Snow City Arts’ professional teaching artists engage children and young adults in inpatient and outpatient pediatric units at our partner hospitals through in-person and virtual workshops in visual arts, media arts, music, creative writing, theatre, and dance. Teaching artists collaborate closely with SCA program leadership, each hospital’s Child Life staff, and in-hospital teachers to create and deliver rigorous, standards-based arts curriculum that is differentiated to serve each child’s individual needs.
Working with Snow City Arts, children and young adults in hospitals experience the joy and empowerment of artistic self-expression, discover new talents and interests, and engage in creative decision-making activities in an environment where personal choice can often be limited.
Snow City Arts also works with in-hospital teachers, the Chicago Public Schools Department of Arts Education, and the CPS Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services (ODLSS) to ensure that students are eligible for classroom credit, stay on track with their learning, and even improve their grades.
In-hospital Arts Learning
Throughout the day, SCA teaching artists have unencumbered access to young patients, engaging them in bedside workshops that transform their hospital rooms into arts studios. When children are well enough to leave their rooms, they can take advantage of SCA’s Idea Labs—dedicated studios in the pediatric units where the students may work in a medical-free zone without being interrupted by doctors or nurses.
Each Idea Lab is equipped with art supplies, computers loaded with cutting-edge music and design programs, green screens for film-making, keyboards, string instruments, video and still cameras, and a small art library. Teaching artists provide one-to-one instruction in these labs or facilitate small group workshops, just as teachers would in a classroom.
Virtual Arts Learning
Snow City Arts offers virtual arts learning to students through personalized, one-on-one remote workshops, as well as a library of pre-recorded virtual workshops. Each recorded workshop includes a step-by-step instructional video with English or Spanish subtitles, as well as a downloadable instructional guide, a video transcript (in English or Spanish), and other useful surround materials.
Our Learning Approach
All work done at Snow City Arts is guided by three best practices:
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Student decision-making: Snow City Arts restores choice to the hospital environment. We empower and encourage our students through an arts education experience.
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Customized, differentiated learning: Snow City Arts meets each student where they are. Every workshop created can be modified for a diverse group of learners, accommodating students based on their needs and unique interests.
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Artistic process valued over product: Snow City Arts considers the development of the student-mentor relationship and the learning that supports the creation of art to be of primary importance in every interaction.
All Snow City Arts workshops align to national and state (Illinois) arts learning standards. They also align, where appropriate, to Common Core State Standards in ELA and math, the Next Generation Science Standards, and the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.
Assessment and School Reporting
We assess all student work on the following six criteria:
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Creative Decision Making
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Applying Techniques & Technologies
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Sense of Self as Artist
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Making Connections
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Reflection
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Experimentation
We evaluate student proficiency at four levels:
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Exploring
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Developing
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Proficient
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Accomplished
Snow City Arts tracks student progress and, with parental consent, regularly sends detailed reports and artwork to schools so that patients are eligible to receive academic credit for instructional time while hospitalized.
