Last month, Chicago Public Schools laid off the director of the Advanced Arts Program at Gallery 37 and told instructors that classes would not continue past the spring semester. 

In a statement to staff, CPS Director of Arts Evan Plummer backtracked, saying the announcement was a result of “internal miscommunication.” Plummer said the district is only exploring “modifications” to the program to “extend its reach.” 

Marjorie Boyle, a visual arts instructor at AAP,  said she thinks expansion is not viable given CPS’ current financial struggles.

“[CPS is] going to undermine something that’s been proven to work,” Boyle said. “Students become leaders in the arts for their communities and schools.”

Boyle said the program is a “unique” space for creative public school students, many of whom cannot afford expensive, private arts programs in the city. She said despite the program’s success through the years, instructors have noticed decline and disinvestment over time by CPS.

“Over the last two years, we’ve been getting less money, less materials and software not being updated,” Boyle said. 

Back in 2000, with graduation looming, Mexico-born artist Juan Pablo Ruiz was considering what path to take after his studies at Lincoln Park High School. 

“I didn’t know if someone like me could go to college,” Ruiz said. “I knew I had talent in visual arts.” 

Ruiz was accepted into AAP,  where he collaborated with instructors who helped nurture his talent toward a professional artistic path. He is completing his master’s degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. 

Ruiz said he wants young people to know that someone with his background can “make it” in the creative world.

“The arts teach kids to think outside the box,” Ruiz said. “If you take that away, you leave kids without a way to express themselves.” 

 Ruiz said if AAP officials “value the arts, they’ll do everything they can to keep [the program] open.”

Miriam Socoloff, one of Ruiz’s instructors who also helped create the Advanced Arts Program in the 1990s, said she could “never in a million years” understand why CPS plans to discontinue the AAP.

“A student from a poverty-stricken neighborhood could come [to Gallery 37] and meet teens from around the city who have similar interests,” Socoloff said. “The program is integrated in terms of both socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.” 

Phil Parcellano, a former AAP student who currently teaches a photography course at AAP, called the decision “shortsighted.” He said the program’s new administration is “more business-like” and “doesn’t have the understanding of the arts.”

“Sometimes, students don’t get support from family, especially when [there’s no] background in the arts,” Parcellano said. “Instructors are there to guide in ways that other adults can’t.”

In a Feb. 4 email to The Chronicle, CPS Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Mason said the District is “only evaluating potential options.”

For Socoloff, the strategy of not clarifying the program’s future offends the legacy of a project that has had “a major impact on the city.”

“This is one part of [CPS], a very lovely part of it,” Socoloff said. “There aren’t many things in [CPS] that kids love as much as this one.”