Chicago February 10, 2004 - Fred Fine, 89, Director of Public Affairs at Columbia College Chicago, died in Santa Barbara California on Monday February 9, after breaking his hip in a fall.
Born on March 30 1914, Fred Fine's legacy in the arts was profound throughout the City of Chicago, around the state of Illinois, and across the entire spectrum of the arts world, but it was especially seminal in the development of the mission of Columbia College Chicago.
In 1977, Fred Fine worked to create Columbia's Department of Arts, Entertainment and Media Management (AEMM), on the principle that the creative arts require creative management, to fulfill their mission as something more than a commercial industry. Managers, he believed, should be cultivated and trained as collaborative partners, and dedicate their organizational, financial and artistic talents to the service of creative artists. The living legacy of his vision lives on in the department he helped to create, in what is now he largest department of its kind in the country.
In 1982, Fred Fine saw the need for connecting individual artists with arts institutions large and small, and helped to launch the Illinois Arts Alliance, today one of the country's most effective associations for advocacy in the arts. He later said, "I decided one day to bring together a number of people in the arts and we proposed that under the auspices of Columbia College we organize a conference on public policy in the arts." He recalled with pride that alongside the clout-heavy institutions and political supporters like Congress Sidney Yates, it was individual artists who took the initiative to define the mission of the new organization.
In 1984, Mayor Harold Washington appointed Fred Fine as the city's first Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, where he was able to apply his creative and community-oriented principles to public policy. His service as Cultural Commissioner (1984-87 was concurrent with his term as chair of AEMM (1977-87).
Fred Fine also created Columbia's AEMM graduate program in 1982, and was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Graduate School in 2000.
"I come from a working class family," Fine said. "Like many European immigrant families, we were very conscious of the arts. My father was a charter member of a big Yiddish chorus. From the Jewish immigrant's point of view, I knew a lot about the arts - Lithuanian opera, Polish dance groups, and I was a member of a Ukrainian dance group. As one writer noted, "From Fine's perspective, this youthful romance with working-class culture is inseparable from his later entrance into the world of arts management and his abiding commitment to cultural democracy."
Among his protégés was Nick Rabkin, now director of the Chicago Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College, who was also Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs under Fred Fine, who remembers Fred's roots in democratic activism: "Fred's deep experience in the arts and his lifelong commitment to social activism and justice made Columbia a natural home for him." From an early age he was active in the labor struggles and social protest. He helped to organize Chicago steel workers in the late 1930s. On Dec. 8, 1941, he volunteered for military duty, spent 20 months overseas, and won two bronze stars in World War II.
After the war, Fred became a member of the executive board of the Communist Party of the USA. He was indicted under the Smith Act for conspiracy to overthrow the government, and spent five years underground before his conviction was overturned by an appellate court in 1958. He resigned from the Communist Party over long-standing differences shortly afterward.
In 1957 Fred founded Triangle Productions, Chicago's leading concert and entertainment presenter in the 1960s and 70s, presenting all the big rock groups of the day, including the Beatles and Rolling Stones, in venues that included Comiskey Park and the old Chicago Stockyards. Triangle was purchased by Madison Square Garden and moved to New York in 1977.
Dennis Rich, chair of AEMM and a longtime friend and protégé of Fred, comments "Fred Fine seemed ageless and timeless to those who knew him. His life and work touched so many in the cultural community and his friendship, wise counsel, and advice will be deeply missed."
Fred Fine is survived by one son, Lawrence Fine of Washington DC and daughter-in-law Jamie Fine.
Cremation will take place in Santa Barbara. There will be no internment. Expressions of sympathy may be made through a contribution to the Chicago Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago, 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605.
A memorial will take place later in the spring. Information is forthcoming.