Art at theMART puts CPS students' talent in the spotlight

Education This Week is our weekly recap of the biggest news in education affecting the Chicago area, Illinois, the region and the nation. Today’s edition was written by Nader Issa, the Sun-Times’ education beat reporter. Follow him on Twitter here.

Good morning,

A couple months back, I told you about my colleague Bob Herguth’s Murals and Mosaics series and accompanying newsletter that are super fun and interesting. And if you haven’t checked them out yet, well, what are you waiting for?

I mentioned a few art projects and murals we’ve featured at schools, and it’s particularly cool when those pieces are done by students. Well what about student-produced work that isn’t displayed at a school — but on a giant building in the middle of the city’s downtown?

That’s what you can check out for the next two weeks at the Merchandise Mart, where eight Chicago Public Schools seniors’ paintings have been chosen for projection on Art at theMART.

I chatted last week with one of the students, Tiffany Delgado, whose self-portrait “Beaded Ears” features a colorful earring she and her mom brought from Ecuador when they immigrated to Chicago about a decade ago.

“It expresses how I’m proud of where I’m from, and I can remember [Ecuador] every day here in Chicago,” Tiffany said about her portrait. “It reminds me of my family over there, and also how our culture is very colorful when it comes to clothing, and also food.”

The portraits were painted by students across the city and submitted to the All-City High School Visual Arts Exhibition, which since last year has partnered with Art on theMART to choose a selection for projection onto the mart. The team at the mart worked to animate the portraits to move across the building’s façade, while a song composed, produced, engineered and performed by a CPS student plays along the riverwalk, accompanying the show.

You can see the projections twice nightly at 8:30 and 9 p.m. through May 4 at the Merchandise Mart along the Chicago River.

While you’re strolling by the show, you can also take a read through our latest education stories below, from a prominent principal’s retirement, to another prominent principal surviving an effort by his LSC to fire him. We also have an update on CPS’ school ratings system, which is one of the top issues I’m planning to follow at today’s Board of Education meeting. Stay tuned to our Sun-Times Education homepage for coverage this afternoon.

Until next week,

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