2020/2021 GRADUATE PROGRAMS
COMMUNITY+FACILITIES A Guide to Our People, Spaces & Places As a graduate student at SAIC, you will meet your new favorite artists, writers, curators and collaborators. From the start you will receive feedback from a rich network of talent as you participate in dialogue that crosses departments, worldviews and experience, shaped by teachers who become mentors and peers who become friends.
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Of Roses & Jessamine Cassandra Davis (MFA 2017) Of Roses and Jessamine investigates spatial and corporeal sites of ritual. Taken from the devotional and erotic poetry of Saint Teresa de Avila, the show’s title embraces the deeply sensual nature of personal worship and spiritual ecstasy. For this event, a series of performance works are presented in conjunction with this exhibition.
At SAIC, your peers will become your new favorite artists, writers, curators, and collaborators. Our classrooms, studios, and facilities include our own iconic Art Institute of Chicago museum and the city of big shoulders itself, Chicago. But within this vibrant, high energy urban setting, SAIC also provides quiet, intimate spaces in which students connect with each other in meaningful ways.
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And it doesn’t stop with graduation. The bonds formed here as students become life-long relationships. Networks of SAIC alumni regularly form companies, galleries, institutions, exhibitions and installations. Their groundbreaking works are exhibited locally, nationally and abroad, and your experience at SAIC will drive your own such collaborations in the future.
SAIC alumni Sean Gallero (1998) and Petra Bachmaier (1999) founded Luftwerk after meeting at SAIC. They are known for their dazzling site-specific installations of light and sound, which have been temporarily installed at sites such as Millennium Park’s Cloud Gate, the Chicago Cultural Center, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, and The 606 trail. Turning Sky rendering The Trust for Public Land, Luftwerk
STUDENTS
Luftwerk:
MORE THAN 60 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED
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Our students come from all over the world. saic.edu/international International students have been an integral part of the SAIC community since our founding in 1866. Our diverse, globally accomplished faculty, visiting artists, and international students combine to provide a rich, global perspective around creative expression and dialogue. The Office of International Affairs is highly experienced in supporting the needs and interests of students from all backgrounds.
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Thao-Nguyen Phan (2014) was selected to participate in the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative. The program, designed to promote excellence by pairing budding young artists with sage accomplished ones, has in years past utilized the wisdom of Toni Morrison, Phillip Glass, and David Hockney, among others. Phan was paired with Joan Jonas, the New York-based pioneer of video and performance art. Image courtesy of Rolex
STUDENTS
Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative:
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Our faculty are practitioners whose connections and experiences make them invaluable mentors. Whether engaging in MFA Graduate Projects that pair you with faculty advisors of your choosing, faculty-led external partnerships through our Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects department, or Master’s level thesis coursework, you will be enriched by their passion, guidance, and critique.
SAIC’s faculty will be your mentors, educators, guides and colleagues. saic.edu/ourfaculty
FACULTY
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Nick Cave Fashion Design Faculty Rafia swishes and rustles to the pulsating beat of stomping feet. A troupe of elaborately adorned dancers weave a turning pattern in a spectacular performance of texture, sound, music, and motion. People stare in awe at Nick Cave’s Soundsuits, works that defy genres and bridge fashion, sculpture, performance, sound, and fiber art. Cave has exhibited his Soundsuits in museums and galleries around the world and staged public performances at New York City’s Grand Central Station and SAIC’s THE WALK 2014 in Millennium Park. As a Professor in SAIC’s Fashion Design program, Cave pushes his students to blur boundaries and to refashion art and design.
saic.edu/profiles/faculty/nick-cave
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Eduardo Kac Art and Technology, Art History, Theory, and Criticism Since the early 1980s, Art and Technology Studies Department Chair Eduardo Kac has pioneered new art forms to create poetry and art that expand the limits of locality, light, language, and life. He has integrated many disciplines to present an imaginative view of art’s relevance to the contemporary world, a view that has firm roots in the artist’s background in philosophy and literature. Widely recognized for his innovative online work before the advent of the Web, particularly his telepresence art, Kac developed new poetic forms such as holopoetry, digital poetry and aromapoetry.
Delinda Collier Art History, Theory, and Criticism Delinda Collier is an art historian whose research interests include southern African art, new media art, and Cold War cultures. Her 2016 book Repainting the Walls of Lunda: Information Colonialism and Angolan Art chronicles the publication and dissemination of an anthropology book Paredes Pintadas da Lunda (Painted Walls of Lunda), which was published in Portuguese in 1953. The book featured illustrations of wall murals and sand drawings of the Chokwe peoples of northeastern Angola. Collier’s current project, Essays on the History of New Media Art in Africa, will be the first book to devote itself entirely to new media art on the continent.
Sarah Ross
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Jesse Ball Writing Acclaimed writer Jesse Ball is author of seven solo novels, plus numerous other collaborative works, poetry and nonfiction. His most recent book, Census from Harper Collins, was named one of the most anticipated books of 2018 by The New York Times, The Chicago Reader, Nylon, The Boston Globe, and The Huffington Post. He is interested in dreams, games, and ambiguity.
Sculpture Artist Sarah Ross works in sculpture, video, and photo. Her projects use narrative and the body to address spatial concerns as they relate to access, class, anxiety, and activism. Ross also works collaboratively with other artists on projects such as Compass (of the MRCC), Regional Relationships, Chicago Justice Torture Memorials, and Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project. She has co-curated exhibitions at SPACES Gallery, Cleveland; Sea and Space Explorations, Los Angeles; and PS122, New York; and is a co-organizer of the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, an arts and humanities initiative at Stateville Correctional Center. Sarah is the recipient of grants from the Propeller Fund, Graham Foundation, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts and the Illinois Art Council.
Michelle Grabner Painting and Drawing Artist, writer, critic, and Crown Family Professor in Painting and Drawing, Michelle Grabner writes for such publications as Artforum, X-tra, and Art-Agenda. Her work is represented by James Cohan Gallery, NYC; Rocket, London; Green Gallery, Milwaukee; Gallery 16, San Francisco; and Anne Mosseri-Marlio, Basel. She was co-curator for the 2014 Whitney Biennial; curator of the 2015 Portland Biennial; resident faculty at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture; and most recently served as artistic director of the inaugural 2018 Cleveland Triennial. She co-directs ongoing project spaces such as The Suburban (est. 1999, Oak Park IL - Milwaukee, WI) and the Poor Farm in the former Waupaca County Poor Farm, built in 1876.
Dushko Petrovich New Arts Journalism
Image credit: Evan Jenkins, courtesy PATRON Gallery
Dushko Petrovich is an artist, writer, editor, and teacher. He has served as Starr Scholar Artist-in-Residence at the Royal Academy of Arts in London; exhibited his work at the deCordova Museum, Boston; Rachel Uffner Gallery, Interference Archive, and P!, in New York; The Suburban and Gallery 400, in Chicago; the Charlottenborg Museum in Copenhagen; and Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. His writing has been published in Bookforum, Slate, Modern Painters, ArtNews, and the Boston Globe. Petrovich is co-founder of Paper Monument, where he has co-edited many publications, including recent publications I Like Your Work: Art and Etiquette and Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment. Paper Monument‘s most recent publication is Social Medium: Artists Writing, 2000-2015.
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Printmedia
Andres Luis Hernandez Art Education Andres Hernandez was most recently one of seven commissioned main exhibitors in the U.S. Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. An artist, designer, and educator, Hernandez re-imagines the environments we inhabit. Hernandez was co-founder of the Revival Arts Collective; founder and director of the Urban Vacancy Research Initiative; serves on the exhibition design team for the Obama Presidential Center, and collaborates with artist Amanda Williams on A Way, Away (Listen While I Say), a design-build commission organized by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. During the 2016-2017 academic year, he was a teaching artist at Stateville Correctional Center (Crest Hill, IL) with Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, and artist-in-residence at Curie Metropolitan High School (Chicago, IL) with MCA Chicago’s School Partnership in Art and Civic Engagement program.
Artist Alex Chitty was born in Miami, FL. Prior to her arrival at SAIC, Chitty hailed from a science background, studying marine biology and traveling extensively. Her idiosyncratic work is often found at the intersection of sculptural and multiple, where it continues to be fueled by a curiosity with natural phenomena and the way things come together—as evidenced by one of her recent course offerings, “Picturing Science: Uncovering Histories in the Printed Image.” In 2017, she was named Best Rising Artist in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. Chitty is represented by PATRON Gallery in Chicago.
George Aye Outside his role as Assistant Professor, George Aye is a founding partner and Design Director at Greater Good Studio, responsible for translating user-centered design research into tangible design outcomes in the form of printed materials, software interfaces, hardware and software interactions, environments, and usercentered experiences. Previously Lead Designer at the Chicago Transit Authority, Aye was responsible for designing the complete new rider experience for the CTA’s Bus Rapid Transit proposal in 2008. Prior to the CTA, Aye was a designer at IDEO Chicago for 7 years. He has two books published: IDEO Eyes Open London and Eyes Open New York, by Chronicle Books, 2008.
FACULTY
AIADO
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On breezy Chicago mornings, AimÊe Beaubien, an SAIC professor and multimedia artist, can be found in her impressive garden, a pastoral retreat in the middle of the city’s vibrant Logan Square neighborhood. Vines, in spiraling shapes, wrap around the garage and the back of her house accompanied by wild morning glories.
AIMÉE BEAUBIEN Assistant Professor in Photography 13
FACULTY FEATURE
saic.edu/profiles/faculty/aimee-beaubien
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Inside her home, which also functions as her studio, a different kind of garden grows. Beaubien is responsible for the brightly-colored, spiraling creation, Twist Affix, which hangs from the ceiling, drapes the walls, and brushes the floor. The piece, made up of paracord, dried flowers, and finely cut and woven strips of photographic paper, occupies a large portion of the artist’s studio space. “I have always tried to push some sort of dimensionality or layering in my work. Eventually, the photographic projects that I was making got thicker and thicker until they started coming off of the wall.”
Beaubien, a graduate of the SAIC Photography program, has been teaching in the department for over twenty years. She is best known for her photo-based collage work and sculptural installations, and she credits the school with allowing her to confidently work across media and through different processes. “What attracted me to the Photography program was that it was very experimental. I studied with people like Barbara Crane and Ken Josephson, who had such exciting and unusual ways of engaging with photography.” Inspired by both the organic growth of her garden and the collecting habits of Imagist painter Roger Brown (see pg 31), who also had an in-home studio, Beaubien often thinks beyond the camera lens. Her pieces and installations frequently take on the shapes of living organisms and ecosystems. “Lately, I’ve been trying to make environments that people can walk into, navigate, and look at as representations of botanical forms in new ways. I’ve also been incorporating dried plants into my installations, so there’s something exciting there.” The artist has been utilizing the community and facilities at SAIC for most of her adult life, and in the past several decades, has witnessed the school undergo significant transformations, from the addition of resources to the development of departments. “We’ve added new programs, have created more opportunities for graduate students, and have done a better job at connecting our students with alumni as well as to communities that extend beyond SAIC. Also, our Visiting Artists Program is stronger than it has ever been. We’ve grown a lot.”
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When Beaubien isn’t in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, printing in the Service Bureau, or working with her students, she is gathering inspiration at the Garfield Park Conservatory or looking for new green spaces across Chicago.
FACULTY FEATURE
Aimée Beaubien Twist Affix RAC Freeark Gallery, 2017
Ilona Gaynor, assistant professor in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) department, suggested we meet in one of the most theatrical rooms in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago’s reconstruction of the Old Stock Exchange’s main interior.
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“I chose it because it’s essentially a set,” Gaynor explained, “and also because almost all of my work relates to finance and economy on a grand scale.” The room acts as a historical reminder, a liminal space, and a divider between two different places of learning. To be on the cusp, aesthetically and philosophically, is something with which Gaynor, a U.K.-based artist whose work emphasizes critical communication, political urgency, and aesthetic culpability within the field of design, is intimately familiar. Often, her work walks the line between what is considered ‘design,’ and what is understood as ‘art.’ After attending the Royal College of Art in London and working as an artist for a number of years, Gaynor found an open faculty position at SAIC, whose commitment to experimentation aligned with her artistic view. She thought the school was a notable U.S. equivalent to her English education and decided she could really “shake things up” within the AIADO department.
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ILONA GAYNOR saic.edu/profiles/faculty/ilona-c-gaynor
FACULTY FEATURE
Professor in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects (AIADO)
“I believed that SAIC encouraged the idea that design and art could feed off of each other rather than design just being siloed away for industry, which is something I address in both my practice and the way I teach.” For Gaynor, the realities of design, especially within the U.S., often do not align with the social consciousness she believes contemporary practices should take on. Gaynor feels that design cannot sit in creative complacency any longer and must step up to a politically aligned plate. She is careful in implementing this stance within the work she makes, and feels that living in Chicago has heightened her abilities to understand the ways racial, economic, and social injustices affect design aesthetics and vice versa. Gaynor’s work, which is experimental, political, and interdisciplinary, takes on many forms, from a four-act play describing workplace power ecosystems to a mixed media presentation of objects and texts mapping out a fictitious global financial crisis. “I am careful in thinking about the ways my work needs to be critically viewed. Being at SAIC has ramped up my aggressive nature of allowing design to speak to the politics of the world; it’s certainly much more heightened given the political urgency we are now facing.”
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As an educator who firmly believes that designers can impact the world, Gaynor aims to generate important and never-before-had conversations among the students at SAIC in order to help forge a new community of active and engaged designers in both Chicago and abroad.
Ilona Gaynor The Ascent Exhibition view at the International Biennial of Design in Saint Etienne, 2017
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In 2017, Ilona Gaynor was invited by Olivier Peyricot, Scientific Director of the International Biennial of Design in Saint-Étienne, France, to create an artwork investigating the theme of shifting workplace hierarchies.
The Ascent, inspired by workplace crisis simulations that are meant to prepare and embolden office employees in the event of an emergency, takes place on a morale-boosting training day within a cutthroat law firm. One of the primary recreations is a plane crash scenario, which Gaynor set within a sprawling, skeletal plane structure filled with pristine white folding chairs. When a real technical problem throws the exercise into mayhem, the characters are shown doing everything in their power to survive, including ruthlessly throwing their coworkers to the proverbial wolves.
FACULTY FEATURE
In lieu of a traditional object, Gaynor developed a fouract play titled The Ascent, a parable that breaks down the convoluted politics of a workplace, professional disillusionment, concepts of time and space, and life and death scenarios — both real and imagined.
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PATTON Assistant Professor in Visual and Critical Studies
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saic.edu/profiles/faculty/kamau-patton
The sculpture garden on the north side of the Art Institute of Chicago is home to Alexander Calder’s Flying Dragon, and Henry Moore’s Large Interior Form.
FACULTY FEATURE
Kamau Patton, faculty in the Visual and Critical Studies (VCS) department and winner of the 2018 Full-Time Faculty of the Year Award, wanted to be interviewed here because it is where he often brings his students. Being outside is an important part of his practice.
Kamau Patton Elevator Music 27 Tang Museum, Jul 5, 2014—Jan 4, 2015
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Originally from Brooklyn, Patton moved to Philadelphia as an undergraduate student to study sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. The contemporary sociology texts he read, many of which were produced in Chicago, planted the seeds of the city in his mind.
“Chicago,” he mused, “is an interesting laboratory for cultural production.” After living in London through an exchange program with the London School of Economics, Patton moved to the San Francisco Bay area. For fifteen years, he was exposed to the many artistic communities and DIY project gallery spaces intrinsic to California’s alternative, budding art scene. At that time, art revolved around issues of community, housing, gentrification, and social organizing. This set the scene for Patton’s graduate studies at Stanford, as well as his current practice.
Kamau Patton Acoustic Ecology Tang Museum, 2014
Patton relocated to Chicago to pursue a position at SAIC. As VCS faculty, he has been able to hone in on his specified interests and create even deeper relationships between text and visual content. Patton’s work addresses questions of archival display and activation. Working in sculpture, sound, installation, mixed media, and performance, he inspects history and culture through the presentation of archives, texts, and documents. The artistic production he sees coming out of the VCS department ultimately resonates with both the sociologist and artist within him. “You have students that have both a studio practice and students who are more interested in research, writing, and critical thinking but in a kind of bizarre, creative way,” he explained. “So it really feels like this ideal mix.” In addition to teaching, Patton has exhibited at the MoMA, SFMOMA, the Tang Teaching Museum and SUNY Buffalo.
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Outside of SAIC, Patton is engaged with all matters of arts and culture throughout Chicago. He encourages his students to not only explore the city’s famous architecture, but to also utilize its many venues for inspiration. “The city parks, the conservatory, the Cultural Center— all of the students coming to SAIC should visit these places. Chicago’s physical and cultural landscape is an important and unique resource.”
Kamau Patton Proof of Concept Mellon Elemental Arts Initiative, 2014 Pomona College
FACULTY FEATURE
“VCS is a space that encourages experimentation around the presentation of research. The work that I do often revolves around archives—what an archive is. It is an interest that I’ve noticed in the students I work with, from engaging with personal archives or obscure archives to engaging with history through a visual culture. ‘How do you display this? How do you activate these documents?’ These are the concerns that I bring to the department.”
THE ART INSTIT
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UTE OF CHICAG O
THE MUSEUM 25
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The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) 111 S. Michigan Ave. The Art Institute of Chicago was created for SAIC students by its faculty in 1879. The museum/school partnership remains the largest in the United States and remains integral to an education at SAIC.
The museum has added buildings to house its growing encyclopedic collections over the years, including its 264,000-square-foot Modern Wing.
artic.edu
THE MUSEUM
Students have open access to the museum, its research library and its collections, which span 5,000 years of human history and represent cultures from around the globe.
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Ryerson & Burnham Libraries 111 S. Michigan Ave. Within the Art Institute museum are the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, offering an extensive research collection that reflects the all-encompassing character of the museum’s collections. Resources include catalogues raisonnés, scholarly journa ls, auction catalogs, comics, artists’ sketchbooks and documents and papers of Chicago-area artists and architects.
The Art Institute of Chicago Resources 111 S. Michigan Ave.
artic.edu
With over half a million print artifacts covering all periods and media in our collections, the museum’s libraries and print collections are accessible by artists, scholars and researchers. SAIC students have unlimited access to these resources and are encouraged to discover and learn from materials that speak to their practices, propel their research, and inspire creativity.
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SAIC students have the opportunity to visit the Prints and Drawings room and view original works of art by world famous artists and designers. Art History classes often utilize this space to spark and drive discussion.
THE MUSEUM
The Prints and Drawings Room:
The John M. Flaxman Library
37 S. Wabash Ave. The library serves as an epicenter for research and study, with more than 130,000 books, magazines, movies and sound recordings available to students. 110,000+ ebooks and ejournals, 150+ databases, and over 200,000 digital images are available online in addition to the SAIC Digital Libraries, our campus digital repository.
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Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection Randolph Street Gallery Archives
The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection (JFABC) brings together close to ten thousand artists’ publications in all formats and media including books, zines, multiples, video and audio recordings, digital works, periodicals and other intimate works of art created by significant local, national and international artists. Focusing on materials dating from the 1960s to the present, it is complemented by collections of reference works and exhibition catalogues to support in-depth research on the publishing histories of a wide variety of artists.
The archives contain historical records of performance, sculpture, visual and other art forms created or curated by local and international artists during the two-decade history of this legendary Chicago institution.
The Roger Brown Study Collection 1926 N. Halsted St. The Roger Brown Study Collection is a house museum, intimate study collection, and archive of contemporary objects, folk and tribal art, costumes, furniture, and textiles assembled for inspiration by alumnus and artist Roger Brown. Not open to the general public, it is accessible for the exclusive use of SAIC students.
