Tracing the Connections of Chicago’s Art Ecosystem

by Nadya Kelly (MA 2023)

When Gareth Kaye took his students to the Art Institute of Chicago on the first day of class, it wasn’t just to discuss the artwork. He wanted his students to look beyond the art itself.

As Kaye and his class walked through the museum’s Modern Wing, he encouraged them to look at the wall text, paying close attention to things like accession numbers and donor names. This visit began a semester-long exploration of contemporary artwork in Chicago, and Kaye believes understanding Chicago art means understanding the bigger picture—the network of people, money, and decisions that bring art to life.

“I really wanted to focus on helping them learn how to look, and not necessarily just at what the art looks like,” Kaye said. “I want them to look at what the art can reveal about a much broader sociological context that might enrich our understanding of the work.”

Last semester was Kaye’s first time teaching the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Contemporary Art in Chicago course. Housed in Continuing Studies, it is tailored to non-degree seeking adults and hones in on Chicago’s contemporary art scene—about the art made within the present day and recent past. Aiming to experience as much art as possible, each week, the class ventures to a different neighborhood or art space. Reminiscent of how a tour guide and their group maneuver city streets, Kaye leads his students through places like the Renaissance Society and the DePaul Art Museum, and also through some of the city’s more eclectic neighborhoods to see local galleries and artist-run spaces.

“I actually do think a little bit about the architecture boat tours that everyone takes and how they speak to an audience that is interested and enthusiastic, but they are a non-specialist audience,” Kaye said. “I'm trying to treat it like that, in a lot of ways.”

“My relationship with the city is being shaped by how the students are reacting to things I show them.”

Visiting various art spaces throughout the city allows students to sate their curiosity about the art world in real time, as a place, person, or artwork catches their attention. Kaye says a typical trip often prompts a string of questions that get answered on the fly, either by himself or by a guest speaker he invites to talk to the students. Initial questions about what an art place is and how it operates regularly lead to deeper discussions about how artists build relationships with gallerists and curators, how an artwork is priced, and what makes an artwork good or bad.

As a Chicago art critic and historian embedded in the Chicago art scene himself, Kaye shows his students how the local art world moves by showing them his own connections to different artists and art spaces. One memorable visit to the art galleries inside of the Midland Building allowed Kaye to tell the history of the building and how it overlaps with the time he has spent in its galleries, sometimes as a curator for an upcoming show, and other times just as an admirer of the art displayed there.

“My relationship with the city is being shaped by how the students are reacting to things I show them,” Kaye said. “I was asked piercing questions that challenge major assumptions and consensus. I think it’s really enlightening.”■