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Amplify: K–12 Arts Learning Programs

The Amplify Collective

Amplify is a partnership of arts and cultural organizations at the University of Chicago including Arts + Public Life, Court Theatre, Logan Center for the Arts, Oriental Institute, and Smart Museum of Art. As a collective, Amplify is developing a new model of collaboration by building a networked education community. The collective offers extensive K–12 arts programs and multi-site field trips for students, as well as professional learning opportunities for educators.

Arts + Public Life

Arts + Public Life aims to build creative connections on Chicago’s South Side through artist residencies, arts education, and artist-led projects and events. Arts + Public Life provides free, in-depth programs including the Design Apprenticeship Program, Community Actors Program, and Teen Arts Council that cultivate local teens’ creative identity, social development, and leadership growth while motivating them to make a positive difference in their community through the arts. Programs take place after school, on Saturdays, and during the summer for grades 9–12.
Contact: Quenna Barrett | quenna@uchicago.edu

Court Theatre

Court Theatre is the professional theatre of the University of Chicago, dedicated to innovation, inquiry, intellectual engagement, and community service. In addition to residency programs in select Chicago Public Schools, Court Theatre offers matinee performances for grades 9–12 on select Wednesdays during the academic year for $12 per ticket. Additional subsidies may be available for qualified organizations. Contact: Heidi Thompson Saunders | hnthomps@uchicago.edu

Oriental Institute

The Oriental Institute is a museum and research institution dedicated to promoting interest in and understanding of ancient Near Eastern civilizations. The Museum provides self-guided visits, docent-led tours, and facilitated programming for grades K–12 Tuesdays through Fridays at a cost of up to $10 a student.
Contact: Calgary Haines-Trautman | calgary@uchicago.edu

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts fosters meaningful collaboration and cultural engagement at UChicago, on the South Side, and in the city of Chicago. The Logan Center features a diverse range of interdisciplinary programs, exhibitions, and performances that engage audiences of all ages including dynamic school matinees, Family Saturdays, summer youth programs, and workshops for youth and adults. Many of these programs are presented free of charge.
Contact: Emily Hooper Lansana | elansana@uchicago.edu

Smart Museum of Art

As the fine arts museum of the University of Chicago, the Smart encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. It builds on strong partnerships to incorporate diverse ideas, identities, and experiences into its programming, while collections and exhibitions span many geographic regions and historical areas. The Smart Museum provides extensive all-expenses-paid programming for grades K–12 Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm.
Contact: Jason Pallas | jpallas@uchicago.edu


AMPLIFY’S MULTI-SITE FIELD TRIPS

The Amplify Collective offers a variety of multidisciplinary arts education opportunities for teachers and their students. During the multi-site field trips, students explore two different Amplify institutions, either during a single day on the University of Chicago campus or over the course of multiple visits. The field trips provide deeper learning experiences and broader arts exposure for students and teachers alike. These experiences offer all students the opportunity to draw connections to and explore themes across multiple art disciplines, eras, and cultures. Amplify works with individual schools to tailor the most effective schedule, engaging teachers as planning partners to help articulate connections to curricular content and increase impact on school culture.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact the organization at which you would like to begin your visit, and they will work with you to coordinate the experience. A limited number of transportation subsidies are available.


AMPLIFY'S 2019-2020 Schedule 

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
Amplify’s Professional Learning Community Programs provide a platform for educators, students, teaching artists, and administrators to workshop strategies and tactics that encourage inquiry and agency to empower students. Programs are free but registration is required. To learn more or RSVP please visit arts.uchicago.edu/amplify or contact Michael Christiano | mchristiano@uchicago.edu

Amplify Welcome Back Reception
Wed, Sep 25, 2019 | 4:30-6pm | Logan Center (915 E 60th St)
Join us for an interactive, back-to-school gathering to celebrate the start of another year of Amplify. Share food and a glass of wine as we experience the diverse arts and cultural education programs planned with Amplify organizations in 2019-2020, and enjoy a performance by musical artist Melody Angel. This event is a wonderful opportunity for teachers, teaching artists, and arts administrators to network and learn together.

