Miriam Gutierrez, a bubbly, brown-haired 15-year-old, has been taking classes at the Marwen Foundation–an art-education program for inner-city kids–since last summer. On this particular day in March, she and the rest of the advanced classical drawing class are sitting around a table, wearing–for the purpose of today’s exercise–a collection of eccentric hats. Their assignment: draw the person across from you using the hand you don’t normally draw with. The result is an arresting display of talent that, along with some of the class’s other black-and-white work, makes up “Classical Drawing: Shades of Black and White,” currently on exhibit at the Junior Museum of the Art Institute.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The Marwen Foundation was conceived a year and a half ago by Steve Berkowitz, a former businessman eager to combine his passion for art and his love of kids. The not-for-profit organization was designed to help public-school students who might not be able to receive the individual attention and instruction necessary to nurture their artistic talents.
Out of Berkowitz’s basic plan of teaching kids art came a career-opportunity class, offered “to show kids how they can turn their talent into a career,” Berkowitz says. “We expose them to architecture, advertising, interior design–all different ways of making a living out of art.” This year the foundation set up paid internships for 27 students in companies like Leo Burnett, U.S. Equities, and the Art Institute. Marwen students also participate in the Art Institute’s Portfolio Day, when they can bring their work and meet recruiters from art schools. The City Associates of the Women’s Board and the Museum Education Department of the Art Institute, which together sponsored the “Classical Drawing” exhibit, liked what Marwen was doing so much that they decided to forgo their annual exhibit of high school students’ photography and display Marwen students’ work instead.
