Accepting applications for summer 2018 Low-Residency MFA

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts is currently accepting applications for summer 2018.

This three-year program is designed for the 21st-century artist whose work and life demands both a rigorous engagement with an artistic community as well as flexibility, fluidity, and a self-directed approach. The program is open to artists, writers, educators, curators, and historians. The flexibly structured curriculum supports a plan of study that integrates studio work with art history, theory, philosophy, and poetry.

Aligned with SAIC’s nationally-ranked graduate fine arts program, the Low-Residency MFA provides students with a unique educational experience unlike any other program of its kind. Three consecutive summer residencies at SAIC bring students together to create, construct, and critique work during six-week intensives structured through both studio- and classroom-based courses and symposia. Studio work builds toward a major thesis project with both exhibited and written components. Supported by faculty based at SAIC, students spend spring and fall semesters taking classes online and working remotely from a home studio, paired with a local SAIC program mentor.

The program is organized into three topic-driven themes that investigate the philosophy of art.

–The first year focuses on the notion of attention. Students learn to mobilize the senses and construct objects to explore the process of capturing or destabilizing the attention of the viewer.
–The second year, devoted to the subject of sensation, explores the thoughts, feelings, moods, and actions that drive the process of making.
–The third year explores the history of perception, including theories of questioning the distinction between the viewing subject and the object of his or her perception.

Core Faculty
D. Denenge Akpem, Giovanni Aloi, Lee Blalock, Gregg Bordowitz, Irina Bucan, Toufic El Rassi, Delinda Collier, Dana DeGiulio, Andrew Falkowski, Lindsey French, Claudia Hart, Kelly Kaczynski, Terri Kapsalis, Seth Kim-Cohen, Nathanaël, John Neff, Hamza Walker

Visiting artists and scholars past and returning
A.L. Steiner, Steffani Jemison, Riva Lehrer, Jason Simon, Moyra Davey, Wafaa Bilal, Miguel Gutierrez, Trevor Paglen, Pamela Sneed, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Stephen Andrews, Andrea Ray, Zoe Leonard, Eileen Myles, Stephen Andrews, Helen Molesworth, Pamela Sneed, Matthew Buckingham, Alejandro Cesarco, Yvonne Rainer, Andrea Fraser, Rodney McMillian, Eileen Myles, Josiah McElheny, Joseph Grigely, Kira Lynn Harris, Glenn Ligon, Josiah McElheny, Lynne Tillman, Wu Tsang

Commencement speakers
Fred Moten (2016), Amy Sillman (2017)

We invite you to participate in our upcoming Low-Residency MFA online information session on October 12 at 6:30pm. CT. RSVP.

Learn more about the Low-Residency MFA program.

About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top three graduate fine arts programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman. For more information, please visit saic.edu.