The city has a new cultural arts coordinator — renamed the arts and culture engagement specialist this time — and her name is Juelle Daley. The last two resigned before we really got to know them.

The position has now been made full-time, a high priority for the Arts Council. Daley started on March 24 and reports to Paul Zalmezak at the Department of Economic Development instead of directly to the city manager, as the last two part-timers did.

Daley says she’s interested in promoting cultural tourism and creating easy and affordable access to everything Evanston has to offer: visual art, music of all genres, theater and dance, to say nothing of the attractions at Northwestern University.

Daley hails from the East Coast by way of the Caribbean. She said she is “driven to make the arts available and accessible to everyone who,” like her, “seeks beauty and transformative art experiences.”

She said she is seasoned in leveraging strategic partnerships with artists and cultural art ecosystems to develop high-caliber art projects and musical events.

A French-trained urban designer/planner, she left Paris to come to Chicago after seven years there. With over a decade of experience in higher education and arts administration, she has executed over 200 public events across disciplines and remains dedicated to arts engagement and supporting creatives.

She was also a writer-in-residence for the Black Embodiment Studio, focused on Black contemporary arts.

As an educator, independent curator and creative producer, Daley has worked directly with artists, cultural institutions, museums and consulates in Chicago — to educate, elevate and showcase the arts. She lives in Rogers Park.

At the University of Chicago, where she was associate director of university arts engagement, Daley curated a dynamic and diverse series of public programs like the Experimental Blues Series at the Reva & David Logan Center. Before that, she was assistant director at the Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University.

She serves on the Artistic Advisory Council at High Concept Labs, and formerly served on the Chicago International Film Festival’s Black Perspectives Committee and as juror for the DCASE and APL/CSRPC Artist-in-Residence Program for University of Chicago Arts.

Daley also has a passion for making experimental, documentary and narrative films. When not reading biographies, she binges on the French podcast Pieds Sur Terre to keep her French fluent.

Since coming on board, Daley is meeting with Evanston’s arts leaders to get the lay of the land.

Her statement: “I support and promote the arts citywide through art curation, public art planning and producing art-based event planning by working closely with artists, arts partners and local businesses to implement cultural arts strategies for the City of Evanston.

“I also work to attract artists to use the city as ‘a canvas’ in partnership with local cultural stakeholders to develop culture-based entertainment that results in the increase of community engagement with residents and visitors.”

You can reach her at [email protected].