Kyrie Courter (Musical Theatre, ’13) is a current senior at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She is pursuing a BFA in Musical Theater. She’s been seen on Roosevelt’s main stage in The Wild Party (Scat Soloist), HAIR (Sheila), and she’s beginning rehearsals for her final Roosevelt production, Promises, Promises (Fran Kubelik). As well as being a full time student, Kyrie has been a part of many professional productions in Chicago including Dreamgirls (Michelle Morris) at Porchlight Music Theater, and Thaddeus & Slocum (u/s Isabella and Nellie) at Lookingglass Theatre, both of which have received multiple nominations for several theatrical awards.
In her own words: “As an alumna of ChiArts, I can directly relate much of my success to the classes that I took in high school. ChiArts really taught me not only how to be a professional, but it taught me how to believe in myself and what I have to offer the artistic community in Chicago. I’m so excited to see ChiArts thriving, and I can’t wait to work with students from this school in the professional world some day!”
Madison Smith (Visual Arts, ’13) is a current senior at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago majoring in Art History, Theory, & Criticism.
In her own words: “I received a letter [recently] from my college, [The] School of the Art Institute of Chicago, about accepting a Siragusa [Foundation] scholarship from ChiArts. I graciously accepted the offer and I wanted to reach out and express how honored I am to receive this scholarship as a member of the first graduating class.
In the past three years I have had the privilege to work with many non-profit art organizations from interning at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts to the Evanston Art Center. This year I was chosen to write an original piece for an exhibition publication and have one of my essays taught in an Art History class at Harold Washington College. Although I have always been an ambitious person, I owe a lot of my experience in the field of Art History to the teachers and administrators at ChiArts. I am incredibly grateful that our department chose to hire teachers like Keith Brown and Catarina Araujo to teach the history of art in such an insightful and challenging way. Without your support I do not think I would be graduating with a degree in Art History, Theory & Criticism and pursuing graduate school. I remember feeling utterly charmed by the work of artists like Jenny Holzer, Kerry James Marshall, and Yves Klein as an enthusiastic 15 year old– I still have those feelings when walking through a museum at 21.
Thank you for providing us with the resources and opportunities to grow as individuals and as artists, thank you for giving us the confidence to follow our passions.”