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Organizers

• Suzette Bross

  Founder & Executive Director

  suzettebross@cpslives.com

• Kendall Hill

  Co Artistic Director

  kendallhill@cpslives.com

• Sophia Guadalupe Padgett Pérez

  Co Artistic Director

  sophiapadgettperez@cpslives.com

Board of Directors

• Molly Kelly

  President

  Asset Management

• Michael T. Noonan

  Secretary

• Cheri Hubbard

  Treasurer

• Rhonda Brown

• Jenn Dixon

• Kelly Costello

• Yumi Ross

  Ross Architecture Inc.

• Marielle Lifshitz

• Cyraina Johnson-Roullier

  Associate Professor of English, University of Notre Dame

Advisory Board

• Susan Aaron

  CPS Alumni & Non-Profit

• Teri Boyd

  Chicago Sinfonietta Community Outreach Coordinator

• Nora Daley

  Non-profit Policy

• Tricia Van Eck

  Artistic Director, 6018 North

• Catherine Edelman

  Owner, Catherine Edelman Gallery

• Terry Evans

  Photographer

• Vikki Hood

  Partner, Kirkland & Ellis

• Karen Krehbiel

  Attorney, Berger Schatz

• Carrie Lannon

  Communications and Brand Strategist

• Caroline Older

  Executive Director, Chicago Artists Coalition

• Lori Smedley

  Executive Director, Foundation and Corporate Relations

• Leslie Thomas

  Executive and Creative Director, ARTWORKS Projects

• Gary Schechner

  Marketing Consultant

• Jan Tichy

  Professor in Photography, School of The Art Institute

• Jay Wolke

  Professor in Photography, Columbia University

Background

CPS Lives is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization that pairs Chicago artists, designers, thinkers and makers with a Chicago Public School during the academic year to collaborate on a project, sharing the unique and individual story of each Chicago Public School.  Each story will be celebrated and exhibited throughout the city in local Chicago Public Library branches and other exhibition spaces, as well as existing on the CPS Lives social media and website as an accessible digital archive of public school history for students, families, community members, educators, administrators, policymakers & the general public.

The Chicago Public School system is the nations third largest school district, serving over 400,000 students in more than 660 schools. The sheer scale and complexity of the Chicago Public School system renders it opaque to the general public, where stories of its successes and resilience remain untold. This project shows the power of public education in Chicago. Our artists produce artwork that provide a unique window into the Chicago Public School system, generating support and reinforcing belief in the Chicago Public School mission “to provide a high quality public education for every child in every neighborhood”.

Contact Us

CPS Lives seeks to expand our knowledge of the space students inhabit through the work of our artists produced in the public schools.  The artists seek to enlarge our understanding of the places students inhabit and their worldview through the use of cultural processes.  How public spaces are enriched and developed through the presence of visual production increases the level of the students’ cultural literacy and becomes palpable to the larger civic community, both politically and culturally. This program creates ties to local communities through the exhibitions in their library branches.  By creating this relationship in the public space of a city library we come to understand the complexity and importance of the public school system and the increasing importance of these public sites, their value, their diversity.  The public sites of schools and libraries are not fixed and untouchable, but are dynamic and informed by us.

We want to hear from you! Please feel free to email us…

Partnerships

We proudly appreciate support from our partners.