Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education

In this issue of the CAPE Network Forum Newsletter, we are excited to celebrate the newest after-school partnership between CAPE and West Chicago School District 33. What began as an idea from CAPE teaching artist and resident of West Chicago, Anni Holm, has now blossomed into a robust inquiry-based arts integrated after-school program serving over 350 students and community members across four schools.

From early conversations beginning in the summer of 2020, to the navigation of complex federal and state grant management systems, to the kick-off of programming in January of 2021, this program is testament to the power of partnership in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAPE is grateful to Anni Holm for making the initial connection, District 33 leadership’s openness to expanding their after-school program, and Hannah Martin, CAPE’s West Chicago Program Coordinator, who is doing incredible work behind-the-scenes to make the whole program function. CAPE is also grateful for the incredible creativity and energies of all the West Chicago teachers, staffers, and the many new CAPE artists who have made this all possible and greatly expanded CAPE’s Network of Artist/Researchers.

Below you will find the perspectives of Joie Frankovich, District 33’s Coordinator of Partnerships, Yaritza, a fifth grade student at Currier Elementary, and documentation of in-process work from many of the online classes transpiring in West Chicago.

— Joseph Spilberg

Interview with Joie Frankovich, District 33’s Coordinator of Partnerships

Tell us the story of your relationship to CAPE and how this partnership came to fruition.

I'm the Coordinator of Partnerships with District 33. The district has had a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant for eons, and for the last 10 years of that grant, we worked with a somewhat local partner, and they were always our applicant on it. With COVID-19, they felt that the program was no longer aligned with their mission and chose to step away from the grant. That left us needing to find a new co-applicant.

We reached out to a lot of different organizations and just tried to put feelers out there because it's a fairly hefty grant. I mean, there's a lot of red tape and a lot of requirements, and an organization needs to have capacity to do it. We actually had a lot of organizations turn us down because we were in the middle of a pandemic, and all these organizations are just doing their best to stay afloat, the same that the school district was.

Anni Holm, who I know is a CAPE teaching artist and a District 33 parent and staff member, had always raved about CAPE as an organization and the kind of the model that CAPE uses. She had sent a connecting email to Joseph and me just saying let's see if there's anything that can come from it.

So I reached out to Joseph. I just said, “You mentioned you're looking to expand your reach. You're looking to be in more suburbs. You’ve worked with 21st CCLC grants. Are you interested in being our co-applicant and seeing if we can figure something out?” And Joseph said yes immediately.

I think ISBE approved of the grant on January 18th. So in six months, we created a budget, and we put a program together. Then the program started running February 1st!

What does collaboration look like for District 33?

I think the relationship between District 33 and CAPE has already started with an intention to be collaborative from the very beginning. I remember when Joseph and I were first talking, one of the big things that I was focused on was the fact that the district still wants to work with other partners. How do we blend other organizations and people into this program?

It's just kind of this constant throwing ideas out there and saying, What makes sense? How can we work together? We've been working with a lot of our local partners to the park district, the library, some help from some of our local health partners, and finding ways to embed really collaborative family opportunities on top of the traditional kind of classroom stuff that's going to happen in the afternoon, spring, and summer programming. And it's been absolutely wonderful.

For the future, I just envision this continuing to expand and really grow, because we only really started in February with Joseph. I have been referring to this semester as our pilot, like, let's just go for it. Let's see how it goes. Let's learn lessons. And then for next year, we can really think about how we build this out even more, make it more robust.

And for us, when we talk about collaboration, a lot of times what we talk about is that often, whether it's education, nonprofit organizations, people are asked to do so much more than what they should have to do. And a lot of times it's beyond the scope of their position. Teachers are being asked to be counselors.

For us, these collaborations are really about bringing in everyone’s expertise and passions. Really work together so we can just do the things we're good at and let others do the things they're good at so that together we're really working towards those goals. CAPE has this beautiful model, inquiry based arts integration. So CAPE tells us how that looks, because you have that expertise. District 33 has some other expertise. How do we work together to create something really beautiful for students? I mean it's all about the students and families in the end. So how do we work together to create something that's really special for them? It’s been just incredible how open and ready everyone's been to just say, OK, let's figure this out. Let's be creative. Let's bounce ideas back and forth. And we just make it work. And it's pretty awesome to have a partner who's just has a bent towards wanting to operate that way.

