SAIC Magazine Spring 2018

The spring 2018 issue of School of the Art Institute of Chicago magazine explores the stories of faculty and alumni whose work embodies the idea of engaged citizenship. These citizen artists reimagine traditional notions of art making to make a positive change in our world. See their stories below.

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January 31, 2018

Painting by Numbers

Eugenia Cheng shows how art and math add up.

January 29, 2018

Dimensions of Citizenship

SAIC and the University of Chicago will present the US contribution to the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

January 29, 2018

Fashioning the Future

Year-end fashion show provides a vision of the future to students and audience alike.

January 29, 2018

Renaissance Man

Theoretical physicist Walter Massey connects art, science, and the city of Chicago at SAIC.

January 29, 2018

Where I Work

Tiffany Holmes, professor and dean of undergraduate studies, integrates her family life and art making on every level of her 100-year-old frame house in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.

January 30, 2018

On View

Science inspires Trevor Paglen (MFA 2002), Justus Harris (BA 2013), and Lindsey French (MFA 2013, Contemporary Practices and Art and Technology Studies) to create and innovate. 

January 29, 2018

My Chicago

Professor in Liberal Arts, Mika Tosca uses her background as a NASA scientist to teach climate science to students at SAIC. She also runs a weather blog documenting the effects of climate change. This is her Chicago.

January 29, 2018

From the President

SAIC President Elissa Tenny reflects on the School's art and science initiatives and traditions.

January 29, 2018

Field Trip

Each year Lecturer Tim Nickodemus takes his Research Studio for Transfer Students class to visit SAIC's Roger Brown Study Collection in Lincoln Park to illustrate the connections between their art and their lives. 

January 29, 2018

My Obsessions

After 20 years in SAIC’s administration, Dean of Faculty Lisa Wainwright is hanging up her hat— figuratively, of course—as dean and returning to the faculty to teach art history. She started her career teaching in the Art History, Theory, and Criticism department, where she’ll return next year following a sabbatical. This return to her first love—art history—excites her. Here are some other things that are thrilling to this decorated art historian. 

January 31, 2018

About a Work

In her Scientific Illustration course Professor Peggy Macnamara (Visual Communication Design) guides her students through Adirondacks and other Winslow Homer originals, challenging her students’ preconceived notions of the limits of watercolor painting. 

January 30, 2018

Street Style

On Friday, November 3, graduate students opened their studios to the community and the public for SAIC’s annual Graduate Open Studio Night. Here are our editors’ picks of some of the best street style on display from that evening.

January 29, 2018

Career Conversations

Here is an excerpt from our recent conversation with Jason Gillette (BFA 2010), founder of TURF design company, and his advice to current SAIC students and recent graduates. 

January 29, 2018

School-Museum Campus

For SAIC students, the Art Institute of Chicago museum is an extension of their classroom, informing their creative and scholarly practices.

January 30, 2018

The Process

Artist and professor of Art and Technology Studies Eduardo Kac (MFA 1990) recently completed the launch of the world’s first zerogravity artwork in outer space. Called Inner Telescope, it took Kac nearly 10 years to research, plan, and execute.

January 29, 2018

Meet the Graduating Class

The students graduating SAIC in spring 2018 are ambitious, dedicated, and a bit quirky. Meet four of our newest alumni.

January 29, 2018

Emerging Artist

Adela Goldbard (MFA 2017) is the final recipient of the Edes prize, a one-year, $30,000 award given to a recent alum from one of four Chicago-area institutions. For almost a decade, this highly competitive award recognized artists’ creative potential and enabled them to substantially advance their practice.

January 29, 2018

Designer for a Day

Preteens design a food-themed final runway show at SAIC’s fashion camp.  

January 30, 2018

Class Notes

A look at the accomplishments of SAIC alumni.

January 30, 2018

Why I Give

Alum Erina Shibata (Post-Bac 2014, MFA 2016) reflects fondly on her memories of SAIC and talks about why she stays connected to the School.

January 30, 2018

Q&A with Işil Eğrikavuk (MA 2005, MFA 2008)

Q&A with distinguished alumni lecturer and alum Isil Egrikavuk (MA 2005, MFA 2008) whose work blends social and political events with fictional components, often weaving in a fantastical or absurd element that challenges the viewer's ability to believe it. On March 6, she returns to SAIC as the Distinguished Alumni Lecturer for the Visiting Artists Program. 

January 30, 2018

Art Scene

Exhibitions, lectures, and celebrations—the School has fun. 

January 29, 2018

From the Archives

Alum Elizabeth Buchsbaum Newhall’s (DIPLOMA 1932) whimsical black-and-white illustrations of worms, parasites, insects, crustaceans, jellies, and other invertebrates are featured throughout Animals Without Backbones (the University of Chicago Press, first published in 1938), written by her brother, Ralph Buchsbaum. 

January 29, 2018

Beautiful/Work: The Campaign for SAIC

The generosity of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, friends, foundations, and corporations supports the artists, designers, and scholars who transform the world with their Beautiful/Work.