A.R.T.’s Third Annual
Teacher Appreciation Celebration



In May A.R.T. held the third annual Teacher Appreciation Celebration at the Parthenon Restaurant in Greek Town. Thirty-five teachers who participated in A.R.T. art mentoring programs as well as teachers who support the A.R.T. Artists by “running the extra mile” were honored. The event featured an interactive vocal performance by children’s musician (and Murphy School Fine Arts Specialist) Sandy Lucas and a dance performance by the young (1st-3rd grade) African Praise Dancers from Hoyne Elementary School. AUSL Performing & Fine Arts Coordinator Cescily Washington gave an inspirational speech about the impact of A.R.T. on the AUSL Schools.

Exhibit of A.R.T. Students’ Artwork at the Union League Club

In the spring the Union League Club hosted an exhibit of artwork created by students at four of the Union League Boys and Girls Clubs (Lafayette, Talcott, Club One and Barreto) under the direction of A.R.T. Artists Jonathan Franklin, William Estrada, Anthony Rea and Heather Stumpf. During the program participants were introduced to a variety of media and art-making techniques such as printmaking, collage, painting and paper-mâché. Through their art-making experiences, the children gained a better understanding of art and its role in cultures around the world and at home. The exhibit at the Union League Club featured masks, hojalata (traditional metal arts of Mexico), op art, collage, urban landscapes, scientific illustrations and photomontage.

The A.R.T. Summer Institute



Teachers from five Chicago Public Schools and one Catholic Archdiocese School participated in the fifth annual American Art Summer Institute. Generously supported by a grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Polk Brothers Foundation, the five-day Institute laid the foundation for the Fall 2009 A.R.T. classroom residencies and provided teachers with opportunities to learn new ways to integrate art into their classroom lessons. Teachers also gained an appreciation of American art and its relevancy to contemporary American culture.

The A.R.T. Summer Institute was conducted in the new Ryan Education Center at the Art Institute of Chicago. Meeting daily in the center’s studios gave teachers access to the many resources available to them at the Art Institute. A tour of the Ryan Center by the museum education staff familiarized teachers with its facilities. Teachers toured the museum’s American galleries and received an orientation to the AIC education website.

Teachers worked directly with A.R.T. Artists Kaja Overstreet, Bill Eller, Gail Wolf, William Estrada, Tim Branson and Mary Tepper. The artists helped the teachers to develop the practice of gleaning the maximum amount of information from a single work of art, incorporating visual thinking strategies in classroom activities and to create arts integrated lessons. The teachers’ experience in the Institute will form the basis of the lessons that the teachers present to their students during the residency with the support of the A.R.T. Artist.

A.R.T. Artists will continue to consult and advise these teachers in their classrooms during the 2009-2010 school year during the American Arts Partners residency programs. Through this effort, supported in part by a CityArts Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, artists and teachers will join together to present to students the American arts-integrated lessons that were designed during the summer. Teachers will return to the Art Institute with their students after they complete the residency component of this program. During their visit, they will take a docent-led tour of the American galleries. In addition, they will participate in an art-making activity conducted in the Ryan Center and led by the A.R.T. Artist with whom they worked. This model program represents an exceptional synergy among arts partners and educators. ****Please visit the A.R.T. Website (www.artresourcesinteaching.org) to view images as well as a video from the Summer Institute. In the coming months the lessons that the participating classroom teachers develop and implement in their classrooms will be posted on the website.

A.R.T. has been awarded $50,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act The National Endowment for the Arts awarded $30 million in direct grants this month in the amounts of $50,000 and $25,000 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These grants will fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn. In the Arts Education category for NEA grants, A.R.T. and Urban Gateways were the only two Illinois Organizations selected, and there were only 28 Arts Education grants made nationwide from a pool of 136 organizations. In all categories, 24 Illinois arts organizations of all types received grants from an applicant pool of 103 organizations. A.R.T. Executive Director Walter Hansen commented, “This grant award process was quite competitive, and A.R.T. is greatly heartened by the NEA’s endorsement of our organization’s quality, reputation and long history of service to Chicago’s school children. This support is absolutely critical in ensuring our continued ability to provide art education to Chicago area school children, many of whom receive no art instruction at all during their school day.”

A.R.T. and Big Shoulders This year A.R.T. is extending its outreach efforts to include schools that are supported by the Big Shoulders Fund. The Big Shoulders Fund provides support to Catholic Schools—which serve both Catholic and non-Catholic children—in the neediest areas of inner-city Chicago. The schools supported by the Big Shoulders Fund are seen as anchors in their communities and in the lives of the families they serve. A.R.T. hopes to assist the Big Shoulders schools to provide exemplary educational experiences to students by supplementing the schools’ curricula with programs that feature art-viewing and art-making experiences for students and that are held during the school day and after school.

