Thursday, October 22, 2009

Long Time Arts Activist Runs For Cook COunty Board President

Long time cultural activist, organizer and educator Tom Tresser is running for the office of President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners (to replace Todd Stroger). He needs help to get on the ballot. He is running as a Green Party candidate. If you would like to circulate petitions for Tom, please call 312-276-5432, email tom@tom2010.us. The deadline for turning petitions in is November 3. You can download a petition from his web site.

Tom Tresser was the managing director at Pegasus Players from 1985 to 1990 and created the Chicago Young Playwrights Festival there (now in its 23rd season!). He organized an innovative community arts program at Peoples Housing in the mid-1990s that combined culture, training and micro-enterprise. He did cultural programming for the Chicago Park District in the late-1990s and led the effort that established community arts programming at Douglas Park.
He established Greater Chicago Citizens for the Arts in 1990 to elect candidates who supported the arts and freedome of expression. In 2004 he developed the Creative America Project to inspire and prepare creative workers to run for local office. He wrote a book based on his work, "America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion" [download text for free].