Libraries and Special Collections saic.edu/academics/librariesandspecialcollections
SAIC’s libraries, archives, and special collections are especially suited to satisfy the expansive and evolving research needs of graduate students. Resources include traditional library and archival collections along with interdisciplinary, multimedia and site-specific resources that embrace all subjects related to art and design.
Video Data Bank (VDB)
36 S. Wabash Ave.
37 S. Wabash Ave.
Home to contemporary and historical fashion publications, designer interviews, videos, and a large collection of innovative garments and accessories, the library is open for all students to engage in hands-on examination and research.
Founded in 1976 at the inception of the media arts movement, the VDB is a leading resource in the United States for video by and about contemporary artists. It includes the work of more than 600 artists and 6,000 video art titles.
RESOURCES
The Fashion Resource Center
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Media & Instructional Resources Facilities provide our community with access to equipment and expertise. saic.edu/irfm/mediaresources 32
The Service Bureau
Audiovisual Equipment
37 S. Wabash Ave.
112 S. Michigan Ave.
SAIC’s on-campus professional digital output center specializes in laser printing and archival-quality inkjet printing. Facilities include wide-format Epson printers that can produce prints up to 64” wide, with services including binding, folding, button making, vinyl cutting, bulk paper cutting, laptop monitor calibration, laminating and CD/DVD duplication and printing.
Students can check out a range of state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment for videography, filmmaking, and photography. Equipment includes high definition and 4K video cameras such as the Blackmagic Ursa Mini, the Canon 7D and 5D Mark III, 7” field monitors, portable HD projectors, and a Canon 7D video kit.
Instructional Fabrication
Advanced Output Center
Metal+Wood Shop 280 S. Columbus Dr. Resale Center 37 S. Wabash Ave. Digital Fabrication 280 S. Columbus Dr.
36 S. Wabash Ave.
From traditional wood/metalworking to CNC milling, sewing machines to bedazzlers, the SAIC Instructional Shops are facilities that have the resources to help you realize your projects. The shops are equipped with a wide range of hand, power, and stationary tools. Staff are available to guide students with project consultation, project development and tool checkout.
SAIC’s prototyping lab specializes in laser cutting and 3D digital scanning and printing. The self-serve facilities are open to all students who complete an authorization workshop.
RESOURCES
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Alok Vaid-Menon speaking at the Visiting Artists Program Lecture Photo by Grace DuVal
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Public Programs saic.edu/events
Visiting Artists Program saic.edu/vap One of the oldest public programs at SAIC, the Visiting Artists Program (VAP) is an invaluable resource to students and the public alike. VAP staff organize free public lectures, screenings, performances and readings with some of the most influential thinkers and practitioners working today. VAP arranges studio critiques and roundtable discussions for students, providing them with direct access to world renowned speakers working across disciplines, including Caroline Bergval, Sonya Clark, Ann Cvetkovich, Cao Fei, Fischerspooner, Ann Hamilton, Juliana Huxtable, Josh Kline, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Claudia Rankine, Wael Shawky, Tal R, Walid Raad and Chris Ware.
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The Parlor Room Lecture Series engage.saic.edu/organization/parlorroom Parlor Room is a visiting artist program and lecture series created, run, budgeted and curated by Photography graduate students. The series encourages dialogue and provides opportunities to connect with artists, curators, thinkers and critics through public presentations, studio visits and informal group events with graduate students and faculty. Parlor Room guests have included Frank Wagner, Thomas Elsaesser, Helen Molesworth and Luis Gispert. The Parlor Room series is offered in addition to other visiting artist lectures run independently by departments across SAIC.
Interlink The student-run Interlink program invites artists, gallerists and curators to visit graduate students, conduct studio visits and give a noon-hour presentation. The program offers graduate students a unique opportunity to interact with local and national practitioners in a more intimate setting than a traditional public lecture.
PROGRAMS
sites.saic.edu/interlink
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Gene Siskel Film Center 164 N. State St. The Gene Siskel Film Center (GSFC) presents approximately 1,600 screenings and 200 guest artist appearances a year to more than 65,000 film enthusiasts on two screens in its space in downtown Chicago. Students can take advantage of the $5 student rate and the Center’s proximity to SAIC to enjoy independent, international, classic and documentary films and themed film festivals.
Conversations at the Edge In collaboration with the Film, Video, New Media and Animation department and the Video Data Bank, the Film Center also hosts Conversations at the Edge (CATE), a dynamic weekly series of screenings, artist talks and performances by some of the most important established and emerging media artists working today.
siskelfilmcenter.org
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Study Abroad saic.edu/studyabroad
SAIC is a community of explorers, learning to live and work meaningfully in a complex, yet connected, world. The Study Abroad office enhances this mission by providing multiple faculty-led study abroad opportunities, advisory services, advocacy, and resources in support of international education programs and objectives.
Winter 2020 Contemporary Art & Criticism in New York City Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree Contemporary Art in Mexico City South/East Asia: Vietnam+Hong Kong in the Age of Globalization Crafting Contemporary Art in India: From Local to Global
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Summer 2020
PROGRAMS
American High Plains: Mountains, Badlands & Prairies Paris & London: Revisiting Realism Made in Britain: Design and Fashion in and around London Advanced Studio Residency, Burren, Ireland Zeitgeist in Switzerland & Germany European “Outsider� Art: Past & Present
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Ox-Bow School of Art Ox-Bow, an artists’ colony and residency center in Saugatuck, Michigan, about 140 miles east of Chicago, has been described as more than just a place, but as an experience. Students can immerse themselves in a range of subjects, including painting and drawing, printmaking, glassblowing and casting, sculpture and metals, papermaking, ceramics, fiber and more during summer and winter intensives.
ox-bow.org
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Chicago is a world class city with an almost indescribable variety of architecture, sports, visual and performing arts, diverse communities and more, all thriving in a progressive metropolis that truly has something for everyone. And with one of the top three public transportation systems in the US, students have easy access to everything the city offers.
CHICAGO
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The Neighborhoods
Chicago is one of America’s most livable big cities and one of the reasons is its neighborhoods, 77 distinct areas with their own unique personalities, populations and street life. Many draw on their histories as ethnic enclaves, and some are still known as such, with housing, dining, nightlife, shopping and local events and festivals rooted in, and celebrating, those cultures.
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The Lakefront The path along Lake Michigan’s shoreline goes by some of the most popular and historic sites in Chicago, including the Museum of Science and Industry, Soldier Field, the Field Museum, Millennium Park and Navy Pier. 24 beaches ‒ including two dog beaches ‒ are free and open to the public year-round. It’s 18 miles of runners and bicyclists, beach volleyball players, swimmers, and parks that host picnics, summer sports leagues, movie nights and festivals.
The Art Chicago’s art scene is vast, ground-breaking and diverse, from major museums such as the Art Institute itself and the Museum of Contemporary Art, to smaller, more eclectic institutions throughout the city, such as the Intuit Center, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Stony Island Arts Bank and an almost innumerable array of galleries and neighborhood art fairs also make the visual arts a part of daily life.
The Food
The Music
In a city as large, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse as Chicago, it’s no surprise that food options are the same. Tiny storefronts specializing in cheap, ethnic eats, food trucks with a delightful and surprising range of options, fine dining from some of the best chefs in the country, and neighborhood institutions that serve up everything from burgers and dogs to specialties specific to almost any country you can name. Whatever you have a taste for, there’s somewhere to satisfy it.
Music is part of Chicago’s heritage. Classical and opera, touring Broadway shows, jazz, country western and bluegrass, reggae, pop, experimental, indie and rock are all available at an equally wide range of venues, from the downtown theaters, outdoor music festivals, the United Center and the House of Blues to smaller, funkier neighborhood spots that feature new or local artists. And in the summer, free outdoor concerts at the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion are just a short walk from SAIC.
CHICAGO
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DEPARTMENT OVERVIEWS MA, MArch, MDes, MFA, MS, Post-Bacc From specialized curricula to interdisciplinary discussions of art, philosophy and social justice, you will be immersed in an education that will push the boundaries of your creative explorations.
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Studio Programs
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SAIC’s highly acclaimed Master of Fine Arts in Studio is a 60-credit program that supports creative work, inquiry, and investigation across 14 different departments as part of the advanced preparation of fine arts practitioners. Students entering into either our residential or Low-Residency MFA have the distinct advantage of gaining in-depth knowledge and competence in a single field of specialization, or acquiring advanced competencies across multiple fields of study.
MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN STUDIO ARCHITECTURE 120–121 ART AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES 60–61 CERAMICS 56–57 DESIGN FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES 116–117 DESIGNED OBJECTS 112–113 FIBER AND MATERIAL STUDIES 92–93 FILM, VIDEO, NEW MEDIA, AND ANIMATION 72–73 PAINTING AND DRAWING 168–169 PERFORMANCE 96–97 PHOTOGRAPHY 68–69 PRINTMEDIA 164–165 SCULPTURE 64–65 SOUND 52–53 VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN 160–161 LOW-RESIDENCY MFA 76–77 MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN WRITING 156–157 POST-BACCALAUREATE CERTIFICATE STUDIO 172–173
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Design Programs SAIC is known for its integrated approach to design education and commitment to nurturing a future-oriented ethos for both students and faculty, and so the design curriculum at SAIC is rigorous and visionary. The school’s introductory and advanced-level studios address a wide range of social, cultural, historical, economic, and technological issues.
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE WITH AN EMPHASIS IN INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE MASTER OF SCIENCE HISTORIC PRESERVATION MASTER OF DESIGN DESIGNED OBJECTS FASHION, BODY AND GARMENT POST-BACCALAUREATE CERTIFICATE FASHION, BODY AND GARMENT
Academic Programs SAIC’s Master of Arts degrees offer academic scholarship and professional preparation through programs that are informed, responsive and active. They are designed to invigorate graduate students and forge their identities as researchers, writers, leaders, teachers and therapists through the experience of training within a studio and museum school.
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MASTER OF ARTS ART EDUCATION TEACHING ART THERAPY AND COUNSELING ARTS ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY DUAL DEGREE PROGRAM NEW ARTS JOURNALISM VISUAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
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Stefan Weich Air Chrysalis, 2018 Disperse, 2018
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Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Sound
saic.edu/sound The Master of Fine Arts in Studio (MFA) Sound is one of the few programs of its kind in a school of fine art, housed in a department that is a pioneer in sound art, experimental music and sound studies.
Freedom to Experiment Students explore sound both inside and outside of a musical context through rigorous individualized study focused on each student’s own processes, interests and creative objectives.
Interdisciplinary Exploration
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The department’s interdisciplinary approach embraces analog and digital studio craft, programming, performance, sound installation, hardware hacking and design, text-sound, songwriting and transmission. Sound students are also encouraged to study in related departments.Faculty
Faculty Our world-renowned faculty include audio and performance artists, composers, instrument builders, authors and producers who draw upon diverse disciplines to create a distinctive curricular mix of music and sound art, analog and digital technologies, recording studio technique and live performance.Fe
Fellowships Every graduate student in Sound is guaranteed employment as either Teaching Assistants or Graduate Assistants. These professional training positions range from traditional teaching assistantships to curating the Waveforms series, organizing and hosting the visiting artists series,maintaining the departmental website and blog, and running tutorial labs for undergraduate courses.
Adam James Bach, 2016–17
Faculty
Sound in Chicago
NICOLAS COLLINS SHAWN DECKER LOU MALLOZZI Chicago is an internationally renowned sound and music experimentation center, of which SAIC’s Sound community is an integral part. Its many venues bring distinguished performers to the city and support local artists and collaborations.
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Facilities ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶
High-quality analog and digital mixers Pro Tools digital editing systems Vintage MIDI synthesizers and samplers Vintage and contemporary analog synthesizers and signal processors A variety of outboard processing gear Several rare signal processors Studio microphones Performance controllers MAX/MSP SuperCollider IRCAM Tools Purpose built labs for software and hardware design and development, and instrument construction Several workstations for graduate student use, including a small studio with a Yamaha Disklavier computercontrolled acoustic piano An inventory of portable equipment, including systems for high-quality digital recording on location
MFA IN STUDIO SOUND
Five sound studios and four workstations, each equipped with:
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Anna Orlikowska This Space Between Us, 2016
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Benjamin P. Harle Memorial for Benjamin P. Harle, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Ceramics saic.edu/ceramics
Ceramics students use both traditional and new, innovative skills and processes to create bold work that subverts the expected. Tradition Meets Innovation Our students utilize a variety of approaches, old and new, in ceramics production. Their work ranges from traditional forms to contemporary installations, performance, mixed media, time arts and community-based practices.
Schoolwide Interdisciplinarity Students may take courses across disciplines and work with graduate advisors in any department. Additionally, they participate in critiques with panels composed of faculty and visiting artists from a wide range of fields.
World-Class Resources The Art Institute of Chicago’s collections of ceramics, design, architectural ornamentation, painting and sculpture provide an outstanding resource for study.
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Chicago and You Désirée Coral MINE, Yours–Ours, 2018
Chicago is rich in ceramics resources, from architectural facades to the extensive holdings of the Field Museum, Oriental Institute and others. There is also an ever-increasing number of ceramic- based works in galleries and museums throughout the city.
Katherine Restko Tracing Tensions, 2018
Faculty
MARIE HERMANN SALVADOR JIMENEZ-FLORES WILLIAM O’BRIEN KATHERINE ROSS
David Siever A last sleep in the everlasting winter, 2017
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3-D Potterbot Ceramic Printer
Facilities
3D printing technology allows for the quick creation of intricate designs produced in a uniform manner.
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Clay and glaze mixers Extruder, slab roller, and wheels Free bulk materials (clay, slip, and glazes) Mold-making facilities Fully equipped casting facilities 18 gas and electric kilns Three state-of-the-art Blaauw computer-automated gas kilns Two departmental installation/gallery spaces Individual graduate studios Ceramic color decal printer Walk-in spray booth 3-D Potterbot ceramic printer Cold working equipment: lapping machine, water feed drill press with diamond coring bits, large diamond brick wet saw, diamond tile wet saw
MFA IN STUDIO CERAMICS
Our students have access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, including:
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Guo Cheng Between Close and Apart, 2018
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Santiago X Halcyon, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Art & Technology Studies saic.edu/ats Students and faculty in the Art and Technology Studies program are pioneers and innovators who create new aesthetic experiences and invent the tools and processes to realize their visions.
Jenna Boyles RMPUNSS, 2018
Innovative & Expansive
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Art & Technology Studies (ATS) is a fine art department focused on the use of technology as a medium. Our students create and manipulate objects, spaces, images, sound, text, light, music, voice, scents, organisms and movement with custom-written software, newly fabricated materials, unconventional processes and new methods of integrating other technologies. This DIY and hacking philosophy is embodied throughout the curriculum, and works produced are often interactive, immersive, multisensory or hybrids of retro and cutting edge technologies.
Faculty Our faculty are artists who are also leading theoreticians, master machinists, computer scientists, engineers, composers and inventors. They teach the complexities of programming, electronics, fabrication and other practices, taking full advantage of the freedom inherent in an interdisciplinary environment.
Cutting-Edge New technologies are not viewed as simply flashy tools for making art, but as freshly minted cultural material. We are committed to embracing new technologies to both expand the possibilities of existing artistic processes and to critically engage with them.
Advising & Courses In addition to selecting and working closely with graduate advisors on Art & Technology specific projects, students may take graduate courses across departments on topics relevant to the discipline, such as Art and Biotechnology, Performing Interactivity, Creative Coding, and Philosophy of Technology.
Faculty
CHRISTOPHER BAKER LEE BLALOCK EDUARDO KAC JUDD MORRISSEY JACOB E TONSKI Full-time visiting faculty
SAMUEL SWOPE
Bio Art Lab Bio Art Lab facilitates artistic research utilizing the tools and techniques of molecular biology, including DNA extraction and amplification, PCR, culturing of bacteria, protein expression and synthetic biology.
Facilities
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MFA IN STUDIO ART & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
Rosalinda Cabrera Mama, Papa
▶▶ Kinetics Lab is fully equipped with a fabrication and machining facility, power supplies, extensive hand tools, and hundreds of electronic and mechanical components. ▶▶ Electronics Lab contains all of the tools and electronic parts to quickly develop new hardware. We support a range of microcontrollers from Atmel (e.g., Arduino) to modern ARM processors (e.g., Raspberry Pi). ▶▶ Surface-Mount Lab is outfitted with tools and equipment to produce circuit boards using surfacemount electronics. Students are able to design, mill, assemble, and prototype circuits in-house. ▶▶ Digital Audio Lab features keyboards, samplers, analog and digital synthesizers, a surround-sound system, live recording capabilities, specialized audio software, as well as key support equipment. ▶▶ I/O Lab runs a suite of 3D printers and desktop milling machines as well as a 3D scanner. The lab is adaptable and encourages experimentation within rapid- prototyping, part-making, and digital fabrication techniques. ▶▶ Light Lab enables students to produce neon works, explore digital control of neon pieces, and experiment with additional light sources, such as LEDs. ▶▶ Black Box Studio is a flexible studio/screening/ project space with light control, video and sound projection, and ceiling grid for testing and exhibiting installations, sculptures, and spectacles. The Black Box Studio is also equipped with a “C-Wall” or “Single Wall CAVE” using stereoscopic 3D video, motion tracking systems, head mount displays, and multichannel audio. ▶▶ Flex Space is a multi-purpose facility that hosts a wide range of activities, including exhibitions, lectures, performances, workshops, receptions—in addition to allowing the ATS community to come together in small groups and improvise according to need. ▶▶ Retro Lab is a media archeology facility that may be used for studio practice and research. Students gain access to vintage equipment, such as the 1972 Sandin Image Processor, among others.
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Igraine Grey and Jonatan Martinez Rhizcity, 2018 Photo credit: Greymar
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Joo Young Lee The World is Thin: Trembling Hill, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Sculpture saic.edu/sculpture
Through a commitment to giving form to material, social, environmental and theoretical concerns, SAIC’s highly regarded Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Sculpture is one of the most distinct degrees of its kind.
Expansive Curriculum We facilitate advanced work with site-based projects, metal fabrication, wood-working, metal casting, mold-making, sustainable materials and science-based collaborations, as well as engagement with international exhibition and curatorial practices. The department also supports contemporary, interdisciplinary processes and skills, including mixed-media work, video installation, web-based projects and public art practices, as well as digital 3D modeling and fabrication. Graduate sculpture seminars also immerse students in interdisciplinary critique, writing and exhibition practices.
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Community Our students and faculty are committed to a culture of artistic growth and collaboration. Shows and critiques in the Sculpture Base Space, access to our gardens and greenhouse in the Knowledge Lab Courtyard, and special events, such as off-campus iron pours, produce lasting bonds between students and faculty while building community in the department.
Beyond The Studio Kelsey Harrison Mortise And Tenon Arch, 2017
Faculty
SARA BLACK STEPHANIE BROOKS MARY JANE JACOB JEFFERSON PINDER DAN PRICE LAN TUAZON FRANCES WHITEHEAD ADRIAN WONG
Our creative environment inspires interdepartmental collaborations among MFA students through open exhibitions and interdisciplinary critiques and seminars. Workshops and open lab hours held throughout the year provide specific skills and opportunities for professional practice.
Professional Preparation Local and international visiting artists present lectures and critiques throughout the year, and students present their work alongside distinguished visiting artists and scholars in Sculpture Dialogues, a public lecture series.
The —
Facilities Sculpture students have access to:
A state-of-the-art critique space with gallery lighting, audio, video, sculptural and technological assets for installation.
