Creative Innovators, Collaborative Mentors
Fearless innovators, bold rethinkers: SAIC faculty members push the boundaries of creative exploration. In their work as makers, scholars, and innovators, and through their teaching and mentorship, they’re shaping the future of art and design alongside their students.
Learning With Luminaries
An artist, writer, and educator, Han Sifuentes (MFA 2013) confronts social and racial injustices in her work, including the Protest Banner Lending Library.
Jeffery is a performer, a curator, but above all—a collaborator. For the past three decades, he’s partnered with artists, scholars, choreographers, and writers on countless daring works.
An architect by training, Hernandez researches and intervenes in urban spaces that are marked by inequity, joining with community members to envision change.
Kac was central to the emergence of digital art in the early ’80s. Today, his space- and bio artworks are in permanent collections around the world.
The artist, curator, and critic is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, an Academician in the National Academy of Design, and a regular contributor to ArtForum.
Ball, an award-winning American novelist and poet, has published more than 15 novels to worldwide acclaim. His current interest centers on portraiture and self-portraiture.
Learning From One Another
“Trust what you know and also trust not knowing—challenge yourself to continually ask questions and participate in complicated cultural and civic dialogues. We learn from each other, and we grow from being challenged and from being willing to be vulnerable.” Trevor Martin is executive director of exhibitions and exhibition studies, a senior lecturer, and an SAIC alum.
Embracing Radical Curiosity
“For art-making, it’s important to stay open-minded and courageous enough to take risks, think beyond what is normal and safe, and never stop being curious.” Mie Kongo is an SAIC alum and associate professor in the Ceramics department.
Making Art for Change
“My job as a teacher is about getting my students to understand how art can give them a space to think critically about the world around them, so they can bear witness and create change.” Maria Gaspar is associate professor of Contemporary Practices.
Simple Solutions
"There are elegant designs for complex problems, and they can be very simple solutions. Do more with less. It’s also an ethos of how I operate as an artist. I want to make the simplest things that contain the most." Diana Guerrero-Maciá is a professor of Fiber and Material Studies and chair of the department.
The Draw of Mathematics
SAIC’s Scientist-in-Residence program opens artists’ minds to abstract concepts outside their disciplines. Theoretical mathematician Eugenia Cheng’s popular courses delve into the meaning of math.
SAIC Announces New Faculty for the 2023–24 School Year
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago welcomes its newest cohort of tenure-track faculty. These nine artists, designers, and scholars represent the wide breadth of work undertaken at SAIC and highlight each of our core values.
