F News Question

In a survey conducted by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was named "the most influential art school" by art critics at general news publications from across the United States.

For the month of April F News asked: How has SAIC influenced you, positively or negatively? What does it mean to be an influential art school?

In regard to the Columbia University survey (which I participated in, and which I've been following): it's worth noting that the place where SAIC is named best art school is so hidden, so unimportant in the general theme of that study, that I didn't even see it the first time I read the book. (Tom Sloan pointed it out to me.) So the real lesson here isn't so much what might be made of the 160-odd newspaper art critics who answered the Columbia poll -- and there's always the question of the ones who didn't reply, and of the larger context of the survey questionnaire they filled out -- but rather the amazing publicity machine that picked that one tiny detail out of an otherwise irrelevant publication. I was astonished to see it picked up by the [Chicago] Reader and even more amazed to hear Walter Jacobson state it as a kind of research result on Fox News. It's ironic, to say the least of it, that the PR machinery has resulted in an F News piece! Are we all guided by the media?
-- Professor James Elkins, Art History, Theory, and Criticism

SAIC is influential because it has a wide variety of teachers fromdifferent cultural backgrounds and philosophies with a wide variety of views on art, making art, how it affects society, and its place in the world. You can find teachers whom you agree with and teachers who don't know how you got in here. With this wide variety of perspectives, students can take away what I think is the most important aspect to take away from college, and that is to learn that there is no right and wrong to anything and there is no norm.
-- Kristin Frownfelter, Senior, Art Education

My first response to that would be: who is taking the survey and what is their agenda? If it's anything involving "art critics," then it is bound to be specious and of questionable objectivity indeed. If it's just students asking students, then you might get some honest, if ill-informed, answers. ... Of course, the Art Institute was created with the surplus wealth created by that economic activity; and after some shrewd art purchases, a really impressive collection of Great Art was begun. I don't think the school could be nearly as effective without being attached to that glorious Art Mausoleum next door, in an aesthetic as well as financial sense. Going to that one Board of Regents meeting in 1993 as a Student Representative was pretty telling. I remember thinking how absolutely cadaverous Marshall Field III looked. I thought, "What the hell do these people care about quality art education? They care about expensive tuition rates!" I also got a hint of the multimillion-dollar business behind the glitz and glam. Those Regents are the hidden puppet masters. ...

Ultimately, I think being an "influential" art school involves the whole "field" of cultural production: wealthy cultural backers; complicit journalistic hacks; expensive visiting artists (wasn't Chuck D paid something like $25 thousand to speak for 30 minutes when I was still there?); generally on-the-ball faculty (who toe the line and are damn grateful to cling to whatever job security they possess); and a vast, inextinguishable consumer-base of young art wanna-be nubbins who have been sold a bill of goods. Like driving a status car, wearing designer clothing festooned with logos, or listing a degree from SAIC on your resume, it's all about name-brand recognition and product association. It's in the interest of all concerned that SAIC maintains status brand recognition. ...
-- Scott Marshall, BFA 1994, New York

It means that once we get that little piece of paper we have some type of clout.
-- Accra, Sophomore

The benefits of going to the "most influential art school (in the world)" is that you have this prestigious item for your resume; the down side is you'll be paying for it for the next thirty years. A perfect Catch 22. Honestly though, it's more complex than that; going to school here has changed my life forever. I wouldn't change a thing. I look at the world differently, I've met some great teachers and students, and I've gone places with my art that I never could have imagined. Personally, it has had a huge impact. Now if that really matters to the world or not is another issue. At the same time, maybe it doesn't matter at all. It just depends on how you spend your time, and what you take and make from it.
-- Billy Reiter, Senior, Painting and Drawing

It will mean a lot when I graduate, because it will be a tool to get further in a job market. Right now, it means nothing ... we don't really have the space or facility to separate us from any other art school. I feel that there is definite room for improvement; to actually bring us up to par with the title we have received. But I still have hope.
-- Christine Henry, Sophomore, Interior Architecture

I think it's flattering for the school to be commended that title of being influential.

The school has formed me [as] a thinker through the stimulation I got from the interdisciplinary openness -- the way the school functions. Through the myriad of faculties and resources, my education experience made me re-think art making and in a way I became aware of my role as an artist -- that is to re-define art. It taught me how to keep thinking.
-- Michael Tan, BFA 2001, International Student, Singapore

When I arrived here, I had no idea about SAIC's reputation among art schools and whatnot. I was fresh out of a preparatory high school that did not have much emphasis on the arts. With that in mind, I was impressed to find out that SAIC is looked at as one of the best. When I read in the [Chicago] Reader a couple months ago that it was voted most influential, I was pleasantly surprised. With all that I have learned here so far, I can definitely say that SAIC has influenced me positively to become a better artist and to keep learning new things each day. And I guess there's always the bragging of, "Hey, I go to the most influential art school," to all those annoying RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] kids.
-- Rachel Adams, Sophomore, Photography

One thing that I find confusing about ... "the most influential art school" is the lack of ambition and drive from the majority of first-year students. When I first arrived, I was told how the First Year Program was there to weed out the slacking students. Lately, it seems like it is simply a playground with no rules and pointless assignments. This environment is feeding the immature and uncreative students. I feel this is a huge reason why every one of my First Year Program critiques have passed by with absolutely no progress and barely any peer input.

I think that the acceptance into this school should increase its standards and not allow this slacking environment to envelop the school. I realize that people have the choice to blow 38 thousand dollars a year on socializing. I do think though that "the most influential art school" should take it upon [itself] to raise their standards to the highest extent and challenge their students to extend their conceptual thought process to its greatest potential.

Thank you for your time.
-- Matt Wedel, Sophomore, Sculpture

The "most influential art school," aka The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is a dirty, trashy, over-rated bastion of idiots. The Art Institute can kiss my righteous, indignant ass!
-- Anonymous

About the article ... it is a question art critics answered so I assume within their realm of reference we are most influential, which could mean very little to many and a great deal to a few.

The influence SAIC has on me is grand. I have found artist/instructors who have opened my world and gave me permission to go further than I have previously known. I find ways to manifest and flesh this out, peers that are fun to be working beside and sometimes with, and I have gained, and I am gaining, a working knowledge of the landscape of the current professional Western art world, knowledge of alternative veins of art, and the exchange or lack thereof.
-- Anonymous, Senior