The Youth Issues Youth Solutions Program at Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center
Empowering the Youth
Since its inception in 1984, Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center (CUARC) has been providing hope and inspiration to the various communities. Our open-minded environment promotes nonviolence through art and discussion programs.
It is our hope that through these programs, we at CUARC will be able to spread our peaceful message and will encourage people to examine how sexism, racism, homophobia, and other isms affect our lives. We also hope to empower youth to serve their community for change. CUARC believes that art in all forms can be a vehicle for and the catalyst of change toward the elimination of oppression.
Feel free to email request contact@urbanartretreat.com to get on the Chicago Urban Art Retreat email list.
Celebrating Youth
Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center is celebrating youth advocating for peace with our program series featuring adult and children’s programming, peace walks, a neighborhood-wide Peace Park project, at the end of August. The event in August is a Youth Art Fest in which youth and adults are invited to come together and encourage the talents of youth (art-making, music, dance, acting, etc.) on the last Saturday in August.
We talk about peace in our communities and what we can do as a collective force to continue spreading peace in our city.
We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at our upcoming events!
Peace Walks – Easy, fun, and short walks for dedicated to peace-building! Children and adults from everywhere are welcome to walk with us to promote peace, happiness, and safety. Contact us to find out when the next peace walk will happen! (contact@urbanartretreat.com)
Peace Park Projects and Creating Peace Sculptures – One way we are involving youth is via our Puzzle Mural project to go into each Peace Park! Children paint portraits of African American heroes on various size wood pieces and these are attached to a large free-standing mural. Up to 400 of these portraits may be included in each Puzzle Mural. Any youth group who would like to paint the portraits and be included may contact us for a workshop at their location. Want to help with sculptures, landscaping, organizing, publicity, workshops, or party planning? Contact us. This is a project completely accomplished by volunteers!
Area Youth
The youth learned about recycling, reusing, and reducing waste. Children aged 7-11 learned all about how to recycle and why we should recycle. They also learned how to present themselves in a positive way. In the spring, they gave presentations on recycling door to door to their neighbors!
Youth for Peace Fashion Event
Fashion Design Ideas
How to Make a Fashion Vest:
- Lay out fabric of any kind (prefer thick) and have the model lay on top of it
- Trace around the model’s torso and shoulders (do this twice) leave extra seam room
- Cut out the 2 pieces
- Leave one whole (this will be the back) and cut the other one down the middle. Cut a hole for the head (not too big, you can always make it bigger later).
- Attach the cut piece to the whole piece with thread leaving a hole for the arms on each side
- Decorate with acrylic paint
How to Make a Braided T-Shirt Headband:
- Cut three 1-inch strips of fabric from the t-shirt
- Align the pieces and tie a knot at one end
- Braid the pieces together to the desired length (varies by head circumference)
- Tie a knot to hold the braid in place
- Drape it around your head and tie the two ends together
How to Make Tie-Dye Shorts (Can Also Be Done With T-Shirts):
- Take a pair of khaki or white shorts
- Purchase a tie-dye kit (or look up making your own tie-dye online)
- Soak shorts in soda ash/dye mixture before tie-dyeing it
- Bundle up using rubber bands or by folding
- Tie dye! (Be careful about mixing too many colors/mixing together complementary colors that make brown (i.e., red and green, purple and yellow, or blue and orange)
- Place into a Ziploc bag and let stand for a day or so
- If you want to, you can use fabric paint to paint a design onto your t-shirt after it has been tie-dyed
How to Make a T-Shirt Scarf:
- Cut the bottom hem off the shirt and set aside for later
- Cut the shirt into 1-inch strips (all the way up to the armpit)
- Gather all the cut up strips and start stretching the fabric (the more you stretch, the more the fabric will curl in on itself)
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Want to learn more?
