Writing on the Arts Czar & Church Art
Hi
It’s a pleasure to be here today, standing before you in the many roles I hold—staff member, artist, and, in this space, the Arts Czar—a title that carries a certain connotation, an open-ended irony, and a freedom I’ve come to embrace. While “Czar” implies authority, I see it more as a call to stewardship, to cultivate rather than control, to create rather than dictate. I take it as a challenge to bring art and spirit into conversation, shaping a vision that is both grounded in history and open to possibility.
By trade, I am also a photographer, and Art Director at Big House Studio, a Chicago creative agency that navigates design, storytelling, and production at multiple scales focusing on arts and culture organizations. The tension between these two roles—one embedded in a historical church, the other in a design studio—mirrors my own approach to creativity: balancing tradition with new approach, structure with spontaneity, and the sacred with the everyday.
First Presbyterian Church has long been a multi-cultural, multi-generational, muti-racial space of gathering, reflection, and transformation. My work here as an artist-in-residence and Arts Czar is about activating that—inviting artists, thinkers, and community members to engage with this space and the south side of Chicago in ways that feel alive, relevant, and creative. This past year, we have expanded our arts programming, ours arts events bought in more than 1200 people, opened doors to new collaborations, and explored how art can deepen not just our aesthetic experiences, but our collective sense of belonging and purpose. I am very excited about the upcoming pause, so we can get our infrastructure, spaces, and partnerships streamlined and flow before we “relaunch” in partnership with Chicago Arts Expo in the end of April.
Looking forward, my goal is to continue fostering this dialogue—to tackle grants, raise money, and to continue on what we do best, where spirituality, faith and creativity meet, where we invite new perspectives, and where we celebrate the act of making as something deeply spiritual. I see this as a place where art doesn’t simply decorate, but respectfully disrupts, reveals, and offers new ways of seeing the world around us.
I want to thank pastor Black, the session, congregation, the artists, and every one of you who has supported this work. It’s not always easy to carve out space for art in institutional settings, but this church has shown a remarkable openness to the idea that creativity is essential—not an accessory, but a core part of how we engage with the world and each other.
Thank you all for being here, for being part of this process. Let’s continue shaping, questioning, and building together.
Max Li