youth art Resources
programs & classes
Marwen offers free visual arts classes to under-served Chicago youth in 6 - 12 grades. Marwen also provides free college and career counseling to high school students and their families who are interested in pursuing a career in the visual arts or wish to continue their education beyond high school.
Hyde Park Arts Center is located just one block from Kenwood. In addition to hosting world-class exhibitions, HPAC offers tuition-free opportunities for South Side youth through events and programs such as the Youth Arts Board, Art Shop, Photo Studio, Plug in Studio and more. HPAC also offers youth art classes, which can be very accommodating with fees for Kenwood students.
After School Matters is a non-profit organization that provides after school and summer program opportunities to over 15,000 Chicago high school students each year. Programs are free and many will provide students with a stipend for material costs or transportation.
University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life Youth Program cultivates teens' creativity, social development, and leadership, while inspiring them to make a positive difference in their community through the arts. Teens work alongside professionals to develop original work using real-world processes. All program areas—whether design/build, arts/culture administration, or performance—have a community stewardship and civic engagement focus. Programs include the Design Apprenticeship Program, Community Actors Program, and the Teen Arts Council. All programs are free, and participants are eligible to earn a monetary award. Especially engaged teens have also been hired as interns, teaching assistants, and more.
Early College Program (run by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) provides high school students with the necessary creative freedom to develop a sustained, structured dialogue between ideas and process. Mirroring the methods and practices of the contemporary artists and designers, students choose courses within focused disciplines, yet retain opportunities to freely explore across media in order to build strong skills and a portfolio that reflects their personal interests. Students can apply for financial assistance via the ECP Chicago Youth Artist Educational Fund, a needs-based merit scholarship to deserving students from Chicago Public High Schools.
Competitions & exhibitions
Illinois High School Art Exhibition (IHSAE) is a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is the advancement of visual arts education through exhibition. The organization maintains its guiding principle of a show developed by teachers, for students. The entire organization is run by full-time art educators who collaborate with corporate sponsors, art schools/colleges/universities, and participating high schools to celebrate the artistic talents of Illinois high school art students on a grand scale. Since 2014, the IHSAE has been responsible for awarding high school art students more than $30,000 in cash and prizes, facilitating 150 early college program scholarships, and connecting over 600 high school seniors to tuition scholarship offers totalling more than $50 million. To inquire about your student getting work into the IHSAE exhibitions, please contact Jon Reiman, photography teacher at Kenwood, with your questions.
All-City Arts Exhibition is a juried exhibition of Chicago Public Schools student work. Winners have their work exhibited in a gallery space in the heart of downtown Chicago, visible from the street for thousands of residents and tourists to see. Dozens of colleges offer scholarships to All-City winners each year as well.
Walgreens Expressions Challenge is a peer-to-peer based health awareness initiative for high school teens. At the core of the Expressions Challenge is an incentive based contest for teens to showcase their creative perspective on healthy lifestyle choices. The Challenge motivates participants to voice their opinion on critical life issues they face daily through creative writing, visual arts and media arts. In addition to the Challenge, the Expressions Challenge hosts annual programs including Gallery Tours and Teen Summits