City as Platform: How Culture Shapes Chicago’s Global Voice
Reflections from The Raygency on a cross-sector conversation during the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s opening weekend.
“Beauty for All” by R&R STUDIOS, a new installation at the Chicago Architecture Biennial at the Chicago Cultural Center. Photo: Leah Ray.
Chicago has always carried a dual reputation: celebrated as one of the world’s great cultural capitals, yet too often flattened by headlines that overlook its depth and vitality. So how do Chicagoans define Chicago?
Cultural leaders are deliberately using art, architecture, and civic life to tell a different story—one rooted in collaboration, access, and global exchange. In their hands, culture becomes both a mirror and a megaphone, much like Anish Kapoor’s “Cloudgate” (a.k.a. “The Bean”) in Millennium Park: reflecting the city’s communities back to themselves while projecting a confident, sophisticated image to the world.
Chicago’s global standing isn’t built by a single biennial, art fair, or weekend of exhibitions. It thrives at the intersections where architecture, art, and civic life intersect. That was the focus of “City as Platform: How CAB, CXW, and EXPO CHICAGO utilize Global Reach for Local Impact,” a breakfast conversation at the Chicago Athletic Association featuring Nora Daley (Co-Chair, Chicago Architecture Biennial), Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze), and Abby Pucker (Founder, Gertie; Producer, Chicago Exhibition Weekend), moderated by Kate Sierzputowski (Artistic Director, EXPO CHICAGO).
From The Raygency’s perspective—where we look at architecture as a practice that shapes culture—the conversation revealed how Chicago can translate architectural creation into civic strength and international recognition.
The Big Idea: Global Eyes, Local Stage
Each platform exercises its influence distinctly:
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) convenes international participants and deploys them across neighborhoods, utilizing the Cultural Center, Stony Island Arts Bank, the Graham Foundation, and other venues as an urban stage. “It’s really important for us to have these global conversations, but also be based in community,” said Nora Daley.
Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW) engineers critical mass: one weekend, many doors open. It’s designed to lower barriers (social, geographic, psychological) and reconnect corporate and civic leaders to the cultural fabric. As Abby Pucker explained: “People want to be together in spaces that make them feel excited, where they can meet new people, and they’re curious to learn about what’s happening—not just in their city, but in other cities too.
EXPO CHICAGO (under Frieze’s leadership) extends Chicago’s voice through curatorial networks and year-round partnerships, from public commissions to student access. “Our success is based on so many other factors—the community that shows up for us, the nonprofits we support, and the artists we commission,” noted Christine Messineo.
Together, these initiatives form an ecosystem where civic visibility expands: curators meet artists, sponsors meet fresh ideas, visitors see neighborhoods beyond the Loop—and Chicago meets the world.
Panelists, left to right: Kate Sierzputowski (Artistic Director, EXPO CHICAGO), Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze), Nora Daley (Co-Chair, Chicago Architecture Biennial), and Abby Pucker (Founder, Gertie & Producer, CXW). Photo by Leah Ray.
Why It Matters for Chicago’s Reputation
Three themes emerged:
Access is strategy. Free entry points (CAB), guided routes and wayfinding (CXW), and student tickets and civic programming (EXPO/Frieze) aren’t just inclusion tactics—they expand the circle of people who can participate and retell Chicago’s cultural story.
Partnerships create durability. Long-term collaborations—from Illinois Arts Council support to Bloomberg Connects—turn one-off events into sustained impact that extends beyond opening weekends.
International exposure amplifies our voices. Press trips, sister-city ties, Seoul–Chicago exchanges, and Viennese dialogues don’t just broadcast Chicago—they carry its energy back to global networks of artists, curators, and collectors.
Images of SHIFT, Architecture in Times of Radical Change. Exhibition on the fourth floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, with work by LA DALLMAN featured. Photos by Leah Ray.
As moderator Kate Sierzputowski reminded the audience: “Today’s panel is about more than any single organization or event. It’s about how we collectively shape the identity and visibility of the city through cultural initiatives that are rooted locally and resonate internationally.”
The panel made clear that culture’s role in Chicago is inseparable from civic life. Whether it was voter registration initiatives at fairs, new models for cultural funding, or exhibitions addressing housing and community development, the conversation underscored a shared belief: Chicago’s cultural platforms are most effective when they help solve civic challenges and broaden the circle of participation.
Chicago’s cultural identity is shaped not by isolated events but by their intersections. CAB generates global ideas anchored in neighborhoods. CXW creates momentum by connecting communities and widening participation. EXPO CHICAGO extends those relationships outward, ensuring Chicago’s artists and institutions are part of global conversations.
The opportunity now is to recognize and nurture the city’s cultural ecosystem itself—as a civic asset, a source of community pride, and a voice that carries internationally. Chicago doesn’t need to copy other cities. It can lead by scaling what it already does best: turning access into belonging, neighborhoods into narratives, and cultural weekends into lasting civic energy.