Scott D. Sikkema age 60

It is with heavy hearts to announce the passing of Scott D. Sikkema of Chicago Illinois, formerly Fulton who optimistically battled but succumbed to cancer on Oct. 9, 2023 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL., surrounded by family and loving friends. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday November 4th from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at Rastrelli’s in Clinton. The Pape Funeral Home, of Clinton is assisting the family. Online condolences may be left at www.papefh.com
Scott (02/17/1963-10/09/2023) is the third son of Russell and Darlene (Bielema) Sikkema. Scott graduated from Fulton High School, Mount Saint Clare College, Southern Illinois University and University of Illinois. Scott’s professional career was spent in Chicago Illinois, where he loved working with artists, teachers and staff to exchange ideas and develop new ways to bring creativity into the classroom. Throughout his professional career he was dedicated to working side-by-side with teachers and teaching artists in developing the profession.
His career began at the Kohl’s Children’s Museum in 1993, where he led workshops for students and teachers on the Hundred Languages of Children, Chicago’s first exhibit of Reggio Emilia pedagogy and student art. Scott built his first multi-year collaborations between Kohl’s and elementary and preschool programs in the Chicago Public Schools to make sure every child had a chance to tell their tale. When Scott moved to the Terra Museum of American Art in 1996, he brought the vibrant connections that expanded on-site arts programming for young learners. His intentional drive to serve young learners connected the Terra’s unique resources through purposeful educational programming with the Chicago Commons, the Shedd Aquarium, and the North Park Village Nature Center. While working at Terra, Scott was a teaching artist in the Bridgeport/Armour Square Arts Partnership, within the founding group of CAPE partners.
From 1992 to 2002, Scott taught teacher workshops and graduate coursework at National Louis University, Illinois State University, and Columbia College. Scott used that pedagogical expertise to shape policy while serving on the Education Committee at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Working to serve those who bring art to our classrooms, Scott built the capacity of educators through lasting collaborations between Chicago’s most prestigious institutions, including the Newberry Library, the Chicago Historical Museum, the Garfield Park Conservatory, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Intuit Gallery for Outsider Arts, the Roger Brown Study Collection, the Conservation Design Forum, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, the Second City, and the Chicago Blues Foundation.
Scott joined the CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education) staff in 2002 as the first Program Director and later as Education Director and for the next twenty years, had a significant impact on CAPE’s programming and research. An internationally recognized arts and education leader, Scott was a planner, researcher, writer, teacher, curator, and collaborator. His work focused on fostering a collective professional development network designed to improve teaching and learning through the arts. Because of Scott, more and more children use and apply contemporary art practices and forms in our schools. Scott worked to establish research as an aesthetic and pedagogical practice, central to teaching and learning and to artmaking through collaboration that resulted in CAPE’s Artist/Researcher model. Scott helped to write federal, state, and regional grants to fund CAPE’s emergence as Chicago’s pre-eminent arts programming resource. Scott championed the exhibition and public sharing of student work. Working with staff and teaching artists, he developed CAPE’s exhibition practice. He worked with many colleagues, teaching artists, and teachers to plan the CAPE Gallery, which was opened in early 2023. Scott’s passion for CAPE’s work was driven by his unshakable belief in the creativity of children.
Throughout his career, Scott shaped how children experienced the arts in schools as a path to change the world one student at a time. Scott built a lasting network of collaborating cultural resources that brings art to thousands and thousands of school children in communities across our region every day. His lasting legacy is defined by the connections he built between museum educators, principals and school administrators, teachers, artists and colleagues who continue to work together to shape how our students grow and interact with art in their classrooms, their community, and their lives.
Family left to honor Scott are brother and sister-in-law Jon and Cecelia Sikkema of Fulton, nephew Justin (Maranda) Wagner of Oroville WA, niece Jessica Newkirk of DeWitt IA, nephew Jerry Sikkema of Cedar Rapids, IA , niece Joce (Joseph) Kopera of Davenport, IA and great nephews and nieces; Patrick Newkirk, Rylee Wagner, Cecelia Newkirk and Russell Kopera. Scott was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Loren.