Cool Classics! is honored to be among 12 winners of the 2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. The award is given by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in cooperation with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Cool Classics! is a book-based, after-school program that uses arts-integrated curricula to improve literacy and reading comprehension while developing critical thinking skills and introducing Chicago public school elementary schools students to a wide range of arts, humanities and cultures. We aim to expand participants’ sense of the world, improve their academic and analytical skills while building lasting communities of our students, their families, teachers and school administrators to insure success as they continue their education throughout their lives. Our website is at www.coolclassicschicago.org/ A concise overview of our work is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o0ytEjux_M&feature=youtu.beOur mission: Cool Classics, Inc. is committed to improving literacy among under-served elementary school students, expanding their sense of arts, culture and humanities, creating readers and critical thinkers and serving schools that have lost arts and culture programs and are overwhelmed by demands of test-driven curricula.The majority of children who participate in Cool Classics! achieve: • Increased reading skills, comprehension and analysis• Expanded vocabulary
• Highly developed critical thinking skills
• Greater enthusiasm for reading• Expanded understanding of Literature, Humanities, Poetry, Art, Dance, Drama, MusicParticipants are featured on the legendary singer/songwriter Ella Jenkins new CD, Ella Jenkins: A Life of Song, recorded by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to herald the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.