I founded Stomp and Shout Chicago in 2013 with a clear mission, ” to innovate inspiring ways to bring music, art, and theatre to kids and their families”. I was seeing SO many arts programs that were offering the “same old thing”. SO many programs that were offering a limited slice of the delicious arts pie. I believe the best kinds of Arts Classes are less concerned with training the next Broadway star, and are more concerned with growing their student’s confidence, inspiring team work, strengthening problem solving skills, deepening creative and critical thinking skills, and growing big, beautiful imaginations. Speaking of imagination — take a minute to imagine what our kid’s adult lives would like with these tools at their disposal? It’s pretty thrilling to imagine, right?
September of 2013
Our first Early Childhood session begins in Logan Square. At session’s end our enrollment was at 9 kids. The class was taught by Cassie with Noah on guitar.
Summer 2014
We added two more location into the mix (for a total of three) and found that we’d grown to 21 students!
Winter 2014
Cassie partners with Brooklyn based songwriter, Jo Solomon. The merger lands Cassie with amazing songs to develop the early childhood music and creative play program she’s been dreaming about for years. It also gives us a sister, Stomp and Shout Brooklyn.
Summer 2015
Holy smokes — 38 enrollments, 3 teachers, 3 locations, and 2 guitarists.
Winter 2015
Our Early Childhood neighborhoods grow to include: Logan Square (the OG), Roscoe Village, Bucktown, West Loop, and Oak Park.
Stomp and Shout Chicago spearheads it’s first program for older kids, Strong Girls Make Stuff at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble.
You can see we’ve been growing in a big, beautiful way! Even more amazing opportunities have been flying Stomp and Shout’s way and we’ve found ourselves in one of those exciting moments: there’s a need and an opportunity for growth, but all of that growth needs capital to support it. That’s where you come in….
The time has come for us to plant our roots. Where to do it was a no brainer — beautiful Logan Square! Not only will Stomp and Shout HQ provide a space for our classes, trainings, and a much needed office for Cassie, it will also open up opportunities for us to throw parties, produce inventive, immersive children’s theatre and family friendly concerts (what up kindie rock!), and offer space to other family/kid focused companies (think: birthing classes, mama groups, dance classes, instrumental music lessons, and more!). Don’t worry — we’ll continue to offer our classes all over the city of Chicago!!