The Evanston Art Center has always been a community-minded art and cultural organization. Our education program and exhibitions alone impact thousands of people in any given year.
EAC participates in Evanston events such as the Ethnic Arts Fair, the Fountain Square Arts Festival and the Citizens for a Greener Evanston Weekend by offering free arts activities. EAC helped initiate the "Art Under Glass" program in downtown Evanston, which installed artworks by local artists in windows of downtown retail spaces that had been vacated. We partner with schools in after-school arts programs and Evanston's Youth Job Center with arts administration internships. We have organized arts activities in hospital settings such as Rush Behavioral Health, as well as senior residences.
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Other collaborations have included organizations such as:
- Rotary International
- The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, North Illinois University, UIC and Northwestern University, Kingsley School in Evanston, Loyola Academy in Wilmette and Edgebrook School in Chicago, and Chicago Math and Science Academy
- Y.O.U.
- Fleetwood Jourdain
- Youth Job Center
- Family Focus
- ACE & NorthShore Community Health Systems
Our ongoing commitment to engage an even broader audience in meaningful ways will lead to new community partnerships and initiatives.
Some Recent Community Engagements Include:
Evanston Youth Film Festival
30 Films were screened on Sunday, March 17 to rave reviews. Over 150 guests joined us to view the short films in various genres, from Drama and Comedy to Horror and Experimental. Awards were given to young filmmakers in each category and in various age groups. This is a philanthropic project of EAC's affilate board, the springBoard. We look forward to making this an annual event!
Dialogic Communities at Evanston Public Library
Dialogic Communities: Reparing the Social Bond is a discussion series that began at the Evanston Art Center with Insight Art's Craig Harshaw and the EAC's Keith Brown. We opened it in the fall of 2012 as a way to engage people in dialogue on contemporary visual art and culture. In February 2013, we are pleased to host round-two of these discussions at the Evanston Public Library.
Down With the King: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. King
In conjunction with Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center and Insight Arts we hosted a presentation and discussion to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keith Brown and Craig Harshaw will led the program to situate the legacy of King through our current visual culture and political moment. Together we watched The Mountaintop Speech, an interview excerpt from James Baldwin, and viewed a work by two contemporary artists.
High School Week
The Evanston Art Center offers a unique 1-week intensive art studio expereince to local teens so that they may build protfolios and expand their practices into the summer. Last year artists Adam Benjamin Fung and Iain Muirhead led the expereince. Drawing the Still Life from 9:30-12:30pm and Painting the Figure from 1-4pm Monday through Friday in the last week of June.
Artist-in-Residence
Working with the PTA at Kingsley School, the Evanston Art Center helped initiate an artist-in-residence program. We assisted with the initial visioning of the project, identified an excellent teaching artist from Chicago, Cecil MacDonald, and worked through the initieal phase of planning. Kingsley School then took the lead and has nearly finiahsed an impressive video installation, which involved 5th graders in its creation. EAC plans to establish more of these valuable residencies in the near future.
Evanston Public Library Collaboration: Visual Literacy + Summer Reading
This summer, art and the written word will come to gether at the Evanston Art Center. We will promote the library's popular Summer Reading Game to all of our art students during our classes and camps, encouraging them to become better readers as we hlep them improve their visual literacy in our art classes. August 30th marks the opening of EAC's summer arts camp artworks display. Student work will be on view for an entire month on the first floor of the Library.
District 65 Scholarships
The EAC was awarded a matching grant from the Woman's Club of Evanston, which will enable EAC to award one student scholarship to each of the 12 Evanston public District 65 schools.
Loyola Academy AP Art Studio Exhibition
Each February, EAC's gallery walls are filled with artworks from Loyola Academy AP and Honors art students. This impressive exhibition is the result of a successful community partnership between the Evanston Art Center and Loyola Academy. This year it takes place on February 14th.
Teaching Assistant Opportunities
The Evanston Art Center is open to and has hired throughout the years, many high school art students from Evanston Township High School and neighboring youth.
Connector of Teachers and Space
We recently connected the local Cub Scout and Brownie Troops with some of our amazing youth faculty and classroom space here at the center!
Art Parties
For the last two years, the Evanston Art Center has served as a unique celebration headquarters for youth and adults looking to connect through art making. All ages art parties have become a successful way for us to reach community members who may not have interest or time for long-term classes. For more information see the Program pages of this website.