School of the Art Institute of Chicago alums Lisa Alvarado (BFA 2007), Emily Barker (SAIC 2010–15), Rodney McMillian (Post-Bac 2000), Na Mira (BFA 2006), Guadalupe Rosales (MFA 2016), and collective Moved by the Motion founded by Wu Tsang (BFA 2004) and Tosh Basco (MFA 2018) are a part of this year’s Whitney Biennial: Quiet as It’s Kept.
Creative Catalysts: Performance Art Reacting to the Climate Crisis (Spring 2022)
The impacts of climate change are already affecting humanity and will impact generations to come; while the issue is real and ongoing reaction and change are slow. How do you get people to notice a crisis that is happening all around them? Cue creativity. Glass Clouds Ensemble (Chamber Music Ensemble, New York City) uses chamber music to highlight productive conversations around the climate crisis. Large scale change is essential and it is necessary for independent voices to build the momentum to achieve change. Join us on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at 4 PM CST via Zoom to experience the unique ways in which these artists harness performance to inspire action in response to our global climate crisis. Produced by Nina Friedman, Sigrid Neptun, Reilly Ribeiro, Jing Shi (all MAAAP 2023).
Navigating Repatriation: Possession and Institutional Storytelling (Spring 2022)
From a cross-section of North American institutions, this public conversation brings together leading cultural researchers and practitioners for a dialogue on displaced art, repatriation, and collections policies. Produced by Britton Farrell (MAAAP 2023), Michelle Davo Ortiz (MAAAP/MAAH 2024), and Lauren Woolf (MAAAP/MAAH 2024).
Breathing Together: Revisioning Technology and Cultural Spaces (Spring 2022)
A panel discussion on the combined power of technology and culture for the post-pandemic future. How can we re-imagine, re-evaluate, and re-identify cultural spaces? By viewing this question through the lens of co-inspiration, the discussion will serve as a theoretical foundation for envisioning the future of arts programming and organizational leadership. Please join our conversation between artists, curators, organizers, and educators. Hosted by Arts Administration and Policy graduate students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in partnership with the Department's emerge: journal of arts administration and policy. Produced by Inés Arango Guingue, Yesenia Bello, Jakki Cafarelli, Lindsey Hayakawa, Megan Morton, Benita Nnachortam, Jane Valentin Grossman, Charlie Xie, and Jiani Zhu (all MAAAP 2023).
Caring Tactics for Narrative Representation: A Conversation with Dr. Meranda Roberts and Dr. Onur Öztürk (Spring 2022)
Colonial practices remain pervasive within the walls of cultural institutions: stolen objects from across the globe are divided into museum wings and categorized by imagined identities. This standard both curates non-Western cultures as monoliths and canonizes a Euro-centric worldview. “Caring Tactics for Narrative Representation” offers perspectives from Dr. Meranda Roberts (Indigenous curator, researcher, and advocate) and Dr. Onur Öztürk (Assistant Professor of Art History at Columbia College Chicago). Öztürk and Roberts will respectively discuss strategies and methodologies for re-presenting Islamic and Native American art and objects in institutions.
Moderated by:
Maya Ortiz Saucedo (MAAAP/MAAH 2024), Independent Curator
Featuring:
Dr. Meranda Roberts, Indigenous curator, researcher, and advocate
Dr. Onur Öztürk, Assistant Professor of Art History at Columbia College Chicago (Chicago)
Co-produced by:
Marielle Christena Mervau (MAAAP 2003)
Maya Ortiz Saucedo (MAAAP/MAAH 2024)
Georgia Rose Patterson (MAAAP 2023)
Madeleine Zimmerman (MAAAP/MAAH 2024)
Muppet Diplomacy: Children’s Media and Global Cultural Policy addresses how global, socio-political issues are communicated via children’s media and how fictional, lovable characters have been deployed across borders as advocates. From Elmo and his father Louie defining racism in the wake of the George Floyd protests in the United States; to Kami, an HIV-positive Muppet in South Africa promoting global health initiatives; to Noor and Aziz, sibling Rohingya Muppets living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Children’s media serves as a dynamic platform for international representation and peacebuilding opportunities.
Moderated by:
Sidney Mori Garrett (MAAAP 2023)
Project Row Houses Curatorial Assistant and Arts Coordinator
Jamila Johnson (MAAAP 2023)
Student-in-Residence for the Association of Art Administration Educators
Featuring:
JooYoung Choi
Creator of “Cosmic Womb” and interdisciplinary artist (Houston)
Naomi Moland
Author of Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism?: Children’s Television and Globalized Multicultural Education (Washington, D.C.)
Co-produced by:
Erica Cheung (MAAAP/MAAH 2024)
Several SAIC community members are working on a public art project as a part of the Terminal 5 expansion project at O’Hare International Airport.
In October 2019, alum llio sophia mish (MFA 2021) and several of their friends threw a Halloween party. Though mish was still relatively new to Chicago, their apartment quickly filled up with people—many more than they’d planned for.
Newcity Design recently announced their annual Design 50 recognizing the people who have positively impacted Chicago design, 14 of whom are SAIC community members.
Comics artist Chris Ware (SAIC 1991–93, HON 2019) will be honored with an exhibition at the Bibliothèque publique d'information at the Centre Pompidou.
