M A K I N G H I S T O RY I
Cultural Production in Chicago: Making History Interviews with Barbara Gaines, Criss Henderson, and Carlos Tortolero T I M O T H Y J . G I L F OY L E
arbara Gaines, Criss Henderson, and Carlos Tortolero authored a cultural renaissance in turn-of-the-millennium Chicago. Gaines is the founder and current artistic director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she has directed nearly sixty productions, including more than thirty by William Shakespeare.1 Henderson, as executive director since 1990, transformed the Chicago Shakespeare Theater into one of the city’s major cultural attractions. Tortolero is the cofounder and president of the National Museum of Mexican Art, the largest Latinx cultural institution in the United States.2 The two institutions have attracted worldwide attention. Founded to display the beauty and depth of Mexican culture, to develop a Mexican art collection, and to cultivate Mexican artists, the National Museum of Mexican Art is home to one of the country’s largest Mexican art collections, including more than ten thousand seminal pieces from ancient Mexico to the present and was the first Latinx museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.3 Henderson and Gaines guided the development of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s $25 million purpose-built venue on Navy Pier, where
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48 | Chicago History | Spring 2020
From left: Barbara Gaines and Criss Henderson received the Theodore Thomas Making History Award for Distinction in the Performing Arts in 2019. Carlos Tortolero received the Harold Washington Making History Award for Distinction in Public Service in 2018.
