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 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
Why SAIC - The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the nation, located in one of the greatest...
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; new media; video; visual communication; visual and critical studies; animation; illustration; fiber; and writing. SAIC also serves as a resource for issues related to the position and importance of the arts in society.
SAIC also offers an interdisciplinary Low-Residency MFA for students wishing to study the fine arts and/or 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.
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. 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.
- SITE Galleries (formerly Student Union Galleries) - Founded in 1994, SITE, once known as the Student Union Galleries (SUGs), is a student-run organization at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for the exhibition of student work. The two central tenets of the galleries are to build relationships between different departments and stakeholders throughout the institution and strengthen our role as a teaching gallery within and beyond SAIC. This is accomplished first through providing a consistent space for undergraduate and graduate directors to organize and generate exhibitions that realize the vision of student artists. Furthermore, with strategic programming, SITE supports these exhibitions and engages evolving currents and discourses in our communities. The student-led structure provides opportunities for emerging artists and scholars to explore artistic and administrative methods by placing emphasis on collaborative processes and professional practice in and out of the classroom. They have two locations: The SITE Sharp of the 37 South Wabash Avenue building; and SITE Columbus of the 280 South Columbus Drive building. The two locations allow the galleries to cycle two shows simultaneously.
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.
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. [1]
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 2017, US News ranked SAIC the fourth 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
- Papers of Charles Hutchinson, first president of the Art Institute of Chicago at Newberry Library