Family Night is where the community’s families come together and share out what they’ve been learning in CAPE programs. CAPE has hosted a few Family Night events over the spring semester. How does Family Night serve the district?

Students don't exist in isolation. They are a family unit in some way, shape, or form. It looks different for everyone, but you're a part of something larger. If you want to support students, our belief is you need to be supporting the guardians or the adults or whoever else is in that home with reaching their goals and removing barriers for those folks.

We do a lot of activities and events where we try and bring families together to do shared learning or just have shared experiences together. For example, we offer ESL classes for parents and guardians. And in the evenings we know that often child care could be a hindrance for them to be able to attend. We also offer a child development program for the children of parents and ESL class where the children are doing their own learning.

The other big thing we really focus on is this idea of doing things with families and communities, not doing them to families and communities, and really providing opportunity for families to say, this is what I want this to look like, or this is how I think you should be. And not just assuming we know better because we're, I don't know, an organization or professionals or whatever.

So the Family Nights that we've had so far, it was amazing. I mean, I think I shed tears a couple of times. So cool to see and particularly knowing everything's been virtual for us this whole time. Yeah, I still see the impact that's happened in the relationships that have been built has just been phenomenal. It really gives an opportunity for parents to be able to kind of get that insider view of the program, and also a chance for students to just show off, show their parents what they did, and ask, How cool is this? And I really enjoyed being able to see the teaching artists and our district staff show off, too, because they were doing a lot of the sharing. It's just so incredible.

I think down the road, what would be amazing is that when we have these events in person, hopefully in the near future, that they also are really embedded in the community, too. So people have an opportunity to really learn more about West Chicago and the community that they live in and contribute to. So it's really supporting a broader community engagement too, not just that inner family engagement.

Student interview with Yaritza, a fifth grader at Currier Elementary School

Why did you join CAPE after school?

Because I like after school programs and theater. It's fun learning more stuff after school.

How is this after school like class and environment different than what you do during the school day?

It's different from the school day because I get to move around a lot more and play more and have more fun than just sitting there and writing notes.

Can you describe to me what kinds of things you've been doing in this class (Life Out Loud!)?

We play fun games. And we have time to spend quality time with other kids, and draw everyday. We do theater games and create stories and fun scenes. And we write some of our ideas down.

What is something that you hope to do with the class before the school year is over?

One thing that I like to do with the class before the class is over is do the puppet shows we’ve started. And learn more games.

If you were to tell someone of the kids at your school, a reason to join CAPE after school programs or this after school program, what would you say?

I like doing after school programs because it gives you more time to spend time with other kids and not be on the on your screen, and to create things on your own with artists.

At Gary Elementary School, students show off their trolls before the mischievous creatures run away, led by artists Anni Holm and Buddy Plumlee and teacher Jacqueline Neidhardt.

Students at Leman Middle School share their Alebrijes and masks inspired by traditional Mexican art, led by artist Sarita Garcia and teacher Carlos Osorio.

From Jennifer Mannebach

From Tim Rey & Melanie Ruiz of North-Grand High School

‘Get to a place of problem solving’ -Writer/ performer , McArthur ‘genius grant’ winner, Anna Deveare-Smith, on writing new plays

Students from Intonation Music and North-Grand High School CAPE After School Music Club met via Google Meets on Friday, March 5th, 2021 as part of DCASE’s Year of Chicago Music Youth Music Exchange program.

Offered in partnership with schools, park districts, and community organizations, Intonation Music’s year-round classes make music accessible to youth by providing them with instruments, instruction, mentorship, and the chance to perform on stages across the city. Today’s exchange group was led by Alex Wing and Uriah Gunn. You can explore Intonation’s bandcamp here: https://intonationmusicworkshop.bandcamp.com/ 

NGHS CAPE After School Music Club centers experimentation and collaboration in their music-making. The Music Club is led by NGHS Social Studies Teacher Michelle Livas and Interdisciplinary Sound Artist Nick Meryhew. The Music Club created a mixtape earlier in the year, which you can find here: https://nghsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pog-through-the-pain 

The youth groups took the time to share all the work that they’ve been working on. Intonation Music shared the music that they’ve been creating and even a podcast episode based on King Kong vs. Godzilla. The Music Club shared a few songs that they’ve individually created and a spoken word piece about quarantine. 

