School of the Art Institute of Chicago

10/19/2026

SAIC is co-hosting the New York National Portfolio Day this Saturday! Don't miss your chance to receive a portfolio review from SAIC faculty. Bring your work, ask questions, and leave with feedback to help strengthen your portfolio. RSVP: https://nationalportfolioday.heydays.io/conventions/3911.

📍 Javits Center | 🗓 October 24

10/19/2026

TONIGHT!

Ronald Rael Lecture

✨Monday, October 19, 6:00–7:30 p.m.

📍The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.

This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation
services.

Join us for a lecture by architect Ronald Rael followed by an audience Q&A.

Ronald Rael is a trained architect, artist, activist, design technologist, multi-generational rancher, and traditional builder. His work blurs the borders between architecture, art, technology, land-based practices, and social justice, often combining indigenous and traditional materials and processes with contemporary technologies to explore the contrasts, contradictions, and complexities of contemporary society. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and other major museums. He is the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Presented in partnership with the William Bronson and Grayce Slovet Mitchell Lecture
Series in SAIC’s Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed
Objects.

10/15/2026

For Martha Mulholland (BFA 2008) and Samantha Soo (BIA 2008), interior design is a way of understanding how people live. Mulholland's Los Angeles practice layers in objects that carry their own histories. Soo's Hong Kong studio builds calm, contemplative rooms from raw stone, hand-applied plaster, and warm wood.

At SAIC, Soo learned to see a room as a mix of art, light, and feeling rather than a place to put furniture. Mullholland expands on this idea of spacemaking: When she picks a mirror for a client's bathroom, she knows they might grow old in front of it.

Read the story in the latest issue of SAIC Magazine below.

Interior designers Samantha Soo (BIA 2008) and Martha Mulholland (BFA 2008) see their work as a way of understanding how people live.

10/13/2026

Three SAIC alums are among the artists named to TIME's first-ever TIME100 Art list, which recognizes the 100 most influential people in fine art today: Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), Rashid Johnson (MFA 2005), and Trevor Paglen (MFA 2002).

10/12/2026

SAIC's Priority Merit Scholarship Deadline for spring for freshmen and transfer students is approaching on November 1! Learn more and apply at saic.edu/ug.

10/09/2026

Secret prisons. Classified military sites. The biases buried in AI training data. Trevor Paglen (MFA 2002) has spent his career looking at things that are hard to see.

At SAIC, he studied art and technology, experimenting with music, digital audio, and photography before pursuing a PhD in geography. Now the MacArthur Fellow and recipient of this year's LG Guggenheim Award is studying a system closer to home: social media algorithms, and what they do to his own brain.

Artist Trevor Paglen (MFA 2002) has spent decades researching AI, surveillance, and covert military structures. Now, he’s heading into an MRI machine to tap into his latest subject: his own brain.

10/07/2026

10/06/2026

The FAFSA is open! Students wishing to apply for financial aid for fall 2027 can now submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at fafsa.gov. For more info, visit saic.edu/ug_fafsa. Questions? Join our online info session on October 15. RSVP: saic.edu/sfs_webinars.

10/06/2026

Happy 50th Anniversary, 280 Building! 🎈

On October 6, 1976, the doors officially opened to 280 S. Columbus Drive, SAIC’s building connected directly to the Art Institute of Chicago museum. From its distinct Walter Netsch Field Theory architecture to the legendary conversation pit, this building has been the backdrop to five decades of creativity and lifelong friendships.

The School celebrated Dedication Day for the new building on October 6, 1976, featuring a picnic, the Chicago Children's Choir, speeches from dignitaries, including Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and a Dedication Day Concert.

Today, it’s home to the Ceramics, Painting and Drawing, Performance, Photography, Printmedia, and Sculpture departments.

Share a 280 memory in the comments.

📸 Archival views from the dedication ceremony and screenshots from a film by alum Tom Pallazzo.

10/05/2026

Thinking about graduate school? Join SAIC on campus Oct. 15-17 to learn about our graduate degrees, get portfolio feedback, and meet with faculty and current students. More info and RSVP at saic.edu/grevents.