▶▶ Comprehensive woodshop with finishing areas ▶▶ Metal shop with fabrication capabilities that include gas, MIG, TIG, arc welding, forging, and CNC plasma cutting ▶▶ Digital fabrication facilities, including 60 and 150 watt laser cutters, 3 and 6 axis robotic CNC milling capabilities, 3D printers and scanners ▶▶ Foundry equipped to pour bronze and aluminum into ceramic shell, sand, and classical investment molds ▶▶ Off-campus iron pours ▶▶ Mold-making shop with rotocaster, vacuum chamber, and powder-coat kiln ▶▶ Industrial sewing machines ▶▶ State of the art PC computer lab with Intuos Cintiq tablets for 3D visualization, GIS, modeling, and animation development ▶▶ Indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces ▶▶ Organic outdoor garden and greenhouse ▶▶ Large individual graduate studios
Alex Bach ,
Phone Draw
ing, 2017
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MFA IN STUDIO SCULPTURE
The Base Space
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Caroline Joy Dahlberg The Hypochondriac’s Wake, 2018
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Mary Roll An American Shrine, An American Swan Song, An American Decline, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
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Unparalleled Networking
We offer an education that extends far beyond the technology of photography. Our faculty, extremely diverse in their own practices, support varied student approaches and investigations, training perceptive problem-solvers to function as artists, intellectuals and professionals in complex cultural environments.
Through the student-run Parlor Room Lecture Series, graduate students are given the unique opportunity to select, recruit, and work closely with visiting artists and curators, who participate in critiques, a round table discussion with graduate students, and a reception. Collaborations, exhibitions and other opportunities often result from this networking experience. Zuri Washington The Task of Remembering, 2018
Intellectually Rigorous
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Beyond Imagery
ding B od
Considered one of the strongest in the country, SAIC’s Photography program is committed to investigating, understanding and expanding both traditional and experimental forms of image making.
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saic.edu/photo
Students develop and refine the ability to speak about their work, and the work of others, through the critique process, and develop critical writing skills in art history and graduate seminars. Through the study of history and contemporary cultures they develop their practices and engage in research that contextualizes their personal interests. Students have private studios and access to state-of-the art facilities and equipment.
Post-MFA Preparation The department is committed to nurturing the student as an emerging professional. All students present two public lectures about the trajectory of their work to articulate their personal visions. Additionally, students are guaranteed teaching assistantships for all four semesters.
Facilities
Ashley Gillanders It’s A Poor Sort Of Memory That Only Works Backwards, 2018
▶▶ Individual graduate studios with dedicated critique space ▶▶ More than 2,000 square feet of state-of-theart digital facilities, including over 30 editing workstations with Mac Pro and color-calibrated monitors, Imacon film scanners, f latbed scanners, 21 professional digital printers with output up to 42" wide, print viewing stations ▶▶ 2 Advanced Checkout Centers with 35mm and medium format cameras, full-frame DSLRs, medium format digital back systems, 4×5 and 8×10 view cameras, a large selection of lenses, accessories, strobe, and LED light kits, analog and digital lab equipment ▶▶ Black-and-white darkroom with 13 enlargers ▶▶ Alternative processes for palladium, wet plate collodion, other historic processes, and black and white film developing facility ▶▶ Shooting studio with a high-end strobe system, backdrops, a tethered phase one digital back system ▶▶ Dedicated Grad high-spec workstation including data storage unit ▶▶ SAIC Service Bureau for printing up to 62" on a wide variety of paper and other media
Faculty
AIMEE BEAUBIEN JONAS BECKER ROBERT CLARKE-DAVIS LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER ALAN LABB CLAIRE PENTECOST DAWIT L. PETROS OLIVER SANN JAN TICHY
MFA IN STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
Michelle Marie Murphy She + They in Space (Chapters 2, 7, And 0), 2017
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Yan Yitian Blade of Air, 2018
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Joe Houlberg Sur, 2017
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Film, Video, New Media & Animation saic.edu/fvnma Students in our Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (FVNMA) program engage in formal experimentation, technical innovation, and critical investigation into all forms of moving-image media.
Beyond Convention We reach beyond conventional approaches to media by investigating the possibilities of nonfiction and narrative film and video, moving-image installation, analog and digital animation, interactive art, web-based projects, media preservation, curatorial practices and media art histories.
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Our students work with faculty whose widely acclaimed work is represented in museums and galleries, presented at major international film and media festivals, screened in art cinemas and at music and performance venues, embraced in community-based projects, and featured in prominent arts publications.
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Facilities Samuel Murphy Ex: Light, 2018
Our students have access to our production studios and the following equipment and facilities: ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶
4K digital production cameras and cine lens packages 16mm and 8mm motion picture cameras and accessories Production sound and lighting equipment Film editing, contact and optical printing 16mm and 8mm telecine transfer, and analog to digital video transfer Sandin Image Processor and portable video synthesizers 2D and 3D animation, stop motion studios, 5 individual advanced animation suites Dedicated render farm for 3D animation 3 dedicated production/post-production computer labs including Cintiq displays 5 advanced post-production suites Professional grade sound production and editing facility, with surround sound and ADR capabilities 2 production studios, including green screen cyclorama 2 video installation spaces 52 seat screening room
For a complete list of FVNMA equipment, visit: blogs.saic.edu/fvnmatech/fvnma-equipment-list.
Cutting-Edge Resources Our campus offers a rich array of resources for graduate students to utilize in their research and creative practices including: The Art Institute of Chicago’s Film, Video, and New Media Gallery, which showcases artists who have helped to define the field; the Video Data Bank, an internationally recognized collection of thousands of videotapes by and about contemporary artists; and the Flaxman Library’s 16mm Film Study Collection, an extensive holding of acknowledged masters of film art. SAIC’s Gene Siskel Film Center, a year-round cinematheque and invaluable resource for FVNMA students, is a venue for viewing world cinema, a showcase for student work at the department’s year-end Festival, and a collaborator with Conversations at the Edge (CATE), a dynamic weekly series of screenings, artist talks and performances, providing access to compelling contemporary media artists.
Theo Chin Pinakothek, 2017–18
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The Video Data Bank is an internationally recognized resource that houses thousands of videotapes by and about contemporary artists.
Faculty
MELIKA BASS JON CATES DANIEL EISENBERG TIRTZA EVEN CLAUDIA HART BRUCE JENKINS FREDERIC MOFFET MARY PATTEN CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN JAMES TRAINOR THORSTEN TRIMPOP
MFA IN STUDIO FILM, VIDEO, NEW MEDIA & ANIMATION
Irmak Karasu, 2017
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Ming Tao Memo, 2018
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Marina Leybishkis Album, 2017
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Low-Residency MFA saic.edu/lowres The Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts (Low-Res MFA) is designed for the working, self-directed 21st-century artist whose life and schedule requires flexibility, with rigorous engagement with an artistic community. Robust & Flexible Curriculum
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Our three-year Master of Fine Arts program is a flexibly-structured plan of study open to artists, writers, educators, curators and historians. It integrates studio work with art history, theory, philosophy and poetry. Three consecutive six-week summer residencies at SAIC bring students together to participate in studio and classroom-based courses and symposia, with spring and fall semesters focused on online classes and remote home studio work supported by SAIC-based faculty and pairing with a local SAIC-sponsored program mentor. A rotating core of SAIC faculty delivers on-campus and online curricula, including individual and group critiques, one-on-one studio advising, art history and philosophy seminars, technical labs, discussion groups, online forums and thesis composition tutorials, as well as pedagogical and professional development workshops.
Topic-Driven The degree focuses on three distinct topics. The first year concentrates on mobilizing the senses and constructing objects to explore the capture, and destabilization, of the viewer’s attention. The second year explores sensation— the thoughts, feelings, moods, and actions driving the creative process, and the third year explores the history of perception, including the relationships between objects and their viewers.
Ali Medina you are my favorite kind. nothing that i can name., 2017
Summer Sessions Summer sessions are structured around weekly seminars and studio visits with faculty and visiting artists, a wide range of readings on methods of artmaking, distribution, and interpretation, and a series of specialized professional practice courses. Successive summers introduce students to resources necessary for off-campus semesters, studios and galleries in Chicago, and the development of networks and resources necessary for a successful transition into professional practice.
Visiting Artists During the summer residencies, visiting artists, who serve as role models for navigating the art world, spend weekends presenting their work, participating in the Graduate Studio Seminar and visiting individual students’ studios. In addition to our new visiting artists and scholars, our core faculty which includes, Eileen Myles, Matthew Buckingham, Alejandro Cesarco, Andrea Fraser, Kira Lynn Harris, Zoe Leonard, Glenn Ligon, Josiah McElheny, Rodney McMillian, Helen Molesworth and Yvonne Rainer, essential members of the Low-Res community since its inception, return to share experiences and guide those newer to the program.
Faculty
Samantha Bittman Lee Blalock Irina Bucan Delinda Collier D. Denenge Duyst Akpem Assaf Evron Andrew Falkowski Lindsey French David Getsy Kelly Kaczynski Judd Morrissey John Neff Nathanaël Hamza Walker Sadie Woods
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Visiting Artists & Scholars 2019
Clareese Hill Can’t be titled, 2017
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
MFA IN STUDIO LOW-RESIDENCY MFA
Tom Burr Cassils DIS Lyle Ashton Harris Xandra Ibarra Jennie C. Jones Shahryar Nashat Christina Quarles Shinique Smith Addie Wagenknecht
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Kylie Carrigan Untitled (to be repeated, for eternity), 2017
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Yemonja Smalls Black, Check. Female, Check. The Box Redefined., 2018
Master of Arts
Art Therapy & Counseling saic.edu/maatc SAIC’s Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling program cultivates influential, compassionate leaders who utilize art as therapy in healthcare and social practice.
Faculty
LEAH GIPSON EVA MARXEN CATHY MOON SAVNEET K. TALWAR RANDY M. VICK
Robert Narciso, Untitled, 2016-17
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From the Art of Connection exhibition, 2017
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The Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling (MAATC) program is a national leader in articulating the role of the artist and art therapist. MAATC students are fully engaged in the intellectual dimensions of art therapy practices, research and theories, as well as important trends in related fields such as contemporary art, counseling, and psychology. The MAATC curriculum is designed to meet the standards for post-graduation application for Registration and Board Certification with the Art Therapy Credentials Board, as well as the academic requirements to sit for the Illinois counseling licensure tests and similarly designed exams in other states.
Dynamic Experience Students begin professional practice through required fieldwork experience selected from a diverse array of healthcare and social service settings, including psychiatric facilities, residential care, schools, community organizations, drug treatment centers, and correctional facilities. They are exposed to the unique challenges, ethics, and successes of their fieldwork settings working with both children and adults.
The Power Of Art The production and exploration of art is central to art therapy, and MAATC students are required to take 9 credits of studio coursework. Through academic and studio courses, exhibitions, and events, students benefit from engaging with peers at one of the best art and design schools in the world.
Faculty And Resources The department’s faculty members have helped establish social service resources across the U.S. and around the world. They have contributed to the profession through publications, presentations, exhibitions, clinical innovations and professional leadership. Students benefit from their commitment to the field and their vast array of professional connections.
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
MA ART THERAPY & COUNSELING
Critical Connections
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Kandi Jamieson Stitched and Stacked, 2016-17
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Master of Arts
Teaching saic.edu/mat The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) teacher education program prepares graduate students to become teachers of art, design and visual culture while strengthening their own artmaking practices. The program fulfills requirements for the State of Illinois K-12 Visual Arts Professional Educator License.
Educating and Empowering through Art The MAT program connects contemporary practices of art and design with contemporary education, theory and practice. Interwoven throughout the program is the belief that the everyday experiences and concerns of youth and communities are the basis for identifying themes and subjects that can be explored through creative and critical artmaking. The goal of the SAIC Art Education community is to train engaged and reflective teachers/artists whose work creates transformative experiences that build just societies and joyous individuals.
Vibrant Curricular Structure The core curriculum balances making art, learning and practicing teaching strategies, and critical reflection on traditional and cuttingedge theories and practices of art, design and education. Our curriculum addresses aesthetic, technological, cultural and political implications of schools and curricula. Students choose electives to enrich their artistic and teaching practices in such areas as contemporary art, craft and design, new technologies, art history and visual critical studies. Learning to be an art teacher at SAIC is greatly enhanced by participating in the exciting art and cultural opportunities afforded by an internationally famous art school with a world-class museum, located in a thriving and diverse city.
Constructing Curriculum and Teaching in Schools MAT students teach in urban and suburban, public and private, elementary and secondary schools throughout the Chicago area. The Art Education Department identifies mentor, teacher, and placement schools whose teaching practices and educational climate exemplify innovative and effective learning environments. SAIC faculty supervisors and mentors work closely with apprentice teachers, providing oneon-one tutorials in designing a teaching style uniquely suited to each apprentice teacher and school situation.
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Art Education as Research
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
Teaching in Chicago
Chicago offers opportunities to teach art, design, and visual culture in diverse Chicago schools, museums, galleries and community settings.
Faculty
STEVE CIAMPAGLIA ADAM J. GRETEMAN OLIVIA GUDE ANDRES L. HERNANDEZ DREA HOWENSTEIN NICOLE MARROQUIN JOHN PLOOF SARAH ROSS
MA TEACHING
Each MAT student develops an art or design curriculum project that connects learning artmaking techniques and approaches with investigating significant social and cultural concerns. This multi-week project is taught during apprentice teaching. MAT students write a thesis that combines their research into the thematic and artistic content of their curriculum project with documented experiences of implementing the project in a school setting, showcasing their students’ work. The elementary or high school students become co-researchers with their teacher, learning to use their artmaking and cultural investigations to engage big ideas, thus empowering students and teachers to use the arts as an avenue of meaningful participation in shaping democratic cultural communities.
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Master Of Arts
Art Education saic.edu/maae SAIC’s Master of Arts in Art Education (MAAE) program is designed for artists, designers, educators and other professionals seeking to be creative agents of change within a wide variety of social, cultural and educational contexts.
Experimentation in Education The MAAE program reflects the expanded field of art and design education, preparing candidates for careers in the arts, educational and social service institutions, museums, galleries, public and private universities, cultural centers, community-based organizations, NGOs and more. The program’s focuses include contemporary cultural production, socially engaged art and design practices, curriculum design, social justice teaching practices, audience advocacy, museum education, exhibition development/interpretation, and design activism.
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Fieldwork and Practical Experience Engaging contemporary art and theory in graduate seminars is balanced with opportunities to work with various communities, audiences and organizations and through internships and fieldwork. Students have many opportunities to develop arts-based projects, teach in community settings and to facilitate cultural programming. Individually designed fieldwork experiences support the research for innovative final thesis projects.
Faculty
ADAM J. GRETEMAN OLIVIA GUDE ANDRES L. HERNANDEZ DREA HOWENSTEIN NICOLE MARROQUIN JOHN PLOOF JAMES ELNISKI
Critical Citizenship The Art Education Department’s goal is to develop creative and critical citizens. We form a community of self-reflective artist/ educators who share a deep concern for the lives of others and who question and challenge the cultural, social and political structures that comprise everyday life.
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
MA ART EDUCATION
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
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Ane Weiseth LAB OUR U TWO SPEEDS: FAST AND SLOW (Performance Still), 2018
Master of Fine Arts In Studio
Fiber & Material Studies saic.edu/fiber The Fiber and Material Studies (FMS) program encourages in-depth engagement with textile materials, processes, discourses, histories, politics and forms.
Time-Honored, Technologically Rich
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FMS is one of the largest and best resourced programs of its kind in the world, led by a highly distinguished faculty of innovative and accomplished artists and scholars. We foster artistic experimentation and train artists to make complex and cross-disciplinary art. Not only do our students work in cloth, print and various textiles, they also explore new technologies, computer-assisted tools, installation, performance and collaborative approaches.
Course of Study Students receive in-depth, one-on-one tutorialbased advising with faculty of their choosing from within the department or other studio areas in the school. Department-specific courses enable students to deeply engage with the history of, and current developments in, the field, while courses in other studio and design departments serve to enrich and inform their practice.
Acclaimed Visiting Artists Students participate in critiques, individual studio visits and round-table discussions with visiting artists and scholars like Glenn Adamson, Elissa Auther, Miyoshi Barosh, Jen Bervin, Chakaia Booker, Christine Checinska, Josh Faught, Jeffrey Gibson, Namita Gupta Wiggers, Ann Hamilton, Alistair McAuley, Richard Sennett, Jenni Sorkin and Stephanie Syjuco.
Faculty
DIANA GUERRERO-MACIA CHRISTINE TARKOWSKI LISA VINEBAUM ANNE WILSON
The Textile Resource Center
The TRC is a hands-on study collection of textiles and artifacts from countries within Africa, Central and South Asia, Europe and the Americas, together with new technological substrates and materials. It also houses a library of instructional, fiber, craft theory and historical texts.
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TC-1 Digital Jacquard Loom TC-2 Digital Jacquard Loom Fully equipped screenprinting studio Dobby loom Floor looms [4 to 16 harness] Table looms Darkroom facilities Large format heat transfer press Fully equipped dye studio Facilities for natural dye and indigo Industrial 10-needle embroidery machines Computerized embroidery machines Long arm quilting machines Free motion sewing stations Industrial sergers and sewing machines Knitting machines Papermaking studio Hollander beater Plotter/cutter Smart lecture/critique spaces
MFA IN STUDIO FIBER AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Our students have access to individual graduate studios as well as:
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Paris F. Jomadiao Duty & Inheritance, 2018
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Jacob Melgren Anti/poiesis, 2018
Faculty
ROBIN DEACON WERNER HERTERICH LIN HIXSON MARK JEFFERY ROBERTO SIFUENTES
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Performance saic.edu/performance
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One of the only graduate-level contemporary live art programs in the country, our Performance program educates artists who produce groundbreaking, meaningful work that impacts the very paradigm of performance. Exceeding Boundaries Our students, led by a faculty with significant international reputations, produce work that responds to radically changing concepts of the body, technology and social conditions. Students engage in performance re-enactments, social justice and activism, abandoned practices, performance lectures, immersive technologies and social networking performance, tactical and site-specific performance, and choreographic actions. Performance is fluid by nature and students are encouraged to explore other SAIC departments to enhance their work.
Professional Experience We provide guidance and encouragement for showings and curatorial projects. Our students have the opportunity to share their work through public events such as the annual Fall New Blood Performance Festival and the Spring MFA Performance IMPACT Thesis Festival.
Influential Visiting Artists Guest artists are regularly invited for symposia, workshops and individual graduate critiques. Representatives from organizations such as Franklin Furnace Inc., Performa (NYC), the SPILL International Festival of Performance (UK), City of Women (Slovenia) and the ANTI Festival (Finland) engage in dialogue with students about their work and share networks and post-MFA opportunities.
Chicago Many students work in the galleries and spaces of Chicago’s performance community, including experimental, non-traditional and artist-initiated spaces. In many cases, the city itself is an urban classroom, with students engaging numerous communities through projects and performances.
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Vincent Ugartechea MK MK, Ken Folk, Ren Rodriguez, In the Pink, 2018
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Nanna Rosenfeldt-Olsen Tools of the Old and New Stone Age, 2018
Students have access to an 80’ × 40’ × 14’ multi-use performance space, as well as a dedicated graduate performance studio and installation space, both with a programmable LCD lighting system and a wide range of audiovisual equipment at their disposal, including a 4K video camera. Students also have exclusive access to a dedicated Performance department video editing suite. These spaces are managed by a performance technician who works closely with students to help realize their projects from inception to completion.
MFA IN STUDIO PERFORMANCE
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Cherrie (Jiqing) Yu 2018
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Andreea Maxim Untitled, 2015
Master Of Design
Fashion, Body and Garment saic.edu/mdfbg SAIC’s groundbreaking Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment (FBG) moves beyond merging fine art with design to explore fashion within the context of community, sustainability, technology and the industry.