Students expressed the importance of music. One student shared, “I’m a person that wants to have their voice heard and make a difference.” Another student stated that, “Music is an escape to everything that’s going on.” 

These spaces of collaboration allow students to learn new skills and experiment with creating their own work for themselves. Miguel C. stated, “I’ve learned a lot, talking to people. I’ve learned with Nick’s help how to take parts of songs and use it. And I’ve learned how to use the software...It’s working well so far. I love this experience, meeting all these wonderful new people.”

CAPE Dialogue: What is Publicness? took place on February 4, 2021, from 4:00​ PM–6:00 PM CST. 

 Abbéy Odunlami Ph.D. is a cultural theorist and curator specializing in contemporary urban history and visual culture. He lectures on urbanism and critical theory in the Contemporary Practices & Photography Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Odunlami’s research analyzes the socio-political nature of urban societies and infrastructures by analyzing the paradoxical nature of the avant-garde, hierarchical structures within conspicuous consumption practices, and postcolonial globality. Through this work, he examines the interdependencies that form conditions that produce the techne of and inform the built environment. 

 Sanaz Sohrabi (b. 1988, Tehran) is a research-based artist, filmmaker, and essayist. Her work at large engages with the politics of recovery in photographic archives and the role of photography and film as technologies of public-making and subject positioning. Navigating the archival condition vis-à-vis the image dispositif, Sohrabi’s work seeks to unearth and map the superstructures wherein ideological formations emerge as nodes and spaces of spectatorship, visuality, and erasure. Since 2017, she has embarked on an expansive artistic research project which traces the colonial legacies of petroleum industrial complex in Iran and their entanglement to a wide array of representational mediums, such as architecture and the built environment, photography, film, and visual media. 

CAPE After School PD Poetry Performance

On January 13th and 14th of 2021, CAPE After School hosted a professional development centered around Toni Morrison's artistic practice. We were inspired by her emphasis on narrative and cultural capital, especially in her novel, The Bluest Eye, and interpretations of it. The CAPE After School program staff asked the teachers and artists to create and perform a poem using only 10 of the following words: 

 “Our house is old, cold, and green. At night a kerosene lamp lights one large room. The others are braced in darkness, peopled by roaches and mice. Adults do not talk to us -- they give us directions. They issue orders without providing information. When we trip and fall down they glance at us; if we cut or bruise ourselves, they ask us are we crazy. When we catch colds, they shake their heads in disgust at our lack of consideration. How, they ask us, do you expect anybody to get anything done if you all are sick? We cannot answer them. Our illness is treated with contempt, foul Black Draught, and castor oil that blunts out minds.” 

 “They are very happy. See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane?  See Mother. Mother is very nice. Mother, will you play with Jane? See Father. He is big and strong. Father will you play with Jane? Father is smiling. Smile, Father, smile. See the dog. Bowwow goes the dog. Do you want to play with Jane?” 

CAPE Dialogue: What is a Network?

The film “Muffin” from our very own Dyett High School’s film class, led by Ernest Whiteman III and Lashawn Cox, was chosen for the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center’s Youth Diversity Film Festival. The festival will be screening on our www.bherc.tv on Saturday, January 16, 2021 starting at 10 AM. The festival will run through January 31, 2021 ending at 5:00pm.

 Instagram: instagram.com/bhercdotorg Twitter: twitter.com/bhercdotorg  Facebook:   www.facebook.com/blackhollywood

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As part of the second Youth Music Exchange event, a DCASE initiative for the Year of Chicago Music curated by CAPE, classes from the Old Town School of Folk Music (OTS) and Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO) met via Zoom on Tuesday, December 2, 2020. The event consisted of a series of small breakout sessions to engage their students in a deeper dialogue about music and their communities.

Founded in 1957, the Old Town School of Folk Music teaches and celebrates music and cultural expressions rooted in the traditions of diverse American and global communities. CYSO provides music education to more than 650 young musicians ages 6-18 through full and string orchestras, jazz, steel, chamber music, masterclasses, and music composition. Both organizations serve students from neighborhoods across Chicago.

