Visitor walking through the undergraduate exhibition at SAIC Galleries

Undergraduate Exhibition at SAIC Galleries. Photo: Tony Favarula

Explore Undergraduate Programs

Design Your Curriculum

SAIC offers a dynamic, interdisciplinary curriculum that gives you the freedom to explore. Learn more about each of our degrees and areas of study by clicking on the titles below.

  • A witch in a dark room with a book shelf, cauldron, and trees on the outside.
    Julie Baker, "Lonesome (set for puppet animation)," 2021, mixed media

    Animation

    Animation is the presentation of a sequence of still images that create the illusion of movement. Artists have explored animation for hundreds of years from early motion-based cave drawings to contemporary 3D films. 

    In the 19th century, artists like Edward Muybridge used the camera to create a stop-motion gallery of a horse’s locomotion. Today, both new and old technologies are employed at the school to enable students to study the craft of both 2D and 3D animation. 

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Amy Lawson Smeed against a blue background.
    Amy Lawson Smeed

    Amy Lawson Smeed (BFA 1997) was the first woman head of animation in Disney history when she led the team for Moana. Smeed has been working at Disney Studios for 20 years, animating movie favorites such as Frozen, Wreck-it-Ralph, and Tangled.

  • An architectural model using black and clear material.
    Ashley Boduch, Architectural Model, 2021 MDF

    Architecture

    In Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, our studios have no boundaries: we are creative across disciplines and engaged with our community at SAIC, our context in Chicago, and the world. Our dedicated faculty teach from diverse experience in practices that impact public life and drive public culture. We value the craft that brings ideas into the world, the research that informs criticality, and the compelling stories we tell to share our work.

    Our students are exploring the future of how we live, work, and communicate; asking how design responds to shifting modes of belonging; and ensuring design will address the transcendent challenge of a changing climate.

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    Featured Story

    An image of the Englewood Nature Trail.
    A visualization of the Englewood Nature Trail. Image courtesy of the Englewood Nature Trail
    Transforming a City's Vacant Spaces

    Every two years, the Chicago Architecture Biennial shows us how design can revitalize communities. For the 2021 edition, SAIC faculty members were essential contributors to two projects being spotlighted by the biennial: The Englewood Nature Trail and Borderless Studio.

  • An image of some students observing a large piece of art on the floor in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's gallery space.

    Arts Administration & Policy

    The Arts Administration and Policy department is structured around the values of collaboration, creativity, experimentation, inclusion, critical thinking, care, activism, advocacy, and reflection, all of which we believe are central to building the future of cultural leadership. We embrace the interdisciplinary, experimental core of SAIC through integrated curriculum design, merging theory and practice, constantly developing new partnerships and ways of working collaboratively across sectors, and combining inventiveness and aspirational values with solid grounding in practical skills.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Laura-Caroline de Lara sitting outside wearing a blue shirt.
    Laura-Caroline de Lara

    As the director of the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, Laura-Caroline de Lara (Dual MA 2012) brings the words and work of marginalized artists to the forefront.

  • An image of a large, group of students sitting in a classroom.

    Art Education

    Students come to the Art Education department to gain the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to manifest their deeply felt vocations as artists and educators, to enhance their own creative potentials, and to collaboratively build resilient, creative, democratic communities.

    The Art Education programs are uniquely situated within the vital and diverse cultural and artistic communities of Chicago, providing a wealth of experiences and opportunities for mentorship in museums, schools, and community settings.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Calderon at work in her daughter’s nursery.
    Emily Calderon

    Emily Calderon teaches art at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy. When the pandemic hit, she had to reimagine every lesson plan. “If anything, I’ve learned what really matters," she said. "And some days, I spend 30 minutes just listening to the kids. Life is happening outside of the classroom."

  • Four people sit in a louge surrounded by books.

    Art History, Theory, & Criticism

    The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism offers a wide range of courses on modern and contemporary art that span the Globe. It is committed to innovation in research and teaching a diverse curriculum.

    Classes address art of all media, design and architecture, visual and material cultures, and contemporary theories of art and culture. The international networks for contemporary art are an important part of the course offerings, and we offer a wide range of classes in Asian, African, Latin American, European, and North American Art.

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    Featured Faculty

    Mechtild Wildrich poses with her new book in front of Henry Moore's Nuclear Energy (installed 1967) at the University of Chicago Campus.
    Photo by Andrei Pop
    Mechtild Wildrich

    If you were to stroll through the parks that flank the perimeter of the Art Institute of Chicago, you’d see dozens of public artworks and monuments. Professor Mechtild Widrich notices and cares about all of them—and she thinks you should, too. Her book, Monumental Cares: Sites of History and Contemporary Art, follows case studies of monuments all over the globe, and implores readers to see and understand their significance.

