Chicago Institute of Art

young man standing on the wall

Pick a Discipline. And Cross Many.

Regardless of the degree you choose to pursue, you have the option of studying across many disciplines. Writing students may wish to complement their studies with courses in architecture and design for example.

You will leave the school prepared to adapt to the complex society which you will be working in and influencing.

Fine Arts
in Studio

Emphasis in
Art Education

The BFAAE (Bachelor of Fine Arts with an Emphasis in Art Education) program educates students to become teachers of art, design, and visual culture while continuing to strengthen their own artmaking practices. The SAIC Art Education community supports students in becoming engaged and reflective teacher artists whose pedagogical work fosters the emergence of more just and joyous individuals and societies.

Emphasis in
Writing

The BFA in Writing (BFAW) degree at SAIC emphasizes a process-based approach to creative writing—one in which students experience writing across genre and in interdisciplinary and hybrid modes. Fully integrated into SAIC’s studio departments, you will explore the relationship between language and visual art by connecting writing to comics, graphic novels, artist’s books, painting, performance, film, sound, and gallery installations.

 

Art
History

The BA in Art History draws on the depth and diversity of offerings in the scholarly study of art practices that only a major art school connected with a world-class museum can offer.

https://www.saic.edu/academics/departments/art-history-theory-and-criticism/bachelor-arts-art-history

Visual &
Critical Studies

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Visual and Critical Studies degree program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) allows you to pursue in-depth academic study in the creative environment of an art school. During your work, you will draw connections between the visual arts and history, philosophy, psychology, and the natural sciences.
 

Departments

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers a multifaceted approach to the medium, including traditional forms of image making and conceptually oriented practices, making the SAIC Photography program uniquely diverse. 

PAINTING & DRAWING

The Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a home to a diverse range of conceptual and material approaches. It is an open, pluralistic community with a primary emphasis on experimental consideration for painting in the 21st century

PERFORMANCE

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago's (SAIC) Department of Performance was founded in an experimental spirit and is unique in the United States as one of the only contemporary performance departments in an art school at the undergraduate and graduate level focused on performance practice and performance studies. 

ART & TECHNOLOGY

Art and Technology Studies is a fine art department focused on the use of technology as an art medium. In its current configuration, ATS teaches numerous courses.

CERAMICS

The Department of Ceramics at SAIC is a model of interdisciplinary investigation where art, design, and craft are the fields of research and innovation.

SCULPTURE

SAIC's Sculpture department offers one of the largest, most comprehensive, and diverse programs of its kind in the country. The department is situated at the defining edge of contemporary practice and discourse, focusing its broad offerings through four curricular themes: Permanence and Ephemerality, Public Practice, Space and Place, and Systems.

Art & Art History Programs

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