OTS and CYSO met prior to the event to create questions that their students could answer in smaller breakout groups. Questions ranged from basic introductions, such as their name and instrument they play, to more complex dialogue, such as discussing the cultural origins of their favorite pieces of music. These questions were able to facilitate conversations among youth from different organizations, genres, and musical backgrounds. 

Many students excitedly shared their fascination for the new types of instruments they learned about from this event, such as the banjo and the mandolin. Students also shared their desire to learn new instruments, as one student stated, “All three of us [in the breakout room] actually want to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. That was pretty cool.” 

Other students appreciated just having the time to connect to other young musicians, whether it was specifically focused on music dialogue or not. One student stated that their favorite part of this event was when they would “talk about random stuff,” and that they have “missed people in 2020.” This excitement was felt by all members and CAPE staff who participated in this event. Thank you to the Old Town School of Folk Music and Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra for not only participating in the Youth Music Exchange event, but also for creating an environment so conducive to sharing stories and building community across genres and neighborhoods. 

CAPE Dialogue: What is a Classroom?

In this session, panelists will deconstruct classroom and learning space as phenomena, examining such topics as home and neighborhood space, indigenous concepts of learning space, space as described by mapping and textiles, emotionality and contexts of learning, and design thinking for learning environments. The panel will include Gustavo Jardim, artist and educator in Brazil and Chicago; Bianca Castillero, M.A., art educator and artist based in Mexico City; Dr. Juana Reyes, Assistant Professor, College of Education and Social Sciences at Lewis University; and Dr. Erica Halverson, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The panel will be moderated by Scott Sikkema, Education Director, CAPE.

The following are guidelines and recommendations from CAPE teachers and artists for the 2020-2021 school year. The CAPE Network Response: Remote Learning School Year 2020-2021 serves as an operational stance for our pedagogy and aesthetics in this period. Teacher and artist responses, queries, position statements, and advice are grouped into the following categories: space (and time); collaboration; family learning; emergent and student-centered curriculum; thriving. The statements contained in each category come directly from CAPE teacher and artist voice.

Space (and Time)

Boone Elementary - 6th Grade Language Arts and Visual Arts

- This school year is an opportunity to deconstruct the classroom and co-construct new forms and concepts of educational spaces. 

- Virtual space is new for everyone, and it is a chance to rethink how we define valuable knowledge. 

- Especially in the context of COVID-19, we need to remember that each school and each classroom are different sites unto themselves. We need to rid ourselves of assumptions and listen and attune ourselves to our students. 

- We should not just automatically accept the term “safe space,” until we know what kind of safety we are talking about. Physical? Mental? Creative? Legal? Can all spaces be safe for all people? 

- Overemphasizing or distorting the notion of “safe space” may disavow uncertainty; teaching, learning, and art making are propelled by uncertainty. 

- Model the possibilities of learning in the critical spaces of the virtual world. 

- Identify unexpected ways students can and do bond in the virtual space. 

- Think about engaging unexpected spaces. A gallery on the porch, a book exchange on the front lawn. Dinner on the front lawn! 

- Remote learning slows instruction, but how can we use this slowing down to students' advantage? Bring it down, let it breathe, and don't work so rapidly. The contradiction of the technological/internet space is that information is immediate, but the time it takes for students to absorb is longer. 

- Students can do the making later; it does not always have to be at the moment—much like projects at Reggio Emilia where students can come back to projects over time, as they choose. 

- As we deconstruct the classroom, we should also rethink the concept of the school day. 

- Don’t be afraid of silent/empty space.

Collaboration

- A new teacher and artist commented that they were struggling with inquiry. When they were meeting, the first thought was, "We have to discuss curricula!" But then they thought, “Hey wait let’s learn about each other!” And that’s what led to real inquiry.

“We are so driven that we forget we need space and time to hear each other. Forming inquiry and projects didn’t seem so heavy a task when we stopped and listened to each other.”

- Planning time between artist and teacher is more important than ever, especially weekly check-ins because of the constant evolution of the situation we are in.

- Take the edge off of capitalism: don’t worry about others using your ideas. Instead, how can we benefit from one another?

- There are new opportunities for collaborations in remote programs, for professional, causal interactions (following remote guidelines).

- We have to continue to speak freely, without fear of repercussion. 

- Virtual field trips to other classes in other regions of the city are a possibility to consider and explore. 

- Listening is important, and listening is improvisational.

