THE FIRE ARTS CENTER OF CHICAGO

I was a student at Fire Arts for a couple of years, in a couple of different locations. I was very deeply impressed by the staff and instructors' commitment to their students. They worked exceptionally hard to make their classes available to people of all walks of life. Even more importantly, the administrators seemed to put a special emphasis on teaching not just the technical skills of their arts, but a deeper appreciation of the art generally. I was also very impressed by their flexibility--they were willing and able to schedule classes for one or just a few students, and to branch out from the most profitable classes (furniture and metal sculpture) into more specialized fields (like stone sculpture). My biggest criticism would be that they were not terribly well organized, and were bottom-heavy. Most of the administration was done by just a few people, who were also active teachers. That made the entire organization very transparent and available to the students, but also required the administrators to spread themselves thinly. Overall, a wonderful organization and a great source of arts instruction in Chicago--especially in artistic fields that aren't generally open to casual or adult students. Unique and effective organization.