The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design. It is located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. The school is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either entity. Providing degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels, SAIC has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top two graduate art programs in the nation, as well as by Columbia University's National Arts Journalism survey as the most influential art school in the United States.
Tracing its history to an art students cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and school, SAIC has been accredited since 1936 by the Higher Learning Commission, by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1944 (charter member), and by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) since its founding in 1991. Additionally it is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
Its downtown Chicago campus consists of seven buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the AIC building. SAIC is in an equal partnership with the AIC and share many administrative resources such as design, construction, and human resources. The campus, located in the Loop, comprises chiefly three buildings: the Michigan (112 S. Michigan Ave.), the Sharp (37 S. Wabash Ave.), and the Columbus (280 S. Columbus Dr.). SAIC also owns additional buildings throughout Chicago that are used as student galleries or investments.
History
The institute has its roots in the 1866 founding of the Chicago Academy of Design, which local artists established in rented rooms on Clark Street. It was financed by member dues and patron donations. Four years later, the school moved into its own Adams Street building, which was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Because of the school's financial and managerial problems after this loss, business leaders in 1878 formed a board of trustees and founded the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. They expanded its mission beyond education and exhibitions to include collecting. In 1882, the academy was renamed the Art Institute of Chicago. The banker Charles L. Hutchinson served as its elected president until his death in 1924.
Chancellor Walter E. Massey served as president from 2010â€"July 2016. The current president is Elissa Tenny, formerly the school's provost.
Academics
SAIC offers classes in art and technology; arts administration; art history, theory, and criticism; art education and art therapy; ceramics; fashion design; filmmaking; historic preservation; architecture; interior architecture; designed objects; journalism; painting and drawing; performance; photography; printmaking; sculpture; sound; time arts (time-based media); video; visual communication; visual and critical studies; and writing. SAIC also serves as a resource for issues related to the position and importance of the arts in society.
SAIC also offers low-residency master's degree programs in Studio and Writing.
Demographics
As of fall 2016, the student enrollment at SAIC is demographically classified as follows:
Total Enrollment: 3,569
Undergraduate students: 2,848
Graduate students: 721
Sex:
Female: 72.3%
Male: 27.7%
International and ethnic origin:
International students: 32% (countries represented: 59)
United States students: 68%, further subdivided as follows:
White: 35.6%
Hispanic: 10.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander: 10.4%
African American: 3.6%
American Indian: 0.3%
Multiethnic: 2.8%
Not Specified: 5.2%
Geographic distribution of United States students:
Midwest: 47% (includes 10.6% from Chicago)
Northeast: 20%
West: 18%
South: 16%
Activities
Visiting Artists Program
Founded in 1868, the Visiting Artists Program (VAP) is one of the oldest public programs of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Formalized in 1951 by Flora Mayer Witkowsky's endowment of a supporting fund, the Visiting Artists Program hosts public presentations by artists, designers, and scholars each year in lectures, symposia, performances, and screenings. It is an eclectic program that showcases artists' working in all media, including sound, video, performance, poetry, painting, and independent film; in addition to significant curators, critics, and art historians.
The primary mission of the program is to educate and foster a greater understanding and appreciation of contemporary art through discourse. VAP maintains a long-standing commitment to ethnic and gender diversity; it has been at the forefront of the movement toward a more socially engaged and theoretically informed aesthetic dialogue.
Recent visiting artists have included Catherine Opie, Andi Zeisler, Aaron Koblin, Jean Shin, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Marilyn Minter, Pearl Fryar, Tehching Hsieh, Homi K. Bhabha, Bill Fontana, Wolfgang Laib, Suzanne Lee, and Amar Kanwar among others.
Additionally, the Distinguished Alumni Series brings alumni back to the community to present their work and reflect on how their experiences at SAIC have shaped them. Recent alumni speakers include Tania Bruguera, Jenni Sorkin, Kori Newkirk, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Saya Woolfalk, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, and Sanford Biggers to name a few.
Galleries
- Sullivan Galleries- Located to the 7th floor of the Sullivan Center at 33 S. State Street, The Sullivan Galleries brings to Chicago audiences the work of acclaimed and emerging artists, while providing the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the public opportunities for direct involvement and exchange with the discourses of art today. With shows and projects often led by faculty or student curators, it is a teaching gallery that engages the exhibition process as a pedagogical model and mode of research.
- Student Union Galleries (LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery, Gallery X) - Founded in 1994, The Student Union Galleries (SUGs) is SAIC's fully student-run gallery system. Producing between 12 and 15 exhibitions of student work each year, SUGs strives to facilitate a creative, interdisciplinary exchange between students, professors, and arts professionals across the SAIC community and beyond. Paid student directors maintain the galleries with assistance from a faculty adviser. A volunteer student committee assists in maintenance and the selection of exhibitions. They have two locations: The LeRoy Neiman Gallery of the 37 South Wabash Avenue building; and Gallery X of the 280 South Columbus Drive building. The two locations allow the galleries to cycle two shows simultaneously. They also maintain their own website.[1]
Student organizations
ExTV
ExTV is a student-run time-arts platform that broadcasts online and on campus. Its broadcasts are available via monitors located throughout the 112 S. Michigan building, the 37 S Wabash building, and the 280 S. Columbus building. It is available on campus and off campus at extvsaic.org and on cantv.
