Resources
Fashion Department Resources
Fashion Resource Center
As one of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's distinguished SAIC's Special Collections, the Fashion Resource Center (FRC) maintains a unique hands-on collection of late twentieth and twenty-first century designer garments and accessories representing extreme innovation.
Fashion Service Center
The Fashion Service Center (FSC) has a wide range of tools that can be checked out by students enrolled in Fashion Design courses. You can contact FSC staff at fashionservicecenter@saic.edu or visit them in person on the seventh floor of Sullivan, room 713, near the student lounge.
You can find information on all of the resources, including a stocklist of inventory, that are available in the FSC here.
Sullivan Advanced Output Center
The Advanced Output Center is SAIC’s prototyping lab specializing in laser cutting and 3D digital input and output. With very few stipulations, all of our facilities are open to the entire SAIC community. Availability of laser cutters/ 3D scanners and authorization times are available online.
Learn More About Laser Cutting At The Advanced Output Center
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries constitute a major art and architecture research collection serving The Art Institute of Chicago and scholars within the fields of art and architectural history with over 500,000 print titles, 100,000 auction catalogs, 1,200 current serial subscriptions, and extensive digital collections.
Visiting Artist Program Lecture Series
An invaluable resource for SAIC students and the public alike, the Visiting Artists Program fosters a greater understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and culture through discourse. VAP arranges studio critiques and roundtable discussions for SAIC students, providing them with direct access to world-renowned speakers working across disciplines.
Resources Available to all SAIC Students Include:
Libraries and Special Collections
Unique access to important libraries and special collections including a world-class museum.
Media Centers
The media centers provide audiovisual equipment and services to accommodate documentation, creation, instructional, and exhibition needs.
Gallery Spaces
The SAIC campus showcases a diversity of student artwork across multiple exhibition venues. Students can propose to exhibit their work in a variety of formats and locations.
Visiting Artists Program
Public lectures are presented by world-renowned visiting artists, designers, and scholars. Speakers meet with students through studio visits, roundtable discussions, seminars, and workshops.
Instructional Shops
From bedazzlers to sewing machines, from traditional wood/metalworking to CNC milling, 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.
What the City of Chicago has to Offer:
World class museums and galleries
Since the late 19th century, when the museum collection of the Art Institute was established as a study center for the School of the Art Institute, students have used the museum's vast holdings to inspire and inform their creative and scholarly practices. No other school of art and design can claim such a major museum as part of their campus.
Unparalleled architecture
A living laboratory of the study of late 19th- and 20th-century architecture, landscapes, and interiors—the development of the Chicago school of commercial architecture, the flowering of the Prairie style house, the progression of the City Beautiful movement in urban planning.
