About
Marwen educates and inspires under-served young people through the visual arts.
Programs
Marwen is comprised of four program arms: Studio, College & Career, Alumni, and The Marwen Institute.
- Studio Programs
- The studio program is at the core of Marwen’s mission. Each year, we offer more than 85 courses in six state-of-the-art studios. We challenge students to excel through comprehensive, in-depth instruction in a wide range of media including painting and drawing, ceramics and sculpture, printmaking, technology, and more. Professional artists teach technical art skills and encourage sophisticated, creative, and analytical thinking through instruction in art history, and criticism. Students learn through media presentations, discussions, demonstrations, visits by guest artists, and field trips. These experiences provide students with source materials for their own work and expose them to diverse ideas and art forms. Individual attention and small class sizes ensure full participation, vigorous dialogue, and personal growth.
At the end of each term, students, teaching artists, and teaching assistants evaluate their courses to help guide Marwen in the development of future offerings. Teaching artists also submit one work created by each of their students to be included in an exhibition in the Susan and Steven Berkowitz Gallery. - College & Career Programs
- In Marwen’s college and career programs, students investigate and define their higher education and career goals. We encourage students to think realistically and plan intelligently for their futures. Through age and grade-level-appropriate programs, students as young as sixth grade receive useful counsel and informative experiences as they explore their interests and future direction.
While not all of Marwen’s students go on to become professional artists or even to work in an arts-related field, each student learns to apply the art-making, communication, and creative thinking skills they acquire at Marwen to any career they choose to pursue. Each year, hundreds of students take advantage of the diverse college planning and career development opportunities available:
- intensive two-week Pre-College Summer Program focused on portfolio development
- six-week Art at Work internship program
- twelve-week Holiday Card Entrepreneurship Initiative
- Individual college counseling sessions
- Access to the College and Career Center
- Slide and portfolio review sessions
- Support with financial aid and scholarship searches
Students learn how to create a resume, practice their interviewing skills, write stellar admissions essays, and how to obtain financial aid and scholarships for college. Career workshops such as trips to graphic design firms, museums, private studios, and more, provide students with a real view into the daily life of many professionals in the arts. The College and Career Center also offers students printed materials and Internet access to college and career websites.
On average, 90% of Marwen seniors who participate in college and career programs go on to attend a college or university each fall. - Alumni Association
- Marwen’s alumni association is a network of former Marwen students who continue to stay involved by exhibiting their artwork, participating in intensive artist residencies, providing program assistance, volunteering, serving on Marwen’s alumni advisory board, and working in paid employment opportunities.
Eight exhibitions that exclusively feature the artwork of former Marwen students are presented in the Alumni Gallery each year in addition to multiple opportunities to participate in exhibitions held in the Susan and Steven Berkowitz Gallery. Alumni artwork is also available to view in our Virtual Gallery on the Marwen website.
The Alumni Artist In-Residence Program is a creative fellowship for Marwen alumni offering dedicated studio space in which to work. Each summer, four talented young artists are honored with a multi-week residency in one of Marwen’s studios along with a stipend for materials and a culminating exhibition of the artwork created during the residency.
The Alumni Advisory Board is a diverse group of former Marwen students who have experienced all that Marwen has to offer. Members of the board promote Marwen’s mission as community representatives for Marwen and serve as a role models for current students.
Paid positions as teaching assistants are available each term in Marwen’s Studio and School and Teacher partnership programs. Alumni with considerable experience as teaching assistants are often hired to develop and lead student workshops.
Are you a former student looking to reconnect with Marwen? Use the Alumni Contact Information Form to get in touch with us! - The Marwen Institute
- The Marwen Institute is Marwen’s program arm dedicated to the study of teaching and learning in the arts. Launched in January of 2008, The Marwen Institute advances Marwen’s existing work with Chicago’s teachers and schools; pursues new initiatives in training Marwen staff and faculty; and directs the investigation, articulation, and dissemination of Marwen's practices both internally and to the broader art education community, effectively leveraging 20 years of experience in developing and delivering successful visual arts programs to under-served youth in Chicago.
Marwen has built school partnerships with some public schools to offer high quality visual art programs to selected students. Accompanied by their teachers, the students travel to Marwen as part of their school day to learn about making art in customized courses designed to enhance their local school programs. Students work with professional teaching artists, use high quality materials, learn art history as it applies to their course curriculum, and engage in critiques of their artwork.
Marwen’s teaching model, developed through its studio program, forms the basis for a dynamic teacher program that includes training in hands-on art activities, art history, critiques, and active discussions for implementing art-making techniques in the classroom. School teachers are encouraged and trained to develop art activities for every subject and grade.
Marwen has received arts jobs preservation support from the Illinois Arts Council made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts through funds allocated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
