Crystal Coats (CLA’16): Bringing Opera to Chicago Communities

Crystal Coats (CLA’16) has spent her career working in community engagement. In her new position as the interim director for Lyric Unlimited, she brings opera to Chicago’s communities. 

While Coats had no experience in opera when she took this job, she did have a strong background working within Chicago communities.

“What interested me about this role at Lyric is it’s an art form that has historically been seen as elitist, as not for people of color, low income folks, and young people – and this is an organization that is actively trying to address that,” she said.

Lyric Unlimited is the community engagement division of Lyric. The department conducts a number of programs to enrich the city and shine light on its most pressing issues.

Working there, she has pushed herself to think about what the organization can do outside of people’s normal expectations for opera companies. It has given her a creative license to address important issues.

In her new position as the interim director for Lyric Unlimited, Coats brings opera to Chicago’s communities.

She considers herself to be an important statement on its own addressing issues of elitism. When she first began to take meetings with potential community partners, she remembers oftentimes they were surprised to see a Black woman working in an opera company.

“Being able to visibly be a difference in opera is important to me. Representation does matter,” she said.

Before she began working in this capacity Coats worked at the Chicago Housing Authority, and in 2016, she was accepted into the Civic Leadership Academy’s second cohort.

“CLA is for folks who are making and wanting to make change in the city of Chicago,” she said.

“What interested me about this role at Lyric is it’s an art form that has historically been seen as elitist, as not for people of color, low income folks, and young people – and this is an organization that is actively trying to address that,” she said.

As CLA draws its fellows both from governmental and nonprofit organizations, part of the curriculum focuses on learning how the two can intersect and work together. Coats worked in both sectors for a significant part of her career, so she understood the difficulties of this partnership well.

“Nonprofits are completely driven by the people that they’re impacting, so they’re hearts-and-minds folks. They want to see lives change,” she said.

On the other hand, “governments tend to be more clinical,” Coats said. Governments are built to make large scale impact, which means individuals can often fall through the cracks, even as government makes a more global change.

While working with the Chicago Housing Authority, Coats said she remembers trying to get a woman placed in a sponsored internship. When she did not show up for the interview, they found out she had an unstable housing situation and needed to prioritize taking care of her younger sibling.

CHA does not provide emergency housing services, so Coats personally turned to the people she knew within the nonprofit sector to ask for help. They were able to offer some options which Coats shared with the woman.

This connection between individuals in government and those at nonprofits can be incredibly important. Coats said that programs like CLA are critical in developing these relationships. It puts people in a network with each other so if they are trying to help someone in a way that their industry is not designed to help, they have other options for support.

This collaboration has continued on as Coats moved to the Lyric Opera. One of her current projects is “Thoughts on Parenthood” which will coincide with the performance of Blue taking place next winter.  It will be an interactive arts project sharing parenthood stories from around the city.

To find individuals willing to share their stories, she turned to other CLA fellows. Betsy Leonard (CLA’16) from Heartland Alliance and Denean Pillar-Jackson (CLA’16) from Year Up Chicago agreed to help by reaching out to their respective communities to share the opportunity.

When she had extra tickets to a show, she reached out to Brady Gott (CLA’16) who serves as managing director at Cleanslate. He then connected her to the Cara Foundation, Cleanslate’s parent organization. She asked if people would be interested in coming to the show. When she heard participant’s schedules were already busy and they would not be able to take advantage of the opportunity, Coats changed approaches.

This connection between individuals in government and those at nonprofits can be incredibly important. Coats said that programs like CLA are critical in developing these relationships. It puts people in a network with each other so if they are trying to help someone in a way that their industry is not designed to help, they have other options for support.

She emailed back asking if they would be interested in having the principal performer from the show visit their Thursday morning sessions.

“It was a good lesson learned for the folks here at Lyric to say it’s not enough to make the offer,” she said. “We have to show people why this is actually valuable.” After the performer met with everyone, the group had a new interest in opera and the Lyric reoffered tickets to see the show.

CLA has strong ties to arts based nonprofits small and large across the city, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hyde Park Art Center, ArtReach Chicago, the Harris Theater, and Snow City Arts.

With all of these organizations connected through CLA, fellows are able to collaborate on projects as Coats has. Last year when Rosa Ortiz (CLA’19) was working on an exhibition on Elevated Chicago and found herself without a space to host, Lori Dimun (CLA’19) opened the doors of the Harris Theater to help out. These connections allow fellows to make art in all forms more accessible to the people of Chicago.

While Coats had no experience in opera when she took this job, she did have a strong background working within Chicago communities.

As she has continued in her career, extending the boundaries of what community outreach looks like, Coats said she values the lessons CLA taught her. She has grown both professionally and personally.

She said, “One of the things that CLA helped me wrap my arms around is, who I get to be is something that I get to create.”