  • Art & Science

    The two disciplines of art and science are resoundingly different, especially from the perspective of curriculum design and degree requirements. Yet there are interesting overlaps between the two areas that artists and designers are actively exploring. 

    Many art and science courses have the aim of creating a culture of creative thinkers from the arts and from the sciences who join together to combine their knowledge and abilities to come up with innovations, collaborations, and most of all, new ways to address environmental concerns.

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    Featured Story

    Various colored bags of dried goods.
    PermaPak. Images courtesy of Selmić and Xi
    Students Create Plastic Packaging Alternative for a Sustainable Future

    In Chicago, less than 9 percent of the city’s waste is recycled. To combat the use of single-use plastic containers, SAIC students Sara Selmić (MDes 2022) and Kelly Xi (MFA 2022), the creators of PermaPak and participants in the Biodesign Challenge, set out to create a new, more sustainable way of packaging food.

  • A student using a large switch board.

    Art & Technology / Sound Practices

    Art & Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP) is a place to explore artistic production with technology, sound, or their unlimited hybrid forms through focused study and interdisciplinary exploration. It integrates two visionary SAIC departments: the Department of Art & Technology Studies and the Sound Department, each with more than 50 years of radical artistic and pedagogic exploration.

    AT/SP offers a large, diverse, and ever-changing range of courses designed to provide students with an immersive, thorough, and critically engaged course of study from a global perspective. Its curriculum integrates skills-based learning with conceptual investigation and critical interrogation to prepare students to be creative and productive cultural citizens.

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    Featured Course

    Various computer and sound technology on a table.
    The Paik Abe Analog Video Synthesizer in use. Image courtesy of Lee Blalock
    Retro Tech

    Inspired by the creative computing spirit of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Assistant Professor Lee Blalock created Retro Tech, a course that delves into the history of vintage technology and creative programming. “[The class] truly is about exploring, playing, and learning for the sake of learning,” Blalock shared.

  • Multiple colorful tiles from the "2021 MAATC Thesis Exhibition: Reconstructing Care."
    Susannah Ward, "25: An Abstracted Retrospection," 2020

    Art Therapy & Counseling

    The Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling program explores the relationship between life experiences and artmaking and prepares graduates for a career helping people gain or recover intellectual and emotional clarity, equilibrium, and power through artistic expression.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Noel King with her hands and fingers over her eyes with a rainbow.
    Noel King

    There was a time in Noel King’s (MA 2015) life when she thought she might be an art historian, photographer, or painter, disciplines she studied in high school. Then she pivoted in college and decided to major in psychology—which she loved—but something was still missing. Now, as a Deaf art therapist, King helps her patients explore their identity through creativity.

  • A large white canvas with red stripes.
    Yutian Liu 刘雨田, "Canvas with Red Stripes," 2022, screen print on canvas

    Art/Design & Politics

    At SAIC, art and design become tools for political exploration and activism in a number of studio, art history, and liberal arts courses. 

    Liberal arts courses in Global Comparative Studies give students a solid framework for comparing and analyzing cultural, historical, economic, political, ecological, and ethical modes around the world, while courses in Art Therapy and Counseling; Art Education; Arts Administration and Policy; Film, Video, New Media, and Animation; Sculpture; and Visual and Critical Studies bring students out of the classroom and into the city of Chicago to engage with political issues firsthand. 

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    Featured Faculty

    An image of Asha Iman Vean.
    Asha Iman Veal

    Associate Professor, Adj. Asha Iman Veal is associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and a Humanity in Action Landecker Democracy Senior Fellow.

  • Two shelves of hand-painted books.

    Taylor Morgan, "Loan Delinquents (Books 1-5)," 2019, acrylic, flashe, ink and colored pencil on canvas bound masonite

    Books & Publishing

    The process of making a book and publishing can be the work of a lifetime or a semester. SAIC has a special resource area to augment the study of self-published texts and artists’ books.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of J. Howard Rosier sitting at a desk in a white sweater.
    Justin Howard Rosier (MFA 2018). Photo: Kevin Penczak
    J. Howard Rosier

    J. Howard Rosier (MFA 2018) made the most of his time in SAIC’s MFA Writing program by launching a magazine and expanding a short story into a novel that asks what it means to be Black in America. He edits the journal Critics’ Union, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in the New Criterion, Kenyon Review, Bookforum, and the Believer. Rosier received an Alan Cheuse Emerging Critics Fellowship from the National Book Critics Circle.

  • Various sized ceramic pieces stored in a wooden frame.

