i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
5) The historic relationship of the school and the professions
A creative, entrepreneurial approach to the business of practice has always been the hallmark of
graduates of the School. More recently, professional seminars for graduating undergraduate BFA
as well as MFA students have been emphasized in curricular development at SAIC. The art market
is a demanding and mercurial environment for all artists, including those graduating from SAIC. In
this constantly changing environment, SAIC’s graduates have had several major triumphs of re-
definition such as the Chicago Imagist school of painting, the non-woven surfaces and structures of
today’s Fiber and Material Studies graduates, the artful style of comics epitomized by alumnus Chris
Ware, and MFA alumna Andrea Blum’s architectural works on exhibition in Venice in 2008, which
coincided with the eleventh Venice Architecture Biennale that featured work from MArch faculty Ben
Nicholson. Because AIADO’s particular professional architectural program is situated at the School,
this creative professional approach is natural. Knowledgeable employers in Chicago have long
expected this particular approach when they hire SAIC graduates.
6) Education and professional design collaboration.
The third semester of the MArch program is based on the idea of interactivity and collaborative roles
between different design disciplines. Through the interrelationship of three courses—ARCH 6110
Architectural Studio 3: Systems; INARC 6110 Interior Architecture Studio 3: Interactive Spaces; and
DES OB 6110 Designed Objects Studio 3: Exchange Objects—students set aside strict disciplinary
coursework and are organized into collaborative teams to pursue research on problems that
can only be solved effectively with a variety of approaches. This research leads to the principled
critique and detailed revision of an architectural space and function program, and of the furniture
and specialized equipment and designed objects that will be needed. Once this transdisciplinary
research is done, the individual members of the research teams determine how to solve the
problems they have set for themselves, using both cross-disciplinary partnerships and straight
disciplinary work. Recent examples of this approach have included a “rich-environment school”
a “creative arts business center” and a “children’s museum.” Students having researched the full
complexity of the issues are asked to decide as a team of designers and architects how and when to
cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries.
E) Architectural Education and Society
Former Dean of Faculty Carol Becker’s long tenure at SAIC was characterized by an investigation of
the relationship of the artist to society, and this has proven to be fertile ground for the examination of
design disciplines within the context of the subversive imagination that characterizes the School as a
whole. Under her leadership, the Design Initiative and the degree programs that flowed from it were
charged with re-imagining the design and architecture disciplines as they impacted the world. This
stewardship has continued under the Dean of Faculty Lisa Wainwright—who contributed to the Design
Initiative’s period of inquiry and curriculum-building in her former role as Dean of Graduate Studies;
furthermore, AIADO looks forward to new, knowledgeable leadership from new President Walter E.
Massey and Provost Elissa Tenny.
As a result of SAIC’s success marrying design and society, AIADO students have been invited to
participate in several civic projects. In one such example, the Mayor of Chicago asked the school
to imagine ways in which the City’s reputation as a center of Green Design could be given a wider
foundation in the lives of its ordinary citizens. The School’s architectural faculty members have lead the
way with this effort. Professor Linda Keane initiated several internships, paid by the City of Chicago,
for the design of a website devoted to the examination of green roofs all over the city, the architectural
issues involved in making them and measuring their effectiveness. The City of Chicago Green Roof
website can be accessed at http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/greeninitiatives/greenroofs/.
25 | Spring 2011
SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement