A picture of geometric sculptures on display in a gallery setting
Sculpture

Undergraduate Overview

Undergraduate Overview

SAIC’s undergraduate sculpture curriculum is designed to offer a rigorous mix of conceptual, spatial, material, and process-based challenges through which students learn to understand, negotiate, and contribute to the changing cultural landscape. Students explore and incorporate a wide range of emerging technologies and traditional skills in their practice, including:

  • Woodworking
  • Mold-Making and Casting
  • Foundry
  • Glass Casting
  • Welding and Blacksmithing
  • Installation Art
  • Socially Engaged Art
  • Experimental Media 
  • Sustainable Practices

BFA students interested in Sculpture are encouraged to combine their sculptural work with departments across the school including fiber, ceramics, designed objects, fashion, and more. Introductory sculpture courses are recommended for all entering students, as they provide an introduction to the field, its methodologies and current ideas. Students who choose to concentrate their undergraduate in Sculpture will move from introductory, to intermediate and then advanced studio courses. We also offer a number of undergraduate seminars in Sculpture from Sophomore Seminar to Professional Practices and finally our Senior Capstone. The department also offers a unique opportunity for accomplished and committed undergraduate students in our Advanced Sculptural Practices Studio. This application-based course offers studio space in which to work and learn in close consultation with two faculty instructors and in a small community of dedicated peers.

Sculpture BFA Learning Goals

  • Students will create sculptural works that demonstrate a broad-based awareness of the field. 
  • Students will learn to experiment in order to gain knowledge and acquire technical proficiency. 
  • Students will engage material and process towards an outcome.
  • Students will develop an appreciation of the complexity of sculptural meaning. 
  • Students will formulate, present and defend their ideas towards an independent criticality.

Undergraduate Admissions Requirements & Curriculum Overview

  • To apply to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), you will need to fill out an application and submit your transcripts, artist's statement, and letters of recommendation. And most importantly, we require a portfolio of your best and most recent work—work that will give us a sense of you, your interests, and your willingness to explore, experiment, and think beyond technical art, design, and writing skills.

    In order to apply, please submit the following items:  

    Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Portfolio

    Submit 10–15 pieces of your best and most recent work. We will review your portfolio and application materials for merit scholarship once you have been admitted to SAIC.

    When compiling a portfolio, you may concentrate your work in a single discipline or show work in a breadth of media. The portfolio may include drawings, prints, photographs, paintings, film, video, audio recordings, sculpture, ceramics, fashion designs, graphic design, furniture, objects, architectural designs, websites, video games, sketchbooks, scripts, storyboards, screenplays, zines, or any combination of the above.

    Learn more about applying to SAIC's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio, or view our portfolio preparation guide for more information.

  • Studio

    69

    • CP 1010 Core Studio Practice I (3)
    • CP 1011 Core Studio Practice II (3)
    • CP 1020 Research Studio I (3)
    • CP 1022 Research Studio II (3)
    • SOPHSEM 2900 (3)
    • PROFPRAC 3900 (3)
    • CAPSTONE 4900 (3)
    • Studio Electives (48)

     

    Art History

    15

    • ARTHI 1001 World Cultures/Civilizations: Pre-History—19th Century Art and Architecture (3)
    • Art History Elective at 1000 level (3)
    • Art History Electives (9)

     

    Liberal Arts

    30

    • ENGLISH 1001 First Year Seminar I (3)
    • ENGLISH 1005 First Year Seminar II (3)
    • Natural Science (6)
    • Social Science (6)
    • Humanities (6)
    • Liberal Arts Electives (6)

     

    General Electives

    6

    • Studio, Art History, Liberal Arts, AAP, or EIS

     

    Total Credit Hours

    120

    * BFA students must complete at least 6 credit hours in a class designated as “off campus study.” These credits can also fulfill any of the requirements listed above and be from any of the divisions (Art History, Studio, Liberal Arts, or General Electives).

    BFA With Distinction—SAIC Scholars Program: The SAIC Scholars program is a learning community of BFA students pursuing rigorous study in both their academic coursework and their studio pathways. There are two opportunities for interested students to apply to the SAIC Scholars Program: at the time of admission to the school, and after they have completed 30 credits of study at SAIC. Students pursuing the latter option are required to formally submit an application to the Undergraduate Division. Once admitted to the SAIC Scholars Program, students are required to successfully complete a minimum of six designated scholars courses. Students who complete the program will graduate with distinction.