Alumni Outcomes Program graduates are responsive participants within the contemporary fashion and art worlds, going on to work in design studios or create their own, and display their work within gallery, installation, performance and theatrical settings. (Read our in-depth interview with Fashion alumnus Benjamin Larose on page 227.)
Specialized Resources Our students are inspired by the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Visiting Artists Program’s ambitious lecture series, the large-scale annual fashion show, and the many design initiatives underway at SAIC.
100 Shuang (Shaly) Guo, 2017
Fashioning the Future Our students engage in dedicated design studios, topical seminars, self-directed research, technical labs and design history and theory courses, and in their final year may take coursework in other departments at SAIC that complement their practice. The culmination of the program, the Design Thesis Exhibition, showcases a body of work that engages critical questions about the intersection and merging of fine art with fashion design and beyond. Presented in installation format, their work can stand alone or influence the development of a fashion collection as it explores the body in motion, on show, in suspension, in conversation and immersed in the world.
Creative Connections & Futures Students work directly with the department’s internationally renowned faculty of fashion innovators, including premier visionary Nick Cave and designer Liat Smestad. They are exposed to business strategies, marketing, and designer-branding concepts through required Professional Practice Seminars. Nick Mahshie, 2017
The Fashion Resource Center
The Fashion Resource Center is the department’s hands-on collection of late 20th-and 21st-century designer garments and accessories that represent extreme innovation.
Faculty
Alexia Roach, 2017
NICK CAVE JACK CAVE ANKE LOH KATRIN SCHNABL LIAT SMESTAD
MD FASHION, BODY AND GARMENT
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Rong Zhang, 2017
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Berfin Ataman, 2017
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Faculty
Toni Villasenor-Marchal, 2018
ANKE LOH AUBRIE MEYER ANNIE NOVOTNY LIAT SMESTAD
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate
Fashion, Body and Garment saic.edu/pbfbg The Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Fashion, Body and Garment prepares students for the rigor and challenge of a master’s program or professional work in the fashion industry.
Kelley O’Brien, 2017
Accelerated Curriculum
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We provide students who have an undergraduate degree with an accelerated curriculum. Some students enter the program as transitional preparation for graduate school, while others use its practical groundwork to prepare for internships and careers in the fashion industry.
The program offers formal coursework with methods and materials-oriented labs, studio research and development, and art and design history courses. The three-semester intensive advances students’ skills in engaging with cloth as a medium and guides each student through the creation of a personal fashion collection.
Breadth of Possibilities
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Through theory courses and a wide range of electives, students explore a combi nat ion of ded icated desig n studios, topical seminars, self-directed research, technical labs, and design history while focusing in-depth on their individual practices.
PB FASHION, BODY AND GARMENT
Creating a Collection
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Nicholas Brade New Skin, 2018
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Stella Shen Therapeutic Device (Technology 4), Stabber, 2017
Master of Design
Designed Objects saic.edu/aiado The Master of Design in Designed Objects (MDDO) program enables thinking practitioners the freedom to explore unknown territory and push the boundaries of design to develop integrative new ways of creating objects, systems, environments and experiences. Unique Perspectives
Interdisciplinary Discipline
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Our students reimagine the objects and systems that comprise our daily lives. Borrowing critically from product, furniture, interaction and systems design, the MDDO program teaches students to maintain an expansive understanding of the object. Students are encouraged to take classes across SAIC and to apply to Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects’ (AIADO) External Partnership courses.
MDDO vs. MFA In contrast to the Master of Design in Designed Objects (MDDO), the two-year Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio, Designed Objects is for students with previous experience and a strong portfolio in three-dimensional design practice. The tutorial structure of the MFA in Designed Objects allows students to pursue independently directed projects while working with faculty advisors on a one-to-one basis each semester.
Si Chen The New Normal, 2017
Providing a creative and intellectual context in which designed things are closely examined, our program focuses on the critical rethinking of objects. Students are challenged to find their individual voices as designers within a carefully sequenced, experimental curriculum.
Full-Time Faculty
ILONA GAYNOR PETE OYLER TIM PARSONS JIM TERMEER
The Sullivan Fabrication Studio The dedicated fabrication workshop is equipped with a full range of hand tools and industrial wood and metal-working machines including table saws, band saws, jointer, planer, mortiser, drillpress, sanders and lathe. Miiko He, 2017
▶▶ Material sales center with sheet goods, hardwoods, plastics, foam, etc. ▶▶ 2 CNC Routers (4’× 8’ Highspeed; 2’× 2’ Prototyping) ▶▶ Large bed vacuum thermo-former (2’ × 4’) ▶▶ Assorted sewing machines ▶▶ Mold-making facility with plaster mixing, dust collection, fume extractor, and vacuum chamber ▶▶ Large high-flow paint and finishing hood ▶▶ On-site materials library ▶▶ Dedicated workspace in large, open-plan communal studios
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Chat terley, Mul tea T Tea g a n o ol,
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The Advanced Output Center
▶▶ 150w + 120w laser cutters ▶▶ 3D printers, including an Mcor that uses paper as building material, a Dimension that uses ABS filament, and an Objet that uses acrylic resin ▶▶ 3D scanners, including an Artec Eva, a Handyscan, a Point Cloud, and a NextEngine ▶▶ 42" Colorwave 600 Printer and 32" TDS320 Printer ▶▶ A flatbed scanner and a large format scanner
MD DESIGNED OBJECTS
Students have access to a fully equipped Advanced Output Center including:
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Maya Jay Varadaraj Station 1 + Station 2 + Station 3, 2017
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Kendall Wrightson Linear Processes, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Designed Objects saic.edu/aiado
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Norman Teague, 2016
Norman Teague Sinmi
The Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Designed Objects program facilitates an advanced practice that helps cultivate new relationships between the designer and the consumer, the citizen and society by imagining how new objects, inventions and insights can influence our lives.
Expansive Model Our program offers an expansive educational model in which designers engage with history and critical thinking to create across disciplines.
Movement Within the Community Working within a vibrant and diverse community of makers and scholars, students design a personalized curriculum by choosing from a wide variety of seminars, courses, and graduate advisors. We encourage our students to move beyond their home departments, working with faculty and peers in other areas that support their graduate work and research.
Studio Work Graduate-level courses and topical seminars support individual studio work by exposing students to the larger dialogues around the production, exhibition and function of art and design. Graduate critiques, central to the MFA experience, alternate between discipline-specific panels in the fall semester and interdisciplinary panels in the spring semester.
MDDO vs. MFA In contrast to the MFA in Studio, Designed Objects, the Master of Design in Designed Objects (MDDO) program is for individuals looking for immersive training to build the critical and technical skills necessary for advanced object design practice. The 66-credit MDDO program is for students who wish to study within a structured, course-based curriculum of Designed Objects-specific studios, seminars and technical labs.
Full-Time Faculty
Ting-Yu Tseng Edgee, 2017
ILONA GAYNOR PETE OYLER TIM PARSONS JIM TERMEER
MFA IN STUDIO DESIGNED OBJECTS
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Sungjun Kim Jacks up, 2016
MarĂa Urigoitia Villanueva Chicago, Iteration 4, Stochastic Cities, 2018
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Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Design For Emerging Technologies saic.edu/aiado Find yourself at the intersection of art and technology and help build the creative world of tomorrow. The Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Design for Emerging Technologies program offers you resources in interface and physical interaction design, information architecture, physical computing, software-based optimization and analysis, and design for embedded control and robotic activation.
Design Your Program
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Students design their own two-year plan of study by curating the offerings and opportunities available throughout SAIC. They are encouraged to seek out curricular advising as needed from a variety of available sources including the dean, graduate dean, graduate division chair, department heads, academic advising, the graduate admissions office, and peers.
Faculty
ILONA GAYNOR ELLEN GRIMES LINDA KEANE THOMAS KONG ANN LUI CARL RAY MILLER ANDERS NEREIM BENJAMIN NICHOLSON PETER OYLER DOUGLAS PANCOAST TIM PARSONS HENNIE REYNDERS, Ph.D JONATHAN SOLOMON TRISTAN D’ESTREE STERK JIM TERMEER
Zhecong Huang Dear Mom, 2018
Interdisciplinary Practice We offer an expansive educational model in which designers engage history, critical thinking, and work across disciplines. We encourage our students to move beyond their home departments, working with faculty and peers in any area that supports their graduate work and research. Graduate studios for MFA students in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) and Design for Emerging Technologies are clustered to provide community and easy access to the Sullivan fabrication facilities.
Seminars and Support
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The Sullivan Fabrication Studio This dedicated fabrication workshop is equipped with a full range of hand tools and industrial wood and metal-working machines including table saws, band saws, jointer, planer, mortiser, drill press, sanders and lathe. ▶▶ Material sales center with sheet goods, hardwoods, plastics, foam, etc. ▶▶ 2 CNC Routers (4’× 8’ Highspeed; 2’× 2’ Prototyping) ▶▶ Large bed vacuum thermo-former (2’ × 4’) ▶▶ Assorted sewing machines ▶▶ Mold-making facility with plaster mixing, dust collection, fume extractor, and vacuum chamber ▶▶ Large high-flow paint and finishing hood ▶▶ On-site materials library ▶▶ Dedicated workspace in large, open-plan communal studios
The Advanced Output Center Students have access to a fully equipped Advanced Output Center including: ▶▶ 150w + 120w laser cutters ▶▶ 3D printers, including an Mcor that uses paper as building material, a Dimension that uses ABS filament, and an Objet that uses acrylic resin ▶▶ 3D scanners, including an Artec Eva, a Handyscan, a Point Cloud, and a NextEngine ▶▶ 42" Colorwave 600 Printer and 32" TDS320 Printer ▶▶ A flatbed scanner and a large format scanner
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MFA IN STUDIO DESIGN FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Graduate-level courses and topical seminars support individual studio work by exposing students to the larger dialogues around the production, exhibition and function of art and design, as well as their expanded cultural production and reception. Students design a personalized curriculum by choosing from a wide variety of seminars, courses and graduate advisors linked to numerous studio, design and academic departments. Graduate critiques, central to the MFA experience, alternate between discipline-specific panels in the fall semester and interdisciplinary panels in the spring semester.
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Minli Cao Butterflu, 2018
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Peng Song At the end of Anthropocene, 2018
Faculty
ELLEN GRIMES LINDA KEANE THOMAS KONG ANN LUI CARL RAY MILLER ANDERS NEREIM BENJAMIN NICHOLSON DOUGLAS PANCOAST HENNIE REYNDERS, PhD JONATHAN SOLOMON TRISTAN D’ESTREE STERK
David Thomas, 2017
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Architecture saic.edu/aiado 120
Our Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Architecture supports advanced work in architecture and includes related fields that call upon a broad range of art and design disciplines to redefine how architecture is practiced with versatility that challenges orthodox approaches. Flexible Curriculum Our program offers maximum flexibility in addressing your individual needs as a student and architect. By choosing from a wide variety of seminars, courses and graduate advisors, the MFA in Architecture allows you to develop a fully personalized curriculum. Students are free to move beyond their home department, working with faculty and peers in any area that supports their graduate work and research.
Production Graduate-level courses and topical seminars support individual studio work by exposing students to the larger dialogues around the production, exhibition and function of art and design. Graduate critiques, central to the MFA experience, alternate between disciplinespecific panels in the fall semester and interdisciplinary panels in the spring semester.
Sarah Aziz Architectural Typologies, 2015
The Sullivan Fabrication Studio The dedicated fabrication workshop is equipped with a full range of hand tools and industrial wood and metal-working machines including table saws, band saws, jointer, planer, mortiser, drillpress, sanders, and lathe. ▶▶ Material sales center with sheet goods, hardwoods, plastics, foam, etc. ▶▶ 2 CNC Routers (4’×8’ Highspeed; 2’× 2’ Prototyping) ▶▶ Large bed vacuum thermo-former (2’ × 4’) ▶▶ Assorted sewing machines ▶▶ Mold-making facility with plaster mixing, dust collection, fume extractor, and vacuum chamber ▶▶ Large high-flow paint and finishing hood ▶▶ On-site materials library ▶▶ Dedicated workspace in large, open-plan communal studios
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Students have access to a fully equipped Advanced Output Center including:
Longtan Yang, 2017
▶▶ 150w + 120w laser cutters ▶▶ 3D printers, including an Mcor that uses paper as building material, a Dimension that uses ABS filament, and an Objet that uses acrylic resin ▶▶ 3D scanners, including an Artec Eva, a Handyscan, a Point Cloud, and a NextEngine ▶▶ 42" Colorwave 600 Printer and 32" TDS320 Printer ▶▶ A flatbed scanner and a large format scanner
MFA IN STUDIO ARCHITECTURE
The Advanced Output Center
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Nahyeong Lim Paper-Pop Pavillion, 2014–15
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Eugenia Macchia & Veronica Perez Untitled, 2016
Master of
Architecture saic.edu/aiado Build your architectural design practice through hands-on inquiry, experimentation and exploration that uses critical history, theories, and techniques as a foundation. We offer a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredited Master of Architecture (MArch) degree and a two-year, accelerated MArch track. Studio and Beyond
Master of Architecture (3 Years)
Through independent studios and joint ventures, our students gain the ability to translate ideas into meaningful objects and environments. Recent industry projects and external partnerships include collaborations with communities and institutions in and around Chicago.
The Architecture of Interdiscipline Cou rsework combi nes projec t-ba sed design studios organized around a timely intellectual focus, technical courses in building structures, systems, professional practice, and architectural technology, and electives in architectural history and theory. We encourage our students to develop their practice by taking courses in other departments throughout SAIC. In their final year, students complete a comprehensive studio and pursue a self-directed design thesis under the supervision of faculty in the department.
Master of Architecture, Option 2 (2 Years) Students with undergraduate pre-professional Bachelor’s degrees in architectural studies, architectural technology, or interior design may be accepted into the two-year, 60-credit MArch, Option 2 program. Students must fulfill 45 credits of non-architectural college level coursework as required for graduation from a NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture degree program. Students admitted into the Option 2 program missing one or two specific topical architectural classes will be required to take those classes at SAIC.
Certification in Historic Preservation
Faculty
ELLEN GRIMES LINDA KEANE THOMAS KONG ANN LUI CARL RAY MILLER ANDERS NEREIM BEN NICHOLSON DOUGLAS PANCOAST HENNIE REYNDERS, Ph.D JONATHAN SOLOMON TRISTAN D’ESTRÉE STERK
Sarah Aziz, 2017
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Our MArch degree program begins with a foundation of required skills and grounding in the histories and theories specific to architecture, engineering and design. Applications are open to students who have earned a Bachelor’s degree. Academic and/or work experience in architecture, environmental or interior design, or related fields are recommended, but not required.
Certificate in Historic Preservation Our students have an opportunity to pursue a Certificate in Historic Preservation through coursework in SAIC’s Historic Preservation Program. Working with Chicago’s rich history of historic structures, students gain expertise and experience with the practice, theory and science of preservation.
The dedicated fabrication workshop is equipped with a full range of hand tools and industrial wood and metal-working machines including table saws, band saws, jointer, planer, mortiser, drillpress, sanders, and lathe.
The Sullivan Fabrication Studio
▶▶ Material sales center with sheet goods, hardwoods, plastics, foam, etc. ▶▶ 2 CNC Routers (4’× 8’ Highspeed; 2’× 2’ Prototyping) ▶▶ Large bed vacuum thermo-former (2’ × 4’) ▶▶ Assorted sewing machines ▶▶ Mold-making facility with plaster mixing, dust collection, fume extractor, and vacuum chamber ▶▶ Large high-flow paint and finishing hood ▶▶ On-site materials library ▶▶ Dedicated workspace in large, open-plan communal studios
Matthew Hamaker, 2017
The Advanced Output Center
Students have access to a fully equipped Advanced Output Center including: ▶▶ 150w + 120w laser cutters ▶▶ 3D printers, including an Mcor that uses paper as building material, a Dimension that uses ABS filament, and an Objet that uses acrylic resin ▶▶ 3D scanners, including an Artec Eva, a Handyscan, a Point Cloud, and a NextEngine ▶▶ 42" Colorwave 600 Printer and 32" TDS320 Printer ▶▶ A flatbed scanner and a large format scanner
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE
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Suzie Shang, 2018
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Lina Alsharif, 2016
Master of
Architecture with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture saic.edu/aiado 128
Faculty
Reconstruct the concepts of interior space and our relationships with it. The Master of Architecture (MArch) with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture degree gives students the expertise necessary for a comprehensive architectural practice while broadening the sensibilities specific to the growing field of Interior Architecture.
Human Needs and Experiences We offer students two MArch with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture degrees. Both are professional degrees accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). Both degrees recognize the significance of architectural design where form, structure and enclosure are considered within the context of materials, objects, human needs, and experiences.
Olive Ouyang, 2016
ELLEN GRIMES LINDA KEANE THOMAS KONG ANN LUI CARL RAY MILLER ANDERS NEREIM BEN NICHOLSON DOUGLAS PANCOAST HENNIE REYNDERS, Ph.D JONATHAN SOLOMON TRISTAN D’ESTRÉE STERK
The Sullivan Fabrication Studio
Experimentation Interior Architecture is a growing professional field in which the impact of architects is increasing. We teach through hands-on inquiry, experimentation and exploration to develop the skills and critical knowledge necessary for the development of new spatial ideas and invention.
Curriculum and Projects The curriculum is centered on a series of projectbased studios supported by courses in building structures, building technology, professional practice and electives in architectural history and theory. Students are encouraged to develop and expand their practice by taking courses in other departments throughout SAIC. In their final year, students complete a rigorous design studio and pursue a self-directed design thesis under the supervision of faculty in the department.
The dedicated fabrication workshop is equipped with a full range of hand tools and industrial wood and metal-working machines including table saws, band saws, jointer, planer, mortiser, drillpress, sanders, and lathe. ▶▶ Material sales center with sheet goods, hardwoods, plastics, foam, etc. ▶▶ 2 CNC Routers (4’× 8’ Highspeed; 2’× 2’ Prototyping) ▶▶ Large bed vacuum thermo-former (2’ × 4’) ▶▶ Assorted sewing machines ▶▶ Mold-making facility with plaster mixing, dust collection, fume extractor, and vacuum chamber ▶▶ Large high-flow paint and finishing hood ▶▶ On-site materials library ▶▶ Dedicated workspace in large, open-plan communal studios
Kim Arciniega, 2017
Students have access to a fully equipped Advanced Output Center including: ▶▶ 150w + 120w laser cutters ▶▶ 3D printers, including an Mcor that uses paper as building material, a Dimension that uses ABS filament, and an Objet that uses acrylic resin ▶▶ 3D scanners, including an Artec Eva, a Handyscan, a Point Cloud, and a NextEngine ▶▶ 42" Colorwave 600 Printer and 32" TDS320 Printer ▶▶ A flatbed scanner and a large format scanner
The Advanced Output Center
Kate Barbaria, 2015
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE WITH AN EMPHASIS IN INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
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Julie Dalga, 2014
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Master of Science
Historic Preservation saic.edu/mshp SAIC’s Master of Science in Historic Preservation (MSHP) prepares graduates to conserve, restore and revitalize the built environment through the comprehensive exploration of science, history, creative arts, politics and technology.
Restoring the Built Environment
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SAIC’s MSHP program is an intensive two-year, 60-credit program covering restoration design, materials conservation, architectural history, preservation planning and specif ic areas of interest through elective coursework. Graduates go on to become preservation planners, consultants to restoration architects, historic interior designers, historic site managers, historic building materials consultants, contractors, site interpreters, collections managers, preservation researchers, and advocates.
Professional Experience Students gain valuable experience through a 210-hour internship with preservation agencies, conservators, restoration architects or designers of their choosing. Students are exposed to the latest preservation techniques while working one-on-one with practicing professionals. Additionally, students investigate an area of personal and professional concern in great depth through a two-semester thesis tutorial.
