For 2014, the Harper Court Arts Council issued 16 unrestricted operating grants totaling $175,000. Awards were made in consideration of the cultural and/or economic impact each organization makes on the lives of residents of Hyde Park-Kenwood. Sizes of awards are indicative of organization size and number of people benefiting from each program.
Chicago Children's Choir
$15,000
Chicago Children’s Choir is a multiracial, multicultural choral music education organization, shaping the future by making a difference in the lives of children and youth through musical excellence. The Hyde Park Neighborhood Choir (HPNC) provides singers, ages 8-16, from Hyde Park and the surrounding community with intensive, globally-focused music education in twice-weekly after-school rehearsals at First Unitarian Church.
Children's Book Fair
$2,000
The Children’s Book Fair is dedicated to promoting literature and the arts to families in the City of Chicago, particularly Hyde Park-Kenwood and the south side of Chicago. Its annual community event highlights child oriented cultural, support organizations, and businesses that value hands-on arts activities promoting literacy and artistic expression.
Court Theatre
$15,000
Court Theatre’s mission is to create innovative productions of classic plays that are thought provoking, character-driven, and thematically enduring. Court’s Arts Access for All program provides critical arts education resources to classrooms for nearly 500 local students as well as opportunities for nearly 4,000 Chicagoland students to come to the Hyde Park/Kenwood neighborhoods and experience live theater at Court's student matinees.
Sue Duncan Children's Center
$2,000
The Sue Duncan Children’s Center transforms the lives of children by nurturing their academic, athletic, and artistic growth. The Center builds safe, supportive communities that strengthen families and motivate children to succeed. Support for the Center’s Artistic Programming fills a significant void in the artistic opportunities available to its students.
DuSable Museum
$15,000
As the first and foremost African-American museum in the country, DuSable Museum collects, preserves, and displays artifacts and objects that promote understanding and inspire appreciation of the achievements, contributions, and experiences of African Americans through exhibits, programs, and activities that illustrate African and African American history, culture and art. Its community programming includes Chicago-related exhibitions, summer festivals, and a moble museum.
Experimental Station
$16,000
Experimental Station cultivates a diverse array of innovative cultural projects and small-scale enterprises using its facilities to support its own programming and catalyst for other small community organizations and initiatives. Experimental Station founded and operates the 61st Street Farmers Market program.
Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company
$5,000
Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company endeavors to cultivate and develop an understanding and love for the musical arts through its annual productions of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera canon. Each production draws upon the talents of dedicated volunteers and talented amateur and professional musicians and singers to delight Hyde Park and city wide audiences.
Hyde Park Art Center
$15,000
Hyde Park Art Center accomplishes its mission is to stimulate and sustain the visual arts in Chicago through a program model that challenges the traditional roles of artists and community members and acts as a magnet for diverse people and creativity. Pathways, the arts education outreach program, is designed to leverage the Art Center's unique blend of programming to close critical gaps in arts learning for underserved students in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community.
Hyde Park Jazz Festival
$15,000
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival is a collaborative platform dedicated to supporting the presentation and ongoing development of jazz on the South Side of Chicago. The Festival’s free performances in 13+ Hyde Park-Kenwood locations draw a diverse community of listeners to engage with the music and its creators.
Hyde Park School of Dance
$15,000
Hyde Park School of Dance provides opportunities for students of all ages to study, perform, and create dance at the highest levels of discipline and artistry. Its commitment to training, performance, and community provides a safe, inclusive, and collaborative environment for all regardless of gender, body type, ability, or capacity to pay. Its community outreach activities includes needs-based scholarships for underserved students, after-school training in local elementary schools, and free and low cost public performances.
Hyde Park Suzuki Institute
$2,000
Hyde Park Suzuki Institute provides access to high quality musical instruction and performance opportunities to children from the diverse communities of Hyde Park-Kenwood and south side of Chicago.
Hyde Park Youth Symphony
$2,000
The Hyde Park Youth Symphony provides a high-quality arts experience to youth based on technical mastery of an instrument, ensemble training, and performance opportunities The Resident Composer and Resident Ensemble programs retain a composer and professional musicians to create and perform a performance piece.
Muntu Dance Theatre
$11,000
The mission of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago is to preserve and perpetuate the African aesthetic and its influence on world cultures, through the education and professional presentation of dance, music, and folklore.
Renaissance Society
$15,000
The Renaissance Society is an independent, non-collecting museum of contemporary art located at the University of Chicago. Founded in 1915 to encourage a greater understanding of culture, it presents exhibitions, public programs, and publications that advance the ideas and expression of our time.
Smart Museum
$15,000
The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago opens the world through art and ideas. Its annual series of family-oriented art programs serves approximately 1,000 individuals living in the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods, as well as the wider Chicago area.
Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
$15,000
The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust engages, educates and inspires the public through architecture, the design and legacy of Wright, and its historic sites and collections. Hyde Park’s Robie House is one of the Trust’s best known and most visited sites and the locus of numerous tours and educational activities.
Harper Court Arts Council
1525 E. 53rd Street
Suite 720
Chicago, Illinois 60615
Phone: 773-363-8282
Email:
