Americans for the Arts remembers arts leader and Chicago native Joan Small, who passed away last week. Joan served nearly two decades with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and was an Americans for the Arts Board Member from 1994 to 2008.

“Joan was a leader and a true collaborator. She was a strong, positive force for diversity, equity, and inclusion and helped shaped our policies and procedures for national work in those areas,” says Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “A politically savvy voice on our board, Joan helped to foster federal, state, and local public policy action. She also helped shape our professional development training on those subjects to local arts agencies all across our country. She was a calming voice in turbulent times—both a creative worker and a manger of creative energies in others. Americans for the Arts will miss her greatly.”

Joan Small was interviewed by The HistoryMakers in 2013, and video of that interview can be found here.