Click on a year to learn about our past projects:

2008-2009 PROJECT

The environment will be Do Your P’Arts theme through June of 2010. Water will be the focus for 2008-2009 since it has many local and global issues that can be addressed, while fostering deep connections amongst participants. Through an active engagement with the curriculum, students will have the opportunity to identify environmental concerns. They will work collaboratively to come up with viable solutions for creating a more equitable and sustainable environment, while creating many different forms of art.

Do Your P’Art & Shedd Aquarium Collaboration

" Part of our mission at Shedd Aquarium is connecting people to the living worrld. By working together, Shedd Aquarium and Do Your P'Art can provide children with creative inspiration that will strengthen that connection.

Shedd Aquarium will supply a series of lessons to enhance the students' visit to the aquarium. The lesson plans will include pre and post trip lessons, as well as a focused trip to the aquarium. The pre and post trip components will be for the teachers to carry out in their classrooms to prepare their students for the visit. They will be hands on, investigative lessons and allow students to start thinking creatively about the natural world around them. These lessons will encourage connections between art and science that students may not have seen or thought about before. The field trip component will include investigations in the exhibits and the surrounding environment at Shedd Aquarium once again encouraging connections between art and science.

Working with Do Your P'Art, Shedd Aquarium can aid in helping students think about the local, living world in a different way and give them that creative inspiration. "

- Shedd Aquarium

2006-2007 Community Mosaic Project

In community mosaics, the meaning of the collective work, of the contributions of unique individuals to a harmonious whole, acts as a metaphor for the community-making function of collaborative public art.

-Chicago Public Art Group

This year Do Your P’Art participants will collaborate to create community mosaics. The mission of Do Your P'Art Foundation is to bring children together from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds through artistic collaborations. What better way to model this mission in the artwork than through mosaics. Over the course of the school year, participants will work together to create functional or decorative mosaic artworks that will either be installed on the grounds of both partner schools, or at an alternative location of the groups choosing. Teachers will be able to select the base object for the work, as well as the type of style and technique to be used. The project has been modeled to be flexible to meet the needs of all participating teachers by providing a variety of options. While teachers are able to produce work around any area of study, we have a suggested theme for the project that focuses on Community. Students will begin meetings with a discussion around a particular area of focus related to this theme, and after critically examining all sides of the issues they will hypothesize a solution, asking themselves and each other how they can work together to transform their ideals into realities. Their art will be a representation of their “Ideal Community”.

Click To Download Teacher's Guide

2005-2006: Northerly Island Sculpture Project:

Throughout the 2005-2006 school year more than 800 students from Chicago and the surrounding suburbs worked together to create sculptures that were on display at Northerly Island from May 20- Oct 20. The students expressed their interpretation of the project's overall theme, Building Identity in the art. Over the course of the school year, students met with their partner school several times to engage in a collaborative exploration of issues related to their individual, national or global identity. Specific areas of study ranged from environmental concerns, immigration policies, consumerism, international labor practices to the impact of the media on youth culture.

The structure which displayed the sculptures was designed and built by Architecture students from The Illinois Institute of Technology. The team was led by IIT’s Professor and Architect Frank Flury.

Click To View 2005 Gallery

Click To View Video

2004-2005 Project: The Quilts of Gee's Bend

The 2004-2005 project involved over 800 students from the entire Chicago land area who worked directly with the nationally renowned Gee's Bend quilters on a unique student designed quilting project. There were 12 collaborations involved, each of which made two "story" quilts tied into their curriculums in any way that the teachers and students choose. Any multicultural theme was acceptable, and creativity by the teachers and students is always encouraged. Each collaboration met once at each school to foster a better understanding of their partner, once at the American Indian Center (AIC) with both the Gee's Bend and Native American quilters, and finally at our ending celebration at the Field Museum. The Gee's Bend quilters brought some of their own work to exhibit with the children's quilts at the culminating event. Most of the quilts have now been returned to their schools, after being on display at various locations across the country.

Click To View Gallery

2003-2004 Project: Chicago Historical Society

The work of the 320 students who participated in 2003-2004 was displayed at the Chicago Historical Society. Students from Skokie School and Hanson Park made Japanese kimonos from painted squares they produced in collaboration. The Washburne team that paired with Talman Elementary created quilts about Civil Rights (8th grade) and Native Americans (7th Grade). The other Washburne team worked with juniors and seniors from Jones College Preparatory School, and prepared dramatic reenactments and interpretations of the outcome from the landmark Brown vs. Topeka decision (it was also the 50th Anniversary of the decision). Mr. John Brown, a World War II Navajo code talker and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, along with David James, a Tuskagee airman of World War II gave moving speeches at the event. Mr. Brown explained the Navajo alphabet and how the Japanese could not break the code they developed from their alphabet. Mr. David James described his role as an African American in the Armed Services.

Click To View Chicago Historical Society Gallery

2002-2003 Project: Truman College

The culminating event for 2002-2003 was held at Truman College on Wilson Ave. in Chicago. The kids from Sears and Pullman made Mexican tiles and did stand-up poetry and dance; Central School and Jordan children displayed Grecian urns they researched and created; and 3rd graders from Hubbard Woods/Healy school learned two songs together to sing, with the help of Patrick Blackwell, Lyric Opera singer. Native American children and adult dancers performed for everybody. It was truly charming and intimate.

Click To View Truman College Gallery

The Early Years: Winnetka Women’s Club

From its inception in 1996 until 2002, Do Your P’Art Foundation has coordinated art shows and auctions of the students work at the Winnetka Women’s Club. Diverse panels of artists were always involved and the students’ work raised money for the following years programs. Over the years the number of participants grew and students have engaged in dramatic performances, the creation of murals, production of tiles and performed music or dance.

Click To View 1999-2002 Gallery