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Build a design practice through hands-on inquiry, experimentation, and exploration that uses critical history, theories, and techniques as a foundation.

The arts have always been at the vanguard of negotiating the most
challenging cultural questions of the day. Exhibitions, performances,
concerts, festivals, public art, social-practice projects, and countless
other cultural experiences—both within and outside the walls of formal
arts institutions—have informed and engaged populations; sparked
transformational conversations; and catalyzed untold historic change.

Not mere conduits through which art must pass between artist and
audience, Arts Administrators are charged and entrusted with shaping,
maintaining, re-envisioning, and even revolutionizing the very platforms
and organizational mechanisms through which arts-inspired conversation
and change can occur. As such, they must be responsive, dialogic
problem-solvers and re-imaginers whose work with art and artists is, by
nature, mutually creative.

The true art of Arts Administration is an intelligent elasticity: an
ability to respond to art, artist, and intention; to adjust platforms
for expression as needs outgrow and circumvent them; and to remain
always nimble, ethical, conversational, and visionary enough to navigate
the frontiers where status quo meets change.

You + SAIC: The Future of Civic Imagination

Who you are:

• You’re curious, open-minded, socially engaged, and action-oriented.
• You’d like the world to be a better place, and you’re passionate about playing a part in getting it there.
• You recognize that diversity is only one part of achieving cultural equity, and you’re committed to digging deeply into discourse and action towards achieving cultural justice.
• You enjoy the fluid, changeable nature of the terms “art,” “artist,” and “practice.” You know there is more than one answer to many of art’s questions.
• You’re interested in working with people from all over the world to collaboratively imagine and develop the future of arts administration.
• You have exciting visions for all that you might do, and a mature understanding of the systems and strategies that may need to be navigated to achieve them.
• You’ve already begun. You’ve tried things; experimented on your own; engaged with people, places, projects, and ideas. You’re ready for more.

Who we are:

• We believe in our students. We are committed to developing and supporting their visionary leadership so they will be prepared to reimagine arts and cultural organizations and create the future of the field.
• We explore, experiment, and connect—not in a static, theoretical learning space but in a real-time, real-world urban studio lab environment, using studio practice and methodology.
• We work collaboratively—not only because it’s an essential practice, but because it’s also the best way to a better future.
• We surround ourselves with artists and the arts. We learn from them, we learn for them, and we learn with them.
• We engage daily with the vast and diverse resources of the Chicago cultural scene: our largest and most dynamic learning space.
• We hold firm that Arts Administration is a creative practice of its own, and we equip and empower our students to shape and sustain their own artistic and professional practices.

Interested in learning more about how you can apply?
Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 800.232.7242 or gradmiss@saic.edu.