Chance the Rapper announces new arts and literature fund for Chicago students
When Chance the Rapper sets his mind to something, it's clear he doesn't let anything slow him down.
The Chicago native is continuing to spearhead efforts to improve Chicago Public Schools (CPS)—and while he's still campaigning for $215 million for Chicago's students, he's also kicking things up a notch with a new fund specifically for helping fund arts education.
"As a parent and a proud CPS graduate, I'm committed to helping Chicago's children have quality learning experiences and quality in the learning space," he said at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
"As an artist and after school kids teacher, I know the arts are essential," he continued before announcing that he was dedicated to making sure that more students would have access with the New Chance Arts and Literature Fund.
The fund is in collaboration with CPS's Children's First Fund, and arts education advocacy and research organization Ingenuity. Chance's new fund will bring arts programs to various schools in Chicago that have experienced budget cuts, and don't have arts programs starting this fall during the 2017-2018 school year. The schools will be selected based on data from Ingenuity.
During his press conference, Chance also announced that NBA basketball team Chicago Bulls have donated $1 million to Chicago Public Schools as a part of his effort to raise $215 million for students across the Windy city. Chance also shouted out comedian Hannibal Buress and Justin Bieber's manager for donating to the campaign.
"I'm glad that I got this microphone and I'm glad that you guys keep coming out to hear the stories and that you guys keep reporting on what is going on here," he said before encouraging people to get involved on Twitter or with his nonprofit organizations SocialWorks.