Faculty MSHP faculty are respected professionals who believe that preserving and reusing the built environment not only creates continuity between the past, present and future, but contributes significantly to the health of our culture and society. Their professional affiliations in Chicago and abroad provide a powerful network of connections.
An Urban Classroom The program uses Chicago as a laboratory, and nearly all department projects involve Chicago or Chicago-area buildings and sites, often resulting in community-based projects that serve the public.
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ROLF ACHILLES RICHARD FRIEDMAN DON KALEC NICK LOWE JIM PETERS CHARLES PIPAL LYNETTE STUHLMACHER ANNE SULLIVAN R. TERRY TATUM NEAL VOGEL TIM WITTMAN
MS HISTORIC PRESERVATION
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Master of Arts
Modern and Contemporary Art History saic.edu/maah Students in SAIC’s Art History program pursue research in a prestigious art school connected with a major museum. They work with a large department of full-time faculty specializing in modern and contemporary art and design with a global focus, and challenge, debate and interpret the field. Wide-ranging Scholarship
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The Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History (MAAH) is a two-year, 36-credit master’s program grounded in the study of modern and contemporary art, design, and theory in its global and transnational contexts. Students study a wide range of artists and designers, and art and design practices, with research culminating in a master’s thesis written under the supervision of a full-time faculty member.
Faculty Full-time faculty are scholars with global reputations whose research is on the cutting edge of present trends in the field with specia lties covering Africa, Latin America, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, and North America. Their teaching engages with interdisciplinary perspectives such as media studies, performance studies, material culture studies, design studies, visual studies, philosophy, and gender studies.
MAAH students enjoy successful careers after graduation, going on to influential positions in museums, art galleries, alternative venues, publishing, and academia.
Resources In addition to Chicago’s vibrant cultural and artistic environment that includes major cultural institutions, numerous artist-run galleries, and community-based organizations, students have access to the Art Institute of Chicago and its research collections, SAIC’s Flaxman Library, Video Data Bank, Fashion Resource Center, Roger Brown Study Collection, the Gene Siskel Film Center, and numerous visiting artists, designers, historians and critics.
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
Faculty
SIMON ANDERSON SAMPADA ARANKE SHIBEN BANERJI ANNIE BOURNEUF DELINDA J COLLIER JAMES ELKINS DAVID GETSY MICHAEL GOLEC SETH KIM-COHEN JENNIFER DOROTHY LEE JENNIFER NELSON DANIEL RICARDO QUILES DAVID RASKIN NORA ANNESLEY TAYLOR LISA WAINWRIGHT MECHTILD WIDRICH BESS WILLIAMSON
MA MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY
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Art History students push the notion of music to its limits in a live re-enactment of Philip Corner’s 1962 concert Piano Activities.
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Master of Arts Dual Degree in
Modern and Contemporary Art History & Arts Administration & Policy saic.edu/dual The dual degree is a unique program designed to immerse students in both art history and arts administration, competitively positioning graduates for work in the areas they choose, from academia to curatorial positions and work in nonprofit organizations. Curriculum and Resources
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Our three-year, 66-credit dual degree combines graduate studies in the history of modern and contemporary art with business and cultural administration. Students engage directly with current trends in both fields through a tailored curriculum and numerous events, lectures, opportunities, and resources.
Careers The Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History (MAAH) and Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy (MAAAP) degrees prepare our graduates for positions in museum administration and curating, work in nonprofit organizations, gallery management, academia, and foundation and cultural policy advocacy.
World-class Resources Our st udents have specia l access to incomparable resources including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Flaxman Libraries, numerous on and off-campus collections, and public programs. Students have access to a diverse array of arts, cultural, and community organizations in Chicago, and have the opportunity to work in partnership with them on a variety of projects sponsored by the department’s Management Studio courses.
The Visiting Artists Program has brought in such distinguished artists as Graham Pullin, Arlene Shechet, Anab Jain, Lewis Hyde, Irene Hofmann, Xaviera Simmons, Kendell Geers, Ron Athey, Beatriz Milhazes and Inigo Manglano-Ovalle. Each year, as part of the Lifton Lecture Series, a prominent scholar presents a public lecture on a topic related to modern and contemporary art history. A theme over the years has been an emphasis on women art historians and their contributions to the field. Dual degree students participate in the production of e-merge: journal of arts administration and policy, featuring collaborations with guest editors from the SAIC community. The journal is dedicated to fostering creative discussions among leading professionals, academics, and students, and provides dual degree candidates with valuable experience in publication and journal management.
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
Faculty
SIMON ANDERSON SAMPADA ARANKE SHIBEN BANERJI ANNIE BOURNEUF DELINDA J. COLLIER KATE DUMBLETON JAMES ELKINS DAVID J. GETSY MICHAEL J. GOLEC SETH KIM-COHEN MAUD LAVIN JENNIFER DOROTHY LEE NICHOLAS LOWE ADELHEID MERS JENNIFER NELSON DANIEL R. QUILES DAVID RASKIN NORA TAYLOR RACHEL WEISS MECHTILD WIDRICH BESS WILLIAMSON
MA DUAL DEGREE MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY & ARTS ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY
On-campus Opportunities
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Master of Arts
Arts Administration and Policy saic.edu/maaap Through an integrated approach to curriculum, practice and research, the Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy (MAAAP) program emphasizes collaboration, teamwork, creative leadership and a dynamic process of reflection. We are not a traditional arts administration program. As an academic program and a hub of creative activity, our approach views arts administration as a creative practice. Diverse Peers
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Our internationally-diverse students are both emerging administrators and mid-career professionals. Curious, self-directed, and socially-engaged, they come from many different backgrounds, including visual arts, dance, music, theatre, cultural studies, art history, social sciences, law, philosophy, political science, education, social services, hospitality and social entrepreneurship.
21st Century Leaders We seek students who want to reimagine and lead arts and cultural organizations within 21st century practices, needs and realities. Our students work in close collaboration with artists, arts, and cultural organizations, as well as promote ethical practice, advocate for centrality of the arts and culture in everyday life, and develop new approaches to learning and thinking experientially, critically and politically.
Faculty
KATHLEEN DUMBLETON ADELHEID MERS RACHEL WEISS Affiliated Faculty
ROMI CRAWFORD JOSEPH GRIGELY MARY JANE JACOB
Professional Experience The MAAAP program is both firmly grounded in theory and project-driven, allowing students to work in short- and long-term engagements with a wide range of organizations. Our students are immersed in an environment that fosters intensive intellectual and professional relationships with our renowned faculty and their peers.
Art & Design Culture SAIC is a thriving, progressive arts community in which artistic, design, and scholarly practices interact, driving students to exceed the perceived limits of their disciplines. Shared experience and encounters create an ever-changing space for dialogue that helps expand the definition of arts administration and what we do within it.
Guest Speakers
Recent guest speakers in the MAAAP program include: ▶▶ Ian David Moss Founder of CreatEquity and CEO of Knowledge Empower consultants ▶▶ Peter Hyer Director of the Media & Technology Portfolio at IDEO San Francisco ▶▶ Mike Reed Musician, composer and founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, current programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival, and owner and director of the acclaimed performing arts venue Constellation ▶▶ Roberta Uno Director, Arts in a Changing America ▶▶ Madeleine Grynsztejn Pritzker Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
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▶▶ Angelique Williams Power Former Program Director, Culture, The Joyce Foundation. Currently President, Field Foundation Illinois ▶▶ Roberto Bedoya Cultural Affairs Manager, City of Oakland ▶▶ Jacqueline Terrassa Woman’s Board Endowed Chair of Museum Education, Art Institute of Chicago
▶▶ Claire Rice Executive Director, Arts in a Changing America
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
MA ARTS ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY
▶▶ Marc Bamuthi Joseph Arts educator-activist, writer, and performer; chief of program & pedagogy, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
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Master of Arts
New Arts Journalism saic.edu/manaj The Master of Arts in New Arts Journalism (MANAJ) program teaches aspiring journalists the technical skills, research methods, and media and cultural theory required to pursue their interests across a broad range of media for diverse audiences.
Extensive Preparation
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Led by a distinguished faculty of critics, publishers, designers, artists, and visiting experts, the program encourages rigorous and experimental approaches to arts journalism. Students conduct interviews and compose reviews, think pieces, critical essays, editorials, documentaries, and news-based reports. They design and maintain a website and blog, and with studio courses in audio, video, digital, and print production, create podcasts, documentaries, websites, and publications.
Electives & Thesis Students take two elective courses in their areas of interest across SAIC. Thesis projects reflect students’ diverse research interests and are presented in various media, becoming ideal portfolio pieces.
World-Class Art & Design Connections Students connect with their peers across other studio and non-studio-based departments, as well as with faculty, visiting artists, and scholars. Students have the opportunity to connect with celebrated visual and cultural practitioners through our museum, the Art Institute of Chicago.
Faculty
DUSHKO PETROVICH ROXANE ASSAF MARGARET HAWKINS SHAWNE MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY MEGAN O’GRADY LORI WAXMAN
Careers MANAJ graduates work in a large range of careers including staff and freelance writing and editing, managing social media accounts, and working in marketing departments. Recent graduates have positions with VH1 (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Tribune, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago and ArtSlant.
SAIC’s award-winning journal of arts, culture, and politics provides an ideal way for MANAJ students to gain editorial and writing experience.
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Master of Arts
Visual & Critical Studies saic.edu/mavcs Designed for students who are committed to making, researching and analyzing work in an interdisciplinary and post-disciplinary environment, the Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies (MAVCS) program integrates scholarly, studio, and hybrid research practices as part of an evolving paradigm that addresses the complexity of visual and critical practices in the 21st century. Thinking and Making
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Through immersive research, along with the creation of projects, artwork, experiences and writing, students explore ways of seeing and representing social, cultural, and visual phenomena. At the heart of MAVCS is a core structure of visual theory surrounded by a flexible curriculum in which students, guided by SAIC faculty advisors, design their own course structure to match their interests, giving them the freedom to combine creative and critical practices—some students have active art practices; some have desks; some have both.
Course of Study The curriculum balances topic-based seminars, independent work with advisors, and electives to create a singularly interdisciplinary course of study. Depending on students’ research interests, the final thesis may be a creative body of work that prioritizes writing or making. Graduate students organize an annual symposium and exhibition to share their research in a professional context.
Faculty MAVCS faculty are internationally recognized practitioners in their fields and share a common interest in taking disciplinary knowledge beyond the borders of conventional practice. The faculty include artists, designers, critics, writers, and scholars with diverse backgrounds, including sound and performance, critical race studies and anthropology, mass culture and gender/sexuality studies, photography and social history, conceptual practices and textual criticism, as well as a range of emerging disciplines. The VCS faculty have won Guggenheim awards for both studio practice and critical scholarship.
Faculty
ROMI N CRAWFORD JOSEPH GRIGELY TERRI KAPSALIS MAUD LAVIN KAREN MORRIS KAMAU A. PATTON SHAWN SMITH
Acclaimed Visitors
Recent visitors to VCS have included: ▶▶ Boris Groys On changing the world through art ▶▶ Gordon Hall On object lessons ▶▶ Lauren Berlant On dissociative poetics ▶▶ Akili Tommasino On Black Panther Party newspapers ▶▶ Ling Yang On boys’ love in Chinese online culture ▶▶ Pierre Von-Ow On conversation pieces ▶▶ Ben Kinmont On social sculpture
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▶▶ Mitesh Dixit On Complex Projects at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands ▶▶ Nico Dockx On archives ▶▶ Åbäke On socially reflexive design ▶▶ Zak Kyes On fighting with inanimate objects ▶▶ Carlos Fernández Pello On Caillois, camouflage, and night-sky constellations ▶▶ Erica Barrish On post-reductive minimalist practices of women from 1960–present
▶▶ Joey Orr On public art actions ▶▶ Francois Piron On the social life of books
* Theses can be found at the SAIC Thesis
Repository (digitalcollections.saic.edu/thesis) and the Flaxman Library catalog.
MA VISUAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
▶▶ Szu-Han Ho On transnational collaboration
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Alicia López Castañeda I.we, 2018
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Writing saic.edu/mfaw 156
The Master of Fine Arts in Writing (MFAW) program distinguishes itself by tapping the unique potential of interdisciplinary writing through a curriculum modeled on studio art training.
Freedom to Choose We welcome writers of all genres, as well as visual artists who work with language as an integral component of their practice. Students move freely between poetry, fiction, playwriting, non-fiction and comics, and work with their advisors to develop a course of study that includes related fields such as performance, film, sculpture, arts journalism, and sound. We encourage hybrid work and collaborative projects including flash fiction, epic verse, digital poetics, long-form narrative novels, ekphrastic songs, poetic theater, graphic novels and independent publishing.
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SALLY ALATALO JESSE BALL MARK BOOTH JANET DESAULNIERS SARA LEVINE RUTH MARGRAFF JAMES MCMANUS BETH NUGENT Professor Emeritus
CALVIN FORBES Visiting Poet 2018–19
TARFIA FAIZULLAH
The MFAW draws on a distinguished faculty passionate in their disciplines and with diverse artistic and intellectual backgrounds. A robust program of visiting writers, artists, and designers augments our core faculty each semester, giving students opportunities to make professional connections from around the globe. Recent visitors include Cathy Park Hong, Juan Martinez, Maggie Nelson, Roger Reeves, Sarah Schulman, Layli Long Soldier, and Mai Der Vang.
Careers Students edit an annual print publication, Collected, which features the work of graduating students, and may gain editorial and journalism experience working with SAIC’s F Newsmagazine. Second year students present their work in a student-organized graduate lecture series—MFAW students who demonstrate a studio practice may apply for studio space and participate in the annual MFA Thesis Exhibition. Program alumni write and publish books, stage plays, perform, teach, and establish galleries, small presses, independent theater spaces and salons nationally and internationally.
The BlackBox Studio 808 is uniquely designed to encourage writing-driven and transdisciplinary studio practice. Resources include a flexible performance black box and a BookLab equipped with tools and materials to aid the research and production of independent publications.
Scholarships And Grants Merit scholarships are awarded to applicants of exceptional promise by the Admissions Committee as part of the admissions process. We also offer writing fellowships, teaching assistantships, incentive awards, and small project grants. Two MFAW fellowships are awarded to graduating MFAW students each year. Past jurors include Eula Bliss, Thalia Field, Fanny Howe, Daniel Alexander (Jomama) Jones, Bhanu Kapil, Ben Marcus and Paisley Rekdal.
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BlackBox Studio 808
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Kyel Brooks Grow Me Good, 2018
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Xiaotian Liang Being, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Visual Communication Design saic.edu/viscom Visual Communication Design (VCD) students are challenged to think critically about what they create, take risks in their work, and experience the value and transformative ability of design.
Jessie Hsu Dining, 2018
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Methodologies and Experimentation Our students begin their coursework with critique seminars designed to encourage experimentation and exploration of new methodologies. Subsequent semesters are less structured and students work one-on-one with advisors, generate content, and experiment with other related disciplines, with projects eventually culminating in a fully realized visual thesis exhibited in the MFA show. Students also take advanced courses that explore how the discipline has influenced, and has been influenced by, cultural, social, political, industrial and technological forces.
Bethany Sharp One Small Step, 2018
Faculty
JOHN BOWERS STEPHEN FARRELL MAURA FRANA RENATE GOKL BJ KRIVANEK PIOTR MICHURA GEOFFREY ALAN RHODES
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Yiting Liu Leaving-home Dumplings, Coming-back noodles, 2018
VCD faculty represent the diversity of contemporary design practice, research, and theories and practices around teaching, with thriving practices, both self-initiated and clientassociated, physical and virtual, individual and collaborative. Students work with faculty to broaden and deepen their understanding of the field, acquiring new skills and approaches to developing an innovative and mature body of work.
Design at the Intersection of Artistic Disciplines Striking a balance between guidance and selfdirection, the VCD program offers both rigorous coursework and individualized attention in an open and interdisciplinary environment. Students are encouraged to explore related departments at SAIC, such as printmedia, writing, photography, film, video, new media and animation, and architecture, among others, to extend their design work into new territories. Experiences with like-minded artists and designers working in various media allow students to make inventive, poetic, informative, expansive, and often unexpected connections in their own creative work.
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Sevy Perez Color Term Agreement Emergence: Virtual (S.14), 2018
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Ashley Pastore Ashley Pastore Ritual 1990-92, Ritual 1990–92, 20182018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Printmedia saic.edu/printmedia While acknowledging history and tradition, SAIC’s Printmedia program encourages experimentation and material exploration to expand the definition of contemporary print.
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SHAURYA KUMAR AYANAH MOOR PETER POWER JINA VALENTINE OLI WATT
Visiting Artists Elizabeth and Rodolfo Cupich You keep knockin’ but you can’t come in, 2018
The department hosts visiting artists, critics, and scholars from around the world for lectures, critiques, and collaborations, providing opportunities for students to engage in a community beyond SAIC. The department also organizes annual graduate lectures in which students present their studio research to faculty and students from all disciplines.
Focus on Experimentation Our students tackle issues of contemporary art by employing a wide variety of printing techniques and developing technologies. They work across disciplines to create prints, artists’ books, three-dimensional objects, installations, new media, and time arts. Our fundamental philosophy is interdisciplinary w it h a foc u s on ex per i mentat ion a nd processes of research and discovery.
Faculty Our distinguished faculty are nationally and internationally recognized artists committed to expanding the boundaries of print. They are engaged in contemporary theoretical debates and are committed to building a diverse, exciting environment for the exchange and production of cultural objects, images, and ideas.
Guided Studio Practice In addition to selecting graduate advisors from within the department, each semester students can select from more than 100 graduate faculty advisors representing a myriad of disciplines at SAIC. It is the student’s work that drives the choice of an advisor, and both disciplinary and interdisciplinary work is supported and advanced.
Facilities Within SAIC’s Printmedia department, students have access to individual graduate studios with 24 hour access as well as the following equipment and facilities: ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶
Printmaking facility covering more than 11,000 square feet 6 Intaglio/Relief presses 15 screen printing stations with 2 large format vacuum tables 4 lithography presses and 1 hand offset press Offset studio with 3 automated presses using direct-to-plate printing and 1 risograph Darkrooms for screenprinting, lithography, and intaglio Artists’ books/bookbinding studio Fully equipped Macintosh computer lab with workstations, scanners and large/medium format printers Access to laser cutters, 3D printers and scanners, CNC routers and other advanced digital and analog technologies Access to highly regarded collections of prints and multiples in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at SAIC and the Print and Drawing Study Room at the Art Institute of Chicago
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Professional Experience
MFA IN STUDIO PRINTMEDIA
Chris Williford Fang Parlour, 2018
All students are eligible for up to two teaching assistantships per semester in which they provide technical and instructional support to faculty in the classroom. Two second-year graduate students are selected to co-teach an introductory level printmaking course.
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Jasper Goodrich Portal Project, 2018
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Shalen Stephenson Strathcona, 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio
Painting and Drawing saic.edu/ptdw With an emphasis on studio production, critical discussion, and experimentation, the Painting and Drawing program reflects and reinforces the diversity of approaches that propels art making today and into the future.
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Tools for the Future Widely known as one of the most important programs in the nation, SAIC’s Painting and Drawing department offers students a wide range of traditional and experimental approaches that gives them the procedural and conceptual tools to build a sustainable practice. Under the guidance of an esteemed core graduate faculty, and with access to resources unique to SAIC, students develop their individual studio practices using the critical and historical frameworks necessary to inform their aesthetic and conceptual decisions.
Freedom to Explore The Painting and Drawing program encourages students to explore a full range of creative methods. Some students explore their own approaches to traditional painting practices while others expand their work into other media and/or materials, including printmedia, film and video, digital imaging, and performance. SAIC’s Painting and Drawing community supports multiple points of view and a full exchange of ideas between them, while helping students develop critical perspectives for their work.
