SAIC News and Highlights

Faculty Member Chris Sullivan’s Film Premieres at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

besang — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:00:47 +0000

May 16, 2012—On May 3 the Onion A.V. Club (circ. 380,361) covered SAIC Film, Video, New Media, and Animation faculty member Chris Sullivan and the 15-year quest behind the premiere of his feature drama Consuming Spirits at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival from April 18 to 29 in New York. The Huffington Post also covered Sullivan on April 25, further profiling the film’s “insanely meticulous construction.”

Alumna Cythia Rowley Featured in Tribune’s Sunday Magazine

besang — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:00:45 +0000

May 15, 2012—The Chicago Tribune (circ. 781,128) featured SAIC alumna and this year’s Legend of Fashion honoree Cynthia Rowley on its Sunday magazine cover May 6. Amid images of Rowley taken in SAIC’s Fashion Resource Center and the Sage Studios in Fashion Design, reporter Wendy Donahue includes Rowley’s story about selling her first collection to a Marshall Fields buyer while still attending SAIC. Rowley adds, “my greatest achievement is I kind of don’t worry about things anymore and that I really do live what I do.”

Kate Dumbleton Formerly of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble to Join SAIC

besang — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:24 +0000

May 14, 2012—The May 10 edition of Chicago Tribune (circ. 425,370) reported that Kate Dumbleton, the former executive director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, will join SAIC as a full-time visiting artist in the fall. Tribune critic Howard Reich mentions in the article that Dumbleton will be “designing and leading an arts management studio for graduate students.” WBEZ Chicago Public Radio also covered the news on May 9.

Sony Electronics 3D Imaging Equipment Coming to SAIC Campus

weboffice — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:07:27 +0000

May 11, 2012—A new industry partnership between the Sony Digital Media Academy (SDMA) and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) will facilitate innovative and expressive applications of digital media technologies next fall on the largest school-museum campus in the United States. SAIC’s participation in SDMA brings cutting-edge Sony equipment to two projects, impacting both undergraduate and graduate curricular opportunities.

PBS Newshour Features SAIC Fashion Chair Nick Cave

besang — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:00:15 +0000

May 11, 2012—The influential national evening news program PBS Newshour featured SAIC Fashion Chair Nick Cave in an exclusive segment at the end of its April 24 broadcast. Cave says in an interview with veteran reporter Jeffrey Brown, “We tend to categorize something in its place in order for it to make sense; here I don’t think my work could really be put into any particular category. So you are forced to ask yourself the question: ‘What is it? What am I encountering at this very moment?’” The segment includes footage of the artist’s studio in the South Loop—as well as a few shots of him instructing students in SAIC’s graduate fashion studio with Liat Smestad—and includes a clip of his recent Dallas showcase HEARD, developed with students from the University of North Texas, where Cave served as Artist-in-Residence this semester.

SAIC Students, Alumni, and Faculty Collaborate with Senn High School Students

besang — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:00:39 +0000

May 10, 2012—On April 26 ChicagoNow blogger Hannah Lutz profiled a unique collaboration between students at Senn High School and SAIC graduate students, alumni, and faculty who have been working with Elizabeth Shank, founder of Good News Only gallery in Rogers Park. Sixty Inches from Center profiled the project on April 16, as well. The nonprofit art gallery teaches local youth how to build their critical thinking skills by way of curating and managing a fine art gallery. The students—taught by SAIC alumnus Benjamin Jaffe (BFA 1989)—curated the exhibition Forever Young that features work by SAIC grads Nico Gardner and Christina Long as well as SAIC faculty member Amber Ginsburg (MFA 2009).

New York Times Selects Alumnus’s Film as a Critic’s Pick

besang — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:52 +0000

May 9, 2012—The April 20 edition of the New York Times (circ. 1,645,152) featured a review of The Day He Arrives, the latest film by SAIC alumnus Hong Sang-soo (MFA 1989). Film Critic Manohla Dargis selected it for NYT Critic’s Picks and commends how the movie, about a main character wandering the streets of Seoul, always in flight, “becomes an exploration, both playful and rueful, of desire, narrative and the idea beautifully expressed by Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom! that ‘maybe nothing ever happens once and is finished.’”

