SAIC IS ONE OF THE OLDEST ACCREDITED INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS OF ART AND DESIGN IN THE COUNTRY

Founded as the Chicago Academy of Design in 1866, its purpose was to provide a challenging education in the studio arts and exhibition opportunities for its students. The School incorporated as the Chicago Academy of Fine Art in 1879, and changed its name to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882. The Museum and School moved into a building designed and built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Today the School is known as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).



SAIC has the largest school-museum campus in the United States.

Since 1976, SAIC has occupied its own cutting-edge facilities adjoining the Museum and the heralded Modern Wing overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan with additional buildings throughout an urban campus at the heart of the Chicago Loop.

SAIC TODAY

Providing degrees at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate levels, SAIC offers a broad and dynamic spectrum of study, including art and technology; arts administration; art history, theory, and criticism; art education and art therapy; fashion design; filmmaking; architecture, historic preservation and interior architecture; ceramics; fashion design; fiber; painting and drawing; performance; photography; printmaking; sculpture; sound; time arts (time-based media); film and video; visual communication; visual and critical studies; and writing. A comprehensive program in liberal arts emphasizes the critical role that humanities, mathematics, and sciences play in artists' development.