Storytelling in the Classroom with Gwendolyn Hilary
Thu, Nov 14, 2019 | 4:30-6pm | Logan Center (915 E 60th St)
This workshop will explore the use of storytelling in learning spaces with a focus on adapting stories to inform, challenge, and inspire across disciplines. Whether you are a writer, storyteller, listener, or artist, this workshop will help you to explore how stories can be made and remade. 

About Gwendolyn Hilary, storyteller

Experience the awesome power of storytelling! Gwen Hilary, former educator, librarian, and television show host, tells stories that educate and entertain audiences of all ages and cultures.  Her vast repertoire includes stories on many themes but she focuses primarily on the history and folklore of African Americans. For the past 15 years, she has performed for audiences in over 300 public and private schools, libraries and institutions throughout the state and nationally.  Other venues include the Chicago Art Institute, museums, colleges, private clubs, churches, conferences as well as Storytelling Festivals. A special thrill was sharing stories in Australia at a storytelling conference held near Sydney and at a school in a village in Ghana, West Africa.

She specializes in stories that engage the audience and get them “into” stories.  Songs, chants, rhythms, and participation bring story characters to life and captivate listeners of all ages.  She often performs with Enoch Williamson, a world-renowned musician who has performed in over 30 countries. Audiences are captivated by his playing of the drums, shekere, kalimba and other instruments as Gwen unfolds stories from various cultures.

Over the past years, Gwen has been engaged with the Civil Rights Opera Project which focuses on major events in the civil rights struggle. She has portrayed various characters in Freedom Summer, Prelude to a Dream, and The Birmingham Children’s March. To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, the cast performed at Enon Baptist Church in Baltimore and Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. to rave reviews.

Past president, treasurer, and chief financial officer of ASE: The Chicago Association of Black Storytellers, Gwen is also the treasurer of the umbrella organization, The National Association of Black Storytellers. There is power in the spoken word! Visit Gwen online.

Creative Change, Growth and Transformation
Thu, Feb 20, 2020 | 4:30-6pm | Smart Museum (5550 S Greenwood Ave)
Join us for an evening of hands-on activity where we focus on the embedded history of materials, manipulation, and adaptation, and working across cultures and disciplines.  We will take inspiration from Allure of Matter, the Smart Museum’s survey exhibition of Chinese contemporary art exploring the artists’ intimate exploration of unconventional materials.  

Artifacts, Adaptations, and An Iliad at the Oriental Institute
Mon, Mar 16, 2020 | 4:30-6pm | Oriental Institute (1155 E 58th St)
Court Theater artists will lead a discussion on how teachers can make use of theatrical adaptations of classic texts in the classroom using the Court’s site-specific staging of An Iliad in the Oriental Institute Museum as a jumping off point. Teachers will put these ideas in practice by drawing inspiration from the Museum and its collections of over 5,000 artifacts spanning 10,000 years of history. 

Amplify Year-end Appreciation Party
Tue, Jun 2, 2020 | 4:30-6pm | Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 East Garfield Blvd)
Join us as teachers and artists connect to share our creative accomplishments and toast the end of the school year. This will be an interactive evening with live performance, networking, food, and fun!

 

Sign up for Amplify emails (select the K-12 Educators list). You can learn about other opportunities and programs for K-12 arts education here.

 

Amplify Collaborative Programs

Professional Learning Community Programs

A platform for educators, students, teaching artists, and administrators to learn and share strategies and tactics that encourage inquiry, ensure agency, and empower students to find their voice.

Multi-Site Field Trips

Spend an art-filled day at the University of Chicago! The Amplify partners offer a variety of high-quality performance and visual arts education opportunities for teachers and their school classes.

CoCre8

A collaborative effort to create an innovative creative learning community for teachers, teaching artists, teens, and artists across Arts + Public Life, the Logan Center, the Smart Museum, and Urban Gateways to look at, talk about, and make art.

