The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is often referred to as “America’s Studio” for its legacy as a place where radical experimentation in form and idea in the arts prevail. From its founding in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design (known as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1882) it has been one of the premier art academies in the U.S. Its chartered affiliation with a great art museum, its distinguished alumni (including Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Paschke, Richard Hunt, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Grant Wood, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Estes, Walt Disney, Thomas Hart Benton, Gladys Nilsson, Rirkrit Tiravaniji, Robert Indiana, etc.; many of these and other SAIC alumni represented in the collection of the Rockford Art Museum) and its superb faculty and facilities have led it in recent years to be regularly cited as the finest art school in America.

But it’s never yesterday that makes an art school an exciting and viable place for visual thinking, it’s tomorrow – always tomorrow. Keeping the SAIC vibrant, making it a laboratory for new ideas in a rapidly changing art environment, is the challenge facing its newer faculty. Fast Forward: The School of the Art Institute in the 21st Century takes a close look at the men and women who have joined the faculty of the SAIC this century, and who will lead it for decades to come. Beyond—but including—artists working in the media of painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, fashion, etc., these artists also expose us to things Georgia O’Keeffe couldn’t have imagined during her time at the SAIC, culled from newer departments such as Architecture/Interior Architecture/Designed Objects, Film/Video/New Media, Art and Technology, Performance, Sound, and Visual Communication. These faculty represent diversity in every sense of the concept, and offer an overview of contemporary art in all its ambition and intensity, setting the bar high for future generations of SAIC students.

James Yood, Guest Curator and Contemporary Art Critic