We’re excited to welcome all scholar-artists and staff back to Augusta Boulevard. Below is our school-wide calendar for the upcoming year. Our production calendar will be released this fall, stay tuned!
2022-2023_ChiArtsSchoolCalendar
For the first time ever Chicago’s brightest marquee names will light up Navy Pier…
ChiArts is thrilled to announce the ChiArts Jazz Combo will be performing at Chicago Live Again!, Navy Pier’s two-day festival of free outdoor performances from more than 40 of Chicago’s brightest cultural icons, all performing in one place for the very first time. We are honored to join the ranks of performers from Broadway in Chicago, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Second City, the Lyric Opera and many more!
Join us in celebrating the return of live performance and the brilliant artists—onstage and backstage—finally doing what they do best. All performances are live and free on September 24 and 25 at Navy Pier. The ChiArts Jazz Combo will be performing on Saturday, September 25 at 4:30 PM on the Navy Pier Lake Stage located south of the pier in Polk Bros Park. Huge congratulations to ChiArts Jazz Combo musicians, Jay Cebrero on bass, Leo Milano on saxophone, Austin Nichols on piano, and Chase Wilkins on drums. Visit Navy Pier’s website linked here for more information regarding the schedule, COVID protocols, and admire our amazing ChiArts Jazz Combo featured on the homepage!
Chicago Live Again! will also provide masterclasses to ChiArts scholar-artists from professionals at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Hubbard Street Dance. We are grateful for the opportunities Navy Pier has provided to showcase our scholar-artists’ talent and help grow their pre-professional training.
To learn more about ChiArts’ involvement in Chicago Live Again!, read our press release here.
See ChiArts Artistic Director Tina Boyer Brown on ABC 7’s Chicago Live Again! feature here.
ChiArts’ end-of-year production series CURTAIN CALL launches tomorrow Thursday, May 13. The graduating class of our Creative Writing Conservatory will premiere an original reading-within-a-play! This performance will spotlight both the seniors’ individual accomplishments as writers as well as their strength in collaboration.
PRODUCTION SUMMARY
The year is 2031. ChiArts’ 2021 graduating class of creative writers is celebrating their ten-year reunion by gathering across the globe via Google Meet. They have all seen incredible success in their chosen fields, and they’re meeting to read some of their best works to each other, to share their gifts and reminisce about the olden days. But as the reading begins, things start to go wrong. The writers get strange alerts on their phone that seem to suggest that — can it be?! — the world is ending. What will they do in these dire straits?
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON CHIARTS’ PRODUCTION WEBSITE STARTING MAY 13
DOWNLOAD ON GUMROAD STARTING MAY 13, CODE: CLASSOF2021
UPCOMING CURTAIN CALL SHOWS
Curtain Call, Dance: May 27, 2021
Senior Showcase Online Exhibition: May 28, 2021 (Curtain Call, Visual Arts)
Curtain Call, Instrumental: June 2, 2021
Curtain Call, Voice: June 3, 2021
Curtain Call, Musical Theatre: June 11, 2021
ChiArts is here to support our scholar-artists, families, and staff as much as possible during our closure due to COVID-19. This page includes resources from CPS and lists the most up-to-date school-wide communications sent to all ChiArts families via email.
APRIL 20, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for the Remote Learning FAQ
APRIL 17, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for Statement from CPS Office of Communications; click here for Statement from Principal and Assistant Principal
APRIL 6, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for the Remote Learning Plan
APRIL 1, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for the district’s updated meal distribution plan beginning April 6, 2020
MARCH 31, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for announcement regarding prolonged school closure through April 30, 2020; haz clic aquí para español
MARCH 22, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for faculty communication schedules
MARCH 19, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for announcement regarding school closure until April 21, 2020
MARCH 18, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for ISBE Guidance Regarding Grading
MARCH 16, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for Official School Policy & Procedure
MARCH 6, 2020 UPDATE: Click here for overview of ChiArts/CPS guidelines for COVID-19
JULY 17, 2020 UPDATE:
Click here for CPS Reopening Framework Press Release
Click here for Preliminary Reopening Framework Packet
AUGUST 5, 2020 UPDATE:
ChiArts will now be starting the upcoming school year in a Remote Learning model. CPS CEO Dr. Jackson announced this morning that the RL model will run through the end of fall quarter, November 6 2020, and then transition to a Hybrid model.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 UPDATE:
Welcome to the first day of online school!
Click here for ChiArts Remote Learning Guide.
+ For academic specific questions, please contact your teacher directly or Ms. Cullen, Assistant Principal.
+ For arts conservatory related questions, please contact your Arts Heads directly or Ms. Boyer Brown, Artistic Director.
CPS FREE MEAL PROGRAM: All students are provided free meals at CPS school locations. Every student in the household will receive a food bag which will contain three days of breakfast and lunch meals. Families can pick up meals at the district school that’s closest to them Monday through Friday, between 9 AM and 1 PM. ChiArts is not a pick-up location for meals, click here to find your nearest school.
For more information from Chicago Public Schools, read this Frequently Asked Questions document.
It has recently come to our attention that the 2018-2019 Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) report card wrongly lists ChiArts as one of the lowest performing schools in the state. Specifically, the report incorrectly states that ChiArts has a 2.2% graduation rate, which is grossly inaccurate. We know that 98.5% (132 out of 134 students) of our 2019 senior class graduated by the end of this summer. ISBE reports from the past five years consistently note much higher stats for our school and a commendable designation, and CPS ranks ChiArts as one of the top high schools in the city.
We are actively and urgently working with ISBE and CPS to uncover the data problem and to ensure that it is corrected. Once we get corrected information, we will contact the Sun-Times to update their story with the accurate rankings and data and further update this website.
As always, we thank you for your interest in ChiArts, our students and staff.
Taylor shares in a Facebook post,“I am so eager to tell the truth this story holds and implement the importance and tragic loss of this young black child in America. I always had the hope that my art would allow me to tell stories that matter specifically to me and my brown body while also help push the narrative and storyline of humanity itself.” For ChiArts friends in NYC, the show will run from July 23rd-28th at the The Pershing Square Signature Center, click here for tickets.
Visual Arts juniors Ari Antos, Monee Bridge, DeAndrea Carr, and Sadie Soria were selected to attend the annual week-long summer residency at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado. These scholar-artists experienced 40 hours of intensive studio training while in the beautiful Colorado Rockies from June 23 through June 29. In addition to Anderson Ranch Arts Center, juniors Aidan Bell, Cecilia Budzyn, Victor Garcia, and Jenna Lozano were selected to attend an one-week residency at The School of the Art Institute’s Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan from June 30 through July 6. They took an advance drawing class with Claire Arctander, Chicago artist and Campus Director of Ox-Bow!