Lois Weisberg papers

Biographical/historical note

Lois Weisberg was born Lois Porges in May 1925 in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, where she attended Austin High School. In 1946, she graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied directing at its School of Speech. While at Northwestern, she met pharmacist Irv Solomon, whom she later married. In 1962, she married her second husband, Bernard Weisberg, a Chicago civil liberties lawyer who later became a federal judge.

Weisberg is best known for her position as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago. Before becoming Commissioner, Weisberg served as the Assistant to the Mayor and Director for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events under Harold Washington beginning in 1983. She was then appointed Commissioner in 1989 under Mayor Richard M. Daley and remained in the position until 2011, making her one of Daley’s longest serving employees. As Commissioner, Weisberg was charged with making the arts accessible to all and to promote the city of Chicago through its arts and cultural attractions. Known as the “Cultural Czar,” some of Weisberg’s major achievements include establishing the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E Washington St.), the first American incarnation of Cows on Parade (1999), Gallery 37 (66 E Randolph St.), the Chicago Blues Festival, and Taste of Chicago.

In addition to her work for the city of Chicago, Weisberg worked with numerous political and civic organizations including Business and Professional People for the Public Interest and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and acted as campaign manager for Congressman Sidney Yates. She helped organize South Shore Recreation, an Indiana and Illinois citizens group dedicated to preserving rail service on the Chicago, South Bend, and South Share Railroad. She was also involved in the formation and development of a number of other Chicago cultural initiatives including Friends of the Park, a musical production called “The Song of Songs,” a weekly independent arts and news publication called “The Paper,” and multiple societies devoted to the author George Bernard Shaw. Her involvement and dedication to organizations throughout the city of Chicago were vast and important. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his “The New Yorker” article (January 11, 1999), “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” “Lois is far from being the most important or the most powerful person in Chicago, but if you connect all the dots that constitute the vast apparatus of government and influence and interest groups in the city of Chicago you’ll end up coming back to Lois again and again.” Weisberg left the office of Cultural Affairs in 2011 when it was merged with the Office of Special Events. She died in January of 2016.