Helping you with the business of the arts

The Arts Management Project strengthens the nonprofit cultural community by assisting new and emerging cultural groups with the business of the arts.  We offer technical support designed to help arts groups of all disciplines become viable and sustainable businesses and important contributors to the arts community of Chicago.  Art Works, AMP’s membership program, provides Chicago-area arts groups with valuable advice, training and information about planning, fundraising, marketing, board/staff development, and financial management from art management consultants, business professionals, funders and nonprofit arts and cultural administrators.

About Melissa Vickery-Bareford, Program Director

From 1996 to 2005 Ms. Bareford was Managing Director for Chicago's Lifeline Theatre having previously served as Theatre Manager for The Center for Arts and Technology at Governor's State University in southwest Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre History and Criticism and have taught at the University of Missouri and the University of North Texas.   She previously held a writing fellowship with Oxford University Press contributing to the American National Biography collection published in 1998. She have presented papers at the America Theatre Conference, the American Society for Theatre Research Conference, and the Regional Central Renaissance Conference, and has served as an editorial intern for Theatre Topics magazine. In Chicago she has served as secretary for The Producers Association of ChicagoArea Theatres and as a Board Member and Treasurer for the League of Chicago Theatres. For two grant cycles I served as a review panelist for the City Office of Fine Arts CityArts Grants.   She is a member of the Donors Forum and the American Association of Fundraising Professionals

About Fred Solari, 1951-2006

Fred Solari, Executive Director, took over management and programming of the Athenaeum Theatre in the summer of 1994.  His goal is to make the Athenaeum a world-class performing arts center.  Mr. Solari served as  managing director of the Civic Opera House and Civic Theatre from 1990 until 1993.  This capped a 10-year employment there, peaking with his being the chief executive officer of Civic Stages Chicago, the management team for the three theaters in the Civic Opera Building and the presenter of the Spring Festival of Dance, a premiere dance event in Chicago for many years.  Mr. Solari has worked in theatre management for many years, including the general management of Chicago's Apollo Theatre, The Shubert Theatre, The Civic Opera House, The Civic Theatre, and The Woodstock Opera House.  From 1970 through 1979, Mr. Solari was the managing director for SCT Productions at the Athenaeum Theatre.  An attorney, Mr. Solari has performed contract negotiations and other legal work for many theatre, dance, and music organizations.  Mr.. Solari is a cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University School Of Law.  In 1997, the Chicago Tribune named Mr. Solari "one of the 100 most notable contributors to Chicago's rich tradition of the arts in the last 150 years."  He received the 1998 Ruth Page Award for "Outstanding Contribution to the Dance Community," along with partner John Schmitz, for creating and running Dance Chicago.  In 1999/2000, Mr. Solari produced the critically acclaimed and award-winning production of the musicals Falsettos and Merrily We Roll Along at the Athenaeum that ran many months.  Mr. Solari also served as a consultant on numerous performing arts center projects outside the Athenaeum.  His son Dan has stepped up to carry on his fathers work.