OUR 2024 PARTNERS
We have already begun full-time instruction throughout the school day.
GLA is proud to announce a new partnership with the Professional Theater and Dance Youth Academy (PTDYA). PTDYA will provide a comprehensive curricular arts program for students in grades 5-8 at GLA during the 23-24 school year.
PTDYA is a non-profit organization that provides professional music and arts education in Chicago’s under-resourced schools and communities so that our city’s most vulnerable youth have a supportive space to learn, grow, and thrive. We support our black and brown students in learning how to celebrate themselves through the arts. Through our partnership students will learn music theory, choreography, staging, blocking and participate in a fully costumed professional production. In addition, PTDYA will be launching an after school program for students passionate about the arts called The Academy Kids.
Our main instructors will be Brandon Lampkin, Musical Director, and Michael Jones PTDYA Executive Director who will also be serving as Great Lakes Academy’s Artistic Director this school year.
What's Happening at PTDYA
A Tribute to Excellence in entertainment
at Higgins Academy
PTDYA provides professional music and arts education in Chicago’s under-resourced schools and communities so that our city’s most vulnerable youth have a supportive space to learn, grow, and thrive.
Since 2011, our after-school, in-school and summer programming has served over 2000 African American students, training Chicago’s youth in music, theatre, dance, and spoken word. Our educational curriculum, taught by highly trained professionals of color, successfully engages Chicago’s youth with mentor relationships, multiple learning opportunities, and renewed motivation to stay in school.
PTDYA works with students in many of Chicago’s poorest and most violent communities, stripped of arts education opportunities.
Ralph Ellison High School
Auburn-Gresham Neighborhood
20% of students are homeless
93% low-income households
1.3% of students meet English and Math proficiency for their grade
Austin Neighborhood
Ranks No. 1 in violent crime
Ranks second in homicides
Unemployment is 29%
Englewood Neighborhood
Unemployment is 37%
Ranks second in violent crime
59% of males have been arrested
We believe the performing arts cultivate discipline, confidence, and creative thinking which enables young people to become critical thinkers and leaders.
“The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college.”
— Arne Duncan, Former CEO Chicago Public Schools and Former U.S. Secretary of Education
Many independent studies report the value of arts education:
- Students engaged in the arts
- More often attend college
- Have better college grades
- Get better job opportunities
- At-risk dance students report significant gains in confidence, tolerance, and persistence
- 4-year high school arts education adds 97 points to SAT scores
With your help and guidance I was able to get into my dream school, Columbia College. You have really inspired me and motivated me to become a leader and I want to be able to help someone one day the same way you helped me.
Joshua B, Student Alum
Thank you to our major supporters for keeping the arts alive in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods.
