Current Education Projects Education Partners Tours & Lectures on Art and Culture Art Classes In Our Gallery Mural Projects

OUR PHILOSOPHY Around the Coyote believes every member of our community can and should have access to quality art education. Utilizing an inter-disciplinary approach to art making, we work with established and emerging artists to serve as instructors and role models who introduce students to art theory and practice. Our workshops and classes for youth provide creative, collaborative art activities in a positive, nurturing environment where open dialogue and individual expression is encouraged. Our programs for adults create opportunities for personal and creative growth for artists of all skill levels. The goal of all our educational outreach programming is to inspire new artists, critical thinkers, and active community members who will create shared and lasting experiences which connect our participants to their lives, to each other, and to their own creative potential.

OUR HISTORY Since 2000, Around the Coyote has developed progressive educational outreach programs that teach and stimulate artistic expression in children and adults of all ages in the Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park, and Logan Square neighborhoods of Chicago. We have organized and taught programs at Salmon P. Chase Elementary School, Drummond Montessori, Pritzker Elementary and the Chicago Park District program at the Wicker Park Fieldhouse, helping each develop after-school and summer arts programming for children ages 6-13. We are actively involved in an ongoing public mural project at Churchill Park with children and parents from the local community as well as workshops, lectures and art classes for artists of all levels at the Around the Coyote Gallery. The population primarily served by our programming is composed of children coming from a rich fabric of ethnic backgrounds, mostly African American and Hispanic. 85% of our students come from low-income households and 14% are limited English proficient. It is our mission to enhance the presence of the arts in the lives of these often underserved members or our community and to provide arts education programming which teaches creativity, recognizes diversity, and cultivates social and intellectual skills.

OUR COMMUNITY MURALS In an effort to rally the public during the Great Depression, the U.S. government donated unprecedented amounts of funding to the arts. In response to the social and economic stresses of the period, this enabled the birth of public art in America . In 1986 when hundreds of Progressive- and New Deal-era murals were discovered languishing in Chicago 's public schools, teachers, administrators, politicians, and curators quickly stepped in to restore, protect, and celebrate these invaluable works of art. Chicago 's vibrant school murals today represent one of the largest collections in the country. Mural painting thrived in Chicago in the early 1970s, with artists often collaborating with community residents on works reflecting the social and political concerns of the time in vivid imagery. Chicago 's mural collection symbolizes a change for the arts in America and serves as a reminder of art's undeniable ability to act as a powerful record of a people, place and time. Around the Coyote has year-round, artist-led, community mural projects in its gallery and at Churchill Park in an effort to continue this tradition.

For more information or to register for a class or lecture, email Allison