Eileen R. Mackevich–the woman who helped the Chicago Humanities Festival grow from a one-day event to a multiweek extravaganza that annually attracts some of the most eminent names in the cultural world–resigned abruptly Wednesday.
Mackevich, the festival’s first and only president and executive producer, will be replaced by acting president Peter Kuntz, the festival’s associate producer and director of marketing and communications.
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“We’re delighted to have [Kuntz] here. He can pick up the pieces right away,” said Richard J. Franke, founder and chairman of the festival, who heads its 24-member board of directors.
Mackevich’s resignation was sought Wednesday afternoon at a board meeting.
Asked why Mackevich resigned, Franke said: “You can ask her.”
Mackevich, reached later at her home, said: “It was a long run, a lot of fun. I hope we made people in the city happy. I just decided it was time to do something else.” She declined to comment on alleged tensions with Franke.
Mackevich, 65, added that she plans to remain in Chicago and continue working in cultural endeavors.
Franke, CEO emeritus of Nuveen Investments Inc. and a well-known contributor to Chicago’s cultural institutions, said of Mackevich: “She’s done a wonderful job. She was very central” to the festival’s growth.
“We are a player in the cultural life of the city.”
Several board members did not return phone calls or declined to comment on Mackevich’s resignation.
Asked if her departure would lead to a shift in the festival, Franke said, “I see no reason to have a change in the mission. There’s nothing like this anywhere in the country. Bringing the humanities to a broader public audience was something whose time had come.”
Kuntz, reached late Wednesday, said he could not comment on future directions for the festival. Asked if Mackevich had departed, he said, “That’s my understanding. That’s literally the limits of my knowledge.”
Since its beginning in 1989, the festival has expanded exponentially, spreading across Chicago to various venues each fall, but also sponsoring events throughout the year. Each festival is anointed with a theme; past themes have included “crime and punishment,” “love and marriage,” “brains and beauty” and “saving and spending.”
Past festivals have included such cultural figures as Art Spiegelman, Studs Terkel, Glenda Jackson, Oliver Sacks, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison and V.S. Naipaul.
In recent years, the festival has expanded its offerings to draw a younger, more diverse audience, inviting comic-book and science-fiction authors to mingle amid the novelists and poets.
Asked why the festival has been able to lure so many renowned figures, Franke chuckled and said, “You’re talking to the guy who put it together.”