Collaboration Laboratory Artists Announced 2023-2024

It is with great pleasure that we are excited to announce the teaching artists who will be joining CAPE in our Collaboration Laboratory program, CAPE’s two-year program, which works with schools that are new to CAPE to establish a foundation for arts integration in the school. 

These artists will partner with a teacher at one of the ten new schools in the program for the 2023-2024 school year. CAPE prides itself on working with Chicago’s enthusiastic and talented community of artists, and each artist in this roster is no different. Everyone is coming to CAPE with a variety of experiences and a unique practice, so we’re eager to see what comes from these partnerships.

Read below to learn more about each artist and the teachers they’ll work with, and stay tuned for updates on each partnership and their art integration projects in the spring. Read about these Teaching Artists here.

Philip Alvy
Philip is an award-winning filmmaker and arts educator who pivoted from work in the film industry before pivoting to education. Philip brings almost a decade of experience developing curriculums providing opportunities for youth to tell their stories through filmmaking. Philip will be working with middle school math teacher Marcus Armstrong at Howe Elementary School.

Rebecca Baruc
Rebecca Eve Baruc is an arts producer, curator, educator, and visual artist with 10+ years of experience delivering impactful and transformative programming to diverse audiences. Rebecca will be working with 2nd-grade teacher Adriana Bautista at Columbia Explorers Academy.

Sonya Bogdanova
Sonya Bogdanova moves between sculpture and painting, connecting icons from the natural world with those of the manufactured to approach a deep vision of disputed human history. Sonya will be working with 2nd-grade teacher Jennifer Ford at Columbia Explorers Academy.

Eseosa Edebiri
Eseosa Ekiawowo Edebiri is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, and community facilitator currently based in Chicago. Edebiri has served as a Studio Director for ACRE Residency’s Fiber Department since 2021. Eseosa brings her textile practice to Hamilton Fine and Performing Arts School with science teacher Lily Davis.

Khalyle Hagood
Khayle Hagood is a bassist and synthesist who performs in a handful of bands around Chicago. Khalyle will be lending an ear and making music with Hay Community Academy art teacher Amy Zangrilli.

Anna Johnson
Anna Johnson is an experimental artist working at intersections of performance, sound, moving image, and installation. Her practice explores vulnerability, presence, intimacy, and interrelation through visceral, embodied emotional and psychological landscapes. Anna will be joining kindergarten teacher Viviana Cortes at Stevenson Elementary School.

Kristie Kahns
Kristie is a photographer, educator, and arts administrator. Her photography focuses on capturing dance, music, editorial portraits, and performance. She has spent over a decade photographing Chicago’s vibrant dance community. Kristie brings her discerning eye to Christina Cruz’s 3rd-grade class at Sayre Language Academy.

Lindsey Kircher
Lindsey Kircher is an artist and art educator who makes paintings and drawings about her experiences of womanhood in America. Lindsey loves teaching art to children and young adults and is passionate about making art exciting, accessible, and relevant to all students. Lindsey will be working with 3rd-grade teacher Dalia Mena-Mares at Stevenson Elementary School.

Brian Kirkbride
Brian Kirkbride is a sound artist, composer, DJ, and programmer. His cross-disciplinary practice integrates data, field recordings, synthesizers, software, and found sound from records & films to investigate the re-contextualization of scientific and social systems through music and sound. Brian will be combining his multi-media talents with Taft High School art teacher Anna Cabral.

Norman Long
Norman is a sound artist/designer/composer born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. His work focuses on sound art production within the larger context of landscape and revolving around the themes of memory, space, silence, and the invisible. His goal is to create spaces reflecting history, culture, and diversity of community and ecology. Norman will be joining art teacher Hannah Balas at Fort Dearborn Elementary School.

Kim Houston-Moore
Kim Houston-Moore has spent twenty years as an educator in Chicago Public Schools and the last fifteen years teaching her first love—visual art. Kim has worked with CAPE since 2007, first as a teacher and now as a teaching artist. She has worked on many projects and taught hundreds of students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. Kim brings her experience to Jocelyn Marin’s 2nd-grade class at Hampton Fine & Performing Arts School.

Amanda Mulcahy
Amanda Mulcahy is a multidisciplinary artist guided by her desire to understand how natural processes unfold and how our daily lives get embedded into these systems. Inspired by her own children’s drawing and storytelling, Amanda has recently been exploring how we use mark-making to make sense of the world around us and to record memories. Amanda will be working with English and language arts teacher Laura Knutson at Hamilton Fine Arts School.

Grayson Nye
Grayson Nye is a keyboardist, composer, and producer. Coming from a diverse musical background, Grayson’s skills allow him to fit into any genre, from classical to jazz, R&B to hip-hop, or folk to indie. Grayson performs with Jordan Hamilton, Sol Dial, the Last Gasp Collective, and Fake Baseball and records throughout the Midwest. Grayson will be joining math teacher Jenise Hudson at Howe Elementary School.

Emilie Robinson
Emilie Robinson is an interdisciplinary artist focusing on photography and cinematography. Using photos and videos, Robinson explores herself and her felt “alter-egos” and records these alternate versions of herself. The goal of Emilie’s work is to encapsulate viewers with all the ideas in her mind. Emilie will take her photo and video skills to Jocelyn Marin’s 1st-grade class at Hampton Fine and Performing Arts.

Laura Sáenz
Laura is a teaching artist, cultural researcher, and facilitator. Her art and teaching focus on using the human body as material for creating, telling stories, self-expression, and play, using movement and video to bring performance into the everyday, to inspire and provoke. Laura will be collaborating with middle school English and language arts teacher Chaniqua Hardy at Hay Community Academy and art teacher Debi Knapp at Lovett Elementary School.

Read about these Teaching Artists here.

Click here for the full map of CAPE Schools for 2023-2024.

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