- Lois Weisberg
Lois Weisberg (born 1925) is the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs in
Chicago, Illinois . She founded theChicago Cultural Center and was responsible for the establishment of the renownedGallery 37 program, which gathered Chicago youths to a vacant block in downtown Chicago to make art; she also created theTaste of Chicago festival, theChicago Blues Festival , theChicago Gospel Festival , citywide neighborhood festivals, and theChicago Holiday Sharing It Program . She launched Chicago'sCows on Parade exhibit, the first in the US.Renowned for the breadth of her acquaintanceship as well as for an ability to make keen and canny introductions, Weisberg was declared a connector by journalist
Malcolm Gladwell in aJanuary 11 1999 "New Yorker" article titled "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg." The article is included inIra Glass ' compilationThe New Kings of Nonfiction . Portions of the article were republished in Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" (2000).She has won many civic and arts awards, including the
League of Women Voters Civic Contribution Award,Governing Magazine ’s Public Official of the Year Award, the Harold Washington History Maker Award, and theChicago Tribune “Chicagoan of the Year” award.Lois Weisberg is the mother of "Slate" magazine's
Jacob Weisberg .External links
* Malcolm Gladwell, [http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg]
* [http://www.brunerloeb.org/pages/weisberg.htm A Curriculum Vitae]
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