Fashion 2012 Praised in Crain’s Chicago Business

besang — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:00:27 +0000

May 8, 2012—The April 30 issue of Crain’s Chicago Business (circ. 45,026) covered SAIC Fashion 2012 organizers and students in “Creating a Fashion Scene,” a two-page feature on the current state of fashion education and commerce in the city. Reporter Lorene Yue says in the article, “judging by the creations that come down the catwalk, there is no lack of talent in the city,” and further notes, “SAIC is tied for second place with Rhode Island School of Design for the best graduate fine arts program in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.” The online version of the article released April 27 features video interviews with SAIC Fashion 2012 Producer Conrad Hamather and graduating Senior Kylee Alexander, who says, “People consider Chicago a more casual city, and I don’t believe that’s necessarily true.”

Millennium Park Premieres New Soundscape Artwork by SAIC Distinguished Professor

weboffice — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:53:10 +0000

May 4, 2012—World-famous Millennium Park in downtown Chicago is about to receive another exciting new public art installation courtesy of an internationally renowned artist affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Soaring Echoes, by SAIC William and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Professor Bill Fontana, will make its public debut in Millennium Park during SAIC Commencement, held in the park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Sunday, May 13.

SAIC Ranks 17 of 200 for Internet Media Buzz

besang — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:00:06 +0000

May 7, 2012—The Global Language Monitor (GLM) released new Internet Media Buzz rankings on April 4, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) earned position 17—up from 22 in August—amid 200 ranked schools in the Colleges section. GLM, a media analytics company based in Austin, Texas, measured institutional visibility according to appearances in global print and electronic media, throughout the blogosphere and on social media. SAIC made number one in the “School of Art” category last August. GLM notes, “TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity’…. Unlike other college rankings, specialty schools such as Julliard, SAIC, and the Cooper Union, the service academies, business, [and] tech schools are included.”

SAIC Dedicates New LeRoy Neiman Center in Historic Sharp Building

weboffice — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:55:48 +0000

May 4, 2012—A $5 million donation comes to fruition May 7 as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) dedicates its new LeRoy Neiman Center with a VIP luncheon and reception for the SAIC community led by SAIC President Dr. Walter E. Massey. Images, background, and more information about the center is available at blogs.saic.edu/thecenter.

Chicago Tonight Interviews Alumnus and Political Cartoonist Eric Garcia

besang — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:00:48 +0000

May 4, 2012—WTTW’s Chicago Tonight featured SAIC alumnus Eric J. Garcia (MFA 2009) on April 18 in a segment on political cartoons with Chicago Tribune cartoonist Scott Stantis. Garcia says in the interview with program host Phil Ponce that what draws him into political cartoon is the hypocrisy in the political world but also “stuff that’s not out there yet—information that needs to be out there but isn’t out there.” The two cartoonists then took the viewers through some of their recent published works and talked about the irony in them.

Four SAIC Alumni Awarded Fulbright Fellowships

besang — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:00:41 +0000

May 3, 2012—The U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program has already granted 2013–14 fellowships to four SAIC alumni, supporting research projects abroad. Tanya Hastings Gill (BFA 1992) received the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar Fellowship to reside in New Delhi, India for nine months researching the intersection of craft and contemporary art. Three other alumni were named U.S. Student Fulbright Fellows. Sarah Sohn (MFA 2011) will also travel to India; the title of her project is Gestural Abstraction: Create Paintings Based on My Research of Kathakali Dance in Kerala. Randy Hunter (MFA 2011) will travel to Austria and conduct his project entitled The Affects of History, Death, and Technology in Austrian film Through an American Lens. Olivia Valentine (MFA 2010) will conduct a project in Turkey entitled Nakish and the Edge: Architecture and Textiles in Anatoila. In the last decade, from fall 2000 to fall 2010, SAIC helped send 27 students abroad on Fulbright awards, more than any other college of art and design in the nation.

