Today we’d like to introduce you to Debra Kerr.
Debra, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Working at Intuit is a perfect fit with my personal passions—art and social justice. Museums have long been criticized for elitism, while their outreach into schools and communities is poorly recognized. Museums have an incredible opportunity today, in 2018, to play a role in advancing social good and bringing together disparate voices to discuss community interests and concerns—and providing transformational experiences. That opportunity is what made me fall in love with Intuit.
Prior to Intuit, I spent 17 wonderful years at Shedd Aquarium, 11 as executive vice president. In 2010, I left and started YouthMuse, a project focused on helping museums better showcase their mission and community role—by helping teens in museum youth programs to start online social action campaigns that tied into their host museum’s mission. Teens are amazing people, but they flourish in their leadership and advocacy with a little guidance, encouragement and snacks!
Intuit connected with my work in 2013 to help start its teen program, branded by the young people as the IntuiTeens. And I fell in love with Intuit, the art and its amazing programs working with teachers, students and community members. I hadn’t planned to be the director of a small museum at that juncture, but the opportunity to help steward this great small organization to the next level was irresistible! I’m having the time of my life.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Running a small nonprofit, with its inherent small resources, is the most challenging job I’ve ever had. It’s also the most rewarding because every small success makes a difference. Working for myself for a few years set me up to understand how to creatively get results without a lot of money and staff power.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Intuit is one of only a handful of museums of outsider art in the world. This unusual genre is created by artists who are self-taught, compelled to fulfill their inner vision, and, often, though not always, have had some barrier in their lives, such as mental or other illness, violence, poverty—or they’ve followed an inner voice or spiritual guidance to create art.
The art itself is beautiful and, sometimes, disturbing, like art in any other genre, and the stories of the artists are inspiring and fascinating. Despite its small size, Intuit is able to put on world-class exhibitions of this incredible art, invite audiences to tap into their creativity, host conversations about societal issues, and reach out to our community in meaningful ways. Intuit’s ethos is that everyone has creative potential.
Each year for more than 20 years, Intuit selects two teachers from 10-12 Chicago Public Schools, introducing them to outsider art and artists, helping them implement a cross-disciplinary curriculum (art and another subject, like drama, language, science) into their classrooms, all of which culminates in a curated show of student work at Intuit during June.
Imagine: Over the life of this program, 20,000 students have been encouraged to tap into their creativity in a non-judgmental environment! And the IntuiTeens summer internship program develops young leaders and advocates, who develop their own artmaking workshop, then go out into teen-facing spaces, like in the Chicago Public Libraries, to encourage and facilitate other youth to make art using nontraditional methods and materials!
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to? Any big changes?
This is a very exciting time. Our board and staff team are in the process of transforming museum. The first, most obvious change is the recent purchase of the second floor of our building, which doubles our exhibition and learning space!
The museum is in the rapidly-changing West Town neighborhood of Chicago, right on Milwaukee Avenue and adjacent to the Chicago Avenue blue line CTA stop. Lots of new people and businesses are moving into the neighborhood, and Intuit is here as the cultural anchor and cool gathering space.
Pricing:
- $5 voluntary admission ticket at the door
- $25 Student Membership
- $40 Individual Membership
- $60 Family/Partner Membership
Contact Info:
- Address: 756 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
- Website: www.art.org
- Phone: 312.243.9088
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intuitartcenter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intuitartcenter/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/IntuitArtCenter
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/intuit-the-center-for-intuitive-and-outsider-art-chicago
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