CHICAGO—This month, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), a global leader in art and design education, will present a diverse selection of lectures, symposia and exhibitions. For the month of March, faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the public can attend SAIC’s annual, highly anticipated "Spring Undergraduate Exhibition;" a talk by James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago; and two symposia, one of which will look at the achievements of women in media art and emerging technologies, and the other will serve to provide a significant discussion around scholarly work in an art and design setting. All events are free and open to the public.
Lecture by Joep van Lieshout
March 7, 6 p.m.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium, 230 S. Columbus Dr.
Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout has produced works that straddle art, design and architecture such as sculpture, installations, buildings, furniture, utopias and dystopias. The lecture is presented by SAIC's Visiting Artists Program in partnership with the William Bronson and Grayce Slovet Mitchell Lectureship in the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects.
Spring Undergraduate Exhibition
March 12–April 1
Reception: Saturday, March 12, 12:00–6:00 p.m.
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor
More than 270 talented SAIC students completing undergraduate degrees this spring exhibit their innovative work. SAIC promotes crossing disciplines and challenging received assumptions, and the results of this approach are showcased in this exhibition.
Celebrating Women in New Media Arts
March 18, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave.
This one-day symposium will provide a reflective context to examine the achievements of women in the field of media art and emerging technologies from the 1980s onward. The event celebrates the upcoming release of the new book from the University of Illinois Press, Women in New Media Arts: Perspectives on Innovative Collaboration, edited by Donna Cox, Janine Fron and Ellen Sandor (MFA 1975, HON 2014).
Symposium participants include the book’s contributors whose pioneering work in new media art have helped to significantly advance the fields of art and technology. They include:
- Maxine Brown
- Donna Cox (also a book editor)
- Carolina Cruz-Neira
- Margaret Dolinsky
- Janine Fron (also a book editor)
- Copper Giloth
- Claudia Hart, SAIC faculty
- Tiffany Holmes, SAIC Dean of Undergraduate Studies
- Brenda Laurel
- Abina Manning
- Lucy Petrovich
- Dana Plepys (BFA 1981)
- Ellen Sandor (also a book editor)
- Barbara Sykes (MFA 1981)
- Joan Truckenbrod, (MFA 1975)
- Jane Veeder (MFA 1977)
Additional participants include:
- Lee Blalock (MFA 2011), SAIC faculty
- Jon Cates, SAIC faculty
- Snow Fu (MFA 2014), SAIC faculty
- David Getsy, SAIC faculty
- Christina Gomez, SAIC faculty
- Marie Hicks
- Terri Kapsalis, SAIC faculty
- Kirsten Leenaars, SAIC faculty
- Marlena Novak, SAIC faculty
- Sabrina Raaf (MFA 1999)
- Stephanie Rothenberg (MFA 2003)
- Elissa Tenny, SAIC Provost
- Lisa Wainwright, SAIC Dean of Faculty
- Jessica Westbrook, SAIC faculty
- Faith Wilding, former SAIC faculty
Lecture by James Rondeau
March 29, 6:00 p.m.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium, 230 S. Columbus Dr.
Presented by SAIC’s Office of the Dean of Faculty
James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, will discuss the newly reopened galleries of contemporary art featuring the recently unveiled largest gift in the Art Institute’s 136-year history: the Edlis/Neeson Collection, 44 iconic works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. Under Rondeau’s curatorial leadership, the contemporary galleries have been reinstalled with a more global and diverse narrative to accompany this new gift. The installation transforms the museum’s presentation of contemporary art, bringing new depth and perspective that makes this collection the strongest of any encyclopedic art museum in the world.
Convergence
SAIC’s 150th Anniversary Academic Symposium
March 31–April 1
SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave.
Convergence, SAIC’s 150th Anniversary Academic Symposium, is one of the most important symposia of scholarly work in an art and design setting. The academic symposium features Dean of Faculty Lisa Wainwright and keynote speaker Carol Becker, Dean of Faculty at Columbia University and former Dean of Faculty at SAIC, in conversation on art and education, as well as a celebration of SAIC’s many prestigious academic programs.
This two-day symposium brings together alumni from the Departs of Arts Administration and Policy; Art Education; Art Therapy; Art History, Theory, and Criticism; New Arts and Journalism; and Visual and Critical Studies as well as the MFA in studio and writing programs for dialogue centering on the experience of an academic education in the context of an interdisciplinary art and design school.
Conversations at the Edge
Various dates, 6 p.m.
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.
Artists and presentations:
- March 3: Beatriz Santiago Muñoz: Otros usos
- March 10: Wonder: Recent Independent Animation from Japan
- March 17: shawné michaelain holloway: Extreme Submission
- March 31: Down Hear: The Films of Mike Henderson
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked No. two by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman. For more information, please visit saic.edu.
Ellen Sandor (MFA 1975, HON 2014) and (art)n, Chris Kemp, Chris Day, and Ben Carney, Mies-en-scène: The Farnsworth House, 2009, digital PHSCologram
