The Co-Curricular Model
At The Academy, arts and academics are treated with the same level of importance and dedication. This integrated approach ensures that students not only excel in their chosen artistic disciplines but also achieve high academic standards. By balancing rigorous arts training with a comprehensive academic curriculum, we prepare our students to be well-rounded individuals, ready to succeed in any path they choose. Whether pursuing further education in the arts or venturing into other professional fields, our graduates are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to thrive.
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The Academy’s Dance Department prepares young dancers for a professional career in the performing arts by instilling three important core values: preparation, conduct, and skill. These values lead to a young pre professional dancer that embodies not only artistic excellence but also the ability to handle the rigor of the artform on all levels. Instead of competing, our students train and learn through technique classes, rehearsals, performances, and relationship building.
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The Academy’s Media Arts Department introduced the first comprehensive digital motion picture program for high school students in the country. It continues to be at the forefront of teaching storytelling through the three pillars of film, animation, and creative writing.
Though most students major in one of these three pillars, the Media Arts curriculum offers courses in photography, poetry, fiction writing, screenwriting, book design, video production, and more. Above all, the Media Arts Department’s primary focus is storytelling.
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Music Department students grow into versatile, adventurous, and collaborative artists under the guidance of first-class professional musicians. Through a holistic and practical approach to music education, students prepare to join today’s music industry while gaining the skills necessary to create the music landscape of the future.
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Musical Theatre Department students master storytelling in three different disciplines: voice, dance, and acting.
Musical Theatre students are taught by professional, working artists. In addition to the department’s permanent faculty, students also benefit from working with a rotating roster of guest artists from Chicago's most reputable and innovative professional theaters. These artists prioritize their students’ education while simultaneously developing their own personal projects.
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The Theatre Department involves immersive training in theatre and performance studies. Classes fall into four major categories: Acting, Performance Technique, Theatre Studies, Production & Technical Theatre.
Theatre Department students gain a deep understanding of their strengths and weaknesses both as artists and as professionals working in the industry and beyond. They explore up to twenty topics in the discipline including stagecraft, directing, stage makeup, audition technique, and the business of theatre.
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Within the Visual Arts Department framework of studio practice, critique, and exhibition, students develop skills in order to articulate their ideas process, as well as become self-directed in pursuing their own subject matter and concept areas in their artwork.
Each student takes courses in drawing, design, and color theory, and selects from electives in printmaking, painting, sculpture, four-dimensional studio, and interdisciplinary arts. Through pairing traditional arts training with contemporary art-making practices, the Visual Arts Department’s curriculum equally values process and product. Faculty teach technical skills that build critical integrity to cultivate young artists who are independent and ambitious thinkers and makers.
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The Humanities Department gives students a broad base of knowledge in literature, history, foreign language, and electives to inform their art-making. In doing so, study in the Humanities orients students in the tradition of human thought and helps them become lifelong learners.
Small classrooms driven by student discussion and curiosity define the Humanities Department’s approach to instruction. Under The Academy’s block schedule, students attend Humanities courses two to three times per week in 75-minute in-depth sessions that toggle between discussion, lecture, small group work, in-class practice, and independent work.
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The Math, Science, and Technology Department (MST) not only provides the key courses to prepare students for life after graduation, but also offers a variety of advanced elective classes that encourage students to expand their knowledge past the required introductory topics.
MST focuses on individual perspective, highlighting the multiple ways students approach problem solving, as well as student exploration and investing in what they find most interesting about the curriculum. While MST teachers love “the answer,” they more importantly create engaging environments that emphasize and celebrate the process. This includes applications of math, science, and tech to all sorts of areas of life, allowing students to ultimately draw their own connections with educated observations.
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Meet our award-winning faculty
