LOGAN SQUARE — A search to “change the dynamic” of one of Logan Square’s most prominent community arts organizations has resulted in the appointment of two new board members.
I AM Logan Square’s board is now complete at eight members with the addition of Sam Lewis and Lindsey Meyers, according to Geary Yonker, president of the board. The new additions brings I AM Logan Square’s board to a total of eight with the recent addition of The Whistler co-owner Billy Helmkamp.
Sam Lewis and Lindsey Meyers are I AM Logan Square's newest board members.
The changes come after I AM Logan Square, hosts of the annual Logan Square Arts Festival (formerly the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival), got into trouble last summer after former board member Mark Fishman had the work of Logan Square artist Amie Sell removed from the 2014 festival.
Community protest of the "censorship" quickly followed, and Fishman stepped down from the I AM Logan Square board of directors three months later, in October 2014. That resignation sent I AM Logan Square on a search for three new board members.
Lewis, a founding member of the Logan Square Arts Festival and A Day in Avondale, is also a founding member and director of the Logan Square/Avondale-based Elastic Arts Foundation, a music, art and performance nonprofit. His work has included theater productions, Elastic Arts program curation, a teaching residency with Redmoon Theater and a stint as a Logan Square Chamber of Arts board member.
Meyers is a mixed-media artist who has lived in Logan Square for over 10 years and is a member of Chicago Ideas Week CIW Co-Op. She opened Beauty & Brawn gallery in 2012 and recently participated in, sponsored and helped organize a 200-foot mural by and with artist Rachel Slotnik at the Logan Square Blue Line stop — a mural that was defaced in September 2014 and later restored.
“The addition of Lindsey and Sam, along with the addition of Billy Helmkamp earlier this year, expands the IALS Board to eight members and represents a diverse group of individuals from across the creative and small business communities of Logan Square,” according to Yonker.
“Our new board member’s unique insights and energy will help guide the organization as it moves forward in it’s mission to represent the creative community of Logan Square,” he added.
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