Summer Youth Employment 2023

Summer Youth Employees and artist mentors at Emil G. Hirsch High School worked together in the school courtyard to create a phytoremediation native plant garden, public seating, and a stage. Through phytoremediation with Nance Klehm, students planted native plants to remove toxins and regenerate the soil in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective way. In response to the school’s needs, students built a stage with Bryan Saner, creating a public gathering space. Students collaboratively created Soil and Soul t-shirts with Mashaun Ali Hendricks. Summer Youth expanded into the community to create a chicken coop at the request of master gardener Gregory Bratton at the Laquan McDonald Garden at 84th and Escanaba.

Each summer, 6018North hires Chicagoland High School students to learn skills and collaborate with artists to realize various projects including aspects of Soil and Soul, Justice Hotel, In Wood We Trust, Its Elemental, and yearly projects for EXPO Chicago. Students learned woodworking, video editing, audio recording, and podcasting. Most importantly, students learn cooperation: to work with each other, mentors, and artists, along with stick-to-itiveness. The program rethinks the potential of immersive body-based education. The high degree of the students' work and their esprit de corps confirms the value of treating education as a dynamic space: emphasizing bodily skills, repetition, and technique and an appreciation of older, often forgotten systems of production and bodily movement. While the woodworking honors craftsmanship, the video and audio production allows for a highly experimental approach.

This program has been partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov.