Jane M Saks

Jane M. Saks is a writer, producer, cultural alchemist, educator, arts advocate, creative collaborator, artist, and activist. Her work challenges and champions issues of gender, sexuality, human rights, race, and power within the worlds of arts and culture, politics and civil rights, academia, and philanthropy. She is a curator and writer deeply invested in working closely with artists to develop ideas, artworks, and exhibitions that respond to and transform our understanding of the world. Her curatorial work focuses on the intersection of art and “publics” through public art, educational initiatives, special projects, major new commissions, and far-reaching international collaborations.

• Saks has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including:
• - Cultural Advisory Council, City of Chicago.
• - Trustee, Nathan Cummings Foundation
• - NPR’s Radio Diaries, Board Member
• - Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (Brown University)
• - South African Constitutional Court Artworks and Architecture Committee
• - White House Fellows Program (Judge, 2008–2016)
• - Arts and Social Justice UN Commission
• - Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights, Visiting Professor
• - Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Judge

Saks has received many prestigious Fellowships including the Stanford University Arts Leader Fellowship, National Arts Strategies Fellowship, and Leadership Greater Chicago.

Saks has received numerous honors, including: Illinois Humanities Visionary Award, - LGBT Hall of Fame Inductee (Chicago), - United Nations High Commissioner Award, Visionary Award (Rape Victim Advocates), Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, IMPACT Award Chicago Foundation for Women, International Arts Leadership Fellow, Stanford University, Changing Worlds Leadership Award, Leadership Award INCITE Black LGBTQ in Action, Named one of GO Magazine’s “100 Queer Women We Love” in 2019, In 2021, She received the Human First Award from the Center on Halsted alongside artists Theaster Gates and Sam Kirk. In 2022, she was honored with the inaugural Ox-Bow Arts Visionary and Innovation Award for cross-field impact. She is depicted in internationally acclaimed artist Kerry James Marshall’s permanent 2017 mural on the Chicago Cultural Center building, alongside 19 influential women who are founders in Chicago’s arts and social equity movements.

• She is a Founding Guild Member of the Guild of Future Architects (GoFA) at NYU. She has been an advisor for social justice, legal, human rights, LGBTQ and cultural commissions. Saks has been a speaker, lecturer, or visiting professor at institutions, conferences and venues including Harvard, the U.S. State Department, Yale, MIT, the United Nations, the White House, the US Holocaust Museum, American Library Association, Women in the World, Americans for the Arts, Women Stateville Detention Center, the Whitney Museum, The Center on Halsted, the Art Institute of Chicago, and many more.

• She is a hired consultant with a focus on public and private philanthropy, impact production, artistic development, support for artists, organizational development, public commissions, cross-field impact investing, social justice and cultural fundraising, leadership development, public, private and community partnerships, and collaborations.

• Saks has co-created and produced numerous artistic works, including:
• - Sweet Tea: Gay Black Men of the South
• - MILKWEED
• - Congo: Women Portraits of War (featured at the UN, Nobel Peace Center, US Congress, US Paris Embassy, National Holocaust Museum)
• - JOMAMA JONES: RADIATE
• - This is Reading (with Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber), Award-Winning Activated Public Installation
• - Working in America (with Lynsey Addario, Jeanne Gang, Radio Diaries, National Public Radio)
• - PAN (with Claire Chase and Marcos Balter) presented with Carnegie Hall, The Kitchen, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Paris Opera
• - Question Bridge and Truth Booth (with Hank Willis Thomas)
• - Freedom Fighter (with Justice Albie Sachs)
• She currently co-creates and co-produces works internationally and with Project& Evolving Democracies Fellows, including Amanda Williams, Eric Gottesman, Damon Locks, and Kaneza Schaal.

Before her role at UIC, she consulted on large-scale initiatives for national foundations, including MacArthur Foundation, Levi’s Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust. She contributed to public art projects through organizations like Sculpture Chicago, the New York Public Arts Fund, and Arts for New Orleans. She also served as Assistant Director at the Esther Saks Gallery and held a Ford Foundation Fellowship focused on women, art, and economic development in Bombay, India, and taught poetry at PEN International. Early curatorial projects included T-RACE (co-curated with Kerry James Marshall) and PUSH PAUSE, exploring obstacles in global art and culture.

Saks has co-created and produced numerous artistic works, including:

- Sweet Tea: Gay Black Men of the South
- MILKWEED
- Congo: Women Portraits of War (featured at the UN, Nobel Peace Center, US Congress, US Paris Embassy, National Holocaust Museum)
- JOMAMA JONES: RADIATE
- This is Reading (with Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber), Award-Winning Activated Public Installation
- Working in America (with Lynsey Addario, Jeanne Gang, Radio Diaries, National Public Radio)
- PAN (with Claire Chase and Marcos Balter) presented with Carnegie Hall, The Kitchen, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Paris Opera
- Question Bridge and Truth Booth (with Hank Willis Thomas)
- Freedom Fighter (with Justice Albie Sachs)

She currently co-creates and co-produces works internationally and with Project& Evolving Democracies Fellows, including Amanda Williams, Eric Gottesman, Damon Locks, and Kaneza Schaal.