CANDIDA ALVAREZ CLAIRE ASHLEY PHYLLIS BRAMSON MIKE CLOUD DAN DEVENING JOSH DIHLE SUSANNE DOREMUS MARI EASTMAN ANDREW FALKOWSKI JUDITH GEICHMAN GAYLEN GERBER MICHELLE GRABNER EVAN GRUZIS ANNE HARRIS RICHARD HULL CLAUDINE ISÉ MICHIKO ITATANI SAM JAFFE ARNOLD KEMP RIVA LEHRER JOSÉ LERMA JIM LUTES FRANK PIATEK SCOTT REEDER TYSON REEDER RICHARD REZAC ADAM SCOTT
Facilities Within our department, students have access to individual studios and the following equipment and facilities:
Faculty SAIC’s Painting and Drawing faculty regularly exhibit their work in important galleries, museums, and other institutions, nationally and internationally. They have been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Program, and the Tiffany, Ford, Guggenheim, Warhol, and Newhouse Foundations. The Painting and Drawing faculty includes critics and curators, while the majority are working artists.
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Three large, naturally lit critique spaces Computer labs Free figure model sessions Laser cutters Access to video and audio editing equipment and professional grade digital cameras and light kits ▶▶ Affordable digital printing ▶▶ Well-ventilated spray booths ▶▶ Storage racks
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Creative Community The department boasts a thriving Visiting Artists Program, in which a variety of artists, critics, and curators give lectures and individual or group critiques. Chicago also has an active gallery scene that includes established and emerging galleries, as well as apartment galleries and alternative spaces, many with direct connections to SAIC.
The Crit Space
Graduate Painting and Drawing studios are situated around a spacious open critique space, ideal for students to exhibit work and take part in ongoing conversations with their cohort. Read Daniel Salamanca’s take on the community on page 189.
MFA IN STUDIO PAINTING AND DRAWING
Solomon Salim Moore Rotkäppchen in the Elders’ Forest, 2018
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Kevin Demery Branches in the Sun, 2018
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Sage Merge, 2018
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate
Studio saic.edu/pbs
Our Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio program provides students who have an undergraduate degree with an opportunity to expand their work in a large, professional fine arts school environment.
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Professional Preparation Our students come from a wide range of academic disciplines, but their collective goal is elevating their creative practices. The two-semester program is designed to help students develop their artistic visions and technical proficiency to produce strong bodies of work to position themselves competitively for admission to Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs, as well as for artist residencies, grants, and juried exhibitions. Applicants may be individuals with a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science who need an additional year of studio experience to prepare a portfolio, individuals with a degree in art who wish to pursue work in a medium different from their undergraduate major, or international students requiring a year of intensive studio work typical of the United States educational system before beginning an MFA program.
The curriculum combines the rigorous tutorial aspects of graduate school with the formal coursework of an advanced undergraduate program. Students supplement their studio work with two art history classes, a one semester post-baccalaureate seminar (or equivalent studio work) and an optional studio seminar. They may choose to focus in a number of departments across SAIC. Completion of the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio does not guarantee admission to SAIC’s MFA in Studio program. Credits taken while a Post-Baccalaureate student cannot be counted toward an MFA in Studio degree at SAIC should you later be accepted into that program.
Participating Departments ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶ ▶▶
Art and Technology Studies Ceramics Fiber and Material Studies Film, Video, New Media, and Animation Painting and Drawing Performance Printmedia Sound Visual Communication Design (completion confers entry into the Master of Fine Arts in Visual Communication Design)
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CREATION + CRITIQUE Process a ​ nd Practice Perfect and define your work with the feedback and support of a strong network of artists, historians, designers, and educators.
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At SAIC, we believe that meaning and making exist as a perpetual and productive cycle driven by experience, research, and critique.
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Critique Week One of the principle means of assessment each semester for studio programs is a week-long schedule of critiques during which classes are suspended and the entire faculty and invited visiting artists and designers assemble into panels that conduct intensive studio critiques with all studio and writing graduate students. Students in academic departments are invited to participate on panels.
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Fall Semester Critiques Fall semester critiques are organized by department, with panels representing the discipline. They provide you an opportunity to have your work evaluated by the department, look at your work from a disciplinary point of view, and reinforce the expectations for your graduate study.
Spring Semester Critiques Spring semester critiques are interdisciplinary, with panel members of faculty, visiting artists, and peers from across SAIC departments. Interdisciplinary critiques in the spring semesters allow for a broader range of responses to the work, and are intended to assess the success of your work for a more general, yet highly informed, audience.
Studio critiques are required of every full-time graduate student pursuing an MFA in Studio or Writing degree. Typically, SAIC graduate students have at least four critique panels throughout their studies at SAIC, augmenting biweekly tutorials with their graduate advisors.
CRITIQUE
Studio Critiques
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Kyel Joi Brooks (MFAW ’18) is a visual artist, screenwriter, and poet living in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood. She often thinks of ways to engage with her community, from encouraging neighborhood cleanup efforts to writing screenplays depicting Black characters in joyous, loving relationships. Through mentorships and studio time, SAIC’s Writing program has helped Brooks develop an accessible and sustainable practice. When she is not writing, Brooks uses the walls of her studio to create immersive installations out of found materials.
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Kyel became a member of the Zeta Upsilon chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc at the University of South Florida in Fall 2013.
As an undergraduate, you studied public relations. Why graduate studies at SAIC? This story is always so fun! I am originally from Chicago but I grew up in Tampa, Florida. Every summer I would come back to Chicago where I had a job working security for concerts. I was working at Lollapalooza one summer, and in order to get to Lolla, I had to pass through SAIC’s campus. I didn’t really know what was next for me, but I had started writing in undergrad as a way to make art. I wanted to continue on this path so I decided to look the school up online and saw that it had a writing program. What has your experience in the Writing department been like? It’s been exciting because you are not restricted to working within one genre. I was accepted into SAIC for a short story, but now I consider myself to be a poet and a screenwriter. At SAIC, you can be in a writing workshop and bring in a poem, essay, or short story, and you’ll receive the same well-rounded feedback as everyone else.
As a writer, what is it like to have a studio? At first, I didn’t think that I needed a studio, but once I got one, I started working with studio advisors instead of just writing advisors. This helped generate my visual practice. I also discovered that I’m a procrastinator. I found that with my visual practice, I couldn’t just come into my studio last minute and try to make something happen. Having a studio taught me the consistency necessary for making and the value of spending time on your craft. How do you describe your visual practice? I’ve been honing my aesthetic through the act of not buying art supplies. I see myself as a poet who uses found objects to create visual art. I use things that I already have at home—newspaper, cardboard, etc. When I was younger, my grandma had a China cabinet that we couldn’t touch. Also, my dad has a wall of pictures of the family and collages that he’s made. I make wall installations that are odes to growing up and to my family—having things on the wall as art that are functional and part of our everyday lives. What issues are you commenting on with your written and visual work? I’m addressing food deserts and litter as well as the divide between the North and South Sides of Chicago. When I lived in Hyde Park, Whole Foods and Hyde Park Produce were steps away. Now that I live in Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood where Gwendolyn Brooks and Quincy Jones used to live, it’s a food desert that is filled with empty lots and trash. This summer, I’m working on a project where I tweet out locations in an effort to get folks to come clean up some of the lots. It’s the smallest thing you can do without having any governmental entities or money behind you. How did your screenwriting practice come about? What sorts of scripts do you write? I found that a lot of my peers in the Writing program were playwrights. During critiques with them, I became interested in what it meant to write a play. One of the first screenplays that I wrote was a series of what I called ‘table plays,’ consisting of a table and two actors, called This is Black. One play in the series, School Year, was about a young couple who worked for Chicago Public Schools. The whole play was about them having dinner every night after work. Everything I write is about Black characters and usually revolves around some type of love story that ends well. I took a screenwriting class and every time I would share my scripts, the main critique of my work was always, “Where’s the conflict?” I always try to make the conflict the outside world. The world is so messed up, but we got love.
discussing structure and content. In the second semester, however, we had a guest lecturer named Mai Der Vang, who changed my whole experience. Those were the most diverse classes I took and all of the students of color would flock to her. I felt very safe in those classes. Lecturers and professors of color know how to steer the conversation in those situations. Have you had any especially inspiring advisors at SAIC? I sing praise to Mai Der Vang. I want her to write the blurb in my first published book. There is something so profound about not only being a great artist but also a great instructor. She really led our workshops in a way that made everyone feel comfortable. Also Quraysh Lansana in the Writing department; I took his Gwendolyn Brooks seminar. He was also one of her last mentees. It was the coolest thing to be in such close proximity to a professor who was taught by someone I’m aspiring to be. I also worked with Kamau Patton this past semester— it was really refreshing to have an advisor who got my cultural references. He also introduced me to Rashid Johnson’s work (Read Patton’s interview on page 21). Do you feel like you have two different personas? One as a writer and one as an artist? I have many personas. I have a spoken word voice, which is this angry slam poet. I have this voice which is a future poet laureate. I have a rap persona—her name is Glo. And then in my visual work, I think of myself as a Rashid Johnson meets Kyel Brooks. I’m not just a poet, I’m not just a screenwriter; it’s just me—I’m a multifaceted person who isn’t one layer. Certain thoughts are better delivered in certain vessels. I’m a complex being, and I have all of these things to say—they don’t always translate in the same medium.
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What are some of your favorite places in Chicago? Every third Friday, Trap House Chicago, a restorative justice-based concept store on the South Side, has an open mic called People Say hosted by my friend Resita Cox. That’s one of the safest places in the world—I go there and feel so full and so at home. Also, Bronzeville, my neighborhood, is where I truly thrive. I write down everything I see there, and more often than not, it becomes a poem. What kind of advice would you give to prospective SAIC students? Get authorized to use the light kits, the woodshop, and metal shop. It just opens up all of these possibilities. I never thought I’d make screen prints until I had Ayanah Moor, a Printmedia professor, as an advisor and I got authorized for the space. Just having access to those things gives you greater autonomy.
My first year was hard, especially since I was one of the only Black women in my program. I wrote a short story about two sisters whose mother had just gotten arthritis, and they had gone to a beauty salon for the first time to get their hair braided. A part of the story was about the hairdresser doing kink-aligned hair. Much of my critique time was spent explaining this reference versus
STUDENT FEATURE
What has SAIC’s critique culture been like for you and for your work?
Kushala Vora (MFA ’18) is an Indian-born artist who has found both sanctuary and inspiration in the Ceramics department. Her work focuses on human behavior through the lens of geological phenomena, and her pieces often take on forms akin to the earth, trees, and ancient rock formations.
Why did you choose SAIC?
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One of the main reasons I picked SAIC was that it gave me the flexibility to have a multidisciplinary practice alongside my commitment to the medium of ceramics. I wanted to explore ceramics through my background in photography, painting, and drawing, as well as through the ceramic methods that I had learned in India. I wanted to make work in ceramics and have it be about education and geology. Art is a portal through which we can understand the world around us and raise questions that are difficult to engage with otherwise. In my experience, SAIC fuels this kind of ideology. How would you describe your practice? My practice is focused on the habits we learn as children in contrast with geological habits the earth learns through our habitation of it. I’m exploring both my personal history as well as the history of others side-by-side with geological processes. The environment we live in shapes the way we think and our belief systems. I try to unravel layers within the system of education that has cultivated and shaped my beliefs. It is similar to the way geologists look at layers of strata in the earth. Coming from India, I also look at the history of colonization and connect that to how people behave. Who are your mentors and advisors? What is that relationship like? Meetings with advisors were the most integral part of my education. I advised with LaToya Ruby Frazier, Shaurya Kumar, and Lan Tuazon who challenged me with interesting conversation. That enabled me to grow as an artist by developing my own ideas and conclusions. They helped me realize that what I am doing actually makes sense and is important. While the department gave me the freedom and openness I was yearning for, the advisors pushed my limits as an artist.
Which SAIC resources were important to you? The Ceramics department gives free clay to all of the students taking its classes because they don’t want anyone to feel restricted by cost. It’s normal and actually important that one makes mistakes with clay in order to learn. Along with standard firing kilns, the department also has three large Blaauw kilns. These are gas kilns that are computer monitored so you don’t have to manually manipulate the temperature. How has your experience as an SAIC student impacted you? When I started graduate school, I wanted to understand how community functions. I looked into taking classes that initiated a discourse around making art in the community and engaging with people that the work addresses. Nontraditional classes—where we would go on a field trip, or talk in the museum, or spend the day at a community center—have been the most fruitful. Having grown up in India, my experience with this has been different. When I went back to India, I talked to students from my hometown about the nature of learning and education. At SAIC, I learned how to ask questions rather than give answers. I learned that the process of actually talking is the work. Everything is work, not just what I show as documentation. Do you get the sense that there is a wider collaboration between SAIC and Chicago? Being in a city that is home to Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall, Latoya Ruby Frazier—artists that are working so intensely with their immediate communities—is in itself a learning experience. There are so many different and distinctive neighborhoods that are generating conversations about the work being created in them.
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How have you changed since starting at SAIC? When I first began at SAIC, I was not confident in speaking up because of the cultural differences, and I was afraid of saying something that would hurt or offend. I took many classes on critique—one per semester—and learned from watching my classmates navigate those spaces and raise crucial but simple questions. I slowly built the ability to put words to my ideas and questions.
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Who are some artists that inspire you? They change all the time! At the moment I really like Sharon Lockhart’s work, especially her film Goshogaoka, which features a middle school gymnasium in suburban Japan. I like Tino Sehgal—his processes and the issues he confronts. LaToya Ruby Frazier is another favorite, and it’s so crazy that I actually got to work with her at SAIC. Also, a lot of my colleagues are my favorite artists. Did you ever have an “Aha!” moment while making art at SAIC?
Kushala Vora, Making a Forest Exhibition view at the MFA Show in the Sullivan Galleries, 2018
STUDENT FEATURE
I think that moment happens whenever anything comes out of the kiln, as I take collaborating with the kiln very seriously. My philosophy is, “Okay, you do what you need to do, and I’ll figure out what happens after.” Even if things break, I think, “Oh, cool, this is even better than I could have made it.” For example, I really wanted to make something that looked like moss and had tried for a long time, but eventually gave up. Then one day, it just happened. I also had one piece that I fired about 12 times until it broke. Then I felt that it was finally done. Thank you, kiln.
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Visual artist Daniel Salamanca (MFA ’19) moved from Bogotå, Colombia to study at SAIC, where he is currently a graduate student in the Painting and Drawing program. As an international student, Salamanca dealt with the unique challenge of acclimating to a new environment while remaining immersed in the process of making. At SAIC, he has gained the support of a tight-knit artistic community that has motivated him to be both confident and experimental in his practice.
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Why did you choose SAIC? My case is unique because SAIC was the only school I applied to. I really liked the idea of a Master’s in Studio— all of the resources, the workshops, woodshops, and library. Also, I was familiar with the work of faculty members Michelle Grabner, Terry Myers, and Gaylen Gerber. I applied and got a scholarship. This was a big prize—the possibility of exploring for two years. SAIC is a space where you can feel free, so everyone’s aesthetics are very different. People are doing what they want and what they like—it’s that idea of being free but being honest with yourself. How would you describe your practice? My work looks at our individual journeys in the world. I use the phrase “human condition”—anything having to do with the place in which you live, what you spend time doing and learning, and the results of how you travel and move through space. The other phrase I use is “extended mind,” which is a philosophical theory asserting that processes of thinking are not only in your head but also in making. I suppose that is why you see a lot of experimentation in my work—because I’m always trying to make in order to understand.
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Which SAIC resources have been most helpful for you as a Painting and Drawing student? There are so many—I used to say to my friends that SAIC is like a theme park, but for artists. You want to try everything. I’ve made use of the Columbus Wood Shop, the Printmedia Lab, and the Flaxman Library, including its special collections, where I was able to see a 16 mm Ed Ruscha film. It was projected just for me during my visit, which was amazing. I’ve also used the Media Center to check out things like lights and projectors for use in some of my pieces. Has the Art Institute of Chicago been an important resource for you? It has been great to have important drawings and prints easily accessible. In one of my materials classes, we were working with egg tempera and had the opportunity to see a work from 500 years ago that used the same process. It was incredible to really see it, and how it works perfectly. The museum is also a place that makes you feel good. Just walking through the galleries to get to the Columbus Building can elicit an emotion.
Daniel Salamanca 90 Gramos De Vida Útil Photos by Santiago Pinyol Exhibition view at Galería Sketch, 2016
It’s a great community. From the first or second week, people were getting together for parties. Everyone went, which was very cool. In the studio, we gather and have conversations. To have a critique space makes a huge difference. Sometimes in the afternoons or at night, we’ll gather there to talk—I love that. The community happens naturally. What is it like to live in Chicago? To live in a city, the experience of being in another place, was the first trigger for new work. There are so many new concepts, ideas, and routines. It’s exciting. I did a project called Six Subtitles And Sixteen Weeks for the sixteen weeks of the semester. I made a little book of pictures of my daily routine and noted everything important to me. SAIC is the center of cultural activity in the city—everywhere you go there are studios, exhibitions, and galleries. We often go to Friday or Saturday openings. I have a friend in Arts Administration who loves to dance so we do that. I have been to the Renaissance Society three or four times— anytime they open something. Green Mill is also a great place and so is Mana Contemporary in Pilsen. What has been the most rewarding part of being an SAIC student? Having professional artists as advisors, like Michelle Grabner, and having conversations with them about my work has been really rewarding. This semester, I had advisors from the Photography and the Printmedia departments.
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How have you and your work changed since you started at SAIC? I am more aware of materials. Even though I’ve been painting for many years, there were so many technical things that I didn’t know about surfaces and materials, how to really prepare a canvas, or understand layers and coats of paints. I am more careful about those things now, and I use that knowledge to make work. How have you stayed motivated to make work while being busy with classes and a graduate student schedule? I decided that I wanted to be an artist for the rest of my life, and that has been key motivation. Being in my studio is like having free time, like being on vacation. What has been the most challenging part of being at SAIC? Answering the question, “Why do you do what you do?”
STUDENT FEATURE
What is your sense of the community here at SAIC?
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MARIA CLAUDIA QUIROZ
Maria Claudia Quiroz (MArch ’18) studied interior architecture, focusing on workplace design. She believes that the way we function in our spaces sets us up for the quality of work we are able to create. At SAIC, Quiroz was able to develop strong design competencies while experimenting with fabrication.
I knew I wanted an experience that was more personal. I wanted to be in a place with a tight-knit artistic community, and I knew that SAIC was a different type of university. I lived in Chicago seven years ago, so I was already familiar with the school and the museum. I was also interested in SAIC because of its commitment to design, and I wanted to expand my perspective as well as experiment. Has your experience at SAIC been what you expected? SAIC surprised me in a lot of different ways. I like the diversity of the people that study here. It’s very enriching because you are exposed to many different worldviews and points of view. I also feel that SAIC affords students a lot of freedom. The school where I did my undergrad wasn’t that way at all. It was a huge relief, feeling that my professors would encourage any idea I had and try to help push it forward.
Maria Claudia Quiroz Downtime Nook Exhibition view at the Design Show at Block Thirty Seven, 2018 Downtime Nook is a prototype for incorporating mindful downtime in the workplace.
What kind of work do you make? My work has passed through many different stages. When I lived in Colombia, it was more traditional as I worked on large-scale construction projects. When I moved here, I began working at an interior design studio and thinking about the ways in which spaces directly affect people’s lives. As a designer of larger structures, you feel like there is a disconnect between what you design and what is being built. There are many stages of production, and you do not always have a direct impact. That is why I decided to get my MArch in Interior Architecture. I wanted to have a closer relationship and connection to the user.