    Ceramics

    The Department of Ceramics is a model of interdisciplinary investigation where art, design, and craft are the fields of research and innovation.

    Drawing from a wealth of technical and cultural traditions as well as from high-tech industrial applications, you will engage in a study and practice of ceramics that is unique and urgently contemporary. The SAIC Ceramics department reflects and embraces these contradictions, offering courses exploring interdisciplinary topics in ceramics such as the intersections of and shared methods, materials, and critical discourse among Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, Fiber and Material Studies, Sculpture and Performance.

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    J. Howard Rosier_MG-01082019_SpringMagazine2019_Spreads_Page_12_Image_0002.jpg
    Photo courtesy of Mie Kongo
    Mie Kongo

    Mie Kongo (BFA 2006) is an artist, a sculptor, and a professor, but above all, she is an observer. Fueled by a sense of curiosity and discovery, Kongo’s ceramics practice is rooted in exploring the nuance and subtleties of everyday life.

  • Multiple clear pannels with comic figures standing in a line.
    Brooke Lord, "SPACEBURGER COMIX: Club KidZ," 2019, risograph printed comic, screenprint on acrylic, mixed media

    Comics & Graphic Novels

    Comics and Graphic Novels courses at SAIC are designed for students who want to create narrative works with sequential art to convey a message to the reader.

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    Featured Alum

    An illustration of various Chicago buildings, food and landscapes.
    Drawing by Chris Ware
    Chris Ware

    Chris Ware (SAIC 1991–93) is an award-winning cartoonist and author whose work tries to tell unpretentious stories about what it feels like to be alive via the generally approachable yet surprisingly complicated medium of the American comic strip. He is the author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, which was included on Amazon's "100 Books to Read in a Lifetime" list in 2014.

  • People working together to plant a tree.

    An image of the Community Tree Planting and Dedication Day.

    Community & Social Engagement

    SAIC students are not only engaged in their immediate community in Chicago’s Loop, but also interact with the city and the world at large.

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    Featured Alum

    Two people wearing black shirts with white text: "got consent?"
    Scheherazade and Salamishah Tillet. Photo by Anthony Alvarez
    Salamishah and Scheherazade Tillet

    Salamishah and Scheherazade Tillet (MA 2005) have always believed in the power of art. As sisters and founders of the nonprofit organization A Long Walk Home, they have centered their work on the experiences and leadership of Black women and girls. For the past 20 years, their programming has encouraged girls and young women to use art and activism to change the narrative on sexual violence, gender discrimination, and racial injustice.

  • Three mannequins wearing colorful, elaborate outfits.
    Zirou Zhang, "The Butterfly Collection," 2023, mixed materials

    Costume Design

    The Fashion department provides a unique, interdisciplinary experience that challenges students to bring an artistic and theoretical approach to the work and benefit from rigorous artistic and professionally oriented training.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Grace Duval wearing a black dress that she made.
    Grace DuVal, "Refuse Refuge," 2017. Image courtesy of the artist
    Grace DuVal

    Grace DuVal (Post-Bac 2012, MDes 2015) doesn’t identify as a fashion designer. Her captivating work aims to transform unconventional materials into “something totally unexpected or unbelievable,” and this spirit of creativity and innovation led to her designs being featured on RuPaul's Drag Race.

  • A detailed shot of some wooden utensils.
    An image from Whatnot Studio in-progress in 2019.

    Designed Objects

    Borrowing critically from product design, systems design, furniture design, and interaction design, the Designed Objects Pathway focuses on the critical and creative rethinking of the systems, tools, furnishings, and products that we use or interact with in our everyday lives.

    Investigations into how objects extend human potential and inspire imagination are balanced with studies in the responsible and imaginative use of new technologies, materials, and production processes. A concern for sustainability provides an opportunity to explore alternative visions of how we live, work, communicate, and play.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Norman Teague sitting in his studio surrounded by large wooden pieces.
    Alum Norman Teague in his Chicago studio. Credit: Vasia Rigou (MFA 2015). Photo courtesy of IIDA.
    Norman Teague

    Norman Teague (MDes 2016) is a Chicago-based designer and educator who focuses on projects and pedagogy that address the complexity of urbanism and the history of communities. Teague worked with Theaster Gates on 12 Ballads for Huguenot House dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. He also served as lead craftsman and co-founder of the Design Apprenticeship Program at the University of Chicago's Arts Incubator.

  • A person sitting at a desk working on their computer.

    Digital Communication

    The Visual Communication Design department encourages students to actively engage their world and define their role as contributing designers by developing their critical and analytical skills, personal voice, and visual language. The department cultivates a sense of social responsibility and inquiry in student designers who will be working at the intersection of art, design, and mass culture.

