CAPE to Receive $60,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) has been approved for a $60,000 Grant for Arts Projects award to support the Collaboration Laboratory program. This program will provide teachers and teaching artists serving Chicago Public Schools’ students with new skills in teaching in and through the arts. CAPE’s project is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding. 

“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education reengage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”

CAPE’s Executive Director, Amy Rasmussen, responded, “As we look forward to a post-pandemic world, we’re honored to know that the NEA values CAPE’s ongoing, long-term work in Chicago Public Schools.  We are very excited to say that since 2004, more than 260 public school teachers and artists have completed CAPE’s Collaboration Laboratory program. In the coming year, the Art Works grant will allow us to offer support and creative spaces to children, as well as inspire another 40 teachers and teaching artists to develop new, creative teaching strategies to engage their students through the arts.”

Collaboration Laboratory students at Bateman Elementary School.

CAPE’s Collaboration Laboratory is a two-year introductory program that partners professional teaching artists with 20 classroom teachers at 10 Chicago Public Schools. Together, the partners explore and experiment with different ways to help their students learn academic content through visual, performing, and digital arts. By the end of each program cycle, more than 600 public school students will have new skills for building, navigating, and expressing their knowledge and curiosity across subjects.

For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.