The Arts Academy immerses students for many hours each day in one of six artistic disciplines, or “majors”: Dance, Media Arts, Music, Musical Theatre, Theatre, and Visual Art. Arts classes begin each day at 1:30 p.m. and continue until the end of the day at 4:30 p.m. Rehearsals often go until 5:45 p.m. or later to accommodate the numerous performances and exhibitions that are held each year.  This concentration of arts courses in the afternoon allows each student to reap the benefits of immersion in a specific discipline for several uninterrupted hours each day. The momentum and depth of instruction achieved at the Arts Academy is integral to the successful training of a young artist.

Arts Academy students take courses designed to help a student develop and master the technical skills and aesthetic sense to make great art: in competitive college programs, as a career, and for the rest of their lives. Afternoon courses are supported by arts electives offered each morning: students from any department may take elective courses such as Video Production, Music Business/Law, Drawing on Your Creative Energy, Acting for the Non-Major, and many others.

The arts faculty at The Chicago Academy for the Arts is comprised of highly accomplished, active arts professionals. Our dedicated, award-winning teachers are actors and directors, dancers and choreographers, painters, sculptors, and printmakers, writers and filmmakers, and performing musicians, conductors, and composers—all deeply committed to teaching young artists.