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    Featured Alum

    A black and white image of McKenzie Thompson sitting on a bed.
    Photo courtesy of McKenzie Thompson
    McKenzie Thompson

    McKenzie Thompson (MFA 2014) is the founder of Outsider Supply, an e-commerce apparel brand informed by six years of living in Chicago. Combining streetwear with visual and textual references to art history once considered avant-garde, Thompson takes a minimalist approach to clothing that invites lookers and wearers alike to consider what these artists, movements, and ideas mean now.

  • Three digital images of spaces in a person's home.
    Nico Sun, "(I love my home)," 2019, digital print

    Digital Imaging

    Digital imaging is at the core of many artistic mediums. At SAIC, we offer digital imaging courses throughout our departments.

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    An image of Marlena Novak.
    Marlena Novak

    Marlena Novak served as associate director of Northwestern’s Animate Arts Program and has been a visiting artist at the University of Chicago, Cleveland Institute of Art, Amsterdams Instituut voor Schilderkunst, and Pädagogische Hochschule and a resident at the Creativity and Cognition Research Studios. She has received grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

  • Two students having a discussion while sitting in a classroom.

    Economic Inequality & Class

    SAIC offers a number of courses that give students the tools to develop as social activists in their community. SAIC students study issues of economic inequality with Chicago as their classroom.

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    An painting of Sandie Yi.
    A painted portrait of Assistant Professor Sandie Yi by artist Irina Zadov. Image courtesy of the Ford Foundation.
    Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi

    Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi contributes to disability culture as an artist and an academic. Yi’s practice revolves around disability art and culture and access pedagogy from the perspective of her identity as a disabled artist. She is the creator of Crip Couture, a wearable art project that focuses on representing disabled bodies and disability culture through fashion, and she is the arts and culture project coordinator at the Disability Culture Activism Lab, a platform for creative advocacy projects and disability allyship training.

  • An image of the SAIC Galleries.

    Exhibition & Curatorial Studies

    Exhibitions and public events provides students with a forum in which the development and exchange of ideas is possible. It is an interdisciplinary area of the SAIC curriculum.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Allison Glenn standing outside wearing a black dress.
    Photo courtesy of Rana Young
    Allison Glenn

    For Allison Glenn (Dual MA 2012), the art of curation is about collaboration. So, when she was asked to helm an exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky, honoring the life of Breonna Taylor, Glenn knew what she needed to do: listen.

  • A model wearing a white and tan outfit with detailed black stitching.
    An image from the Fashion Sophomore Looks Spring 2019

    Fashion Design

    The Fashion Design department provides a unique, interdisciplinary experience that challenges students to bring an artistic and theoretical approach to the work. Students benefit from rigorous artistic and professionally oriented training.

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    An image of Nick Cave in his studio.
    Photo by Jim Prinz.
    Nick Cave

    Nick Cave is an artist, educator, and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. Many might be surprised that an artist of Cave’s stature—his work has been celebrated and exhibited all over the world—is still teaching, but community has always been essential to his practice.

  • Multi-colored bows covering a large panel hanging on a pink wall using a beach umbrella.
    Kenna Stark, To Be Big, 2019, found holiday gift bows, beach umbrella, curtain panel

    Fiber & Material Studies

    The Department of Fiber and Material Studies provides you with an interdisciplinary study of fiber, materials, and processes that incorporate different art-making approaches, including: textile construction, sculpture, installation, action, and craft.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Bryana Bibbs standing in front of a colorful mural.
    Photo courtesy of Bryana Bibbs.
    Alum Bryana Bibbs

    Alum Bryana Bibbs is the founder of The We Were Never Alone Project, a series of weaving workshops for survivors of domestic violence. During the workshop, Bibbs teaches participants a basic plain weave and gives them space to share their stories. She sees these workshops as part of a tradition of community spaces that have been centered around knitting.

  • A video still of abstract green and grey shapes.
    An image from An Evening with Rachel Rossin in 2019.

    Film, Video, New Media, and Animation

    The Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department endorses and encourages experimentation with radical form and content. Our commitment to deep interdisciplinarity crosses a broad spectrum, including: cinema, animation, time-based installation, and new media. 

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Apichatpong Weerasethakul standing in front of a projector.
    Photo courtesy of Prestige.
    Apichatpong Weerasethakul

    Alum Apichatpong Weerasethakul (MFA 1998, HON 2011) is a filmmaker who most recently won the Prix du Jury award for his film Memoria (2021) at the Cannes Film Festival. In previous years, Weerasethakul won the Prix du Jury for his film Tropical Malady (2004), the Prix Un Certain Regard for Blissfully Yours (2002), and the Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010).

