School of the Art Institute of Chicago

[EduCativ]

Welcome to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the nation located in one of the greatest American cities.
SAIC is distinct in the way that it provides graduate, post-baccalaureate, and undergraduate students an interdisciplinary curriculum and the necessary freedom to develop as artists, designers, and scholars. Simultaneously, we strive for a level of rigor, investigation, and cultural relevance that makes SAIC truly special. Our students translate the most complex ideas into tangible forms—paintings, sculptures, films, performances, books, installations, inventions, buildings, community projects, and, more often than not, a combination of the above. Few schools in the United States provide such a broad range of possibilities.
Our engaged student body and award-winning faculty of artists, scholars, and leading practitioners work nearby, sharing exceptional resources and establishing a forum for a vigorous exchange of ideas. The heralded new Modern Wing of the Art Institute provides an incredible resource for inspiration and study. Other unique SAIC resources include our cutting-edge facilities, Gene Siskel Film Center, Visiting Artists Program, and Sullivan Galleries that exhibit work to a broad audience.
Of course, downtown Chicago gives our students access to one of the world's most creatively vibrant and architecturally rich cities. We encourage engagement in its full spectrum of cultural amenities. However, we fully recognize that we live in a globalized society—also reflected in our student body's demographic makeup—and thus provide a wealth of invaluable international study opportunities across the globe.
Foremost, SAIC is about students. We are dedicated to providing complete liberal art and the arts and design education that will serve our alumni throughout their multifaceted careers. We are delighted by your interest and sincerely hope that you will add your voice to the SAIC dialogue at such a critical point in the history of Chicago, the nation, and the world.
Academic Advising provides you an ongoing partnership, support, and advocacy as you navigate SAIC's interdisciplinary curriculum and map out your unique degree plan. Your academic advisor will be a vital resource for you from the summer before your first semester through graduation.
Advisors for first-year students are integrated into Research Studio, a required first-year course, and must meet with students every term during the first two years. Transfer students are required to meet with their faculty advisors for their first two terms.
At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), we will not define your career. However, we will provide you with the interdisciplinary education and resources you need to define it for yourself. Our graduates move on to do great things. More than 17,000 alumni worldwide impact their communities through their work, scholarship, teaching, and service.
As an undergraduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, you will be immersed in a community of artists, designers, scholars, and writers who share the belief that meaning and making are inseparable. Through the process of critique, you will be challenged by our award-winning faculty and your peers to be bold, experiment, and expand your vision.
Your studio courses will be rounded out with a full offering of art history, humanities, language, writing, science, and social science in addition to off-campus study and internship opportunities. You will have access to facilities with cutting-edge digital technologies as well as time-honored analog equipment. As a visual scholar, you will learn from the past to help define the future.
At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, we recognize that today's artists are not only makers of images, objects, and events, but designers of cities, public spaces, scholars of visual languages, and producers of global culture. Our students are inventors, explorers, and thinkers. As a student, you will develop a deep understanding of historical contexts while imagining new frameworks for ideas and forms. Above all, you will be encouraged to cross disciplines and explore concepts unbound to any medium or academic department.
Life on the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) campus is unlike life on any other campus. It is part of the Art Institute of Chicago, a world-renowned encyclopedic museum of art whose collection spans 5,000 years of human history and represents cultures worldwide. And it is part of Chicago itself, an international city with distinctive architecture, innovative public art, world-class galleries, cutting-edge music and theater, extensive public transportation, and vibrant communities of working artists, designers, writers, and thinkers.
Suppose you take those two elements and combine them with an education that defies conventions, utterly unique student experience is born. You can live on campus in large, airy downtown lofts with panoramic views, or you can radiate outward into Chicago's eclectic patchwork of neighborhoods. Either way, you will have the opportunity to connect with students, faculty, and staff through campus-wide events and diverse student groups and organizations, including our semi-annual student art sales, all-school barbecues, annual Halloween Ball, annual Fashion Show, jam-packed Student Union Galleries, and Sullivan Galleries exhibition openings, or lectures with world-renowned artists and scholars.

View full university