CHICAGO — With the expansion of Marwen, more students like Jordon Eason will be able to take free art classes.
Marwen, the city' free art school for underserved youths, will break ground Tuesday for its expanded campus at 833 N. Orleans St.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel will attend.
The renovations will open up the currently unused third floor of the building, allowing the school to serve more students.
Nearly 900 students from almost 300 Chicago Public Schools each year take free courses through Marwen, said Brian Barasch, Marwen's communications manager. The expansion will allow the school to serve up to 30 percent more students by 2018, he said.
The expansion is slated to be completed in September, and fall classes will begin in late October.
The third floor will have three new studios for instruction in photography, videography, 3-D printing and special effects. There will be a new student and family lounge and expanded exhibition space.
The existing studios and exhibition areas also will be expanded.
Jordon, a 15-year-old from Roseland, attends Chicago High School for the Arts. She has been a part of Marwen for four years and she said she likes the class selection.
“I really enjoy that I get to have a different variety because at my school we’re kind of given the curriculum, like you don’t get to choose what you want," she said. "But when you go to Marwen, you have a chance to experiment with everything.”
Jordon said one of the first classes she took was “Capturing Light: Darkroom Photo Foundation” in 2010. She also took “Pop Art Creations: Printmaking Foundations,” but one of her most memorable classes was “Artists as Activists.”
The 2014 summer term class allowed her to be proactive, she said.
“We chose cultural issues we thought were important to us,” she said. “I chose discrimination against LGBT students.”
Jordon said she put up signs around her school about gender-neutral bathrooms. She said that because some teens don’t feel like they belong to a specific gender, it was important to educate the student body.
Dick Blick Art Materials CEO Robert Buchsbaum, who supports arts in Chicago and Marwen through donations, said the school fills "a growing void in arts education today.”
“They’re giving young, talented and aspiring artists the chance to develop professional skills and learn what it means to have a career in the arts," Buchsbaum said. "At Blick, this is exactly what we’re committed to — building the next generation of artists, especially among our local Chicago communities — and are proud to support programs like Marwen that share the same goal.”
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