CONTACT

Michael Christiano
Director of Education and Interpretation
Smart Museum of Art
mchristiano@uchicago.edu
773.702.2351

Emily Hooper Lansana
Associate Director
Arts Engagement
Arts + Public Life and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
elansana@uchicago.edu
773.834.3938

Arts + Public Life

ABOUT

Arts + Public Life offers in-depth programs that cultivate teens' creativity, social development, and leadership, while inspiring them to make a positive difference in their community through the arts. Participants work alongside professionals to develop teen-driven projects that address real-world problems and create opportunities for peers and neighbors. Programs are free or paid opportunities that level up over time to challenge and support dedicated teens’ pursuit of careers in the arts—at and beyond APL.

Design Apprenticeship Program

A design-based mentorship and skills building initiative that encourages teens and young adults to invest in improving their communities’ physical and social conditions. By developing skills in carpentry, landscaping, and design, these young leaders aid in the positive transformation of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and the Garfield Boulevard corridor.

Community Actors Program

An introductory performance program utilizing Theater of the Oppressed, participatory theater, and performance as tools for community building and social change. Sixteen teens work together to create theater productions and related events responding to a community issue or specific site.

Teen Arts Council

A group of student leaders who collaborate with the Arts + Public Life initiative to develop creative skills, leadership experience, and opportunities for their peers to engage with the arts. The Council members work with university staff and local partners to develop projects at the intersection of arts administration and community engagement.

Intergenerational Theater of the Oppressed

The Intergenerational Theatre of The Oppressed Project (ITOP) seeks to offer a safe, welcoming and creative environment for participants across the spectrum of age to engage in a community discovery process through the medium of theater. Specifically, this program utilizes exercises and techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed canon to allow participants to examine and analyze real-life issues and situations through theater, image-making, and play.

CONTACT

Quenna Barrett
Education Programs Manager
Arts + Public Life
quenna@uchicago.edu
773.834.0224

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Court Theatre

ABOUT

Court Theatre views the arts as a vital catalyst for intellectual and emotional growth. Our education programs open up a dialogue between students, educators, administrators, and artists that offers fresh perspectives on classic theatre and on Court’s main stage work.

High School Matinee Program

Bringing classic theatre to Chicago-area high school students through discounted weekday performances of Court's main stage productions. Each performance is enhanced by pre-performance study guides and post-show discussions with members of the cast and artistic staff.

Artists in the Schools Program

Annual partnership with several south side high schools that enhances existing theater arts programs or implements programs where none exist through in-class artist residencies by professional actors, directors, and designers; free tickets to Court’s Student Matinees; and performance workshops, culminating in the annual High School Performance Festival.

CONTACT

Heidi Thompson Saunders
Managing Director, Court Theatre
hsaunders@uchicago.edu
773.702.5414

Oriental Institute

ABOUT

The Oriental Institute offers a mix of events and activities, including gallery tours, travel programs, hands-on workshops for children and families, exclusive members' programs, lectures, and rigorous adult education courses. The Oriental Institute is dedicated to engaging visitors of all ages and backgrounds with ancient cultures and the arts.

Guided Tours and Group Programming

Meaningful and enriching K–12 student learning experience through the Oriental Institute’s renowned collections of artifacts from the ancient Middle East (10,000 BC – AD 650), including objects from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syro-Anatolia, Israel, Iran, and Nubia.

Oriental Institute Teacher Professional Development Workshop Series

Teacher Professional Development Workshop Series

Youth and Family Programming

Exciting hands-on workshops the whole family can enjoy.

Educator Pass Benefits

K-12 educators receive special membership rates.

CONTACTS

Calgary Haines-Trautman
Youth & Family Program Manager
Oriental Institute
calgary@uchicago.edu
773.702.1158

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

ABOUT

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts fosters meaningful collaboration and cultural engagement at UChicago, on the South Side, and in the city
of Chicago. The Logan Center features a diverse range of interdisciplinary programs, exhibitions, and performances that engage audiences of all ages including school matinees, Family Saturdays, summer camps, and workshops for youth and adults. Many of these programs are presented free of charge.

