“LeRoy Neiman was part of a remarkably inclusive artistic moment in Chicago at the start of his career, and he carried on that legacy here and elsewhere with incredible diligence,” says SAIC President Dr. Walter E. Massey. “He was emphatic that the young students in his master classes come from within the city and have the opportunity to study regardless of any economic challenges.”

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SAIC’s New Café Opens

On June 4, SAIC’s new food service vendor, Food for Thought, opened its new campus center café located in the LeRoy Neiman Center! We are excited to welcome Food for Thought to campus, and we believe you will enjoy what they have to offer. Please visit their website to check out the great things Food for Thought has in store for our campus.

Beginning June 4, the hours of operation for the LeRoy Neiman Center café will be 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (June 25 to July 27 until 6:00 p.m. to accommodate our Early College Program students).

Please come try out the great cuisine!

Students, faculty, and staff, come be part of this historic event as we dedicate SAIC’s first ever campus center! The community celebration for the new LeRoy Neiman Center will be today from 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. in the Sharp Building.

Check out the space and participate in some fabulous events such as:

• Grand opening reception for Act 1: Absence Makes it Real in the new Student Union Galleries space
• Video wall featuring the work of Lee Blalock entitled Remote
• Music provided by Free Radio SAIC
• Tastings from the menu of SAIC’s new food vendor Food for Thought
• Neiman Center tweet wall where you can share your experience, use the hastag #neimancenter to share your thoughts
• Authentic photo booth where you can take your photo with your own Neiman “stache”
• And much more!

Free food, t-shirts, photos, and lots of fun!

The LeRoy Neiman Center Opens its Doors to the SAIC Community May 7

Next Monday, SAIC will make history as it opens its new groundbreaking, state-of-the-art campus center to the SAIC community, the LeRoy Neiman Center. During this dedication event, the community will be able to explore the new campus center and see all of the new and exciting features available in our new community space!

In addition to the dedication, additional events are planned throughout the week to celebrate the new center. The week’s events include:

LeRoy Neiman Center Dedication
Monday, May 7, 4:15–6:00 p.m.
Students, faculty, and staff are cordially invited to the unveiling of the new campus center. Highlights of the event include: Student Union Galleries Grand Opening, video wall unveiling, Live SAIC Free Radio show broadcast, new SAIC food vendor Food For Thought taste samplings, Neiman Center tweet wall, photo booth, “sign the stache,” and more!

Say Thanks to LeRoy and Janet Neiman
As you may know this amazing campus center is made possible by the generous contributions of LeRoy and Janet Neiman. Both of the Neimans are SAIC alumni and have maintained a continuous connection with SAIC. Be sure to stop by the dedication event and take a minute to say “thanks” by and having your picture taken with your “thank you” note in hand!

Chicago Alumni Reception (for graduating students)
Tuesday, May 8
5:00–7:00 p.m.
Soon-to-be SAIC alumni will meet with other Chicagoland SAIC alumni during this networking and celebratory event. Graduating students will also learn about career resources available to alumni. All graduating students, faculty, and staff are invited.

Student Groups and Student Performance Showcase
Wednesday, May 9
4:00–6:00 p.m.
Join the Campus Life Office for this event that will highlight student groups on campus as well as sound pieces by current SAIC artists. The event will include activities sponsored by Student Union Galleries, Free Radio, Ex TV, F News, as well as student-group led activities from Humanitarian Club, Hillel, Artists Without Borders, and others. Sound pieces are curated by SAIC faculty member Eric Leonardson.

All School BBQ
Thursday, May 10
4:00–6:00 p.m.
A bi-annual tradition, the All School BBQ will be held in the LeRoy Neiman Center this year. Our new food service vendor, Food For Thought, will be serving hamburgers and hot dogs as well as vegan and vegetarian-friendly meals. Faculty member Tom Comerford will play with his band, Tom Comerford and the Reels, and additional music will be provided by Free Radio SAIC. In a new addition to the BBQ, student performances will also take place on the 1st floor of the LeRoy Neiman Center. This series of performances will be curated by faculty member Mark Jeffery.

Commencement Open House
Sunday, May 13
9:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
For those students and families who have not had a chance to walk through the LeRoy Neiman Center and look at the new facility, Campus Life staff will be available during the day to greet students and families to answer questions.

Join fellow SAIC community members throughout the week in celebrating this momentous occasion and begin to make the new campus center their own.

I was in the Sharp Building recently and could not help but notice how transformed the entrance lobby was. It felt more welcoming and airy. The most immediate change I noticed was the broader sense of space.  As I was waiting for the elevator, I scanned the space and noticed the beautiful channel glass installed above the south wall construction entrance doors. With this glass installed, daylight was flooding into the space. I also noticed the prepped wall space above the elevators. This is where LeRoy and Janet Byrne Neiman’s 56-foot-long, eight-foot-tall mural, entitled Summertime on the Indiana Dunes, (1965), will be installed.  Just imagine how beautiful the space will feel once the mural is in place the new doors are installed.  All the daylight coming in from the large exterior windows will then be able to sweep into the lobby space. The lobby will feel like a true front door to SAIC and our community.

I was also able to get a behind-the-scenes look at the construction progress within. What you cannot see from the lobby entrance is the beautiful terrazzo floor and glass railing staircase right behind the south wall. This is where the community will enter the first floor space and it provides great panoramic views of the first floor lounge, Student Union Gallery, and the city beyond. I think students are going to love hanging out in this space.

