Transforming the Arts + Minds of Chicago, One Student at a Time

In the scope of pre-professional arts programs, ChiArts is the only arts high school in the nation that actively recruits novice students. Novice students have little to no prior training in their art form. On average, 68% of ChiArts incoming classes are novice level. By prioritizing novice students from all Chicago’s 50 wards, and offering four years of intensive, Foundation-funded arts training, ChiArts uniquely supports a more equitable model of arts education that directly removes financial and geographic barriers to entry.

ChiArts opened in 2009 as Chicago’s first public arts high school. It is the city’s only high school offering tuition-free pre-professional training in the arts. ChiArts engages students from 8 AM-5 PM, including three hours of Foundation-funded arts education from 2-5 PM, and an additional one to four hours of practice or rehearsal per day. ChiArts has five Foundation-funded arts conservatories, and scholar-artists are dedicated to one chosen conservatory. The conservatories include Music (Vocal or Instrumental), Theatre (Musical Theatre or Acting), Visual Arts, Creative Writing, and Dance. ChiArts pre-professional arts instruction is led by working artists and arts educators from Chicago and beyond. The Foundation funds all salaries for ChiArts’ 85+ teaching artists and arts leadership. 

ChiArts scholar-artists represent all 50 wards of our robust and diverse city. 2023 data shows 38% of scholar-artists identify as Hispanic; 34% Black;16% White;10% multiracial/unlisted; 2% Asian. More than 50% of ChiArts scholar-artists come from low-income families.  

ChiArts seeks to create a model of arts and academic instruction that serves the specific needs of its diverse student body. ChiArts strives to treat each student as an individual and understand the stories they bring with them to school. ChiArts prioritizes building meaningful and positive relationships with students and creating a courageous space that fosters the exchange of ideas, beliefs, viewpoints, and important conversations. ChiArts endeavors to engender a greater sense of belonging and ownership for its students and emphasizes, “The school doesn’t belong to our adults, it belongs to our scholar-artists.” ChiArts leads with practices that are trauma-informed, anti-racist, and restorative, as well as ChiArts Core Values, embedded throughout the everyday curriculum.

The five-day event connects scholar-artists to post-secondary opportunities with support from a range of well-loved local colleges, to nationally acclaimed universities, to conservatory training programs. Highlights include: a masterclass with the Music Director of Hamilton on Broadway, audition workshops with local universities such as Northwestern and DePaul, one-on-one portfolio reviews, professional development panels from working artists, and evening performances throughout the week.

To support an inclusive environment within the school, anti-racism/anti-bias teaching practices, trauma-informed instruction, and restorative justice practices are central to ChiArts’ approach to professional development. ChiArts staff receive training on trauma-informed practices, utilizing the ACES model, anti-racism/anti-bias education through ChiArts’ partnership with Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training, and extensive training on building out restorative practices. ChiArts has focused much of their efforts on helping staff develop self awareness, as well as understanding and defining “privilege,” systems of oppression, and the norms by which we have been socialized. In an effort to support this work, ChiArts has established an Anti-Racism Working Group with staff across the building, to discuss and examine school policies and procedures.

The Foundation-funded ChiArts Alumni Network supports alumni professional growth while also continuing to build a community for meaningful alumni connection with the ChiArts family at large. We empower alumni voices to guide our work. Through alumni insight and collaboration, we create programs aligned with the current alumni community’s needs, interests, and values. Current programs include, the Alumni Ambassadors, exclusive apprenticeships and internship opportunities, an online networking platform at chiartsalumni.org, and arts partner performance opportunities. To read more about the Foundation’s newly developed alumni programs, click here.