IC President Delivers Closing Keynote at CIC Global University Summit

weboffice — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:48:22 +0000

May 2, 2012—Dr. Walter E. Massey, President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), delivered the closing keynote address Monday, May 1 at the CIC Global University Summit held at the University Club of Chicago’s Cathedral Hall, located adjacent to the SAIC campus in the heart of downtown Chicago. Massey, a prominent physicist who has served as Director of the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation alongside his lengthy career in higher education, called his address “The Art of Innovation.”

Chicago Tribune Covers Jim McManus’s Screening at Gene Siskel Film Center

besang — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:00:42 +0000

May 2, 2012—The Chicago Tribune interviewed Writing faculty member Jim McManus for an April 19 story by Nina Metz covering the Gene Siskel Film Center’s April 23 screening of All In: The Poker Movie. McManus, “a world-class poker player based out of Kenilworth who teaches writing at the School of the Art Institute,” attended the screening to participate in a post-show discussion about the history and current events of the game. The article notes he authored Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker after competing in the 2000 World Series of Poker championship, where he reached the final table and placed fifth overall. It also covers McManus’s history as a sponsored player for Full Tilt Poker online until the site was shut down by the Justice Department last April 15, a watershed moment for online poker in the U.S. that’s explored in depth in the film.

Unique Collaboration Takes Shape in Advanced Headwear Design Exhibition

weboffice — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:01:47 +0000

May 1, 2012—The culmination of a unique collaboration between students in SAIC’s Advanced Headwear fashion design course andWinzeler Gear, a company specializing in precision molded gears, takes shape in the exhibition Head Gear, on view May 3 through June 1.

Alumna Carrie Schneider’s Exhibition Featured in DailyCandy

besang — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:00:27 +0000

May 1, 2012—Moniquemeloche is showing photography by SAIC alumna Carrie Schneider (MFA 2007) through May 12, and the show was featured in the influential DailyCandy Weekend Guide (Circ. 80,000) on April 26. “Artist Carrie Schneider built a wood cabin in the Wisconsin countryside. Then she burned it to the ground and rebuilt it, then burned it down again and again,” summarize the editors. “This exhibit shows the eerily beautiful photos she took along the way.”

Graduate Exhibition to Host Two Special Events

besang — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:00:13 +0000

April 30, 2012—This year’s SAIC MFA 2012 Graduate Exhibition will host a pair of events to activate the exhibition in the Sullivan Galleries. SAIC faculty member and Director of Education at the Renaissance Society Hamza Walker will lead a panel discussion Wednesday, May 2 at 4:15 p.m. on Chicago’s art scene today with Dieter Rowlstraete, Manilow Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art; Lisa Dorin, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago; and Tempestt Hazel, Sixty Inches From Center. On Saturday, May 5 from 4:30–7:30 p.m. the exhibition’s artists and curatorial fellows, under guest curator Pablo Helguera (BFA 1993), will hold Game Night, a special gallery event for families and art enthusiasts offering interactive games and engagements, performances by artists, and exhibition tours by the curatorial fellows.

Windy City Times Interviews Mary Patten

besang — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:00:53 +0000

April 27, 2012—SAIC faculty member Mary Patten (Film, Video, New Media, and Animation) was recently interviewed by Chicago’s weekly Windy City Times about her latest book, Revolution as an Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective (Half Letter Press). The current issue of Afterimage (March/April 2012) also includes a short review of the book by Daniel Tucker.

Dallas Biennial to Feature Lou Mallozzi’s New Work

besang — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:34 +0000

April 26, 2012—The newly formed Dallas Biennial will feature Peers, a new work by SAIC faculty member Lou Mallozzi (Sound), at the Texas Theater on May 31. This 33-minute piece is composed of 12 narrators reciting everything Lee Harvey Oswald said from the moment Kennedy was shot until Oswald’s demise at the hands of Jack Ruby. Mallozzi notes in his blog that showing at the Texas Theater is “highly appropriate” as the Texas Theater was the scene of Oswald’s arrest. Peers will be presented in an evening of films including Bruce Conner’s Report and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty.