2021 HEALING IL PROJECT

January 2021, The Friends of the Coronado Foundation received a  HEALING Illinois Grant  through the  Illinois Dept. of Human Services  and the  Chicago Community Trust  to promote racial healing. The project produced a stage performance of music, dance, and personal stories to foster conversations and understanding, and to facilitate learning. 

Friends of the Coronado Healing IL Project - Mission Statement

(Developed by the FOC Healing IL Project Committee and Participants) 

The Coronado, what it is and what it symbolizes, exemplifies the highest standards—equity, inclusion, and diversity are no exceptions.  We believe our HEALING IL project will inspire understanding and expectations that ensure day-to-day operations, audiences and programming at the Coronado Performing Arts Center are inclusive and equitable.  

Our Healing project performance and video is a visual statement of our commitment to support racial equity at the Coronado Performing Arts Center.

About our Healing IL project 

Our HEALING IL project brought people together as community members to produce and film individuals of color as performance artists and narrators on the Coronado Theatre stage; to promote conversations, understanding, and facilitate racial healing.

We engaged our Black and Latino community members in community collaborations. The project committee developed a performance to tell a progressive story using artistic expressions of systemic racism and of healing. 

Hosting this at the Coronado Theatre forever embed in Coronado history our Healing project: our purposeful action step for racial belonging at the Coronado Theatre. 

In the grandest testimony, the project speaks to the extraordinary value our community places on the process of racial healing.

Project Objectives (Per Healing IL Grant Award) 

1. Create a performance video is a visual statement of our commitment to support racial equity at the Coronado Performing Arts Center 
2. Promote dialogue with the project development committee, theatre staff and inclusion training activities.  
3. Encourage collaboration through artistic activities and organizational partnerships required for performance production and public viewing engagement.  
4. Facilitate learning using the grandness and beauty of world-class architecture and the connection qualities of artistic expression for community healing.   
5. Create an environment for the participants and viewers to promote racial equity, understanding and healing.  
6. Inspire actions to ensure that day-to-day operations at the Coronado Performing Arts Center are inclusive.  
7. Provide a platform for ongoing public viewing and engagement on the Friend’s website 

Our Healing IL Grant Funding Included: 

1. DEIB Training - Project includes Racial EDI Training – FOC board members, committee and volunteers, Coronado staff, RAVE board members 
2. Venue and film production costs 
3. Performance and artist stipends 
4. Editing Expenses