of her favorite public art projects and her favorite things about the Chicago art scene.
How did you start working in art curation and the art space?
My grandfather was an artist, and my dad took inspiration from him to experiment with a variety of art forms, surrounding me in a creative environment throughout my life. As a young person, I mostly took to the stage to explore acting, music and dance as my primary expression, but decided to leave it behind in college by focusing on other disciplines.
I always wanted to work with people and community around social justice—that was the direction I thought I was headed.
My studies were in sociology and photography, but I found myself spending most of my time in the darkroom. That is where I found myself most inspired and intrigued by the process and sense of discovery that happened from making art.
After graduating, I returned to Chicago where I designed and taught cultural programming for after school for youth who lived in disinvested neighborhoods. It was then I realized I needed more experience and left to pursue a BFA in British Columbia. There, I began exploring politics through sculpture and installation. While I loved the process of making art, I also felt challenged by the loneliness of working in a studio. I took a curatorial practice course, and it shifted my thinking entirely. I realized that there are so many other creative professions out there. That while curatorial work is not the act of making art, it is the act of making that creates the environment where artists can be supported and inspired to create.
After grad school, I came home and worked for a film production company while serving tables. I applied and was accepted to the dual masters program in Arts Administration and Policy and Contemporary Art History. I worked with several different organizations throughout my academic career to try and figure out where I felt a sense of belonging. When I graduated, I found myself at an organization called the Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC) where I was given the freedom to experiment and pave a path for artist residency programs, artist professional development and art advising.
My work at the CAC introduced me to Chicago’s creative community and set the stage for my future. So I didn’t always know, but I think deep down I knew that I needed to come back to the arts.
How did you come to own your own firm?
I was at CAC for about three-and-a-half years and became pregnant with my first child. It had come to a place where the programs that we created were sustaining themselves and were responsive to what artists needed. I also designed a very rigorous schedule to sustain the programs, and that was challenging to maintain with a baby at home.
Knowing that they were in a really good place, I realized, “I’ve done what I can here.” I built a beautiful, creative community at CAC, but had to figure out how to balance being a mother with the work I wanted to do moving forward.
I decided to leave CAC and while not sure what my future held professionally, I slapped a company name on my resume and started to let folks know that I was ready for a new challenge. I had imagined I would take time away from work entirely, but I was fortunate that the network I built brought me new opportunities.
I started CNL Projects and received my first call from Hyatt Hotels Corporate Headquarters in Chicago to develop their art program. At the same time, I received calls from LinkedIn and Wilson Sporting Goods to develop installations and murals for their office spaces. Since then, more work followed but has shifted more into the public art realm.
How did the shift happen from the corporate realm to public art? And do you have a favorite public art project you’ve worked on?
I would say to anyone in the field—you need one experiment of something new to start to play, learn and grow. If you do most of it successfully, are invested, and are vulnerable when you fail, opportunities will continue to come to you.
The architecture firm Gensler—a relationship that came from my CAC days—has provided me so many of my opportunities. They were doing all the interior work for the Willis Tower, and when it came to art, they reached out on some of the interior design, and I was able to bring in two major artists. One was really rewarding because it was Olafur Eliasson, who is one of the most renowned international artists living today, and he had no work here in Chicago. So now we have this outstanding gift to the city that is accessible at any time of the day outside of the building on Jackson Boulevard.
In Willis Tower’s Wacker Lobby, accessible to all during opening hours, is a work by Jacob Hashimoto that’s a gorgeous 7,000 resin kites that hang in this cloudlike formation from the ceiling. It’s just an outstanding, beautiful piece. Willis Tower was my first major entry point to designing public art programs.
Recently, I was brought on by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to serve as their public art consultant for a new public art initiative, “Flight of Butterflies.” Thirty artists and arts organizations from across Chicago participated and adorned fabricated metal butterfly sculptures with various materials expressing their unique and personal connection to nature, in alignment with the mission of the museum. It was very different and very unique for each artist that participated.
We curated “Flight of Butterflies” with the intention to reflect the city of Chicago, while investing in culture. Most of the butterflies were installed at the museum for a time and then they all “took flight”—some went to the Magnificent Mile, and the remaining sculptures are dispersed throughout Chicago. Fifteen are in park district locations in natural areas on the south and west sides, really encouraging folks to come out to their local parks and visit our natural areas.
I am also working on a public art project with the Chicago Park District to invite artists to respond to contested monuments situated on park land. Our city, along with key stakeholders, created The Chicago Monuments Project and made recommendations for several of our monuments to host artist installations, new commissions and activations that protest the racist imagery and ideology and narratives of white supremacy that the current monuments depict and instead represent a new vision and truth for memorializing Chicago history.
I’m working with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Department of Planning and Development on developing a new framework for historic markers in the City of Chicago. We’re trying to develop a new framework or toolbox for our city to think about the untold and unheard stories that need recognition, along with intangible heritage and history—cultural events, traditions, dances, music, recipes, things of that nature—and how do we mark those.
Once you were introduced to the public art projects, what made you think “Oh yes, this is what is resonating with me and what I want to explore more?”
Public art provides artists with opportunities to grow. experiment and develop new audiences. The “art world” often only engages in conversations with itself and can be insular, elitist and exclusive (I’m putting “art world” in quotes because the notion is somewhat fictitious). Public art has the potential to disrupt these qualities by providing moments of contemplation and connectivity outside of museums, academia and gallery walls and for a more general public.
I’m inspired by public art because of its far-reaching potential to intersect with a diverse audience. The mission of my work is not only centered on supporting clients and artists, but finding pathways for people to connect with a work of art and help them to recognize that they are integral to the process, have the knowledge and experience to respond and that their opinions and experiences are valuable.
What is your favorite thing about the Chicago arts scene?
Chicago is such a welcoming city. The general ethos of the creative community here is one where folks show up and care for one another. Chicago is also, comparatively, a more affordable city than LA or NYC, so artists can take risks they may not be able to do in other cities around the country. We are known for our artist-run spaces and collectives whose foundation is built on experimentation and risk taking and that makes us really unique, culturally.
Many of the artists in Chicago create work focused on racial, social, economic and environmental justice. While it is a very segregated city, people are always traveling from the north to the south to the east and west sides to show up for each other, because people are dedicated to creating spaces for communities to thrive here. Our exhibition, performance and alternative spaces are also places of care and community and so people feel comfortable enough to feel invited. We really are the epicenter of the art world—we are in the middle for a reason.
The post Playing Favorites: Cortney Lederer of CNL Projects first appeared on Jayaram Law.