Sheridan Road in Uptown, where ICA USA is based at 4750 N. Sheridan Road. Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
The Institute of Cultural Affairs began as the Institute of Ecumenical Affairs, a practical research arm for churches looking for ways to act on social responsibility. The name changed early on, but its core work, training leaders and helping communities act on their own, has stayed the same.
Terry Bergdall, executive director of ICA USA, defines culture broadly as the values and practices people hold and the way they talk about the meaning of life.
From Kenya to Uptown
Bergdall started with the ICA at 16 and later interned there. He spent about 20 years with the organization in the United States, Japan and Africa, including 18 years as director of ICA Kenya. That work taught him a principle he still repeats: real development grows from what a community already has, not from what it lacks. The ICA’s model is to work in partnership with local people rather than on their behalf.
After roughly two decades away doing consulting, Bergdall came back in 2009 to lead the new U.S. division as the organization spread its headquarters across several locations worldwide.
The Greenrise
ICA USA’s current programs center on group facilitation methods and organizational capacity building, with more than 120 licensed trainers around the country. Bergdall is also focused on Accelerate 77, a program aimed at Chicago’s 77 community areas and the resources each one holds.
The organization’s building at 4750 N. Sheridan Road, which it calls the Greenrise, is a project of its own. ICA is installing 500 solar panels on the roof and expects them to cover close to a third of the building’s electricity use. The goal, Bergdall says, is a building where sustainable working and living go together, and a model for the culture the institute wants to encourage elsewhere.
Joel Sandoval covers arts, music venues and nightlife.
