Frequently Asked Questions

How will these donation dollars be used?
Your donation monies will be used in a variety of ways for general operating expenses, such as: paying for Director salary, assistants salary, summer interns salary, to pay rent on months went enrollments are historically low (like December and May), also to pay for extra heating costs if it becomes extra cold.

Donation Dollars help to keep tuition affordable and family discounts can be offered so that economic status is not a detriment to enjoying the programming offered by the Art Attack.

We are call upon to do extra curricular art activities for many schools and park districts. These donation dollars help keep our program available to them.

We are called upon to give out donations to other non-for-profits for example preschools and school fun fairs. We give out scholarships to underprivileged families in almost every class we offer. Without these funding monies we won’t be at the liberty to do those kinds of community action ideas.

Why is continued art programming for our area a must?
There is no way to fast forward to the future and know how kids will look back at their experiences at the Art Attack, I only know that what I see in their eyes and have heard in their voices is nothing short of pure joy.  The rural isolation does not provide enough art opportunities that afford children to expand their abilities.  In these rural communities, community arts programs provide crucial building blocks for children’s healthy development.  The Art Attack offers small classes so more one-on-one time is possible and uses teaching strategies with hands-on learning to build children’s skills.  Sustained, regular programming that children can count on offers the chance for their sense of self-esteem to develop and thus they gain self-worth and a sense of achievement.
Active engagement with arts experiences offsets the anesthetic, the mundane and the ordinary. A life without the arts is a life of seeing without feeling, hearing only what is offered to us secondhand, touching without real contact. It is a life devoid of insight into what it means to be human. In Art as Experience, John Dewey wrote of this unique ability of the arts to "break through the crust of conventionalized and routine consciousness." Artists, he felt, "have always been the real purveyors of news, for it is not the outward happening in itself which is new, but the kindling by it of emotion, perception and appreciation." When we begin to create and respond to the arts ourselves, we kindle the fires of emotion, perception and appreciation. We look underneath the surface realities of the world. We release our imagination.
Today it is recognized that to be truly well educated one must not only learn to appreciate the arts, but must also have rich opportunities to actively participate in creative work. The arts are a language that most people speak, cutting through individual differences in culture, educational background, and ability. They can bring every subject to life and turn abstractions into concrete reality. Learning through the arts often results in greater academic achievement and higher test scores.  With our rural landscape and the critical state of affairs regarding art in our schools, to take the Art Attack away from our area would be to deny greater academic achievement to our rural population.  Consider that you are funding our whole program, not just a part, and that programming will make big differences in many lives.  We thank you for your consideration.

Why do we need a place like the Art Attack?
DeKalb County is one of the counties in Northern Illinois with a high incidence of low income, rural population.  Our sister county, Ogle county, is even further down the list .  In our rural area, where arts programming is essential for the well being of children and adults, funding for the arts is often cut or completely non-existent. Your donation dollars to our one art program allows us to serve the art needs of many individual organizations.* The Art Attack provides fine art classes to ages 2 years through adult.  This gives the rural population the ability to engage in and experience all forms of art through art classes, art appreciation, self-esteem building and cultural development.  We offer regular art classes, after school programs, art appreciation, birthday parties, classes at the elderly facility, and many other programs.

*How does your one program service many programs?
Because of this economic status funding for the arts is cut or completely non-existent.  It is in these areas where art programming is essential for the well being of children and adults.  It is easier to use a program like ours that services many people, than individual programs for each entity that needs art programming.   For example, in Ogle County many elementary schools have no formalized art programming.  Instead of hiring a part time teacher in each district we could partner with them for one or two full time, fully accredited teachers that can service the children in a better capacity. 

Who has the Art Attack partnered with in the past?
Both local school districts – DeKalb and Sycamore, Sycamore park district, YMCA, and Genoa park district.  We have also participated in many community events such as:
iLocal art shows sponsored by                iCommunity events sponsored by
       Kishwaukee Art League                            The City of Sycamore
       Local businesses                                        Kishwaukee Community Hospital
       DeKalb Area Women’s Center                  Oak Crest Retirement Center
       Northern Illinois University                         CASA
       Kishwaukee Community College                Northern Illinois University
       Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra              Kishwaukee Community College
       Ben Gordon Foundation
       Family Services Agency
       Hope Haven Homeless Shelter
       DeKalb Area Women’s Center
       Opportunity House for the Handicapped

What has the Art Attack accomplished in the last 7 years?