    BFA in Studio with Thesis Option (Liberal Arts or Visual Critical Studies): BFA students may complete a nine-credit, research-based academic thesis as part of their studies within the 120 credits for the BFA in Studio degree. BFA with Thesis course sequences are offered over 3 semesters through the departments of Liberal Arts or Visual and Critical Studies (VCS). Students who are interested in one of the thesis options should follow the steps outlined below in the beginning of the junior year.

    Requirements for the BFA: Studio Art with Liberal Arts Thesis

    Step One: Students are required to meet with the Chair of the Liberal Arts department in the beginning of their junior year. 

    Step Two: With the Department Chair’s approval, the student enrolls in the following courses beginning in the spring term of their junior year:

    • SOCSCI or HUMANITY 3900 Academic Research and Writing (3 credits)
    • LIBARTS 4800 Undergraduate Thesis: Research/Writing I (3 credits)
    • CAPSTONE 4900 Liberal Arts Undergraduate Thesis: Research/Writing II (3 credits)

    Step Three: The completed thesis must be approved by both the Thesis II instructor and the Chair of Liberal Arts. Students must make a formal presentation and participate in the Undergraduate Thesis Symposium in their senior year. 

    Requirements for the BFA: Studio Art with Visual and Critical Studies (VCS) Thesis

    Step One: Students are required to meet with the Visual and Critical Studies Undergraduate Coordinator in or by the beginning of their junior year.

    Step Two: With the VCS Coordinator’s approval, the student enrolls in the first of the three-course sequence beginning in the spring term of their junior year:

    • VCS 3010 Tutorial in Visual & Critical Studies (3 credits)
    • VCS 4800 Undergraduate Thesis Seminar: Research & Writing I (3 credits)
    • CAPSTONE 4900 VCS Undergraduate Thesis Seminar: Research & Writing II (3 credits)

    Step Three: Completion of thesis must be approved by both the Thesis II instructor and the VCS Undergraduate Coordinator. Students must make a formal presentation and participate in the Undergraduate VCS Thesis Symposium in the senior year.

    Total credits required for minimum residency

    60

    Minimum Studio credit

    42

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2006

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 015

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2002

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 127

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2007

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 023

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2009

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 015

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2020

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 023

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Open to Freshmen only.

Class Number

2023

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Public Space, Site, Landscape, Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 023

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore or above.

Class Number

1995

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 127

Description

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore or above.

Class Number

2024

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 127

Description

Students are introduced to the fundamental principles and practices of woodworking through lectures, demonstrations, and projects.

Class Number

2011

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 023

Description

This course offers instruction in various methods of casting, including simple plaster molds, hydrocal-cement casts, simple body casts, thermal-setting rubber molds, wax, terra cotta, and paper casting. Students are advised to bring objects they desire to cast. (No hot metal casting in this course.)

Class Number

1998

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 030

Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic techniques of subtractive sculpture. Students will be encouraged to develop an innovative body of work within a material based format. A wide range of carving techniques and materials will be introduced. Historical models will provide vocabulary for understanding methodology and ideas. In class presentations will also acquaint students with artists who approach carving within postmodern ideologies. New technologies such as laser cutting will be introduced. A directed and productive approach to studio practice will be cultivated.

Class Number

1999

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Furniture Design

Location

280 Building Rm 023

Description

This course asks the question, `How can artists cross the street without leaving their art behind?? This class hopes to raise issues of citizenship, creativity, collaboration, community, environment, and the changing roles of artists at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first. Students study historical and contemporary examples of how artists have found the time, space, and resources to do and present their work, and how they make alliances with other artists and other communities to achieve professional, cultural, and political goals. Students help plan curricular innovations at SAIC and participate in related activities such as visiting artists programming. They explore the possibility, in part through on-site visits, of establishing or strengthening ties between SAIC and various communities throughout Chicago. Students further develop course themes through substantial written assignments and through applications of these ideas in their studio practice. The goal of the course is to give students the motivation, knowledge, and tools to take an active role as citizens in a multicultural democratic society.

