The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is the private art school of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois.

Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and school, SAIC has been accredited since 1936 by the Higher Learning Commission and by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1944 (charter member). It has been a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) since the association's founding in 1991 and is also accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.

Its downtown Chicago campus consists of seven buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the AIC building. SAIC is in an equal partnership with the AIC and shares many administrative resources such as construction, and human resources. The campus, located in the Loop, comprises chiefly five main buildings: the MacLean Center (112 S Michigan Ave), the Michigan building (116 S Michigan Ave), the Sharp (36 S Wabash Ave), Sullivan Center (37 S Wabash Ave), and the Columbus (280 S Columbus Dr). SAIC used to hold classes in the Spertus building at 610 S Michigan Ave. SAIC owns and rents additional buildings throughout Chicago that are used as student galleries or investments. There are three dormitory facilities: The Buckingham, Jones Hall, and 162 N State Street residencies.

History

Founding and predecessor (1866–1882) The institute was preceded by the Chicago Academy of Design, established by local artists in 1866 in rented rooms on Clark Street. Its president was the sculptor Leonard Wells Volk. Financed by member dues and patron donations, the school moved into its own building on Adams Street in 1870, planned and constructed by its member artists–largely educated and culturally engaged–to serve as a home for the arts, and for those pursuing art as a profession. Its 18 studios, a spacious gallery, and lecture room supported three founding ideals: training in artistic discipline, a gallery open at all times to display the best works, and a venue to host specialized and general lectures. The building and any assets that could not be saved were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

By the mid-1870s, the Eugene Pike building at State and Monroe Streets was the main site for the school, studios, and exhibitions. The Long Depression had set in, however, and financial and managerial conflicts hampered efforts to revive the academy. As it struggled, Volk resigned, and in 1876, ten business leaders were elected to form a board of trustees, while artists retained control of exhibitions and the school. Later that year, amendments granted the trustees full authority and by December 1877 the board was drawn entirely from business leaders and art-committee-member associates of the Interstate Industrial Exposition—an annual trade fair celebrating Chicago's post-fire commercial recovery—with no artists among them.

In May 1879, the trustees engineered a bankruptcy and arranged the sale of the academy's assets at a sheriff's auction for a nominal sum to satisfy unpaid debts. They then incorporated a new entity, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts with a charter that added art collecting to the predecessor's founding aims of education and exhibitions. It acquired the former academy's school furniture, plaster casts, art equipment, and other resources that had been sold days before. They went on to operate in the same building, with many of the same resources and students.

Early school (1882–1910s)

The artists of the original academy attempted to reopen in 1880 but were unable to meet teacher salaries. Meanwhile, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts was prospering; in the early 1880s it raised $60,000 and purchased land at the corner of Michigan and Van Buren for a permanent home designed by Burnham and Root (now the Chicago Club). In 1882, banker Charles L. Hutchinson was elected president, and the organization adopted a name that better reflected its dual role as both a school and a museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, with the following charter: The founding and maintenance of schools of art and design, the preservation and exhibition of collections of art and the cultivation and extension of the arts of design by any appropriate means.The original academy artists had kept their organization alive by meeting irregularly, holding on to their tax-exempt charter for 20 years until the Art Institute secured control of it in 1900. The new institution was growing regardless. A commission from Art Institute benefactor Florence Field and sculpted by Edward Kemeys, the pair of bronze Lions guarding the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue had been unveiled on May 10, 1894. A library funded by philanthropist Martin A. Ryerson and designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge had opened for art students in 1901.

In its early years the school taught drawing from plaster casts of antique sculpture and from live models, using a detailed, meticulous drawing style. By 1882 enrollment increased to 300 and classes in decorative design, perspective drafting, lithography, and architecture were added to the curriculum. When the growth of newspapers after World War I created a new demand for illustrators, the school responded by adding a dedicated department, and the pragmatic nature of these courses attracted more men. Georgia O'Keeffe attended the school during the 1905-06 year, studying with figure drawing instructor John Vanderpoel. Iowan Grant Wood, another notable alumnus, attended the school from 1913–1916, taking evening classes in fine arts and metalworking while working at a local silversmithing shop.

Interwar years (1920s–1930s) The interwar years brought both physical and cultural change to the institution. In 1924 and 1925, two additions were made to the complex in memory of officers who died during World War I: The George Alexander McKinlock Jr. Memorial Court designed by Coolidge & Hodgdon, and the Kenneth Sawyer Goodman Memorial Theatre, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw.

