Student Workshops
Ragdale works with schools from Chicago, IL to Kenosha, WI to share a talented pool of artists with the community. Students as young as kindergarten and up to college-level receive unique lessons from creative professionals and engage in direct dialogue with creative makers and producers, reaffirming the importance of art as part of an expansive education.
Please email Regin Igloria, Artistic Director, for more information.
2024 High School Arts Week
Now in its sixteenth year, this intensive program offers students the opportunity to develop their creative skills under the guidance of distinguished instructors in a retreat setting.
The all-day workshops take place Monday-Friday, July 15-19 from 10AM to 4PM on the Ragdale campus. Daily lunch and snacks are provided, and all supplies and materials. New this year: transportation from a River North location in the city will enable Chicago-area students to be bussed to and from Ragdale. Lake Forest Metra station pick-up can also be arranged. There are no student fees for accepted students.
Applications are closed for 2024.
More information:
Please contact Ragdale’s Artistic Director, Regin Igloria
On-site School Programs
Ragdale Youth Engagement continues throughout the academic year with plans to continue artist talks, workshops, and classroom visits, either virtual or in-person, throughout 2024. Fellows are matched with specific schools and serve as valuable resources to curricula, offering direct knowledge and in professional creative fields. Upcoming partnership programs include Global Odyssey Week at Woodlands Academy, and The Creative Refined Student Mind exhibition and a student-run podcast club at Cristo Rey St. Martin High School, and Connections Week at Chicago High School for the Arts.
As a supplement to on-site school programs, Ragdale offers a series of pre-recorded Creative POV Artist Talks
Arts + Nature Programs
Arts + Nature Programs introduce students to the symbiotic relationship between the natural environment and the creative process. Led by a group of teaching artists who share their knowledge and expertise in various media, students explore mindfulness, ecology, and creativity within the Ragdale campus adjacent to 50 acres of prairie.
View Ragdale’s Arts + Nature video series on Ragdale’s YouTube Channel. Subsequent videos will be added as they are produced.
“Arts + Nature Week allows artists, young people, and teachers to engage with and experience nature through creativity and vice versa. As an artist, this experience reaffirms that nature can be a safe, inclusive, and accessible learning space for communities to collaborate, create, and imagine new possibilities. I'm grateful I for the opportunity to share my passions with a younger generation and to learn from their stories and connection with nature.”
— Guillermo Delgado, Teaching Artist