  • Two wooden chairs with white fabric placed as the seat.
    Katie Sommons, "Squircle Chair," 2021

    Furniture Design

    In Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, our studios have no boundaries: we are creative across disciplines and engaged with our community at SAIC, our context in Chicago, and the world. Our dedicated faculty teach from diverse experience in practices that impact public life and drive public culture. We value the craft that brings ideas into the world, the research that informs criticality, and the compelling stories we tell to share our work.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Norman Teague sitting in his studio surrounded by large wooden pieces.
    Alum Norman Teague in his Chicago studio. Credit: Vasia Rigou (MFA 2015). Photo courtesy of IIDA.
    Norman Teague

    Norman Teague (MDes 2016) is a Chicago-based designer and educator who focuses on projects and pedagogy that address the complexity of urbanism and the history of communities. Teague worked with Theaster Gates on 12 Ballads for Huguenot House dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. He also served as lead craftsman and co-founder of the Design Apprenticeship Program at the University of Chicago's Arts Incubator.

  • A monitor with a video game amination of a figure.
    Arne Asaumi (Muraoka), "(magical girl skinning)," 2018, video, 3D animation, game, molded plastic, tattooed silicon skin

    Game Design

    The Art and Technology Studies department offers game design studio options to all students with interest in the field, regardless of their home department.

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    Featured Alum

    A person wearing a VR headset using a controller.
    Image courtesy of the Digital Museum of Digital Art
    Jake Elliot

    Jake Elliot (BFA 2011), Tamas Kemenczy (BFA 2007), and Ben Babbitt (BFA 2013) are best known as the creators of the popular video game Kentucky Route Zero, which is critically acclaimed and has been the recipient of many awards, including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts 2021 award for original property.

  • Multiple photographs of potted plants along a shelf with a photo of a naked person behind it.
    Jordan Keyes, "My Mother's Garden," 2021

    Gender and Sexuality

    The study of the human figure is as old as the act of drawing. Students who wish to engage with this area of study can choose from a variety of SAIC course offerings that address particular areas of interest within this category such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies or women’s studies.

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    An image of Aram Han Sifuentes.
    Aram Han Sifuentes

    Aram Han Sifuentes is a social practice and fiber artist, writer, and educator who works to center immigrant and disenfranchised communities. She has been a recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, 3Arts Award, and Joyce Award, among many others. Solo exhibitions of her work have been shown at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Chicago Cultural Center, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Hyde Park Art Center, Asian Arts Initiative, Skirball Cultural Center and moCa Cleveland. 

  • A person sitting at a desk using a red pen in front of a computer.

    Graphic Design

    The Visual Communication Design department encourages students to actively engage their world and define their role as contributing designers by developing their critical and analytical skills, personal voice, and visual language. The department cultivates a sense of social responsibility and inquiry in student designers who will be working at the intersection of art, design, and mass culture.

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    Featured Alum

    A black and white image of McKenzie Thompson sitting on a bed.
    Photo courtesy of McKenzie Thompson
    McKenzie Thompson

    McKenzie Thompson (MFA 2014) is the founder of Outsider Supply, an e-commerce apparel brand informed by six years of living in Chicago. Combining streetwear with visual and textual references to art history once considered avant-garde, Thompson takes a minimalist approach to clothing that invites lookers and wearers alike to consider what these artists, movements, and ideas mean now.

  • A group of people looking at pieces of a historic structures.

    Historic Preservation

    Our dynamic Master of Science in Historic Preservation is an all-encompassing program covering the areas of restoration design, materials conservation, architectural history, and preservation planning, all while affording the flexibility to explore specific areas of interest through elective coursework in the field of heritage conservation.

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    An image of Nicholas Lowe working in his studio.
    Photo courtesy of Nicholas Lowe.
    Nicholas Lowe

    Tucked away in a quiet corner of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Nicholas Lowe’s mind is racing, connecting every historical document to its source and every source to contextual details, drawing maps in his head about where the archived material is, where it came from, and where it’s going to go next. Lowe is searching for a story.

  • A series of illustrations surrounding a drawing of a small, black house.
    Trina, "Monster Moments," 2019, ink on illustration paper, digital editing

    Illustration

    The benefit of developing an illustration practice is that it is a stand-alone art form as well as a building block for nearly every art discipline. SAIC offers the opportunity to practice illustration across multiple studio disciplines. From fashion design to animation, students have the freedom to explore a range of studio courses in illustration that will allow them to hone their technical skills as well as develop conceptual storytelling through drawing.

