About the Center for the Arts

The Center for the Arts at Little City Foundation is the result of an evolutionary process that began with the belief that people with developmental disabilities could be taught skills that would lead to full opportunities in the arts.

From a program that used cable television as a teaching tool for people with disabilities, creating programs that won prestigious regional and national awards, the program grew to a “best practice” model, one that is recognized nationally and by which others measure their achievement.

Each day, professional artists acting as facilitators encourage artists to expand their reach and skills, resulting in art that transcends the disability of the artists who created it.  Artists who cannot see, artists who do not speak, and even artists who do not recognize the presence of others around them, are the painters, sculptors, and designers at Little City who exhibit and sell their work competitively with others who do not face the same challenges. 

Little City Foundation strongly believes in empowering people with disabilities – to give them the education, training, skills and encouragement that enable them to reach beyond their current capabilities and become all that they could be. The agency does this by offering extensive programs and services to children and adults with mental retardation, Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy, as well as visual, behavioral, hearing and emotional challenges.

The Center for the Arts is funded in part by After School Matters, Bank of America, Boeing Company – Employees Community Fund (ECF), Jean A. Ford, the Gerber Endowment Fund, The Illinois Arts Council - a state agency, Marvin and Kay Lichtman Foundation, Square D Foundation, UnitedParcel Service, Wachovia/ Wells Fargo Foundation and A.Montgomery Ward.