Family Learning

Waters Elementary School - Family Learning Project

- How can we rethink and open up who is invited to participate in the program? Some parent programs have brought in siblings living in other countries and re-established family connections.

- Parents can be linked remotely to other parents in a student program and respond to children’s work (beyond their own children). 

- Siblings always want to come in and see what is happening. So how can we approach that across grade bands? We need to try virtually getting their personal space/family space in a flow together. Family support can be encouraged as the student shares the physical learning and living space with an adult caregiver before, during, and after instruction. This may lead to engagement in the creation of an artistic result or reflection after the fact, which is still engagement, but a little more difficult to measure.

- Understanding a student and family’s condition is not easy. Yet, creating moments of listening to how they are doing each time we meet them is important.

Emergent and Student-Centered Curriculum

- We need to be experimenting in front of them. We need to continuously show that failure is okay and generative. We all need “failure stamina.”

- Perseverance means encouraging trying new things continuously at this time, being fine if it works or not, and showing them we adults are doing this stuff too!- We need to see innovating as a necessity.

- Our curriculums should focus on Big Ideas that overtly engage empathy.

- Model and engage curiosity about change, unknowing/uncertainty, and fluidity (with gentleness and warmth).

- Introspection and empathy are two Big Ideas that are essential now.- We should always be linking to the self and exploring the self.

- Ask questions about what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable in their environments.

- We need to build experiences with small groups.

- Specific to racial injustice. No matter what the age, the kids are aware of what is going on. They have feelings. They want to talk about it—we can’t ignore it.

- Students can think about what they can do for social justice and fighting racism right now. They have to spell out their frustrations into a creation.

- We need to trust kids are aware of what is going on and then help them to direct it into something where they take ownership.

- Step one is acknowledging, and step two is seeing what we have to share with each other.

Thriving

- Continue to push the envelope of approaches to learning.

- CAPE professional developments last year focused on openness: remaining open to possibilities, what we want to explore, what students want, openness of interpretation and meaning—we need to continue with openness more than ever.

- Be encouraging. Be consistent.

- CAPE is demonstrating wonderful tools to stay connected and persistent by keeping opportunities to explore artistic expressions along with and beyond academic subjects. So stimulating students with creativity and hope and expanding possibilities through technology (for now) is encouraging.- Hold precious CAPE’s commitment to time and space for the network to rethink and re-evaluate what makes CAPE function.

- “I NEED HOPE!”

- Three things needed to thrive as teacher/artist teams: rest, research, and socializing.

- Remember that we all find different ways to get by, and touch on joy, but we are not fine or okay.

- Now is a time to seal the hatches and plan on what our options will be to reemerge. Maybe that’s what this conversation is. Maybe this is a time to take stock and really understand our students and what their challenges are. 

- The CAPE professional developments and the CAPE Network have been places where unexpected friendships and collaborations happen in the spaces and times provided. Can we continue that remotely?

Conclusion

No one plan, edict, or guide can capture what could or should happen for any or all classrooms engaged in arts partnerships during remote learning. Instead, the stances taken by CAPE teachers and artists in this document evidence a commitment to locating what they believe in about learning, teaching, and art making as professionals and as partners in this time of challenge. Examining our beliefs together as we navigate and investigate uncertainty is a way to sustain our partnerships and our network.

For a final word, we turn to CAPE artist Tim Rey, who was not able to attend the meeting, but sent us these thoughts:

“What was learned via COVID -19 instruction?

       - Adaptability pays off

       - Students can thrive in a virtual environment

       - Teachers and artists can instruct in a virtual environment

       - Emotions and artistic disciplines can be relayed via the virtual world.”

Teacher Dana Osterlin and Artist, Timothy Rey invited 4th through 8th Grade students to explore images from the acclaimed  photo collection by Richard Renaldi TOUCHING STRANGERS. In this collections,  the photographer approached diverse subjects in public who did not know each other (Pre-COVID)  and asked them to pose in a portrait. Upon viewing the photos, students were then asked to 'step into the shoes' of some of the people photographed and create a short biography of them. Where did they work? How old were they? Are they married? Have a partner? Single? What did they say when the photographer approached them? Finally, students were asked to replicate the photo with whatever props and costuming they had around their house. 

Here is information on the Touching Strangers collection of original photos. Stay tuned for the student's interpretations.