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by Ellen Shubart, Class of 2006

It’s been 13 years since Hallie Rosen first joined CAC. In that time she has gone from working directly with docents as Volunteer Manager to continuing to work with volunteers as Director of Program Operations and head of the Open House Chicago program.

The new title – not so new since she has been working in the program area for almost five years – puts Rosen front and center as the face of the Chicago Architecture Center, scheduling and hosting the ongoing programs that are part of CAC’s adult educational outreach. Her white hair – those identifiable curls that bounce around her face – distinguishes her from other online Zoom hosts and, she says, sometimes gets her recognized in places like the local supermarket!

Rosen and the team she works with focus on adult programming and function alongside other educational outreach programming: youth education and exhibitions. While her title includes “operations,” which means logistics of programming, today she sees her role more as curator, coordinating the many programs, dealing with content and topic selection, and making sure what is presented matches CAC’s goals. While some of the programs are on Zoom, now at the end of the pandemic period, some are in person; Hallie comfortably finds the balance between them. Zoom programs allow people to remain home or at travel locations to access the programs, and in-person experiences are totally different. While somewhat ambivalent about the hybrid option, Hallie makes decisions for each program separately.  

Rosen came to CAC from the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, where she also worked with volunteer docents. She admits that she “knew nothing about architecture.” Over the past decade she has learned a lot, enough to consider herself “knowledgeable.” While at the then-nascent Holocaust Museum, Hallie enrolled in a three-day seminar about volunteer management best practices, learning the basics for that job, as well as the next one at then-CAF.

Rosen helped set up the structure for all CAC volunteers, using a grant from the Taproot Foundation. Today’s Director of Volunteer Services, Caroline Duda, executed that plan when Rosen moved into the programming area. 

 “I miss the interaction, I love working with volunteers,” she admits over lunch recently. “I am a people person and I like to work with people.” When she came to CAF, she not only ran the docent training, but she trained as a docent. She took the classes and trod the streets, learning the then-titled Historic and Modern tours. Taking the docent class was “the best thing I ever did,” she says. “My eyes were opened. I learned so much.”  She recalls that she heard every lecture at least eight times in the course of her work and soaked in a lot of knowledge. 

Rosen also wants to go back to sites visited before she became a docent and “look again.” She recalls visiting Germany with her husband, Rabbi Brant Rosen. They saw Berlin’s Reichstag Building dome at 10 at night because it was the only time they could secure a tour. “But we had to see it.”

She recalls the first time she went out on a practice a tour; it was freezing. “I came back to the Corner Bakery for tea and sugar cookies,” said Rosen. She quotes a former docent, reputedly from Siberia, who said “There is no such thing as bad weather (for a tour), just bad fashion”. She bundles up to leave the restaurant, wearing a turtle neck tee, down vest, down coat, scarf, and hat. She practices what she preaches.

In her new role, Hallie interacts with docents, as well as others. “My job is to talk to people,” she says, and she loves it. Following the move from 224 S. Michigan, the impact of the Covid pandemic hit hard. “We got online quickly,” she says. It was a cooperative effort by her, the Operations department staff, and the docents. CAC had an ongoing Zoom-based program ahead of many cultural institutions, with docents giving virtual tours and PowerPoint presentations. That cooperation continues today, with monthly docent-presented PowerPoint presentations on topics ranging from Louis Sullivan’s Jewel Box Banks to the elements of concrete design.

Looking ahead, Rosen is sketching out Open House Chicago, a three day event for the fall. There’s much to do, but she’s ready for it. That’s what a good curator is always doing.  

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