The school's demographics were shifting along with its footprint. Since its founding the majority of students had been "genteel women," reflecting a societal association of fine art with female accomplishment. But the introduction of an industrial arts department drew more men to the school in the 1920s and Depression years. And from a single inspired basement class in the mid-1930s, a department of dress design emerged.

Among the fine arts students of that era were Chicagoans Ivan Albright (c.1920-1923) and Aaron Bohrod (c.1926-1928) each of whom had visited the Institute as a child.

Postwar (1940s–1950s) After World War II, veterans studying on the G.I. Bill swelled the ranks of male students, and fine art was increasingly seen as a viable professional path. One sculpting professor recalled his GI students returning four assignments when he had asked for just one. Among those veterans was LeRoy Neiman who later taught at the school.

Over time, a divide had been forming between the museum and the school. While one prioritized connoisseurship, security, and order, the other valued student self-expression and freedom. Where early decades had seen respectful coexistence with art students regularly seen working in museum spaces, by the 1950s the relationship had soured. The museum questioned the school's existence and students felt unwelcome in the museum.

Added to this unrest was the broader spirit of abstract expressionism that was reshaping art education around the country yet unwelcome at an institution dedicated to preserving the work of earlier generations.

Art students in this era reflected its expanding range: Claes Oldenburg (c.1950-1954), Halston (c.1952), Richard Estes (c.1952-1956), Richard Hunt (c.1953–1957). Halston came for night classes in millinery, and would go on to found an American fashion empire. And Hunt, a Black sculptor, went on to become one of the most publicly commissioned artists in American history.

1960s onward Tensions came to a head in 1965 when students and faculty staged a two-month strike over the firing of dean Norman Boothby by the trustees. The dispute was resolved through concrete reforms: school representation on the board of trustees, clarified financial reporting, increased faculty salaries, the introduction of a tenure system, and a faculty handbook. Cramped quarters, another grievance aired during the strike, was fueled by a rumor that the school would be separated from the institute entirely–talk that quieted after building plans showed new space allocated to the school.

In the years following the strike, the school entered a period of creative and institutional expansion. Notable during this time is the founding of the Film Center in 1972; as is the school's Art & Technologies department that embraced pioneering areas of study from SAIC faculty, like electronics and kinetics (c.1969), generative systems (c.1970), holography (c.1976), bio art (c.1998), computer graphics and animation (c.late 1970s), robotics (c.1989), and virtual reality (c.2001).

Alumni of this era include the Chicago Imagists who emerged as a distinct voice in American art during the late 1960s through the 1970s. Also of note are the founders of the ARC Gallery and Artemisia Gallery, the first women artists' cooperatives in the Midwest and significant hubs for feminist theory by SAIC graduates who were responding to limited exhibition opportunities and male-dominated spaces.

Subsequent decades have brought further growth through the acquisition of landmark Chicago Loop properties to house departments, learning spaces, and studios.

Leadership Walter E. Massey served as president, from 2010 until July 2016. He was succeeded by Elissa Tenny, who formerly served as the school's provost. In 2024, Tenny was succeeded by Jiseon Lee Isbara, a fiber artist and academic administrator.

Academics

SAIC offers classes in art and technology; arts administration; art history, theory, and criticism; art education and art therapy; ceramics; fashion design; filmmaking; historic preservation; architecture; interior architecture; designed objects; journalism; painting and drawing; performance; photography; printmaking; sculpture; sound; new media; video; visual communication; visual and critical studies; animation; illustration; fiber; and writing.

SAIC also offers an interdisciplinary Low-Residency MFA for students wishing to study the fine arts and/or writing.

In 2025, the school reported a six-year graduation rate of 67%.

Chicago Architects Oral History Project In 1983, the Department of Architecture began the Chicago Architects Oral History Project. More than 78 architects have contributed.

Video Data Bank The Video Data Bank was started at SAIC In 1976, "committed to fostering awareness and scholarship of the history and contemporary practice of video and media art." The Video Data Bank collection includes over 6,000 works of video art by over 600 artists. In November 2025, a wave of staff layoffs led to three of five staff positions at the Video Data Bank—including the organization's director—being cut due to changes in enrollment and federal contributions. According to founding director Kate Horsfield, it was formerly one of the highest-funded film/video library programs by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Demographics

As of fall 2025, the school enrolled 3,323 students, 2,737 of which were undergraduate and 586 graduate students. 76% of them were female and 25% were from outside of the United States. 7.8% of students were from Chicago.

Activities

Visiting Artists Program