Program areas at Old Town School of Folk Music
Art instruction: Old Town School of Folk Music is the largest community Music School in the us, the largest employer of teaching artists and an international model for community Music and movement. All of Old Town School of Folk Music's accredited instrumental dance, Music and ancillary programs are designed to stimulate creativity and communal arts participation among people of all ages. While classes continue (and will continue) to be offered online, the majority of students attended in person classes during 2022. Registration volumes are building back to pre-pandemic levels for the adult programs; the number of student registrations for 2022 were 80% of 2019 numbers. The children's program continues to build back; student numbers early in the year were 40% of 2019 numbers and had increased to 56% by the end of the year. The number of students in group classes and workshops was 20,473 and in private lessons 5,128; compared to 2019 numbers of 29,795 and 6,543, respectively.
Outreach: Old Town School of Folk Music serves thousands of chicago's children each year, providing arts education programming throughout the city. In person programming occurred during the entire year. Old Town School annually provides community-based arts education for thousands of children through artist residencies in cps schools, center-based early childhood Music programming in north lawndale, and robust field trip and financial aid programs. Our Music moves/healing justice initiative connects non-arts community partners located in chicago's south side and west side neighborhoods with high-quality arts programming that build arts capacity, skill acquisition in Music performance and equity though performance and discourse related to liberatory futures, personal growth, curiosity, and imagination.
Concerts: Old Town School of Folk Music is a prolific concert venue. Events include on-site and off-site concerts featuring big name acts and emerging artists in state-of-the-art facilities. The popular world Music wednesday series showcases international artists co-produced with dozens of community partners.the School returned to a full slate of concert offerings in 2022. A total of 39,077 people attended 159 events; these numbers are approaching pre-pandemic levels.
Old Town School of Folk Music's campus includes a retail Music store which provides instruments for purchase or rental to our students. The retail store was open for in person shopping the entire year, and also served customers through our website and a third-party online website, reverb. An in-house cafe operates during concerts, serving drinks and snacks.