Spring 2024 visiting artists lectures

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) presents a new season of the Visiting Artists Program—a public forum that features today’s most influential practitioners and thinkers.

Formalized in 1951 with the establishment of an endowed fund by Flora Mayer Witkowsky, the Visiting Artists Program has featured more than 1,000 international artists, designers, and scholars representing more than 70 countries. All events are free and open to the public. Learn more.

Location: The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.

Stephanie Dinkins: Tuesday, February 6, 6–7:30pm CT

Named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in AI,” Stephanie Dinkins is a transmedia artist who creates projects that foster dialog about race, gender, aging, and our future histories through emerging technologies, documentary practices, and social collaboration.

Fernando Laposse: Tuesday, March 5, 6–7:30pm CT

Designer Fernando Laposse specializes in transforming humble natural materials into refined design pieces, creating projects about sustainability, the loss of biodiversity, community dissolution, migration, and the negative impacts of global trade in local agriculture. Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects and the UIC School of Design Public Seminar Series. 

Douglas Kearney: Tuesday, March 12, 6–7:30pm 

Douglas Kearney is a poet, performer, and librettist who has published seven books that bridge thematic concerns such as politics, African American culture, masks, the Trickster figure, and contemporary music.

Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series

Ruba Katrib & Yasmil Raymond in conversation: Tuesday, March 26, 6–7:30pm 

Ruba Katrib (BA 2004) is curator and director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1, New York, and Yasmil Raymond (BFA 1999) is an author, curator, and rector of the Städelschule and director of Portikus. Katrib and Raymond are co-curators of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE on view at MoMA PS1 through March 4. Presented in partnership with SAIC Alumni Engagement. 

Kimsooja & Jaeho Chong in conversation: Tuesday, April 2, 6–7:30pm 

Kimsooja is an international conceptual artist whose practice explores the totality of life and art, transcending distinctions of medium and form through works of painting, sewing, installation, performance, video, light, and sound. Jaeho Chong is principal at Gongwon Co., a Seoul-based architectural design consultancy operating at the intersection of art and architecture. Presented in partnership with SAIC Alumni Engagement. 

About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

For more than 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 programs in the nation by US 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.