The city’s top cultural chief, Erin Harkey, is still on the job more than two weeks after she was terminated by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a mayoral spokesperson confirmed Monday.

The spokesperson, Ronnie Reese, said that the first deputy commissioner, Jennifer Johnson Washington, would temporarily fill the role once Harkey departs.

Johnson, who has been slow to embed his own leadership team at City Hall, terminated Harkey and the city’s buildings commissioner in mid-February.

News of Harkey’s termination came just weeks before the city’s festival season begins and was a surprise to some in the arts community. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is in charge of events like The Taste of Chicago and Blues Fest. It also funds a number of arts organizations and individual artists, an effort that Harkey, who was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, expanded.

Esther Grisham Grimm, executive director of the nonprofit arts organization 3Arts, said it “feels like the rug got pulled out from under us, just as we were gaining momentum.”

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“I’m really in the dark, I don’t know what’s coming next and if this signals any bigger changes,” said Grimm, who serves on the city’s cultural advisory council. “In the end, I felt the commissioner and her whole team were doing an excellent job, so I’m just a little confused about why the change and what’s coming next.”

Harkey was hired at DCASE in 2016 as the deputy commissioner of programming. After serving as the first deputy commissioner, Harkey became the acting DCASE commissioner following Mark Kelly’s retirement from the post in 2021. She was confirmed as commissioner later that year.

Harkey headed the department during a trying time for the arts, as the community tried to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which took a toll on audiences and funding. In an attempt to lead that recovery effort, Harkey focused her tenure on expanding grantmaking to individual artists and organizations in Chicago — a shift for a department that, since merging with the special events office during the Richard M. Daley administration, had been more defined by big productions.

In 2023, the department committed nearly $24 million in grants through annual and recovery programs, which was a 25% increase from the year before, according to DCASE. Those efforts were thanks, in part, to funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The department also touted an increased focus on equity, noting 60% of the Individual Artists Program grantees in 2023 were people of color, as compared to 38% in 2016.

“We’re one of a few governmental agencies that provide direct grants to artists,” Harkey said in a 2022 presentation at the Ideas We Should Steal Festival in Philadelphia. “It’s incredibly important that we get those funds directly in the hands of artists, we don’t need them to give them to organizations to have them trickle down.”

The focus on individual grantmaking made Harkey a popular commissioner among both artists and arts advocates.

“Under Erin there’s been a shift for DCASE to be more engaged at a deeply personal level outside of art downtown and producing events, but investing in community arts organizations that help fund artists and by providing grants to individual artists,” said Charlique Rolle, head of the Black Arts and Cultural Alliance of Chicago. “These smaller things build a cultural landscape, and they build understanding of the power of the arts as a community development tool and economic driver for the city.”

Rolle noted that Harkey had especially been an anchor of support for artists of color. Harkey’s focus on investing in art and artists during the pandemic was a lifeline, she added.

“So this is broader than just Erin, it’s about the agency under a new administration and how can we make sure DCASE remains stable and is able to support us and be effective and continue to celebrate the work that Erin’s done through all of this.”

Claire Rice, the executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois, said Harkey’s strength as commissioner was in her ability to listen directly to the arts community and respond to their needs.

“People have been very supportive of the current direction of the agency and want to see that continue, regardless of whomever might occupy the leadership seat of the department,” said Rice.

The leadership shuffle comes just as the city enters its busy event season, but some fest organizers expected little to change. Barbara Guttmann, who, as director of operations for the Old Town Triangle Association, is in charge of organizing the Old Town Art Fair, said that DCASE staffers who’ve shepherd various groups through the festival permitting process have been reliable through the tenures of multiple commissioners, and she expects that consistency to continue.

“They’re just pros,” Guttmann said, noting the assistance she receives on securing permits from about a dozen city agencies.

On the campaign trail, Johnson pledged to provide additional funding to DCASE, particularly to the Individual Artists Program, saying “art and culture is an essential service worthy of the city’s core funds.”

While it’s routine for mayors to replace major department heads, Kelly, who was Harkey’s predecessor and appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, kept his job under Lightfoot until he announced his retirement.