2019/20 Logan Center School Matinee Season

Matinee performance series offering diverse performances for K–12 youth developed through partnerships with UChicago Presents, the Office of Civic Engagement, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, and others.

Logan Center Family Saturdays

A monthly series of workshop days and quarterly full-day Family Saturday Festivals in Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Family Saturday Festivals include special guest performers, film screenings, drop-in activities, art workshops, and more for ages 2–12.

The University of Chicago Presents: Jazz at the Logan

Inspiring the next generation of Jazz musicians by inviting students and teachers from schools that participate in the Jazz Links Jazz Masters Residency and students in the Jazz Links Youth Ensemble and Jazz Links Student Council to concerts and artist conversations in the Jazz at the Logan Series. In addition, each year, the Logan Center and Jazz Institute of Chicago invite students and teachers from schools that participate in the Jazz Links Jazz Masters Residency to an exclusive school matinee performance of master musicians.

Think It, Make It, Screen It

A summer filmmaking program for ages 12 and up, co-presented by the Logan Center, Arts + Public Life, and Faithful Few

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts Young Critics Program focuses on providing a platform for students to critically examine performances presented in our school matinee program and to craft valuable and engaging written responses. The program pairs teaching artists with teachers and 5th–8th grade students. With the support and guidance of teachers and teaching artists, participants create blog posts reflecting on their experiences witnessing artistic performances, portraying the unique perspective of each student.

CONTACT

Emily Hooper Lansana
Associate Director
Community Arts Engagement
Arts + Public Life and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
elansana@uchicago.edu
773.834.3938

Dominique L. Boyd
Arts + Public Life and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
dominiquelboyd@uchicago.edu
773.702.5146

Smart Museum of Art

ABOUT

As an intimate museum for bold encounters with art, the Smart Museum is home to thought-provoking exhibitions and an exquisite collection that opens the world through art and ideas. From highly accessible, plug-and-play options to highly customized programming, the Smart Museum wants to be a partner in making the arts exciting and engaging for your students. All of our programs are FREE. And for CPS schools, we can coordinate and cover the costs of bus transportation.

Smart Museum Tours

We can welcome up to 45 students at a time for docent-led, inquiry-based explorations through our galleries. We will work in close consultation with you to ensure that the nature and timing of the tour best meets your needs.

Professional Development

Designed for educators and teaching artists, professional development workshops explore how arts-based practices can best support learning in, and out, of the classroom.

Smart Museum Family Days

Held on the first Saturday of every month, the Smart’s free family activities are designed to inspire children to think about and respond creatively to art and the world around them.

CONTACT

Jason Pallas
Manager of Community Engagement and Arts Learning
Smart Museum of Art
jpallas@uchicago.edu
773.702.0180

Michael Christiano
Director of Education and Interpretation
Smart Museum of Art
mchristiano@uchicago.edu
773.702.2351

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INITIATIVES

Arts + Public Life
Arts, Science & Culture Initiative
Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry
Hack Arts Lab (HAL)
Logan Center for the Arts
Public Art on Campus

PROFESSIONAL

Contempo
Court Theatre
The Renaissance Society
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Smart Museum of Art
University of Chicago Presents

UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Cinema and Media Studies
Committee on Creative Writing
Committee on Theater and Performance Studies
Department of Art History
Department of Music
Department of Visual Arts
Master of Arts Program in the Humanities
Program in Poetry and Poetics
Grants & Funding Opportunities

STUDENT ARTS

Arts Pass
Chicago Review
Department of Music Performance Programs
International House
Student Arts Groups (CLI)
Student Community Groups (UCSC)
TAPS Student Performing Groups
UChicago Careers in Journalism, Arts, and Media (UCIJAM)

RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP

Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition
Court Theatre's Center for Classic Theatre
DOVA-OPC
Film Studies Center
Franke Institute for the Humanities
Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society
The Oriental Institute
Place Lab
STAGE (Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration)
The Writer's Studio (Graham School)
The University of Chicago Library

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