On the second floor, walls were being painted and all of the exterior windows were installed . The most striking feature to me again was the the light flooding into the space from the continuous bay of exterior windows on the south and west walls. Also under construction is the new cafe (scheduled to open in June). Word is that samples from the menu will be served at the dedication event on May 7 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. so be sure to attend.

Also being housed on the second floor will be new Student Life staff offices which will provide students easy access to important support services and staff. The image to the right provides you a view from the west wall looking down the Monroe Street bay of windows . Look at all that great light!

Below are some photos from my quick walk through.

As an alum of SAIC, I am cannot say enough about how excited I am for SAIC’s students, faculty, and staff—especially the students! When I was a student, studying in our urban campus provided challenges when it came to meeting fellow students and faculty outside of class as we did not have any true central place to come together. We often had to find spaces off campus and often they weren’t amenable to large groups of SAIC students.  With the opening of the LeRoy Neiman Center, SAIC will for the fist time have a dynamic space where students can can come together to share a meal, a cup of coffee, their art and scholarship, and to collaborate and meet new friends.

I can’t wait to see the space unveiled at the dedication event on May 7.  I hope to see everyone there!

I am pleased to announce that on Monday, May 7,  the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will celebrate the official opening of the LeRoy Neiman Center. This day will mark a great milestone for SAIC as it brings to fruition a long held dream of many generations of students, faculty, and staff; a central place to gather as a community. I want to personally invite you to join in celebrating this momentous occasion.

LeRoy Neiman Center Dedication
Monday, May 7, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
37 S. Wabash
Food, art, and fun provided

Made possible through a generous gift from renowned SAIC alumni LeRoy and Janet Neiman, this new campus center will become a vibrant gathering space for our community. This beautiful, two-story space will house a community lounge, café, SAIC’s Student Union Gallery, and much more. We are extraordinarily grateful to the Neiman’s for their generous support of SAIC.

I hope you are able to join us for the celebration!

Sincerely,
Walter E. Massey, President

I was granted an in-progress tour of the LeRoy Neiman Center and was thoroughly caught off guard by the unique feeling of the space. Even in its current state of beams and insulation–from the modern, sleek staircase (Mies would be proud) to the iconic Chicago ‘L’ traveling by inches from the windows–it feels welcoming. Like everyone in Chicago, I learned to pause conversations in the Loop when a train approaches, even when indoors; so watching the ‘L’ pass by at eye-level in all of its century-of-progress glory, while still being able to continue a sentence, was astounding.

It has been enjoyable watching the campus transform through renovations in various buildings with the creation of new, bright, and open spaces, but the Neiman Center goes beyond. The expansive area on the ground floor to meet people, sit and read, or easily access the gallery is like nowhere else on campus. Up the stairs is an amazing view and more space to congregate and (thank goodness) to buy and eat food (very tasty food, I anticipate). Touring at this time I was also able to see the wonderful innards of bundled conduit, angled copper pipes, and a massive, shiny air processor that will make the Center a modern oasis in our historic building.

I may sound overly exuberant, but years before becoming a teacher and staff member, I was a student at SAIC. I experienced the keen desire for a community space, somewhere to spend time with other students outside of the classroom, but still within the enriching culture of the SAIC, somewhere that didn’t feel like a transitory space (after all we used to eating our meals sitting on the floor outside our classrooms), but one where we would be comfortable talking and sketching and planning together. As a graduate, I am excited for current students that they will have access to a space for creativity, relaxation, and companionship. As a teacher, I look forward to meeting with my students outside of my office in an inspiring setting, and as a member of staff, I look forward to talking and sketching and planning with my own co-workers and friends.

By now, many have probably seen the poppy, teal, and black t-shirts everyone is wearing that feature a huge mustache on the front with the phrase, “Be At The Center” prominently displayed on the back. Several folks have asked, “Why the mustache?” and I answer, “Because, aside from his work, there is nothing more ‘LeRoy Neiman’ than his famously iconic mustache!”

LeRoy Neiman has a big personality. From his flamboyant dress to the style of his art, LeRoy intends to be bold. This quality is epitomized by his mustache. Neiman’s mustache has been described as, “a solid black line splitting the man’s face in two” and has been compared to other artists mustaches like Salvador Dali.

LeRoy’s persona has been carefully crafted over the years. In the February 1979 issue of the New Yorker, Neiman said, “I guess I created LeRoy Neiman. Nobody else told me how to do it.” He believes that the artist is just as important as his/her work. Upon joining the Army early in his life, Neiman had to shave his mustache. “But I had it before then and as soon as I got out, I put it back,” he says. In a February 2004 article for the San Francisco Gate, Neiman stated that his mustache is simply “a bushy ferret of fuzz long accompanied by a footlong cigar” and “is nothing more than a prop.”

Overall, LeRoy Neiman is a pretty interesting person and his mustache is a point of pride for him. Says Neiman, “I like being outrageous. I don’t actually do anything except be conspicuous. It keeps me revved up…my performance is part of my success.” (Artist Biography, www.leroyneiman.com)

As we prepare for the opening of the new LeRoy Neiman Center this May, we will be inviting you to “get your mustache on.” More information is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Sources:

The Importance of the Beard and Mustache in Art

LeRoy Neiman Official Artist Biography

One On 1: Sports Artist Leroy Neiman

Splashy painter LeRoy Neiman uses his noisy style — not to mention that mustache — to keep himself famous