D
anielle Chapman shares my frustration that there is no central hub for the publishing industry here in Chicago, and she’s working to change that. She works as the Director of Publishing Industry Programs at the Department of Cultural Affairs for the Chicago Office of Tourism, and she’s currently involved with some interesting projects at the Chicago Publisher’s Gallery. I was lucky enough to get to ask her about what she does to promote the publishing industry, why she loves literature, and what Publishing Industry Programs will be working on next.
Julie: How long have you been Director of Publishing Industry Programs at the Department of Cultural Affairs for the Chicago Office of Tourism, and what does your job entail?
Danielle: I’ve been at the Dept. of Cultural Affairs since December of last year. My job is to create–and carry out–programs that support and promote publishing in Chicago.
Julie: Does the Department of Cultural Affairs do anything specific, like holding conferences, promotion, or advertising, to promote the publishing industry in the city of Chicago to the rest of the world?
Danielle: Yes! The biggest project that we’ve done so far is create the Chicago Publishers Gallery, which is at the back of the Randolph Cafe on the first floor of the Cultural Center. The gallery contains books from about 70 Chicago-area book publishers and 75 periodical publishers, as well as many books by Chicago authors. By devoting an actual physical space to Chicago’s publishing industry, we hope to give visitors who come through the Cultural Center (in 2008 we had about 250,000 visitors, from all over the world) a sense of just how active Chicago’s publishing and literary community is. The gallery has been designed to be comfortable so that visitors can sit down and read for awhile. Though books can’t be taken out of the area, we have a website, www.chicagopublishersgallery.com, where people can learn more about the city’s publishers and link to their websites in order to purchase books.
The Gallery has been a big hit and, because we’ve gotten such a positive response, we’ll be expanding into the Randolph Cafe this spring. There will be several more reading nooks, and the entire space will have a new look that celebrates books and publishing culture.
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