Dylan Yarbrough
& Arnold Mireles Academy
Dylan Yarbrough & Arnold Mireles Academy

Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy

Project Overview

  • __typename —

  • Artist — Dylan Yarbrough

  • School — Arnold Mireles Elementary School

  • Neighborhood — South Chicago

This ongoing documentary project is in partnership with CPS Lives, a Chicago-based organization that pairs artists with Chicago Public Schools. Arnold Mireles Academy, my school partner, is an elementary & middle school located on the South Side of Chicago. CPS Lives assigned this school and helped me go through the vetting and background checks necessary to work with school children. 

When reflecting on my experience in public school, the thing that resonated most with me was my experience with school mentors. I had people to look up to outside of my family that changed the trajectory of my life. I had a troubled childhood and experienced a lot of trauma. Unfortunately, I had to process that trauma at school while trying to navigate a standardized educational system. I feel like my life had a dark trajectory. My counselor, art teacher, English teacher, and history teacher showed me a path. 

I shared my experience with Principle Robins, my contact at the school. We had a great conversation about the pedagogy and mission of Arnold Mireles Academy, which includes programming to help children process trauma in the classroom. Principle Robins plans events, such as a petting zoo, to allow kids to have healing experiences. For me, after growing up in the south, a petting zoo feels somewhat benign. However, for a child growing up on the south side, this might be their first interaction with an animal that’s not a pet. The excitement and curiosity of connecting with these animals can be healing for stress, fear, and anxiety. 

Arnold Mireles Academy recently launched a mentor/mentee program that pairs school faculty with students. I organized meetings with the faculty and students to come together, have their portraits made, and talk about mentorship. This body of work compares photographs of spaces within the school campus with diptych portraits of mentors & mentees. By pairing portraits together, we can see the young mentees occupying the same space as the older mentors. This direct comparison brings up ideas of time, generations, cycles of life, and the things we pass on to one another. I hope that this project inspires mentorship, dialogue, and healing.

Meet the Artist

Dylan Yarbrough

Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy

Dylan Yarbrough is an artist, photographer, and educator. He earned his BFA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and his MFA at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been exhibited as a solo show, “Sompasuana,” at the Arcade Gallery in Chicago, as well as numerous group shows at venues such as Center For Creative Photography, Midwest Center for Photography, and the Historic Arkansas Museum. Dylan was the recipient of the 2019 Stuart Abelson Graduate Fellowship and the 2019 Lya Dym Rosenblum Award. Dylan’s photos have recently been featured in several publications, including Aint-Bad Magazine, Too Tired Project, and Oxford American Magazine.

https://www.dylanyarbrough.com/

 

Visit their Website

Dylan Yarbrough is an artist, photographer, and educator. He earned his BFA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and his MFA at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been exhibited as a solo show, “Sompasuana,” at the Arcade Gallery in Chicago, as well as numerous group shows at venues such as Center For Creative Photography, Midwest Center for Photography, and the Historic Arkansas Museum. Dylan was the recipient of the 2019 Stuart Abelson Graduate Fellowship and the 2019 Lya Dym Rosenblum Award. Dylan’s photos have recently been featured in several publications, including Aint-Bad Magazine, Too Tired Project, and Oxford American Magazine.

https://www.dylanyarbrough.com/

 

Visit their Website
Dylan Yarbrough, CPS Lives, Chicago Public Schools, artist residency, nonprofit organization, arts, visual arts, photography, public education, arnold mireles academy

Previous Residency

Marzena Abrahamik & Michele Clark High School

Next Residency

Andrew Miller & William P. Nixon Elementary School

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