Chris Wilbourn, Board Chair
Pronouns: He/Him/His Musician Chris Wilbourn is a big-picture thinker and strong communicator whose roots in the community anchor his passion and vision for the Victoria. Chris is valued for his generosity, loyalty, curiosity, and verbosity. His band Heiruspecs has not only rapped and sung the future of St. Paul for over 20 years but has also invested back into the community. Through the Heiruspecs Scholarship, in conjunction with the St. Paul Central Scholarship Foundation, they have given away over $50,000 in scholarships to Central High School graduates looking to pursue secondary education in the arts. As a financial crimes investigator for Wells Fargo, Chris has a good command of informational sensitivity and is comfortable working in diverse settings with diverse people---a skill he’s honed since childhood growing up in Midway, Frogtown, and Rondo. Father of two, he’s a lover of hip-hop and house music, teaching his sons to grow their own food, and the kind of fast cars that would be at home in the Porky's parking lot or the Sun Foods parking lot 10 years ago. Chris has seen too many artists without a home for their art leave Frogtown, and knows the Victoria has the potential to be that home, as well as a community anchor in its fight against displacement and loss of identity. Its contagious energy will make it a cultural landmark for St. Paul---a place for community engagement, enrichment, and excitement. |