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    Featured Alum

    A black and white image of McKenzie Thompson sitting on a bed.
    Photo courtesy of McKenzie Thompson
    McKenzie Thompson

    McKenzie Thompson (MFA 2014) is the founder of Outsider Supply, an e-commerce apparel brand informed by six years of living in Chicago. Combining streetwear with visual and textual references to art history once considered avant-garde, Thompson takes a minimalist approach to clothing that invites lookers and wearers alike to consider what these artists, movements, and ideas mean now.

  • Three, sea foam green tables.
    Kai Ming Yang, "Bamboo Metal"

    Interior Architecture

    In Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, our studios have no boundaries: we are creative across disciplines and we are engaged with our community at SAIC, our context in Chicago, and the world. Our dedicated faculty teach from diverse experience in practices that impact public life and drive public culture. We value the craft that brings ideas into the world, the research that informs criticality, and the compelling stories we tell to share our work.

    Our students are exploring the future of how we live, work, and communicate; asking how design responds to shifting modes of belonging; and ensuring design will address the transcendent challenge of a changing climate.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Tizziana Baldenebro siting on a stool wearing a grey sweater.
    Photo courtesy of Baldenebro.
    Tizziana Baldenebro

    Tizziana Baldenebro (MArch 2018) has built a newsmaking curatorial career, which is firmly grounded in social and environmental justice. In 2023, she is helming the United States Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale Architettura. The theme: Everlasting Plastics.

  • Three students laughing together in a studio room.

    Liberal Arts

    The Department of Liberal Arts provides the rational and intellectual foundation for success at SAIC and in your continuing practice as a thinker and artist.

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  • A small group of students looking at art in The Art Institute of Chicago museum.

    Museum Studies

    SAIC students have the incredible advantage of studying art on a museum campus. Arts Administration and Policy classes allow students interested in museums and cultural hubs to closely study the Art Institute of Chicago's galleries, resources, and programming to develop a deeper understanding of this field.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Laura-Caroline de Lara sitting outside wearing a blue shirt.
    Laura-Caroline de Lara

    As the director of the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, Laura-Caroline de Lara (Dual MA 2012) brings the words and work of marginalized artists to the forefront.

  • Three square paintings using a black checkered pattern over orange, yellow and green writing and abstract shapes.
    Olivia Minshall, "Split," 2022

    Painting & Drawing

    The Department of Painting and Drawing is home to a diverse range of conceptual and material approaches. It is an open, pluralistic community with a primary emphasis on experimental consideration for painting in the 21st century.

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    Featured Alum

    An artist stands in front of a colorful work of art in his studio
    Photo by Greg Stephen Reigh (BFA 2013)
    Angel Otero

    “Painter” is the description that Angel Otero (BFA 2007, MFA 2009) identifies with most, but using that title has the unintended effect of singling him out. The artist’s compositions made of dried oil paint smash together colors, textures, and focal points—almost daring viewers to discern a hierarchy. His sculptures reward careful viewing for their textures and off-kilter sense of motion, while the playful dimensions and negative space in his still lifes render his creations virtually unrecognizable from much of what constitutes the Old Master genre.

  • A person sitting on the floor using various materials while being recorded.
    Camille Casemier, “Wait, Weight Sit.” Photo by Eugene Tang

    Performance

    The Department of Performance was founded in an experimental spirit and is unique in the United States as one of the only contemporary live-performance art departments in an art school at the undergraduate and graduate level focused on performance practice and performance studies.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Nyugen E. Smith against a bright blue background.
    Photo by Erica MacLean.
    Nyugen E. Smith

    To try to summarize Nyugen E. Smith’s (MFA 2016) oeuvre would be a fool’s errand. His work is too vast and too full; it spans every conceivable art form and is at once about the universal experience of being alive and the specific experience of being a first-generation American born to parents from Caribbean countries.

  • An image of some students critiquing a photography exhibition.
    An image from the 2017 Photography Graduate Critique.

    Photography

    The Department of Photography offers a multifaceted approach to the medium, including traditional forms of image-making and conceptually oriented practices, making the SAIC Photography program uniquely diverse.

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    Featured Faculty

    Dawit standing in front of a tall bookshelf
    Photo courtesy of Dawit Petros
    Dawit Petros

    Dawit Petros is a visual artist, researcher, and educator. His work is informed by studies of global modernisms, theories of diaspora, and postcolonial studies. His works have been recognized with awards including a Terra Foundation Research Fellow, an Art Matters Fellowship, and artist residencies at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Addis Ababa Photo Fest, and an Independent Study Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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    Playwriting/Screenwriting

    Through SAIC’s Writing and Film, Video, New Media, and Animation departments, students have access to workshops that allow them to learn the craft of writing a performative manuscript and see their work through to live performance.

