This generous gift from Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation ensures the continuation of Chesterton Art Center’s Youth Arts Outreach program, which offers weekly visual arts instruction at six afterschool sites in partnership with the Duneland Boys & Girls Club and Duneland Family YMCA. Additionally, this year’s grant will fund the expansion of the program to seven sites to include Portage Township YMCA.
“We’re very grateful for this ongoing support of our successful Youth Arts Outreach program that serves hundreds of young artists beyond the center’s walls,” says Cara Schmitt, CAC Education Director. “This program provides opportunities for kids to imagine, create, and innovate across a wide range of media and relevant topics, and we are excited to include Portage. We’ve been able to partner with them periodically over the past year, but now we’ll serve their great kids on a regular basis.”
CAC launched the Youth Arts Outreach program in partnership with the Duneland Boys & Girls Club in 2021. In 2022, the program grew to include five Duneland Family YMCA elementary afterschool sites. With prior support from Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation, an additional expansion took place in 2023, allowing CAC to continue weekly instruction at the Boys & Girls Club and serve all five YMCA elementary afterschool sites simultaneously, doubling the number of young artists served with this important program. With this current gift from Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation, CAC will continue to serve the existing six Youth Arts Outreach sites and include monthly instruction for the young artists at Portage Township YMCA. CAC provides high-quality visual arts instruction at no cost to the partner organizations, students, or families at all seven sites.
“This recognition of the positive impact of the arts and arts education is significant, and I am thankful for Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation’s vision to sustain a program we believe really makes a difference for our community’s youth,” says Hannah Hammond-Hagman, CAC Executive Director.
Youth Arts Outreach offers students the opportunity to engage with creative learning and design thinking with a curriculum that explores art history, STEAM, cultural topics, and various art making techniques. The Youth Arts Outreach Program supports CAC’s mission of creating accessible, enriching arts programming for the local community and beyond.
Chesterton Art Center is located at 115 South 4th Street, Chesterton, Indiana 46304
Youth Arts Outreach Students at the Duneland Boys & Girls Club showcasing their collage planets created using magazine clippings and pastels.
CAC Outreach instructor, Hailey Perritt, teaching young artists at Jackson Elementary's YMCA after school program about mural painting and the impact these have on communities.
Youth Arts outreach student holding his artwork he created which reads "We Are Community".