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What resources at SAIC have you taken advantage of as an architecture student? I took an elective in the Designed Objects department, which was very eye-opening in terms of all of the resources the school has. Working in traditional architecture isn’t usually hands-on since you’re mostly sitting at a computer. SAIC really encourages you to experiment with your hands. I took advantage of the Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects (AIADO) woodshop and resources in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies while I was making my thesis. Once I started taking advantage of the different shops, I got to know the people who worked there and became connected to different departments across the school.
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Why did you choose SAIC?
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You do a lot of user research in your work. Is this a critical part of your process? SAIC definitely encourages you to create design that is the result of a comprehensive research process. It’s very important if you want to create a structure that will actually fulfill the user’s needs and have an impact in the world. An SAIC professor once told me that when you’re designing, you have three different clients: the client that pays for the work, the user, and finally, the city or location within which your structure will exist. You always have to think of all three clients and be careful and thorough in making them equally happy.
How has your work evolved since you’ve started at SAIC?
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It’s very different now. Architecture is being constantly influenced by other disciplines. This has enriched my work over the last two years. The interdisciplinary nature of the school and the faculty provide a perfect background for experimentation and creation of new ideas. SAIC is a very good environment to study architecture if you’re open-minded.
After my first year, I took an internship with an architectural firm and had the opportunity to work in its workplace design department. While there, I recognized the great impact that workplace environment has in people’s lives. So, I decided to focus on designing environments that make people feel good and at the same time enable them to perform their skills to the fullest. Workplace design is a mixture of forecasting the future and trying to identify how workplace dynamics are changing. You’re trying to design a space that is flexible enough to change and evolve over the next 15 or 20 years.
STUDENT FEATURE
How were you able to cultivate your interests in workplace design at SAIC?
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ZOE Zoe Liao (MDes ’18) isn’t just a designer—she’s a philosopher and free thinker who isn’t afraid to create outside of the box. Liao came to SAIC from her native China to seek out new ways of approaching functional design. At SAIC, her practice has positioned itself between art and design in unique and sometimes humorous ways. She draws inspiration from nature, civilization, human history, and Jacques Lacan.
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What has been your experience in SAIC’s Designed Objects program? The Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) program is more concept-based and less project and materials-based. My background is in industrial design, so I was already familiar with thinking about design through function and user-friendliness. I wanted something different. What makes AIADO’s approach to design unique? After I finished my undergraduate studies, I was frustrated about the state of design, and I didn’t know what design strategies I wanted to pursue. In traditional design, we mostly talked about function, and that was what frustrated me the most. I chose SAIC because it offered an arts and theory-based approach, and showed me the conceptual side of the design field. This allowed me to break away from “form follows function.” The lines between art and design are not always clear. I don’t always like traditional design methods, but I don’t think that I can purely be an artist either. I don’t think my mind works that way. But, I really like art and I like thinking as an artist when I design.
Does SAIC encourage design students to blur the lines between art and design? It happens organically, but I also think it depends on the professor. In our department, we are given the opportunity to work under professors from different backgrounds— some who are coming from a more “maker” approach and some from a more conceptual one. The people in my department really want to have conversations about the blurred lines between art and design. One of the best things about SAIC is having those conversations—people never seem to get tired of them.
The Banana Project Through references to popular media culture and our current political climate, Liao constructed a fictional storyline describing a ‘banana government’ that promotes fantasy over reality by using distraction as a political tool for control. The multifaceted installation, whose components include newspapers, magazines, posters, historical photos, flags, and a 3D model of a banana city, allows viewers to visualize the scenario and ideology of a make-believe political analogy.
Zoe Liao The Banana Project Exhibition view at the Design Show at Block Thirty Seven, 2018
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Duncan Bass is a dual degree student pursuing MA degrees in Arts Administration and Policy and Modern and Contemporary Art History. This degree combination allows him to be a maker and curator, merging his affinity for art, science, and technology with exhibition creation.
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DUNCAN BASS
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John Duncan Bass Technical Images, 2016
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What was the first show you organized on campus, and what was involved in putting it together? Titled Technical Images, it was a virtual exhibition hosted in Google Street View’s 360° panorama function. The project was developed with Nicolás Rodríguez Melo (MA in Arts Administration) during a class we took together called Media Futures/Digital Heritage. Nicolás and I shot, edited, and rendered the project by repurposing real-life gallery spaces in the Art Institute of Chicago. This was around the time the museum had received the Edlis/ Neeson Collection donation, which included an agreement to display the work in the museum’s contemporary galleries for a span of 50 years. We were critiquing the idea that these artworks were going to monopolize 1/3 of the museum’s Contemporary Art galleries for many years after they had ceased to be contemporary—perhaps for the remainder of our natural lives. Some of the pieces in Technical Images were produced using internet-based platforms like Instagram and ChatRoulette, while others were made using traditional media before being scanned and uploaded into the digital environments. I get an email every now and then telling me how many people have virtually visited the show. The last update was around 100,000 visitors.
As someone who doesn’t “make” art, how has SAIC influenced your work? I’ve definitely begun thinking about art in a different way. I grew up in Memphis, but before I moved to Chicago, I lived in rural Mississippi and Georgia where my engagement with contemporary art was primarily through internet-based video and media. At the time, most of my research and writing was devoted to this realm of production and virtual access to these spaces made me think that I didn’t need to further my work through a traditional institution. I still work at the intersection of art and technology, but my perspective has shifted since arriving at SAIC; mostly because of the relationships I’ve developed with artists. I started doing studio visits, which SAIC encourages, and looking at works that were unfinished or might never be finished. Being in such close proximity to places like our museum or the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) provided a different way to experience and engage with art that I might have only been previously familiar with from the internet— experiential as opposed to just theory-driven.
How important is the internet for engaging with art in rural contexts?
How did you decide to pursue a dual degree at SAIC? I knew I wanted to do something curatorial, but I wasn’t interested in pursuing any of the curatorial studies programs available in the US. The dual degree at SAIC allowed me to navigate institutional logistics, bureaucratic and financial structures, and engage with art theory and criticism. The program has a contemporary art focus, which you don’t see often. The other consideration I had when selecting a graduate program was just being close to people. I do a lot of studio visits at SAIC, and it took me a semester to figure out that people don’t come to you; you have to go to them. But that level of access—to artists, to faculty, to the spaces where work is being made—that’s hard to find.
What kinds of curatorial opportunities has SAIC offered you? I was a curatorial fellow and worked for a year helping develop SAIC’s MFA show. The fellowship functions as a class with preparation work in the fall semester and handson work in the spring. Typically, curatorial fellows might visit 40 studios over the course of a week. But because of our guest curator’s schedule, my team ended up doing them in just four nine-hour days. There is a lot of exhausting and repetitive work that goes into being a curator; if it was only about having interesting conversations with interesting people about stuff you’re passionate about, then everyone would be doing it. But after a day of rest, I was ready to do it all over again. I’ve also been a curatorial assistant at the school’s Sullivan Galleries since my first semester. These are ongoing hourly jobs that help coordinate the multiple shows that happen during the school year including the BFA show, the low-res MFA show, and the New Student Work show. These experiences helped me understand the reality of the job, which isn’t always glamorous, but is consistently rewarding. Do you think the role of the curator is changing?
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There are different expectations for the word ‘curator.’ One is definitely an academic with a Ph.D. from an Ivy League school; a sort of historian’s historian. I think SAIC and other institutions recognize the value of this model, but focus instead on fostering a new contemporary curator with a more distinct role: someone who is involved in a creative way, whether that’s through organizing something that’s more than the sum of its parts or working as a collaborator. Personally, I feel that this role shifts with each project and depends primarily on the working processes of the artists involved. At SAIC, I think the idea of a curator as a collaborator hits close to home because of the inseparable link between the community and the creative process.
Ayesha Singh Frayed Continuum, 2018 Exhibition view at the MFA Show in the Sullivan Galleries Bass worked with artist Ayesha Singh and others to curate a portion of the 2018 MFA show.
STUDENT FEATURE
It’s crucial but also bittersweet. The internet allows you to convince yourself you’ve seen something, but you didn’t truly experience it. Back in 2014, I saw millions of images of Kara Walker’s installation, A Subtlety, at the Domino Sugar Factory, but wasn’t able to visit in person. I remember listening to an interview with Walker on NPR and the host kept returning to the smell she experienced when she was in the space, like the humidity and other elements you wouldn’t even consider to be a part of the art when looking at photos of it. With Walker’s works and other things that were made in SAIC’s Art and Technology department, their physicality is intended to be experienced in person. Meanwhile, internetbased works are appropriately consumed online. But as they are increasingly recognized for their art historical significance, these digital platforms are being translated into a traditional gallery context, fundamentally altering the mode of engagement.
SAIC Galleries 25 E. Washington St. The SAIC Galleries represent 32,000 square feet of exhibition space. The galleries feature exhibitions, performances, lectures, and screenings by SAIC students, faculty, and guest artists. The end-of-year MFA, BFA, Post-Bacc in Studio, and Graduate Design exhibitions are held here.
Graduate Curatorial Assistant Positions Graduate Curatorial Assistants (GCAs) play a significant role in the operations of the SAIC Galleries, assisting with major exhibitions, thesis shows, and often working directly with artists and curating exhibitions of student work. GCA positions are open to all MA and MFA students, for semester, year, or multi-year long terms as dependent on projects assigned.
The LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery 37 S. Wabash Ave.
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The LeRoy Neiman Center brings the SAIC community together in unprecedented ways and extends our campus into the urban fabric of Chicago. The first floor includes a street-level space for the SITE Galleries, a curated video wall, and a programming/event space to hold everything from a lecture to an informal gathering. The second-floor lounge and café enable our students, faculty, alumni, and staff to eat, meet, relax, discuss, get involved, and be inspired. The lounge also acts as a programming space that can be used for programs and events ranging from open mic nights to film screenings and informal critiques. Our Campus Life and Student Government/Programming offices are also located on the second floor as well as a new Student Leadership Suite where SAIC’s student groups can hold activities and meetings.
SITE Galleries 280 S. Columbus Dr. 37 S. Wabash Ave. Producing between 12 and 15 exhibitions of student work each year, SITE has become a staple of SAIC student life—a place where student artists and curators can present and challenge their work in a public setting. Any enrolled student may submit a proposal for an exhibition, allowing for programs that provide a more open exchange across disciplines and departments, as well as with vital members of Chicago’s art community.
SITE has two exhibition spaces— ▶▶ SITE Columbus, located in SAIC’s Columbus Drive building. ▶▶ SITE Sharp, housed on the first floor of the new, highly visible
student center at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Monroe Street.
Free Radio SAIC A student-run internet station whose “anything goes� format allows students to experiment with eclectic performances, narratives, and sounds.
ExTV A student-run broadcast platform that shows student films, videos, and animations and hosts independent media, lectures, special events, and a community bulletin board.
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F Newsmagazine
EXHIBIT
Distributing 6,000 copies a month across the city, F Newsmagazine is a unique and widely read vehicle for displaying student writing and art, including fiction, reporting, poetry, essays, criticism, comics, and illustration.
Nat LaChall
Cubanita, 2018 Nat LaChall is a multimedia artist who works within performance, video, photography, and fashion. While in SAIC’s Fashion, Body and Garment program, LaChall created a series of images, garments, and recordings investigating her family’s immigration to the United States from Cuba.
Other works by LaChall
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About
Garment
I had questions about my family’s immigration to the United States from Cuba and was thinking about how their story of trauma and assimilation relates to and differs from current immigration experiences. Cubanita is personal, experiential and provides a way to understand my family, my self and the struggle of migration.
Inspiration I am a big fan of work that creates an emotional reaction. I am inspired by the choreographer Jiri Kylian, the performer Karen O, the artist Cai Guo-Qiang, and the photographer Joel Peter Witkin.
I used garments to represent the memory that clothes can hold. I referenced smuggled family photos when making my grandmother’s swimsuit and dress (1,3). I made my dad’s artist overall’s from memory (2). By recreating and wearing their clothing, I am able to embody their identities and have a better understanding of their struggles.
Pile
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Audio
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I recorded interviews with my dad and aunt who were young when they left Cuba. Hearing about their lives before, during, and after their escape gave me new information. The details surrounding their departure are a huge part of their story that I wanted to work through.
Video These photos will be used in a video that will include my family interviews and video footage from Cuba. I am taking a Digital Sound class this summer to make the audio and will take a Video class next semester.
WORK BREAKDOWN
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At SAIC, I can choose electives that help me explore the potential of my work in a variety of media. I took a Photo class this semester which gave me the skills to make this work. I used long exposure times on my camera to capture the movement of memory (4). I wanted to present the feeling of being drawn towards and away from something—of being attached to a place in spirit.
Galen Odell-Smedley
Small-Pop Hypothesis, 2018 Galen Odell-Smedley, a recent graduate of the Sculpture program, combines traditional craft practices with emergent technology. Odell-Smedley’s 2018 MFA thesis work is a time-based sculpture designed to methodically push porcelain off of shelves, leaving shattered remains on the floor.
I refer to the porcelain objects that sit on the steel shelves as my hybrid knowledge containers, somewhere between leather-bound tomes, data servers, and personal hard drives.
About I began this work researching the striking similarities between structures and organizational systems designed to house human knowledge— namely libraries, archives, and data centers. While the objects in this installation operate on a metaphorical level, their materiality is equally important. Porcelain has lived a double life historically as both precious and incredibly ubiquitous. We find it in fine art collections and consumer electronics.
208 Exhibiting This work points towards a slower-thanhuman-biological pacing, yet I was skeptical that visitors would give it more than a few seconds of their attention. Many people have approached me to recount how they spent twenty or thirty minutes taking in the system, waiting for one of the porcelain forms to drop. I seem to have landed on a recipe that encourages patient viewing. The doors that this opens are incredibly exciting.
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We familiarize ourselves with the sonic properties of porcelain by eating off (and occasionally breaking) tableware. In this piece, we get to hear these familiar sounds, slowed down and mixed with the measured hums and whines of motors.
Sara Black, Sculpture Faculty
Mentors I crossed paths with so many faculty members, visiting artists, scholars, and curators at SAIC. While I was pouring the greatest energy into this particular project, I was working closely with my advisors Sara Black and Jan Tichy. Many of our conversations continue to stir my critical juices. 1
Collaborators
Amay Kataria Generative Decay, 2018 Exhibited at the Flex Space, SAIC
I was fortunate to meet friend and collaborator Amay Kataria late in the game. He brought a wealth of technical knowledge and we both became wrapped up in the process of realizing this work.
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209 Process I don’t find that art comes from a place of inspiration, like a fortuitous input-output system; my work generally comes out of long periods of research, deliberation, and experimentation. I chase threads of interest; sometimes I fully map them out from the getgo and other times I let hands-on process guide the work’s direction. The impetus for this piece comes from my fascination with both emergent and long-established systems, tools, and technologies.
Here, the mechanism is slowly pushing the porcelain blocks.
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Building this installation involved mold making (1), ceramic slip casting (2), welding (3), metalworking (4), carpentry (5), programming (6), and electrical and mechanical engineering (7). I am fond of elaborate haptic processes because they bring me closer to the work—to understanding materials through senses as much as through intellect.
WORK BREAKDOWN
Techniques
Martha Poggioli
Liquid Diet, 2018 Martha Poggioli is an interdisciplinary artist currently pursuing a graduate degree in Designed Objects. Her work explores industries of production and cultures of consumption. Liquid Diet is a slow-flowing fountain, intended as a site for contemplation.
About The project was informed by global water systems and the increasingly prominent issue of water scarcity. I was interested in exposing the fragile nature of water, a commodity which is often disguised as an abundant resource within infrastructure and commerce.
Materials: Cast Silicone, 3D Printed Components, Silicone Pipes, Water, Waterpump
Dimensions: 30" Ă— 30" Ă— 30"
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Form The piece sits atop a hidden series of stacked circular wooden forms which I constructed specifically for the project. The water pump, additional pipes, and connectors are housed inside.
Techniques As this was my first time working with silicone, I experimented for many weeks on a variety of approaches to create forms that held water. The main portion of this work is made from a clear cast silicone product and used to create each of the stacked forms which are filled with water. The tubes are made of silicone and were sourced externally.
Processes I used 3D modeling and printing, CNC m i l ling, la ser c ut t ing, and wood-working methods to realize the final work. The pipe connectors were 3D modeled and printed on the FormLabs Resin Printers in the SAIC Advanced Output Center. I also used the Trotec Laser Cutters (also AOC) and the Techno CNC milling machine among other tools in the Sullivan Fabrication shop.
Martha Poggioli Objects of Multiple Function, 2015
I wore this Tent Dress for seven days and slept under it for seven nights at the houses of seven friends.
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WORK BREAKDOWN
Martha Poggioli Tent Dress 2015—ongoing
Other Works by Poggioli:
Li-Ming Hu
Americaaah Part I, 2018 Li-Ming Hu moved from her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand to Chicago to pursue an MFA in Performance. Her videos include elaborate productions of sets, props, and costumes. This piece, shown at the New Blood Performance Festival at Links Hall, questions themes of cultural appropriation, institutional promises, and contemporary expectations of artists.
About
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I’ve been interested in the relationship between fantasy and reality for a while now, and the idea of how this can be manifested through objects and one’s relationship to them, as well as the way masks and costume provide a form of incomplete transformation. I’m also interested in exploring my art world anxiety and the machinations of the art world in general.
Challenges Americaaah Part I was the first work I made after moving to Chicago from New Zealand. There were the logistical challenges of having no car, tools, or material archive, as well as the psychological challenges of making work in a new place. There are always moments of doubt which need to be weathered and worked through.
Participants Special shoutouts to the artists who appear in the video: Martine Syms, Trisha Baga, and the SAIC faculty who graciously lent their faces—Mark Jeffery, Ellen Rothenberg, and Robin Deacon.
I used the wood and metal shop facilities to make the LaCroix palms.
Performance
Li-Ming Hu performing as Ellen Rothenberg.
I’m really interested in (and kind of terrified) by the imperatives of our high performance culture, particularly in relationship to what is expected of artists nowadays. I also come from an acting background and enjoy approaching performance from the perspectives/methodologies of both art and entertainment.
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Mentors I had two graduate advisors, Mark Jeffery from the Performance department and Ellen Rothenberg from Fiber. They both had very different approaches and I found the contrast between their two points of view really valuable.
What does it mean to appropriate a cultural appropriation? How do you pronounce LaCroix?
WORK BREAKDOWN
Mark Jeffery and Li-Ming Hu performing.
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Leonard Suryajaya MFA 2015 Alum Suryajaya was a BOLT 2015-16 Artistin-Residence and was selected by Yesomi Umolu, then Exhibitions Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, to present in the Chicago Artists Coalition’s booth as part of EXPO CHICAGO’s Special Exhibitions program.
ALUMNI STORIES Life After School SAIC boasts a wide-reaching, post-grad community of artists, historians, curators, and arts administrators. Graduates of our programs maintain meaningful relationships with the school, collaborating with emerging artists, returning to campus as faculty members, and working in SAICadjacent institutions. Read about the experiences, triumphs, and hustle of four SAIC alumni.
Leonard Suryajaya Rupa, 2015 SAIC’s MFA Show
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CAPX Internships— Connecting SAIC students with organizations and companies in Chicago, throughout the U.S., and internationally.
Handshake— An innovative college-tocareer platform that connects students and alumni with thousands of internships, jobs, and other employment opportunities on- and offcampus.
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About CAPX saic.edu/careers
Our Career and Professional Experience (CAPX) office helps students and alumni gain the self-knowledge, experience, skills, and confidence needed to develop unique, creatively satisfying career paths. CAPX provides one-on-one advising, group workshops, and numerous professional networking services.