Kaja Overstreet named
Alice Welsh Skilling Lead Artist



Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, A.R.T. has joined the ranks of colleges, universities, and great museums fortunate enough to have positions named in the honor or memory of a friend and supporter. In our case, Kaja Overstreet our Lead Artist, will be known as the Alice Welsh Skilling Lead Artist. Alice Welsh Skilling was a long-time Board member, volunteer, and spokesperson for A.R.T. She organized benefits, visited schools, and gave her moral and financial support to our mission. Among her most amazing gifts to us was her organization of the International Children’s Art Exhibition in 1994 to celebrate our 100th Anniversary. The year-long International Children’s Art Exhibition was on view at the Cultural Center and in England and paired students from 19 Chicago Public Schools with students from 14 international schools throughout the world through Chicago’s Sister City Program. Alice visited many of these international schools and worked tirelessly on this project as she did on all the projects with which she was involved for A.R.T. We are very pleased and grateful for this wonderful opportunity to memorialize a true friend of children, A.R.T. and Chicago.

 

The Julie Reynolds Shaw Grant to an A.R.T. Artist



The family and friends of beloved former A.R.T. Board Member Julie Reynolds Shaw established an annual grant program in her memory. As per the terms of this grant, the recipient artist develops a project that is in keeping with the A.R.T. mission and he/she receives a paid sabbatical to complete the project. In addition, the artist conducts a program at a Chicago Public School. During the 2008-2009 school year, A.R.T. Artist Kiela Smith-Upton conducted a residency program titled Chicago Murals/Public Art at one of the new CPS Montessori Schools, Suder Montessori. This program culminated in a field trip to Kiela's studio and a tour of the public art at Navy Pier and other locations around Chicago.

Kiela is currently completing the sabbatical component of her program. During her sabbatical, Kiela and a team of artists are restoring a 16 year-old outdoor mural in Evanston (the Wall of Dreams). Kiela, along with a team of artists and 120 community volunteers, created the mural in 1993 in an effort to foster unity in a community that had recently been devastated by the shooting death of a young girl in the park where the mural now exists. At the time, other measures were taken to combat the violence and drug activity that took place in this park. To this end, community members wrote and received a Community Development Block Grant to purchase new playground equipment. The collaborative process of creating the Wall of Dreams provided a positive voice and vision to the diverse community. The Evanston City Council heartily endorsed the restoration of the Wall of Dreams and provided additional support for the project. A public unveiling of the restored mural will be held at the Clyde-Brummel Park at 2:00 pm on October 18.

 

Tribute to Kay Baran

Friends and colleagues of former A.R.T. Board member Kay Baran have come together to honor her memory. By establishing a Kay Baran Memorial Residency, those who knew Kay best are continuing her passion for art education with a three-year commitment to Chicago schoolchildren. This fall, 120 students at the John T. McCutcheon Elementary School in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood will receive quality A.R.T. services through this memorial Art & Language Arts residency. Kay Baran provided spirited leadership to the organization for more than 15 years, and A.R.T. is thrilled to continue to give back to the city she loved.

 

 

A.R.T. and AUSL

This school year, like last year, A.R.T. will conduct after school programs at the new AUSL schools. A.R.T. Artists will work with children in fourth through eighth grade at the participating schools, Johnson, Bethune and Dulles, to create unique murals to celebrate the revitalization that AUSL is bringing to these schools. The students who are involved in the program will learn the craft of creating a mosaic and the art of collaboratively developing an artistic concept into a sketch and ultimately into a ceramic tile mosaic.

 

Tribute to Four A.R.T. Artists Celebrating Milestone Anniversaries with A.R.T.

Four exceptional A.R.T. Artists are celebrating milestone anniversaries with A.R.T. this year. A.R.T.
Artists Mary Tepper and Ian Weaver are in their 10th year at A.R.T. LaWanda Darling just completed her 20th year at A.R.T.,
and Bill Eller is celebrating his 30th year with A.R.T. Like all of the A.R.T. Artists, Mary, Ian, LaWanda and Bill develop
and present a variety of A.R.T. programs, and they create and show their own artwork at various venues in the Chicagoland area.

A.R.T. Inspires:
A Family Benefit for Chicago Area Families
at the Art Institute of Chicago

On Friday, November 6, 2009, A.R.T. Artists will make the arts come alive for parents and their children at the recently completed Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Education Center in the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Participants will explore and discuss famous artworks and then create their own unique artwork in this innovative new venue. Please click on the attached link to view an invitation to the event.