A Summer for the Arts

This summer, HCCares' Summer Enrichment program made one thing clear: creativity was everywhere. Through Field Trip Fridays, Harmony kids spent their weeks discovering the arts in every form, from the stage to the sensory to the streets of their own neighborhood.

The summer kicked off with a trip to Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum, where students explored hands-on exhibits and took in the sights along the lakefront. From there, they visited the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, getting an up-close look at modern art and design. Our students also got a taste of interactive, sensory-based art at the Sloomoo Institute, where color, texture, and imagination took center stage. At Beverly Arts Center on Chicago's South Side, students were fully immersed in Chicago Kids Company's live musical production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Closer to home, sketchbooks in hand, they wound through North Lawndale itself, pausing at the Firehouse, Farm on Ogden, Bell Park, Harmony Community Garden, and a piece of Route 66 history.

By summer's end, our kids hadn't just seen the city, they'd left their mark on it, one sketch, one scene, and one Friday at a time.