Our History
SkyART began in 2001 with one employee who taught 18 students two days a week in a small rented studio. Over the years, the organization has grown, but we have never forgotten the commitment made during that first year: to provide young people with quality programming in a safe, accessible space. That commitment has guided our growth and has continually positioned SkyART as a trusted center for creativity and community, within and beyond South Chicago, the neighborhood we call home.
Our Growth
Our biggest jump yet came in October 2015, when we changed our name and moved our headquarters into a newly refurbished 6,000 sq ft studio facility. SkyART’s main studio in South Chicago includes three multi-purpose art spaces, a state-of-the-art computer lab equipped for a variety of digital media applications, a sculpture studio, a kitchen studio and a gallery space.
During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Project Impact was created in response to the pervasive mental health crises born from months of isolation, financial hardship and loss.
In 2020, SkyART announced our expansion to Chicago’s West Side. Beginning with programs in one school, SkyART started reaching out to communities in the Austin, Garfield Park and Humboldt Park neighborhoods and searching for a space where we could build a second SkyART studio.
Our Programs
SkyART is unique for being the only free, openly accessible art center in the City of Chicago. We offer a broad range of visual art programs to young people ages 5-24 at our SkyART Studios in South Chicago, in our growing network of partnering schools, and with various community partners in and around Chicago’s South Side.
Studio Programs are defined by our innovative approach, called the SkyWAY, which is a shift in perspective blurring the lines of formal art education and focusing on the idea of art making as an inherently educational experience.
- School Programs include Arts Integration in the classroom and after school workshops for students as well as teachers and parents.
- Community Programs take place at facilities coordinated by other local organizations such as the Park District and Public Libraries that allow us to increase our reach.
Our Community
SkyART operates in areas of Chicago where there are very few other cultural opportunities that are free, consistent, and of such defining quality as those provided by our organization. Informing and driving the work of the organization is a deep understanding of the transformative power of art and its capacity to stimulate intellectual, emotional and social growth.
At SkyART, participants are invited into a world of imaginative possibilities that go beyond the individual, to positively impact the larger community and the city as a whole. Our ultimate goal is to transform the lives of young people who call these underserved parts of the city home.