Chicago Academy for the Arts

To the Class of 2026: bravo. 🎓✨

This graduating class has filled our halls with creativity, courage, passion, and artistry. From the stage to the studio, the rehearsal room to the classroom, you have challenged yourselves, inspired one another, and left an undeniable mark on The Chicago Academy for the Arts.

You are actors, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, writers, and visual artists—but more importantly, you are bold thinkers, collaborators, and storytellers ready to shape the future.

Congratulations, graduates. We cannot wait to see where your artistry takes you next. 💫

What an amazing night! 🎵

Three collaboratively-composed multi-movement genre-blending works, a cross-departmental musical theatre realization of The Truman Show, and the presentation of genre-defining works like The Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Claude Bolling's Suite for Violin and Jazz Trio...Without Genre 5.0 was an epic performance showcasing the creativity, virtuosity, leadership, and versatility of Music Department students.

A special thanks to our packed house of audience voters, our collaborators from the Musical Theatre Department, and our composition competition judges: John Dorhauer, Kathryn Sherman, and Veronica Kolegas.

This week, the Theatre Department had the pleasure of hosting actress Milauna Jemai Jackson for a masterclass on auditioning for TV & Film. She worked on techniques with our On Camera Acting students as they closed out the semester 🎥

One of the benefits of a city campus is access to real working professionals in our fields. The Academy is so grateful to wonderful advocates like Milauna, who take time out of their day to work with aspiring artists!