Students at a Chicago elementary school are beginning afterschool art programs this week with the help of Young Audiences Arts for Learning (YA) affiliate Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE).
The new programming at Henry H. Nash Elementary School of Fine & Performing Arts, located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, is funded by a $200,000 grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority as part of a violence prevention strategy. Classes include graffiti, drumming, and African dance.
“The students at Nash are very at-risk and face a lot of challenges, and by providing these additional afterschool programs they’ll be more engaged in learning,” said Amy Rasmussen, CAPE Executive Director. “They’ll have artists who will be working with them, get to know them, understand their needs, academic challenges, and even the needs that are facing their families.”
At least 80 Nash Elementary students will receive 27 weeks of afterschool programs that will run throughout the school year. Professional teaching artists will work with classroom teachers to develop a curriculum based around projects and arts integration, weaving academic and social-emotional learning with various art disciplines.
“It’s about the artists inspiring students’ creativity and helping them to develop a new language to express whatever they want to, whether it’s identity issues or neighborhood issues or academic content,” Rasmussen said.
CAPE already offers courses during the day at Nash Elementary through YA’s RAISE initiative, a network-wide project that partners teaching artists with school support teams to create in-depth, customized, trauma-informed and culturally responsive-sustaining arts in education residencies.
“This work that we do is very important because a lot of students come from extreme poverty and they have a lot of issues at home and you can see it in their face … a lot of kids seem sad, tired and exhausted,” said Patti Okulinski, a Chicago-based visual artist and fashion designer who teaches silk screening and sewing, and who also participates in RAISE. “The work that we do helps them find fun ways to learn and it boosts their confidence, especially the programs after school.”
Art teacher Hailey Rodden is excited to teach graffiti this year as an afterschool art course alongside a CAPE teaching artist, especially following previous cuts to most of Nash’s afterschool programs by Chicago Public Schools. “When we see that there are still schools that don’t have arts instruction in their regular school day, CAPE is a great way for them to have arts incorporated into their classes,” Rodden said.
Additional afterschool classes will also be offered to Nash Elementary parents and caregivers, combining the arts with community needs such as technology skills and career development, so that they can better observe learning and development in their student’s work.
Article adapted from "West Side Elementary School Expands After-School Arts Programs Through Local Nonprofit," on bookclubchicago.org.
To learn more about CAPE, visit https://capechicago.org.
