The Gallery Can Be Theirs, too.
Our Mission
The Children’s Gallery Chicago cultivates creativity, confidence, and connection by providing vibrant arts programs that support Chicago youth not just as artists, but as the brilliant thinkers and storytellers they already are.
The Children’s Gallery Chicago (TCGC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded on a simple but radical belief: children deserve spaces where their thoughts and creativity are not just encouraged but taken seriously. Too often, traditional galleries ask children to quiet themselves, to shrink, to adapt to adult expectations and interpretations of art consumption. TCGC asks something different: What if the gallery adapted to them?
Drawing on research in early childhood learning and museum education, we know that children learn through movement, storytelling, and embodied exploration. They do not come to art passively. They arrive with wild questions, boundless energy, and perspectives we often overlook. At The Children’s Gallery, we treat these qualities not as distractions, but as genius in motion.
When young people create, they are not just telling stories. They are telling the truth of who they are and who they might yet become. And we are here to help them do it loudly. Our programs are designed to affirm the full range of a child’s creative expression—from the zigzag joy of painting in motion to the quiet reflection of zine-making. We believe children deserve encouragement, materials, and safe spaces to express their truths. We believe their stories belong in community galleries, in published work, and on the walls of this city.
This is not art education as enrichment.
This is art without permission.
As voice.
As power.
That’s why we exist.
We are a new organization, but we are hungry. We are urgently building an enduring safe space for the children of Chicago: a city-wide invitation for youth to reimagine their futures through creativity, care, and collective voice. We begin in the places where many systems have failed our youth—on the South and West sides of this city, where talent runs deep but investment too often runs dry. Our work is deeply grassroots: built in collaboration with communities, responsive to local needs, and rooted in shared ownership and trust.
Our roots are already growing fast, reaching into community centers and classrooms, into homes and hearts, into the hands of young people who deserve not only to be heard, but to be celebrated for the stories they share through visual art and creative writing. In the very near future, we aim to partner with grassroots organizations, teams of artists and educators, and CPS to grow and sustain spaces across the city where young people can thrive unapologetically, loudly, and messily.
how we create, how we care, & how we build a future together
TCGC isn’t just an organization—it’s a way of seeing and navigating the world.
These five values guide every program we offer, every room we shape, every child we welcome. They are more than principles. They are practices. Commitments. Promises to the young artists we serve. Below, you’ll find the heart of our process.
The Children’s Gallery Chicago (TCGC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Copyright © 2025 The Children's Gallery Chicago - All Rights Reserved.
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