A case for Chicago brought to you by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation A broad programatic overview of one of Chicago's premiere foundations.

Click to play video: Chicago as Context Requires a JavaScript enabled browser.

The John. D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is known to most by its public broadcasting and arts underwriting, but its activities span dozens of categories that include justice, health, community development, regional planning, and housing. This video functioned as a "qualitative" adjunct to the "quantitative" annual report that MacArthur program officers made to the foundation board in 2003. It also delivered another, more subtle, message to board members. It defended the choice of Chicago as the primary "urban laboratory" for MacArthur's programs, by showing how Chicago's 100-year history of social experimentation and deep ethnic and economic diversity provides opportunities not available in any other metropolitan center.

Our challenge was to deliver a coherant overview of MacArthur's Chicago program area in under 12 minutes. We needed to move quickly, but wanted to avoid cliches and plaitiudes that are common to many foundation videos that attempt to summarize wide-ranging work. By focusing the video nearly exclusively on the comments of program officers, urban studies experts, and agency operators, the video achieves inclusion of a broad range of voices, as well as varying points-of-view.

Angle Park was introduced to MacArthur by our client, LISC/Chicago, which works with community development corporations to build Chicago neighborhoods. Phil and Kelly produced the video, and Martin and Kelly edited.

This video concentrated on broad themes...



... but was rooted in specific facts, such as Chicago's diverse ethnic and religious makeup.



From the canyons of LaSalle Street...



...to the pho shops on Argyle, Angle Park showed the range of MacArthur's Chicago area programs.