Jim Lasko
Jim Lasko is a founder and the chief creative officer of Guild Row, a new kind of social club designed to catalyze the Give a Damn sector (artists and activists committed to social change).
Guild Row acts as a community center and social club for non-profit leaders, teachers, crafters, and urbanists. The campus is organized around an open courtyard and features a teaching kitchen and woodshop, along with membership lounge, bar and café, and flexible gathering spaces where classes, mixers and events are held.
Lasko believes in the power of “small ‘c’ culture” to bring people together and build a more engaged citizenry. Previously, Lasko was Executive Artistic Director of Redmoon, a nonprofit theater that performed all over the world. His award winning productions have been seen in spaces as diverse as the Disney Center in Los Angeles and the White House, off Broadway and Salamanca Arts Center in Hobart, Tasmania. In the later years, Lasko began to focus on transforming the urban landscape and building community with events in untraditional locations as varied as the Chicago River, The Toledo Museum of Art, and public parks and streets throughout the City of Chicago.