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    Featured Faculty

    An image of Gitanjali Kapila.
    Gitanjali Kapila

    Gitanjali Kapila is a writer, producer, and director. She has a graduate degree in filmmaking from Columbia University and has written, directed, and produced/co-produced three shorts since 2017, including Breathing above the Treeline, which was released with 14 live screenings world-wide and received multiple awards and nominations. She's also a Nicholl Fellowships Quarterfinalist.

  • Three screen prints using purple, yellow and pink ink.
    Elise Seigenthaler, "Hippocampus, Gateau d’annversaire, and Mom’s Shoes," 2019, photography, screen print, thread, bed sheets / fabric

    Printmedia

    The Department of Printmedia presents an interdisciplinary exploration of printmaking that prizes experimentation and emphasizes the research and discovery needed to bring ideas to fruition. Iteration and discovery, purposeful execution and serendipitous results are highly valued. The department’s approach to materials, technique, and process are contemporary.

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    An image of Ayanah Moor wearing a black hat.
    Photo courtesy of Ayanah Moor
    Ayanah Moor

    Ayanah Moor is a visual artist and educator living and working in Chicago. She earned a master of fine arts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a bachelor of fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her artwork is held in public and private collections, including the Capital Group (Los Angeles); DePaul Art Museum (Chicago); Soho House (London); Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago); and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (Pittsburgh).

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    Product Design

    In Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, our studios have no boundaries: we are creative across disciplines and we are engaged with our community at SAIC, our context in Chicago, and the world. Our dedicated faculty teach from diverse experience in practices that impact public life and drive public culture. We value the craft that brings ideas into the world, the research that informs criticality, and the compelling stories we tell to share our work.

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    Featured Story

    Various colored bags of dried goods.
    PermaPak. Images courtesy of Selmić and Xi
    Students Create Plastic Packaging Alternative for a Sustainable Future

    In Chicago, less than 9 percent of the city’s waste is recycled. To combat the use of single-use plastic containers, SAIC students Sara Selmić (MDes 2022) and Kelly Xi (MFA 2022), the creators of PermaPak and participants in the Biodesign Challenge, set out to create a new, more sustainable way of packaging food.

  • An architectural model using black and clear material.
    Ashley Boduch, "Architectural Model," 2021

    Public Space, Site, Landscape

    Public art has increasingly begun to expand in possibility and form. Creative interventions in public space can be realized to imaginatively engage a community's sense of “place” or “well-being” into the work itself. These sorts of projects relate to the area of study called Community and Locality. SAIC students create temporary or permanent interventions in public space both within and outside the School community. Various departments are engaged in the creative dialogue with alternative and public spaces for exhibition and practice in specific courses. 

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    Alum Spotlight

    An image of Lid Madrid at a skatepark.
    Photo by Greg Stephen Reigh
    Lid Madrid

    As a kid, alum Lid Madrid (BFA 2021) didn’t see anyone who looked like them skateboarding, so it remained a forbidden sport. When they got to SAIC to study architecture, Madrid decided they weren’t going to let skateboarding be prohibited from their life. They received an SAIC Idea Generation Grant for a public mobile DIY skate park, and OnWord Skate Collective was born.

  • A painting of two figures sitting together.
    Kwamé Azure Gomez, “My Sister deserves so much more (All the flowers in the world for her burdens, her worries)”, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 60 x 60”, 2022

    Race & Ethnicity

    Some of the most well known contemporary artists have made their careers highlighting prejudice in specific communities worldwide. Because social justice concerns as well as identity issues drive the creation of many art and design works today, SAIC offers a number of courses that seek to ask important questions about class, race, and ethnicity in Chicago and around the world.

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    An image of Romi Crawford.
    Romi Crawford

    Romi Crawford's research and courses explore areas of race and ethnicity as they relate to American visual culture (including art, film, and photography). She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). She was co-curator of the 2017 Open Engagement conference in Chicago and was previously the curator and director of the Education Department at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

  • Various paper mache figures laying and sitting ontop of foil.
    Moises Salazar, "Cuerpos Desechables: Detencion," 2019, mixed media, ceramic, paper mache

    Sculpture

    The Sculpture department offers one of the largest, most comprehensive, and diverse programs of its kind in the country. The department is situated at the defining edge of contemporary practice and discourse, focusing its broad offerings through four curricular themes: Permanence and Ephemerality, Public Practice, Space and Place, and Systems.

