New Creative Arts School Welcomes First Class Of Students

Art In Motion (AIM) is a new creative charter school on the south side of Chicago led by Principal Kara May (pictured) who recently welcomed the school’s first class of students on their first day. Photo Credit: Katherine Newman
Art In Motion (AIM) is a new creative charter school on the south side of Chicago led by Principal Kara May (pictured) who recently welcomed the school’s first class of students on their first day. Photo Credit: Katherine Newman

New Creative Arts School Welcomes First Class Of Students

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Art in Motion (AIM), a new creative arts charter school in South Shore, recently welcomed its first class of students. The first class of students at AIM is made up of about 200 seventh-graders and eighth-graders from across the city.

AIM, located on 7415 S. East End Ave., is a unique concept in Chicago not only because it is a creative arts charter school, but because it also has no attendance boundary and requires no audition. The administration welcomes any student from any neighborhood with any level of experience in creative arts to apply for admission.

The first class at AIM is made up of seventh and eighth graders and the school will gradually add a grade every year until it reaches full capacity with about 900 students ranging from seventh to 12th grade. AIM will graduate its first class of seniors in 2024.

“There’s so much happening, but I feel super excited and I have just a little bit of anxiety only because there is so much happening. I’m totally stoked and excited about the kids coming in and the parents. Making sure everything is right for them is really important,” said Kara May, principal of AIM.

May said that it’s important to her that AIM makes an outstanding first impression on the incoming students and their families but more than that, she wants to make sure that the entire experience they have throughout their time at the school is good for them.

“First impressions are obviously really important but we have so much to offer and have done so much work for the kids that I just want it to be good and I want it to be right and I want it to feel right for them. I want the parents to be glad they took a chance with their kids and I want the teachers to be glad they took a chance to come and work with us,” said May.

The students at AIM are coming from across the city but several seats were reserved for local south side kids, including Charisma who just began her 7th grade year at AIM. Charisma said that she is beyond excited to start school at AIM and thinks that incorporating creative arts into her learning experience will help her succeed in the future.

“I have been doing this my whole life. I could sing before I could talk, I could dance before I could walk, and I’ve been a model since I was 11 months old. This has been my whole life, basically,” said Charisma. “This is just a dream school and I thank the cofounders for their vision to open a school like this and for giving kids access to a brighter future. I’m usually excited to go back to school, but I have never been this excited to go back. This is a dream come true.”

To learn more about AIM, visit www.aimchicago.org.

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