News & Events
Press Releases
January 24, 2012 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways Announces Eric Delli Bovi New Executive Director
The Urban Gateways Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Delli Bovi as the organization’s next Executive Director beginning February 13, 2012.
Read more »November 8, 2011 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
UG & EPIC Academy Awarded $150K for 21st Century Community Learning Center in South Chicago
IL State Board of Education Grant to Fund Robust Out-of-School Programming
Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education in partnership with EPIC Academy Charter Public School has been awarded a $150K multi-year grant by the Illinois State Board of Education to create a 21st Century Learning Center (CCLC) at EPIC Academy in South Chicago.
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May 16, 2011 :: Press Releases
Julie F. Simpson Steps Down as Executive Director; Board Names Eileen Gill Interim Director
On April 22, 2011, Urban Gateways Board of Directors announced that Julie Simpson, Executive Director of Urban Gateways for the past 4 years, resigned, effective immediately.
Read more »April 4, 2011 :: Press Releases
Urban Gateways Commemorates 50 Years of Arts Education By Creating Art
On April 1, 2011, Urban Gateways held its 50th Anniversary Gala at Venue One in Chicago’s West Loop. As a part of the evening’s multitude of celebrations and recognitions, UG teaching artist, James Jankowiak set up a live art making station during the after-party and worked with gala attendees to produce a piece of art that would commemorate the 50 years of exemplary arts education and artistic collaboration in the Chicago area.
Read more »February 1, 2011 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways 50th Anniversary Gala
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Urban Gateways 50th Anniversary Gala will showcase performance art by pianist, Reginald Robinson, trumpeter, Orbert Davis, founding mother of children's music, Ella Jenkins, and an interactive routine by DanceWorks Chicago duriing its reception, which starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 1, 2011, at
Venue One, 1044 W. Randolph St. in Chicago. Dinner, catered by Food for Thought,
begins at 7 p.m.
Gala co-chairs Lou Conte, Kristine Green and Ronne Hartfield have invited 50
honorees, individuals who have played a significant role in the development and mission of
Urban Gateways, who will be fêted at the Gala.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Exelon lead the list of corporate sponsors for
the benefit dinner which also will feature silent and live auctions.
In 1961, Jessie A. Woods established Urban Gateways with a group of friends on
Chicago’s South Side. They believed that access to the arts was imperative for a complete
education.
Today, Urban Gateways provides more than 200,000 arts experiences annually for
youngsters in Chicago-area schools, community centers and cultural institutions. Regarded
as a national leader in integrating arts education with classroom learning and, more recently,
community development initiatives, Urban Gateways’ mission is to ignite the creative
potential in young people as well as to improve communities through their youngsters.
For more information about sponsorships and to purchase tables of 10 at $3,500 or
benefit dinner tickets at $350 and $700, please call 312-445-2757 or visit urbangateways.org.
January 1, 2011 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateway's Kicks off 50th Anniversary
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – In commemoration of the last 50 years of bringing arts education to Chicago youth, Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education invites the arts community to join in and celebrate the momentous anniversary at an interactive launch party. The event will take place on January 27th at the Chicago Urban Art Society’s Gallery on Halsted in Pilsen as part of the WBEZ Winter Block Party.
The launch party will debut a new interactive website, an “I Am Urban Gateways” video- a montage of the most impactful testimonials from UG alumni, student art exhibitions, live performances by UG artists, and much more. Guests will be able to record video testimonials, send tweets that will appear on a video wall, mingle with UG 50th Anniversary honorees, and enjoy tasty appetizers and drinks.
“We hope to expand our interactive community into a resource for our supporters and the arts education community at large,” said Becky Schneck Allen, Urban Gateways Marketing Manager.
August 6, 2010 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways Awarded Grant for Girls’ Gaming Program
Urban Gateways has received more than $30,000 as part of the Innovation Generation grant program from the Motorola Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Inc. Through the grant, Urban Gateways will launch the program Girls Got Game, in which 125 female middle school students in the Chicago-area will design and build a fully-operational PC- based computer game.