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    Featured Alum

    A black and white image of Richard Hunt.
    Photo courtesy of Richard Hunt.
    Richard Hunt

    Richard Hunt (BFA 1957, HON 1979) is considered one of Chicago’s most prolific and accomplished sculptors, and throughout his career (which spans nearly seven decades) he has made an enormous contribution to public art in the United States. In 1968, Hunt became the first Black visual artist to serve on the National Council of the Arts, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1971, when he was just 35 years old, the MoMA celebrated Hunt with his first retrospective.

  • A person lecturing while standing in front of a projector.
    Photo by Pratyush Swarup.

    Social Media & the Web

    Diverse discussions about digital expertise for a mobile world are ongoing in many classrooms. Many students explore learning and creating on the World Wide Web or outside the bounds of schools and universities. Classes of interest in this area may cover: Web 2.0 features, database design, and programming, as well as basic and advanced web design skills and analytics. 

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    Featured Faculty

    An image of Marlena Novak.
    Marlena Novak

    Marlena Novak served as associate director of Northwestern’s Animate Arts Program and has been a visiting artist at the University of Chicago, Cleveland Institute of Art, Amsterdams Instituut voor Schilderkunst, and Pädagogische Hochschule and a resident at the Creativity and Cognition Research Studios. She has received grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

  • A large tree trunk standing upright in a gallery space.
    Hyeseul Song, "you place a foot; you climb a tree," 2023

    Sustainable Design

    SAIC students are enormously concerned with the state of the environment. Many students have chosen to design curricular pathways that allow a broad exploration of issues related to the study of resource conservation, environmental activism, and ecological principles.

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    Featured Story

    Various colored bags of dried goods.
    PermaPak. Images courtesy of Selmić and Xi
    Students Create Plastic Packaging Alternative for a Sustainable Future

    In Chicago, less than 9 percent of the city’s waste is recycled. To combat the use of single-use plastic containers, SAIC students Sara Selmić (MDes 2022) and Kelly Xi (MFA 2022), the creators of PermaPak and participants in the Biodesign Challenge, set out to create a new, more sustainable way of packaging food.

  • A large group of students looking at a presentation being projected.
    Phot by Cassandra Davis

    Teaching

    Students come to the Art Education department to gain the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to manifest their deeply felt vocations as artists and educators, to enhance their own creative potentials, and to collaboratively build resilient, creative, democratic communities.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Calderon at work in her daughter’s nursery.
    Emily Calderon

    Emily Calderon teaches art at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy. When the pandemic hit, she had to reimagine every lesson plan. “If anything, I’ve learned what really matters," she said. "And some days, I spend 30 minutes just listening to the kids. Life is happening outside of the classroom."

  • Two people looking at a purple, pink and blue booklet.

    Visual Communication Design

    The Visual Communication Design department encourages students to actively engage their world and define their role as contributing designers by developing their critical and analytical skills, personal voice, and visual language. The department cultivates a sense of social responsibility and inquiry in student designers who will be working at the intersection of art, design, and mass culture.

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    Featured Alum

    A black and white image of McKenzie Thompson sitting on a bed.
    Photo courtesy of McKenzie Thompson
    McKenzie Thompson

    McKenzie Thompson (MFA 2014) is the founder of Outsider Supply, an e-commerce apparel brand informed by six years of living in Chicago. Combining streetwear with visual and textual references to art history once considered avant-garde, Thompson takes a minimalist approach to clothing that invites lookers and wearers alike to consider what these artists, movements, and ideas mean now.

  • Two people standing on a large stage with a projection behind them.

    Visual & Critical Studies

    The Department of Visual and Critical Studies is concerned with the study of visual media across many different disciplines, as well as the development of hybrid research practices, particularly the overlap between studio and scholarly production. Its programs are part of an evolving paradigm that addresses the complexity of visual and critical practices in the 21st century.

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    Featured Faculty

    An image of Romi Crawford.
    Romi Crawford

    Romi Crawford's research and courses explore areas of race and ethnicity as they relate to American visual culture (including art, film, and photography). She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). She was co-curator of the 2017 Open Engagement conference in Chicago and was previously the curator and director of the Education Department at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

  • Two people looking at books in a glass case inside a library.

    Writing

    The Writing Program brings together a community of writers and artists at one of the nation’s most influential colleges of art and design. We seek students who thrive in a challenging, self-directed, and experimental environment in which the literary arts are a living and open field.

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    Featured Alum

    An image of Gabriel Bump.
    Gabriel Bump in front of his childhood home in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Photo by Jeremy Handrup (MFA 2018) with Folio Films. Image courtesy of Gabriel Bump
    Gabriel Bump

    Gabriel Bump's (BFA 2015) Everywhere You Don’t Belong explores tensions where race and class do and don’t intersect in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood—a fictional journey that earned him the 2020 Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and a selection as one of the 100 most notable books of 2020 by the New York Times.

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