On a Monday evening in March, teenagers and their parents attended an open house at the Arts + Public Life Arts Block in Washington Park. Julia Hinojosa, the associate director of education programs, and Ebere Agwuncha, the education programs manager, welcomed parents to shadow their arts-curious teens, learn more about the group’s arts education program and connect with other community organizations.
An initiative of UChicago Arts at the University of Chicago, Arts + Public Life has been providing arts education for youth since 2011. As arts organizations continue to lose funding and extreme unemployment plagues young South and West Siders, the organization’s three paid job training programs offer teens on the South Side critical professional skills to learn what it’s like to have a job in the arts.
The Backstage Production Program explores the fundamentals of theater production, the Design Apprenticeship Program helps students design and build responsive, community-based projects in wood shop, and the Teen Arts Council focuses on arts administration, community engagement and event planning.
“Our charge is not to bring the arts to the South Side of Chicago, but instead to be a hub for the vibrant arts community that already exists here on the South Side,” Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa and Agwuncha spoke to City Bureau about the impact they’ve seen the arts education programs have on young people, including one of their current teaching artists who is an alumni of the program.
To read the interview, click here.