F Newsmagazine
F Newsmagazine is a student-run newspaper with both paid and volunteer positions. The magazine is a monthly publication with a run of 12,000 copies. Copies are distributed throughout the city, mainly at locations frequented by students such as popular diners and movie theaters, and is also online.
It was awarded Best in Overall Design by the Student Society of News Design in its 2012 design contest, as well as a number of other awards for its designers.
In recent years, F Newsmagazine has won the Pacemaker Award and Online Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press and Newspaper Association of America, as well as Silver and Gold Crown awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and Best Website from the Illinois College Press Association.
Free Radio SAIC
Free Radio SAIC is the student-run Internet radio station of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Free Radio uses an open programming format and encourage its DJs to explore and experiment with the medium of live radio. Program content and style vary but generally include music from all genres, sound art, narratives, live performances, current events and interviews. [2]
Featured bands and guests on Free Radio SAIC include Nü Sensae, The Black Belles, Thomas Comerford, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Carolyn Lawrence, and much more.
Student government
The student government of SAIC is unique in that its constitution resembles a socialist republic, in which four officers hold equal power and responsibility. Elections are held every year. There are no campaign requirements. Any group of four students may run for office, but there must always be four students.
The student government is responsible for hosting a school-wide student meeting once a month. At these meetings students discuss school concerns of any nature. The predominant topic is funding for the various student organizations. Organizations which desire funding must present a proposal at the meeting by which the students vote whether they should receive monies or not. The student government cannot participate in the vote: only oversee it.
The student government is also responsible for the distribution of the Peanut Butter & Jelly Fund, Welcome Back to School Party, Monthly Morning Coffees, Open Forums, Barbecues in the Pit (the outdoor area at the entrance of the 280 S Columbus Building), Holiday Art Sale, and a Materials Event. In the past Student Government has accomplished such things as campus-wide recycling, and access to the Chicago Transit Authority's U-Pass.
Ranking
In a survey conducted by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, SAIC was named the “most influential art school†by art critics at general interest news publications from across the United States.
In 2012, US News ranked SAIC the second best overall graduate program for fine arts in the U.S. tying with the Rhode Island school of Design. In January 2013, The Global Language Monitor ranked SAIC as the #5 college in the U.S., the highest ever for an art or design school in a general college ranking.
Notable people
Controversy
Mirth & Girth
On May 11, 1988, a student painting depicting Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, was torn down by some of the city's African-American aldermen â€" over the protests of many who attempted to block them â€" based on its content. The painting, titled Mirth & Girth by David Nelson, was of Washington clad only in women's underwear holding a pencil. Washington died on November 25, 1987.
The painting was returned after a day, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department and the aldermen. The ACLU claimed the removal violated Nelson's First, Fourth, and Fourteenth amendment rights. Nelson ended up receiving a monetary settlement for damage to the painting which occurred during its confiscation.
What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?
In February 1989, a student named "Dread" Scott Tyler draped the Flag of the United States across the floor for a piece titled What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag? The piece consisted of a podium with a notebook for viewers to express how they felt about the exhibit. However, the podium was set upon a flag laid on the floor. In order for viewers to write in the notebook, they would have to walk on the flag. Viewers were occasionally arrested at the request of veterans. The school stood by the student's art in the face of protests and threats. That year, the school's federal funding was cut from $70,000 to $1 and many benefactors pulled donations.
Academic Freedom controversy
In 2017, a controversy arose over the resignation of Michael Bonesteel, an adjunct professor specializing in outsider art and comics after two Title IX complaints were filed. Bonesteel described the SAIC investigation as a "Kafkaesque trial" in which he was never shown copies of the complaints and in which he was guilty until proven innocent and that SAIC "feels more like a police state than a place where academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas is valued". Laura Kipnis, author of a book on Title IX cases, described SAIC as displaying "jawdropping cowardice" and said "The idea that students are trying to censor or curb a professor’s opinions or thinking is appalling". The School said the claims made against it were "problematic" and "misleading" and said it supports academic freedom.
Property
This is a list of property in order of acquisition:
- 280 South Columbus (classrooms, departmental offices, studios, Betty Rymer Gallery)
- 37 South Wabash (classrooms, main administrative offices, Flaxman Library)
- 112 South Michigan (classrooms, departmental offices, studios, ballroom)
- 7 West Madison (student residences)
- 162 North State (student residences)
- 164 North State Street (Gene Siskel Film Center)
- 116 South Michigan
SAIC also owns these properties outside of the immediate vicinity of the Chicago Loop:
- 1926 North Halsted (gallery space) in Chicago.
- Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists' Residency, Saugatuck, Michigan (affiliated with SAIC)
SAIC leases:
- 36 South Wabash, leasing the 12th floor (administrative offices, Architecture and Interior Architecture Design Center)
- 36 South Wabash, leasing the 7th floor (Fashion Design department, Gallery 2)
- 36 South Wabash, leasing offices on the 14th floor (administrative offices)
- 36 South Wabash, leasing offices on the 15th floor (administrative offices)
Academic partnerships
- Glasgow School of Art (United Kingdom)
References
External links
- The School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Official Website
- Campus Map
- Visiting Artists Program
- Student Union Galleries
- F Newsmagazine
- Video Data Bank
- ExTV â€" SAIC's student-run time-arts broadcast platform
- Papers of Charles Hutchinson, first president of the Art Institute of Chicago at Newberry Library