Yollocalli Arts Reach
Yollocalli /yo-loh-KAH-lee/ or Yollo /YO-loh/ noun
1. A youth art house and education center
2. A youth sanctuary for the expressive, imaginative, and weird
From the Aztec language, Nahuatl: "yollotl" meaning "heart" and "calli" meaning "house," literally, “home of the heart.”
KEEPING IT WEIRD SINCE 1997. ♥
KEEPING IT WEIRD SINCE 1997. ♥
Who We Are
Yollocalli Arts Reach is the award-winning youth initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art. We offer FREE arts and culture programming to teens and young adults.
Located in the heart of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, we serve as an open community center with studio spaces, a computer lab, radio production studio, a large art library, and a creative, supportive staff who are always around to help, encourage, and inspire. We aim to strengthen the students’ creative and cultural capital by engaging them with their own cultural discourses through art making.
Every program and special event offered by Yollocalli is free of charge; This is only possible with help from you.
Our Mission
Our mission is to strengthen the value of youth art and culture by providing equal access to communal, artistic, and cultural resources that allow youth to become creative and engaged community members.
We provide programs for youth ages 13 to 24 years old, offered during the fall and spring after school, with longer day sessions during the summer. Programs range in technical skill and theme from basic drawing and painting, to public performance, blogging, comic and zine making, quinceañera aesthetics, mural painting and graffiti, just to name a few.
We also host satellite programs, workshops, teen exhibitions, and special events throughout the year in the Chicagoland area. Everything provided by Yollocalli is always totally and completely FREE OF CHARGE.
Thank You!
Yollocalli is thankful for all its funders and supporters including The City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, After School Matters, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Chicago White Sox Charities (CWSC), Neighborhood Capital Fund, Illinois Arts Council Agency Summer Youth Employment in the Arts, and SGA Youth. Also, thank you to the Chicago Park District, The Joyce Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council. Yollocalli is also a proud member of the Violence Prevention Collaborative (VPC), Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), and the Chicago Youth Voices Networks.
For more information about our recognition and awards, check out: