Artist-in-Residence

Artist-in-residence programs bring professional artists into the classroom – before, during and after school - to engage students in the complex and dynamic study of art and to provide a creative approach to learning. 

Our teaching artists, who specialize in literary, performing, media and visual arts, collaborate with classroom teachers to identify the major ideas students will be exploring.

They then create an original and engaging curriculum that uses art to dig deeper and find meaningful connections between those ideas and the world around them.

Residencies provide students with high quality arts experiences that offer enrichment, inspiration and engagement for all types of learners. They also empower students with tools of self-expression and stimulate creative, confident and culturally-aware thinking.

Inside the Classroom

Inside the Classroom is a new monthly feature created to give you an up-close look at Urban Gateways Teaching Artists in action. Each month, we'll take you inside a different Chicago-area classroom, and share with you the experiences of an Urban Gateways teaching artist and their students. 

This month, we are profiling music artist John Knecht and his Global Rhythm Residency at Immaculate Conception School. John explored world percussion with first through fourth graders, connecting his lessons to world cultures, sociology and literature.  

“Before I was in John's class, I thought community was a just a neighborhood… but now I've thought about a community in different cultures, and how music unites people together.

-- Student, Immaculate Conception 

Watch a video that documents John's Global Rhythm residency>>

Read last month's In the Classroom about a theatre residency at Andersen School>>