Highlights:
We serve almost 500 hundred kids each year in our after school art programs
We provide art programming for the Clients of Safe Passage Women’s Shelter, residents
     of Hope Haven Homeless Shelter, Residents and Clients of the Opportunity House
     program for Adults with disabilities.
We provide extra curricular art programming for the students in all DeKalb county schools
    and surrounding counties during and after school
We have high level art shows with local and International artists
We give opportunities for local artist to improve their abilities with high level-affordable
     instruction and a place to show off their abilities

After School Programs where art programs are non-existent:
Implementation is still underway with the District Superintendent to finalize the execution of after school programs in several DeKalb and Ogle County Schools.  Additional projects are in progress as well.  Currently a task force is being started to work on the problem of no or almost non-existent Art Teachers for these districts.  Director Susan Edwards has come up with a solution and is working with NIU, Kishwaukee College, and several others on this task force to achieve this goal.

Classes at Senior Centers:
Director Susan Edwards and several volunteers provided several art opportunities for Pine Crest Retirement Home.  We offered painting and drawing classes for Oak Crest Retirement home.

Hope Haven Homeless Shelter:
We have had many families take advantage of our scholarship program at our facility.

New Families with Scholarships:
We have many families that take advantage of our programs through scholarships that we provide. 

Kishwaukee College’s Family Literacy Program:
We provide Kishwaukee College’s Family Literacy Program a field trip to create several art opportunities for underprivileged families to happen in the summer of 2006.

Program for Battered Women’s Shelter:
A grant was written and obtained to the Rockford Art Arts Council to implement art classes for the clients of Safe Passage in DeKalb.  These classes started in February of 2006 and continue.

High School Interns:
We have high school students working for us through out the years. Additionally, Art Club was started for High School students on Thursdays afternoons in January.

College Students:
We have college students work for us as interns in every summer and through out the year. Many have taken advantage of studio space for their art space. We are currently working on attracting more interns.

Home school groups:
Most home schoolers have elected to use the main stream art classes we offer.  Currently one group is working on obtaining a grant to provide them a weekly scheduled time for art programming.

What will happen if these funding monies are not received?
We will continue to offer classes at our current site for as long as we can, but will have to explore other places to hold them in the future. This will greatly deplete our ability to offer many of our most popular classes such as pottery and the kid’s favorite of “Make a Mess,” as well as our ability to offer a large assortment to suit our client’s needs.

Most likely we will have to increase our tuition making our programming only available to those with higher income status. This for us cuts down on one of our main objectives: to offer art programming to all.

All of the programs we do for other area organizations like the Opportunity House, the schools, and others will have to be eliminated.

Do you feel the Art Attack is a successful program?
We feel that the Art Attack has had very successful years considering that, just days after successfully completing the 4th edition of our annual Wine Tasting and Art Show Fundraiser in 2004, we suffered an attack by vandals.  The destruction incorporated most of our office equipment, archives, a new mural, and our historic wooden floor, among other things and closed us down for three months.  Although the damages reached $30,000, we were able to pull together volunteers and resources to heal the wounds to our program.  We have continued to offer classes in the visual arts both onsite and at external locations for ages two to adult.  Our enrollments have been steady over the past few years, despite the hostile climate towards the arts in tight financial times.  In addition to maintaining our program in the face of these adversities, we added a Family Music Series to our repertoire.  This Family Music Series has included concerts featuring solo acoustic folk musicians who stopped in Sycamore during their national tours.  We had another successful Art Show Fundraisers creating exciting and art-full events including national and international recognized artists.  With the edition of an Artist Cooperative, people would be able to view art in progress from many local artists.  This is one of our many artist goals and we feel that because of the Art Attack art is alive and well in Sycamore.

What are the goals the Art Attack has set for the future?
Short Term                                                        Mid Term (2 – 5 years)
▪ Grants for needed items:                                  ▪ Murals – 3 outdoor
        Shelving, cabinets, lighting,                         ▪ Outdoor Arts Festival
        Art supplies for outreach                             ▪ High level Art Shows
           programs, framing supplies                      ▪ Year around art gallery
▪ Grants for better teacher pay to attract            ▪ After school programs or bussing to A.A.
        and keep  teachers                                     ▪ High level art programs with teachers from
▪ Work/Study program for High School                     all over the county and world
        Students –paint items to sell                       ▪ Attract students from around country
▪ Program for school with no formalized              ▪ Utilize Art space during the day more
      art programs                                                 ▪ Put in place an art history program for the               
▪ More Theater Classes                                             elementary schools that is utilized
▪ Artists Cooperative started for local artist
         to provide and outlet for art sales