Class Number

2022

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement, Public Space, Site, Landscape, Art/Design and Politics

Location

Sharp 403

Description

Now, more than ever, sculpture is the most inclusive category of artmaking. Yet even at the height of this expanded field, a residual hierarchy remains when it comes to means associated with craft. In this course students examine traditional sculpture and craft processes in relation to notions of taste, class, gender, age. Students consider skill or craftsmanship; utility and decoration; commercial pressures vs. aesthetics standards and are encouraged to examine their own relationship to specific materials, processes, and techniques as a source of meaning and foundation for sculptural practice.

Class Number

2000

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

280 Building Rm 127

Description

Patternmaking is at the heart of metalworking, woodworking, fashion, architecture and many other disciplines. Why? Because so many materials are available in sheet form. Students in this course will investigate a range of processes by which flat sheet materials like paper, wood, metal, fabric, vinyl, and plastic can be used to make volumetric, three-dimensional forms. Patternmaking for Sculpture will teach the student digital and analogue methods of designing, cutting, and assembling 3D work. Practical strategies as well as contemporary industrial use and the history of patternmaking will be explored to give each student a range of options for making their own work, whether it be art or design.

Class Number

2014

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Product Design

Location

280 Building Rm 127, 280 Building Rm 127A

Description

This course introduces the aesthetic, technical, and historical aspects of the casting process as it relates to sculpture. Students learn basic skills in waxworking, investment applications, furnace and kiln operation, metal finishing and chasing, and patination. Lost wax and ceramic shell will be the primary techniques utilized for pattern generation and molding in this course. Students develop these skills through a series of studies that culminate in a final project.

Class Number

2010

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 030

Description

Students in this course pursue assignment-based explorations in sculpture. Technical demonstrations help students develop material interests and studio skills, including innovative uses of both traditional and digital processes. Within the semester students will produce (three) projects with a focus on the artistic and social contextualization of their work. Multiple individual critiques help students analyze their work and articulate their intentions. Student presentations and readings deepen the student?s theoretical groundings in the discipline. Class critiques are a workshop forum for application of the knowledge and verbal skills that define an artistic and aesthetic position.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: SCULP 1101 or SCULP 2001

Class Number

2001

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 015

Description

This studio course investigates issues of size and scale through lectures and discussions, outside readings, and the studio work of the participants. Its aim is to pursue our attraction to the gargantuan and the miniature. The course examines not only the formal factors which effect our perceptions, but, more importantly, the social, political, and psychological implications of such works. Issues of public and private space are addressed by comparing the monumental and the propagandistic elements of spectacle, as well as the enchanted, intimate, and fetish qualities of the small. Topics discussed range from Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty to David Hammons's Bliz-aard Ball Sale. Student projects are generated from their own related interests and concerns with interdisciplinary work encouraged.

Class Number

2018

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 127

Description

Digital Projects is an experimental sculpture studio with an emphasis on CNC (computer numerical controlled) milling, routing and surfacing. Students will be introduced to Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Machining (CAM) to produce finished works in a range of materials including wood, foam, wax, aluminum and plastic. Experience with Rhino, Fusion360, Maya, Blender or another CAD package is useful but not necessary. Students will use a range of CNC output options in the Columbus Digital Fabrication Studio, the Materials Lab and elsewhere on and off the SAIC campus. Digital Projects will give students ample time to learn new digital subtractive techniques and experiment with how to integrate them into their own critical and conceptual framework.

Class Number

2003

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Location

280 Building Rm 127A

Description

Materials Lab: Raw & Cooked Materials will explore five techniques of material reuse and invention: densify, reconfigure, transform, design and cultivate. Dispensing with the notion of nature as raw material, standing supply, this course begins with surplus, waste and by-products as an earlier beginning point of meaning and making. This class will look at vernacular architecture, secondary use design and current industrial models of material manufacture to understand both the physical properties of materials and their interconnected social, political and ethical meaning.

Class Number

2016

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Politics and Activisms, Art and Science, Collaboration, Public Space, Site, Landscape, Public Space, Site, Landscape, Sustainable Design

Location

280 Building Rm 015

Description

In the last generation, art has claimed new territory. This expanded field involves not only art viewing contexts, but spaces of daily life and practice, socio-political spheres, and draws regularly from non-art disciplines. The motivations and methods utilized in this work are diverse yet highly contested. In this studio seminar course we will pack our proverbial bags and take a trip into the grossly expanded field of socially engaged art and social practice.

Class Number

2176

Credits

3

Department

Sculpture

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement

Location

280 Building Rm 032

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