Quick facts: Timeline
For the past 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating artists, designers, and scholars. As you will see from this timeline, SAIC's history is interwoven with the Art Institute of Chicago and the city itself.
1866 |
A group of Chicago artists meet in a block building on the southwest corner of Dearborn Avenue and Madison Street to discuss the formation of an institute of art; the artists intend to run a school with its own art gallery, laying the foundation for the Chicago Academy of Design. |
1867 |
The founders hold a festival on behalf of the new Academy at Crosby's Opera House and their first exhibition at a gallery at 152 South Clark Street. |
1868 |
The Academy holds classes every day of the year and charges a tuition fee of $10 per month; the basic curriculum comprises three classes: Outline Drawing and Shading from the Flat (lithograph copies); Drawing from the Antique (busts, architectural ornaments); Drawing and Painting from Life (landscape, figure, and still lifes). |
1869 |
The Chicago Academy of Design is granted a charter from the State of Illinois. |
1870 |
An exhibition is held to mark the opening of a new building for the Academy at 66 West Adams Street. |
1871 |
The Great Chicago Fire destroys the Academy's building. |
1872 |
A teaching collection is established, consisting primarily of plaster casts to instruct students as well as Egyptian and Classical material. |
1879 |
The Academy is reorganized by a group of local business leaders who apply for another charter and incorporate their new art organization as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. |
1882 |
Name is changed to the Art Institute of Chicago to accommodate a distinct museum and school, which is later known as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. |
1883 |
359 students are enrolled at SAIC. |
1886 |
Renowned sculptor Lorado Taft establishes SAIC's Sculpture department. |
1887 |
Children's programming and the Junior School (Saturday classes) begin. |
1889 |
Day and evening classes in architecture are offered. |
1891 |
First diplomas are awarded. |
1893 |
The Art Institute of Chicago school and museum move into its iconic building on Michigan Avenue built for the World's Columbian Exposition; 929 students enrolled at SAIC. |
1894 |
A course in art history is offered for the first time. |
1910 |
Ox-Bow Summer School of Painting is started in Saugatuck, Michigan. |
1913 |
SAIC students protest the Armory Show, an international exhibition that introduces the European avant-garde to Chicago. |
1918 |
First SAIC alumni exhibition is held in the museum. |
1922 |
SAIC is now the largest art school in the world with an enrollment of 4,520 students. |
1925 |
The Goodman Theatre is built on the northeast corner of the museum in memory of an Art Institute of Chicago employee who died in World War I; SAIC's Department of Dramatic Arts is established. |
1928 |
SAIC transitions from a three-year program to a four-year program; tuition is $134 per year. |
1929 |
The School of Industrial Art, headed by Emil Zettler, is founded as a separate branch of SAIC. |
1934 |
Students begin taking liberal arts courses at University of Chicago, subsequently enabling SAIC to begin awarding Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in 1936. |
1935 |
The first student fashion show is held in the midst of the Great Depression—the show is an annual event that continues to this day. |
1936 |
SAIC is first art school to be accredited by a regional accrediting association. |
1940 |
First Master of Fine Arts degrees are awarded. |
1948 |
SAIC students hold the show, Exhibition Momentum, in protest of their exclusion from the museum's Chicago and Vicinity Show; the exhibition brings recognition to Monster Roster artists. |
1969 |
SAIC's interdisciplinary approach to art education is established, allowing students to cross areas of study and determine their own pathways through the curricula with faculty consultation. |
1972 |
The Generative Systems program is launched, which evolves into the Department of Art and Technology Studies—the first department of its kind in the country. |
1976 |
SAIC's first building independent of the museum, the Columbus Building, opens at 280 South Columbus Drive. |
1978 |
SAIC Internships (Previously known as Co-op) is launched, enabling students to gain professional experience while earning course credit. |
1982 |
The Early College Program for high school students is established. |
1988 |
At a student exhibition, David K. Nelson, Jr. (SAIC 1987) displays a painting, Mirth & Girth, which depicts Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, wearing women's lingerie while holding a pencil. The work incites a vicious debate between anti-censorship advocates and a group of black aldermen from around the city. |
1989 |
Dread Scott's (BFA 1989) work, What is the Proper Way to Display the US Flag?, is presented at an SAIC student exhibition. The installation sparks a national controversy that results in federal legislature to "protect the flag." |
1993 |
First residence hall is constructed to house a growing student population, resulting in a truly urban campus by 2000. |
1993–95 |
Graduate programs diversified, with the introduction of the MA in Arts Administration; MS in Historic Preservation; and MFA in Writing. |
1997 |
U.S. News and World Report ranks SAIC #1 fine arts program in their annual Best Graduate Schools edition. SAIC has been consistently ranked in the top three ever since. |
2001 |
SAIC faculty, students, and alumni develop the technology and production techniques for Millennium Park's Crown Fountain, which increases SAIC's focus on external and civic collaborations. |
2002 |
SAIC is named the "most influential art school in the United States" in a survey of art critics conducted by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. |
2002–06 |
Undergraduate programs diversified, with the introduction of the BFA with an emphasis in Art History, Theory, and Criticism; BFA with an emphasis in Art Education; BFA with an emphasis in Writing; and BA in Visual and Critical Studies. |
2004 |
SAIC initiates a laptop program for all incoming first-year students, the first program of its kind in a major arts school. |
2006 |
Introduction of new graduate degrees in architecture and design, including the Master of Architecture; Master of Design in Designed Objects; and Master of Architecture with an Emphasis in Interior Architecture. |
2009 |
SAIC produces the most Fulbright Scholars among all art and design schools. |
2012 |
The LeRoy Neiman Center opens, providing SAIC with its first campus center. |
2013 |
SAIC established its first Scientist-in-Residence; the school also partners with Northwestern University to offer the art and science course, Data Viz Collaborative |
2014 |
Master of Architecture program is granted an eight-year accreditation. |
2015 |
SAIC partners with the Homan Square Foundation in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood to offer art and design classes to the West Side community. |
2016 |
SAIC celebrates 150 years as a leader in educating artists, designers, and scholars. |
2018 |
SAIC concludes first-ever significant fundraising campaign with $55.2 million. |
Sources:
Over a Century: A History of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1866–1981, ed. Roger Gilmore, 1982
George B. Carpenter, The Art Review, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jan. 1871), The Chicago Academy of Design, pp. 13–15
Chicago History: The Art Institute of Chicago, A Centennial Perspective, ed. Fannia Weingartner, 1979