Children's Art

Recognizing the value of providing artistic engagement and interactions for children with developmental disabilities, The Center for the Arts unveiled Special Arts (S'ART), a newly developed children's art program in 2006.The S'ART program offers early art enrichment and learning for the youth of Little City Foundation's Children's Residential, Foster Care, Adoption and Home-Based Support programs at our Chicago campus in conjunction with the main residential campus in Palatine. The S'ART program currently offers youth, ages 5-21 years old, opportunities to engage in many art experiences throughout the year including after school and weekend programming, art-based summer camps and field trips all at no cost to the participant. This program also offers much needed respite for parents/guardians, who value having a safe and supportive environment for their children to spend time when not in school. 

Due to the success of the Special Arts Program, in February, 2010 Little City Foundation embarked on a new partnership in conjunction with Communities in Schools Chicago to deliver outreach art opportunities to individuals with developmental disabilities in Chicago Public Schools (CPS).  With the number of CPS art teachers at an all time low, (currently each school only receives one full-time teacher for 750+ students and one half-time teach for less than 750 students), and with over 45,000 students with special needs currently enrolled, there is a great demand for quality and stable arts education during the school day.

 Both on-campus and outreach programs are led by experienced professional artists and art therapists and continue to offer sessions in studio arts, music, dance/movement, drumming, drama, media arts and clay to children and teens daily.  The S’ART Program strives to tap into artistic talent that has yet to be developed while also helping to build valuable life skills including; independent decision-making, positive self-esteem, cooperative work skills, self-awareness, new forms of communication and creative self-expression.