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Today marks the ChiArts Foundationâs final day of operations, and we want to offer our deepest gratitude.

This work began in 2004, when the Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust and the Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust convened a group of visionary leaders and organizations around a shared belief: that Chicagoâs young artists deserve access to exceptional, tuition-free, pre-professional arts education regardless of background or circumstance. From that founding commitment grew something extraordinary.

For more than two decades, thousands of donors, board members, teaching artists, educators, families, volunteers, alumni, and advocates carried that vision forward. Together, you built ChiArts into Chicagoâs first public arts high school and a nationally recognized model for accessible, pre-professional arts training.

Because of your belief and generosity, more than $40 million was raised to support five arts conservatories, opening doors for generations of scholar-artists whose lives, voices, and creative futures have been transformed.

While the ChiArts Foundationâs work comes to a close, its impact does not. It lives on in every scholar-artist who discovers their voice for the first time, every alumnus building a creative life, and every young artist who will walk through ChiArtsâ doors in the years ahead.

Tomorrow, the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) becomes Chicago Arts High School, supported within Chicago Public Schools. This transition reflects not an ending, but the strength of what has been built: a program so rooted in excellence, equity, and community that it has become part of the district itself.

We are deeply hopeful for what comes next. If any community can carry its legacy forward and continue to grow it, it is ChiArts.

Thank you for believing in this vision. Thank you for building this legacy. And thank you for making sure it endures.

With deepest gratitude,

The ChiArts Foundation Board of Directors and Staff
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