Marguerite Horberg: current projects

About portoluz

portoluz – meaning "harbor of light" – is currently under development as a sanctuary for progressive culture including a performing arts center, restaurant, artist’s residence, think-tank, and community gardens. portoluz was formed to provide sustainable environments for innovative artistic exploration, community development, and progressive cultural discourse.

portoluz has its origins in the successful evolution of HotHouse and was incorporated in 2007 by HotHouse founder Marguerite Horberg, former board members and stakeholders, and other successful Chicago-based practitioners in the fields of arts, technology, and social enterprise who convened when HotHouse closed. Since its inception, the organization has focused primarily on building capacity and the requisite infrastructure to undertake a project of this scope and national significance. Since 2009, portoluz has organized numerous successful cultural programs as itinerant presenters while developing the permanent site for its programs.

portoluz projects for 2011

Noches Americanas: Pan-American roots music

Jazz on a Summers Day :Jazz and creative improvised music series in Lakeside Michigan

WPA 2.0 a Brand New Deal : a multi-disciplinary arts and humanities series exploring the Great Depression 1929/ now, the WPA and the role of the cultural worker

Other current projects

Advisory board

· In These Times

· The Public Square

· Links Hall Studios

a brief biograpghy

Marguerite Horberg is an artist, entrepreneur and social justice activist who has successfully married these tendencies in successive iconic businesses she created, most notably: Studio V, The Salon of Modalisque and HotHouse.

Marguerite has been at the forefront of cultivating recognition and amplification for artists and other non-commercial or otherwise disenfranchised voices and has established numerous platforms for international cultural exchange: including the debut Chicago World Music Festival, The Chicago Flamenco Festival, Jazz en Clave and Jazz without Borders.

Throughout her thirty-year career, she has organized over 7,000 community- based programs including concerts with Hugh Masekela, Gil Scott Heron, and the US debuts of Cuban legends, Los Van Van and Los Munequitos de Matanzas. Her work as an impresario has been widely chronicled; including reviews in Art in America and the New York Times.

Locally, she has been awarded the Chicago Tribune’s Chicagoan of the Year Award and the Arts and Business Council’s Excellence in Arts Management Award, the Abbey. Elsewhere, Ms. Horberg was a fellow of the Stanford School of Business Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders.

Marguerite Horberg is currently developing sustainable venues for progressive culture via her new enterprise portoluz.

She is currently serving as an Advisory Board member of Links Hall Studios, The Public Square and In These Times and was a former member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Music at the University of Chicago.