Expert Exchange— Informational interviews and consultations with alumni, creative professionals, and business leaders about venture ideas and future careers.
Cliftonstrengths®—
A free on-demand virtual interview training platform.
Online assessment and coaching to help students discover their natural talents and develop their strengths.
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CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Big Interview—
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DARRYL DEANGELO TERRELL Interdisciplinary artist and curator Darryl DeAngelo Terrell (MFA ’17) engages in critical dialogues surrounding the visibility of Black and POC artists, creators, and community members through photography, video, and installation. While a student in the Photography department, Terrell found the inspiration that he needed to develop his dynamic, collaborative, and introspective practice. His work has been exhibited at various venues across the city of Chicago and abroad. In 2017, he self-published an autobiographical book titled BLKBOYCOLORED.
I recently curated my first show in Detroit titled Positive, in partnership with the Community Health Awareness Group (CHAG), a nonprofit geared towards bringing awareness to HIV/AIDS, as well as education on prevention. It included ten artists from both Chicago and Detroit. I live in Chicago but Detroit is my home, so I’ve been very interested in building a bridge between the two cities. I’m currently a HATCH resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC) and a Luminarts Fellow. I have been showing quite a lot—I believe I have a show every month from now until November. I’ll also soon be curating a few shows in Chicago’s Lake-view neighborhood with Garden Level Projects, which is an in-development artist space founded by another SAIC alum.
Is the Chicago community a home for all ranges of artists? I think Chicago is a great city art-wise, especially for emerging artists. It gives us the time and space to create because it’s not too expensive. The community here is very important to me, and recently, I’ve been searching for a community outside of an art context. Thankfully, I met an artist who invited me to these brunches called the Black & Brown Babes Collective. They do monthly potlucks, and we all show up and tell jokes, eat good food, and love each other. It’s good. I’ve been finding a home in that space.
ALUMNI FEATURE
What has your professional experience been since graduating from SAIC in 2017?
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Who is the audience for your current project, Project20, a photo series of Cyanotype portraits created through your CAC HATCH Residency? My audience is anyone who takes the time to view the work. More specifically, I make work for disenfranchised people of color, for queer people, for femmes. These are audiences who are left out of conversations, and I want them to see themselves, to not feel invisible. Especially within photography, you always talk about visibility within the subject but not necessarily the audience. I want the audience to feel seen. Representation is very important. I am interested in showing these pieces within spaces around Chicago that
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are being gentrified. Someone brought up the idea of putting them on billboards, so now I’m trying to figure out how to make that happen. I want to put them up in Pilsen, Hyde Park, or Humboldt Park. Access to art and community collaboration seem to be important to your practice. How do you go about making art more accessible? In October of 2017, I started a digital museum via Instagram called Museum of Contemporary Art On Instagram (@moca.ig). I am only interested in showing the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous contemporary artists. I make sure that I post often, and I set up artist takeovers and “Insta” residencies. What is more accessible than your phone, or a free app? Instagram is a great way to not only find artists but also a way for artists who aren’t properly represented to be discovered.
How has being in SAIC’s Photography program transformed your practice? I went into the school as a photographer but I emerged as a photographer who is interested in writing. I published a book recently that I worked on at Ox-Bow’s Artist Residency. It was difficult to write. I tell my coming out story, and personal, traumatic family stories—very tough conversations that I’ve always steered away from. Being in graduate school definitely helped me to branch out in these ways. SAIC encourages you to expand and experiment. I was interested in painting, so I started painting; I was interested in video exploration, so I started doing that, too. SAIC pulled it out of me. I don’t think I would be the artist I am today if I went to graduate school somewhere else.
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Do you still deal with self-doubt as an artist post-graduation? How do you overcome it? I still deal with it. A lot. As a person in general and not just an artist. It’s important to have a strong community around you who will help you snap out of it. And young artists who are emerging often compare themselves to successful, established artists, which is not a good thing to do. Granted, I am always looking at my peers’ work, but everyone’s journey is not the same, which is important to remember. Any advice for prospective SAIC students?
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell Project20, 2018 Exhibition view at Chicago Artists Coalition
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Take care of yourself, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Get some sleep, drink some water, and read a book that’s not academic. Go to King Spa! Remember to make time and space for yourself.
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MCMANUS
Embodied Politic Rhona Hoffman Gallery Installation view, 2018
As director of sales at West Loop’s Patron Gallery, Olivia McManus (MA ’15) is living the post-grad art history dream. She credits her success, and her ability to discuss art with just about anyone, to the comprehensive structure of SAIC’s Modern and Contemporary Art History program. Since earning her MA in 2015, McManus has maintained her love for Chicago, respect for DIY art spaces, and an unwavering belief in the professional and social opportunities SAIC affords to its students and alumni.
When I was looking for graduate schools, I knew I wanted to pursue a Master’s degree but I wanted a program that offered a diverse curriculum. SAIC appealed to me because it offered a multi-faceted experience. Being in the department was fantastic. I loved the small class sizes and the professors were incredible across the board, between mentorship to just being available for students.
What makes studying art history at SAIC special? You’re taking classes with practitioners of art and design, as well as art historians, which generates rich dialogues. You’re then provided with the tools to talk about form and production in addition to theory. SAIC’s culture is unique for someone in academia because you’re encouraged to sit in on critiques, do studio visits, and develop meaningful relationships that extend beyond your time at the school.
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Why did you choose to study art history at an art school?
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How did you involve yourself in the community at SAIC? I really like meeting new people, so I was an admissions tour guide and met a lot of artists that way. I was very involved with things happening across campus and sought out those opportunities. A few friends and I started a DIY project gallery in Pilsen called Flat Space. That was another way I was able to gain practical experience and go beyond my program to meet people in the Chicago arts community.
Chicago enables students and young people to take risks. Studios are less expensive here than in other big cities. You can rent a space for a weekend or put up a show in a friend’s apartment. I also think that it’s a community thing. People in Chicago are very open to collaboration and learning about each other’s practices. It’s a productive experience for everyone. How do you stay in touch with the SAIC community now that you’ve graduated? I am in a professional position where I am out and about frequently at openings and exhibitions, so I often see a lot of friends and people I’ve worked with. But once you’re on your own, you really do need to go out of your way to nurture relationships. The biggest lesson I’ve learned post-grad is that community is everything, and although it takes a lot to maintain, it’s a very important thing to do.
What has your experience working in commercial galleries been like? After graduating, I worked for the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. That was an amazing experience, but I knew I wanted to work in a commercial gallery setting. An opportunity came up at Rhona Hoffman Gallery and I jumped on it; it was a fantastic experience. Ultimately, I work in the commercial realm because of the artists. Above all else, I’m an advocate and a resource for the development of an artist’s career. I also get to talk about art all day, engaging in beautiful conversations about the nuances of color in a Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing or the small yet complex elements of a Deana Lawson photograph. It’s pretty magical. Is there a difference in how you talk about art to different audiences and viewers?
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There is less of a difference than you’d think there would be. SAIC gives you the tools to be able to talk about art in a way that becomes immensely productive if you’re looking to work in the arts post-graduation. I talk about art the same way to clients and artists as I do to people off the street. What kind of advice would you give to prospective students looking to find their way? Intern, intern, intern. At SAIC and in Chicago, you have everything at your fingertips. If you’re interested in publishing, intern for NewCity. If you’re interested in gallery work, come intern for me. The internships I did while at school were really how I got to where I am; the connections I made through them were extremely invaluable.
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Why do you think Chicago is such a great place for pop-up galleries and DIY art spaces?
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Benjamin Larose (MDes ’16), a French-Canadian artist and collector, is always looking to build cultural bridges: between himself and the city of Chicago, between fashion and sculpture, and between ideas of mass consumption and personal identity. After entering the contemporary art-driven world of fashion through film and photography, Larose found SAIC’s interdisciplinary nature to be a perfect backdrop for creating what he describes as “sculpture with a fashion DNA.” Since completing the Master of Design (MDes) in Fashion, Body and Garment (FBG) in 2016, as well as receiving the RumChata Foundation Fellowship, Larose has been both an educator in the Department of Contemporary Practices and a working artist. His practice focuses on consumption, sexuality, identity, objects, and the processes of how we come to be defined by the things we own.
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Benjamin Larose Slurp!, 2016
How did you find yourself at SAIC? In 2007, I was an exchange student in the Fashion department. I completely fell in love with the school, the program, and the faculty. Five years after completing my bachelor’s degree, I felt it was time to come back for graduate school. I got my application together and received a full-ride merit scholarship. What made you decide that the program was the right fit for you? I really wanted to work with Nick Cave, who is faculty in FBG. The way the MDes program works is that you get two days a week with advisors. There’s really no equivalent to that kind of curriculum and program in other graduate schools. What’s amazing about studying fashion at SAIC is that it’s thought of as a platform that overlaps and connects with object design, performance, sculpture, video, and installation. Fashion is not purely cloth and garment, but a dynamic field that interacts with all of these other disciplines. That is how SAIC has been able to remain fresh on the fashion front. As a fashion student, my interest was not in knowing whether purple was going to be hot the following season. I didn’t really care about that. I think the freshness comes from somewhere else, which is a form of practice much more in line with how the contemporary arts work. How did having Nick Cave as a mentor influence your work?
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Working with Nick was a huge game-changer in my practice and also in my life. He is obviously an extremely accomplished contemporary artist and an amazingly generous human. You rarely have the chance to work so closely and for so long with an artist that operates at that level. A lot of universities will say, ‘Oh, well this artist is associated with our faculty’ and you’ll never see them. That was not the case in the Fashion department. I knew that every Monday and Thursday Nick would be there asking me questions and pushing me. He is very generous with his time and with who he is. I think that fosters a really rich learning environment. Tell us about living in Chicago as an artist. For me, Chicago is the perfect location to maintain my practice. My work involves found objects, sculpture, installation, video, etc. Chicago is an amazing thrifting destination—there is an incredible amount of stuff here. My practice can really thrive in this city. Chicago also has a very vibrant arts scene. There is a lot going on, from artist-run spaces and nonprofits to commercial galleries and museums. We also have an amazing range of non-traditional exhibition spaces like people turning storefronts into studios. Chicago is affordable in a way that neither LA or New York are, and I think that’s a huge consideration in coming to SAIC. The city is also central which allows me to travel anywhere I want. I’d rather pay less on rent in Chicago so that I can afford to travel. Because Chicago is such a hub, you know that everyone at some point will come through here.
What is the structure of the FBG program like? How did it shape your relationships with your peers? I remember FBG working differently from other MDes programs. The Fashion graduate students spent two full days a week with our advisors, Liat Smestad and Nick Cave, and we all shared one big studio. Everyone had an individual workstation and there were shared spaces for installation and critique. This meant that you were with twenty or so other artists in the same room almost all the time. Because of this, strong connections between students were formed. Not only do you get to know the other people in your cohort, you also get to connect with the previous cohort and the following one. For me, that became very important. There were 13 students in my year. My friend Dave had the workstation right next to mine for the entire duration of our degree. Dave and I really connected. We went through the ups and downs together. If one of our critiques went poorly we would go to Miller’s Pub and grab a beer. I also developed strong connections with people in other programs, like Arts Administration, Photography, and Fiber. But the community within the fashion department is a really, really special bond. What advice would you give to artists and SAIC students on how to balance studio time with networking? When I was in school, I was always in my studio. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to be mingling at openings. My focus was truly on the work, and I think that should always come first. At the end of the day, you can mingle all you want, but if the work isn’t there, the work isn’t there. That being said, you also have to reach out and connect with people. So, I don’t go to every opening every weekend; I hand pick what I want to go to. I have acquired an in-depth knowledge of my work, of my practice, and of the type of spaces that I’m interested in showing in. To me, it’s about three things: good work, good people, and good spaces. Not everyone will be interested. You need to find the connections that will be the right ones for you. That requires knowing yourself and knowing your work, which is what graduate school was all about for me.
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YVETTE
MAYORGA Through immersive mixed media installations, Yvette Mayorga (MFA ’16) makes work that investigates the politics of the U.S.–Mexico border through the lens of family and femininity. The nature of her practice perfectly complements the ethos of SAIC: interdisciplinarity mixed with a direct engagement in critical narratives. Drawing inspiration from both her community in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood and her immigrant mother’s first profession in the U.S. as a cake decorator, the Mexican-American artist aims to combine the personal with the political.
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My work explores the idea of the American Dream, the U.S.–Mexico border, and my own personal identity. I often reference the way my dad crossed the border in the 1970s and lately, the work has become a bit more about my identity being a first-generation immigrant. I play with ideas of luxury and femininity as well as the disconnect between being an immigrant and being first generation. I also reference women’s labor through the decorative elements of my pieces, in particular, my mother’s work as a cake decorator for Marshall Field’s. She worked there before I was born, and would make cakes for me and my sister. I remember we would get to decorate cakes with her, but I never made the connection of that specific labor until a couple of years ago.
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What informs your work and what issues does it comment on?
Is it important for you to make your work an immersive experience? Definitely. I like the idea of viewers coming into the space and feeling like they’re a part of this weight of the world that’s trying to be the American Dream. While they’re viewing work that is critiquing a system of oppression, they’re also standing in a space that makes them feel like they’re in a very liminal position, which is what being Mexican-American is like.
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Tell us about your 2016 MFA piece, Really Safe in My Room, in America. What is this piece about? The piece is a video installation with images of the border, layered with images of myself that I took in my room. It includes half nude photos of me posing. Behind me, there are people trying to jump the fence. I was doing a lot of research on the objects that get left behind when people attempt to cross the U.S.–Mexico border. Then I started to look at my personal archive. I came across hundreds of photos that I had taken of myself from the ages of 15 to 18, all with a point-and-shoot camera. I started to really think about the privilege of not having to cross a border and having the luxury of contemplating my own body. I also thought about all of the violence that women’s bodies go through, especially on the border. With this piece, I wanted to talk about my family history and the way that my parents got to the U.S. I also wanted to place myself within this conversation in order to talk about the privilege that I have because of their specific journey. Tell us about your work at the National Museum of Mexican Art and as an arts educator in general? Working as an offsite educator at the museum has been great. My role is to take art history to various locations and to people that generally don’t have access to it. It’s been great to see different parts of Chicago—neighborhoods,
schools and community centers, as well as to communicate with various age groups. It’s really open to anyone. Through being an offsite educator, I’ve also been able to have a residency at an arts high school, which began in November 2017. I have worked with over 400 high school students doing professional development. I help them to work on their artist’s statements and develop a concise portfolio. What’s really amazing is that these high school kids are so resilient—I feel like they’re so advanced when they’re tackling these issues. I am positive that it’s because of the current presidency and what’s happening in the country. The youth is very aware. Since graduating from SAIC, how have you been able to maintain an artistic community? Doing the BOLT residency [at the Chicago Artists Coalition] right after graduate school was amazing because I got to be in a close community of eight artists for an entire year. That was a great transition because we were having art-centered conversations all the time. Curators, artists, and writers would come into that space—there was a constant dialogue. Now that BOLT is over, those situations happen less often, but there are still dialogues occurring. It’s just not as intense. What kind of lessons has SAIC taught you about the real-world and about being a working artist? It’s taught me a lot—writing and rewriting my artist’s statement, applying for grants, applying for residencies. Something else I’ve learned while in grad school was to stay true to myself as an artist, even through all of the critiques, both negative and positive.
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How To Apply: Complete your two-part application available at saicgraduate.slideroom.com
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Meet Your Department!
2. Electronic Portfolio:
1. Application Form: Includes ba sic infor mat ion, unofficial transcripts, and test scores (if applicable). You will select the programs to which you are applying here as well. Please note: in order to be reviewed for admission you will need to complete an electronic portfolio for each program you select. Payment will be collected at the end of this section and will cover the cost of all programs to which you are applying.
For detailed application information for individual programs, please visit saic.edu/gradapp
For each program you selected in the application form, you will need to submit a corresponding electronic portfolio and references based on the requirements for each program.
Your application is not complete until you have submitted both the application form and the electronic portfolio for that program.
For programs requiring an interview prior to making an admission decision, we host an interview weekend on campus in mid-February each year. Keep an eye out for a Save-the-Date after applying! For students at a distance or unable to travel, interviews may be conducted via Skype.
Graduate Admissions Next Steps: For detailed next steps for admitted students including orientation and semester start dates, visit saic.edu/grnext
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Connect with Us! Take a campus tour or meet with faculty at one of our SAIC Days, Graduate National Portfolio Days, or when one of our representatives is visiting a city near you. For details, visit: saic.edu/grevents
Watch Your Mailbox! Most programs will release first round decisions by March 1st. Students will receive decisions by mail so be sure we have your updated address.
5. Meet Your Community! Each spring we host New Student Receptions where you can meet faculty, students, and alumni here on campus as well as in cities around the world. Find us near you at saic.edu/grnext.
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Deposit!
GREYMAR (Igraine Grey+Jonathan Martinez) Red, 2018
Chris Williford Fang Parlour, 2018
Students will be notified of their deposit deadlines via their admission letter - most programs have an April 1 deadline in order to secure a space with a $500 deposit. Once received, you will work with your department to select and register for classes.
Explore Funding Opportunities! Students will be automatically considered for merit-based aid during the admission process and notified at the time of admission. Domestic students should complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at fafsa.ed.gov prior to applying in order to expedite the Financial Aid process and determine eligibility for need-based aid. Our website also contains a list of outside scholarship opportunities for domestic and international students. For more information on all funding opportunities, visit: saic.edu/sfs
Accreditation Information The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the Art Institute of Chicago (museum) are incorporated as a private, non-profit corporation. SAIC is a professional college of the visual and related arts, accredited since 1936 by the Higher Learning Commission, and as a charter member since 1948 by NASAD, the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art Education program is certified by the Illinois State Board of Education, and its Art Therapy program is approved by the Education and Approval Board of the American Art Therapy Association. SAIC is a member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the American Association for Higher Education, National Art Education Association, College Art Association of America, Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities, Illinois Art Education Association, National Conference of Artists, College Scholarship Service, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Institute of International Education, National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, American Association of University Women, National Association of College Admissions Counselors, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, College Entrance Examination Board, and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
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In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year, or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards. Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) offers the following NAAB-accredited degree programs: • Master of Architecture (102 credits, requirement: nonprofessional degree) • Master of Architecture, Option 2 (60 credits, requirement: pre-professional degree) • Master of Architecture with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture (102 credits, requirement: nonprofessional degree) • Master of Architecture with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture, Option 2 (60 credits, requirement: pre-professional degree) SAIC was formally granted an eight-year term of accreditation by the National Architectural Accrediting Board effective January 1, 2014. The program is scheduled for its next accreditation visit in 2022.
Nondiscrimination Policy The School is committed to maintaining an educational and working environment that is free from any form of unlawful discrimination for its students, faculty, staff, and third parties on our premises or in a School program. The School prohibits discrimination or harassment based on race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, age, actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender-related identity, marital status, parental status, military or former military status, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law. Title IX Coordinator Lumturije “Luma” Asanoski Human Resources Department 116 S. Michigan Ave., suite 1200 Chicago, IL 60603 312.499.4165 lasanoski@saic.edu Section 504 Coordinator Felice Dublon, PhD, Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs The Office of Student Affairs 36 S. Wabash Ave., suite 1204 Chicago, IL 60603 312.629.6800 fdublon@saic.edu For further information on notice of nondiscrimination, see the Office for Civil Rights Discrimination Complaint Form (www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/complaintintro.html) for the address and phone number of the office that serves your area, or call 800.421.3481. Clery Act Reporting The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Annual Security & Fire Safety Report can be accessed online at saic.edu/clery. Paper copies of this report may be obtained by contacting the Campus Security Office at 312.899.7442 or by emailing John Pack, Executive Director of Campus Security, at jpack@saic.edu.