Read more »July 1, 2010 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways Selected as Provider for CPS "Culture of Calm Initiative"
Urban Gateways is among 25 community organizations selected by the Chicago Public School District to provide services through its "Culture of Calm Initiative", which is part of the district’s $25 million dollar plan to support high schools and communities most at risk of violence. Urban Gateways is the only arts education organization included as a Culture of Calm provider.
Read more »June 1, 2010 :: Press Releases
Urban Gateways Partners with Chicago Corporate Leaders to Launch "Arts-Wired" Schools
Jenner & Block and Fifth Third Bank Adopt Schools to Prepare Students for the 21st Century
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education is pleased to announce the official launch of the Urban Gateways Arts-Wired Program, a whole-school change model which infuses the arts into struggling schools to transform them into high-quality hubs of learning with the support of corporate partners.
Read more »May 25, 2010 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways Partners with Chicago Corporate Leaders to Launch "Arts-Wired" Schools
Jenner & Block and Fifth Third Bank Adopt Schools to Prepare Students for the 21st Century
February 1, 2010 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Ballroom Dance-off Brings Students and Community Together
On Thursday, February 4, elementary students from Chavez Multicultural Academy – an Urban Gateways Community School – paired up and “Danced-Off” against students from five other schools in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.
The Dance-Off was the culmination of a four-month, after-school program called “Dancing with Class” – which focuses on building community bonds through the medium of social dance. Since October, the Chicago social dance studio May I Have This Dance has provided weekly lessons at all six elementary schools. Then the students came together for a final Dance-Off, in which partnered with both their classmates AND with dancers from the other schools.
“We have a fundamental belief in the power of social dance to build and strengthen communities, to bring people of all socio-economic backgrounds together, to do something that brings joy and strengthens respect for self and others,” said Margot Toppen from May I Have This Dance.
Read more »January 21, 2010 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
UG Launches Blog Focused on Arts Education & its Impact
Blog Features Experiences of Six Chicago-area Teaching Artists
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS –Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education is launching a blog to bring attention to the importance of arts education. The blog, entitled Urban Gateways Artists Wired (www.ugartistswired.typepad.com), features six Urban Gateways’ teaching artists, who will post regularly about their experiences in Chicago-area classrooms.
“We want to chronicle their journey with the students, in hopes of drawing attention to the importance of the work these professional artists do and the impact they have on the children, on the schools and on the communities where they work,” said Julie F. Simpson, Urban Gateways Executive Director.
Founded almost 50 years ago, Urban Gateways is one of the largest and most comprehensive arts education organizations in the country. Each year, the organization provides in- and out-of-school programming in the literary, performing, media and visual arts to more than 100,000 young people in the Chicago-area.
Read more »September 22, 2009 :: Press Releases
Urban Gateways Launches MusicianCorps Program in Chicago
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS –Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education will announce the Chicago launch of the national MusicianCorps program on Tuesday, September 22 at 6:00 p.m., as part of an all-ages concert event and launch party in Homan Square Park, 3559 W. Arthington.
MusicianCorps is a “musical Peace Corps” that gained national recognition through the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed by President Barack Obama in April 2009. In its first year, MusicanCorps is being piloted in four cities: Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. Nationally the program is managed by the service organization Music National Service (MNS), which is headed up by CEO & Founder Kiff Gallagher, a successful musician and national service veteran who served in the Clinton White House and on the Obama campaign’s National Arts Policy Committee. In Chicago, the MuscianCorps program will be managed locally by Urban Gateways, a non-profit that has worked to provide Chicago-area children with equitable access to the arts since 1961.
April 6, 2009 :: Press Releases, Urban Gateways News
Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education Welcomes New Develoment Director
Chicago -- Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education is pleased to announce the hiring of Sherre Jennings Cullen, Director of Development.
As the Development Director, Sherre will strategize and manage all fundraising activities, expectations, and anticipated outcomes.
Sherre Jennings Cullen joins Urban Gateways with an extensive background in development. For nearly two decades she has been fundraising in Chicago; the past thirteen years include oversight of the development efforts at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Writers' Theatre. Prior to her tenure there, Sherre was employed by the Music Institute of Chicago where she was responsible for the successful capital campaign to purchase and renovate its new education and performance space in downtown Evanston.
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