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Gagosian Quarterly

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Fall 2021 Issue

The San Francisco Art Institute: Its History and Future

Constance lewallen marks the 150th anniversary of the san francisco art institute, exploring the school’s evolution and pioneering faculty, as well as current challenges and the innovations necessary for its preservation..

Diego Rivera, The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City , 1931, installation view, San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). Artwork © Banco de México Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico City/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy SFAI

Constance Lewallen (1939–2022) was adjunct curator at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, where she was first matrix curator, subsequently senior curator, and organized many major exhibitions. Photo: Nathaniel Dorsky

It’s a cruel irony that just as the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is celebrating its 150th anniversary, it is struggling to survive. Alas, it is not an isolated case: many institutions of higher learning, especially art schools, with fewer than a thousand students have been under financial strain for a number of years. According to Deborah Obalil, president and executive director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), most have needed to change their operating structure in one way or another. Some stopped granting degrees (Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, Connecticut, in 2019); some have merged with colleges and universities (School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with Tufts University, in 2016); some, such as the Memphis College of Art, have closed altogether (2020). 1

Before we get into the specifics of what led to SFAI’s current crisis and what is being done to overcome it, we should know something of its remarkable history. The school’s roster of teachers and students, to say nothing of the guest lectures, conferences, and exhibitions that have taken place there over the years, speaks to why it has occupied such a critical role in the cultural life of the region.

The oldest art school in the West was born in 1871 in the living room of a local painter, J. B. Wandesforde, who convened a group of artists and writers to discuss the establishment of a society to promote the arts. Until its recent travails, the school was a center of artistic activity in the Bay Area. In its early days, as the California School of Fine Arts, it was located on Nob Hill; in 1926 it moved to Chestnut Street, on Russian Hill, to a campus with sweeping views of the city and the bay. The design, by architects Bakewell & Brown, was inspired by a typical Italian hillside town, with its tower, piazza, and cathedral (the school’s gallery). 2

In 1930, Henri Matisse visited the new campus. “He said he had never seen such magnificent lighting and working conditions in Europe,” according to an account of his tour. 3 Not long after, Diego Rivera created his monumental fresco The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City (1931) in the school’s student gallery, where it remains. The fresco portrays the creation of both a city and a mural and depicts several of the people who commissioned the work, as well as the artists, engineers, architects, and sculptors involved, but, as always, Rivera celebrates the common laborer, here epitomized by the outsize figure in the center. Rivera himself, paint brush and palette in hand, is shown from the rear, sitting on a beam as he supervises the project.

Henri Matisse at SFAI, with Spencer Macky, dean (left), and Lee Randolph, director (right), 1930. Photo: courtesy SFAI

Rivera created three murals in San Francisco, all intact and available to the public. The SFAI mural is considered the standout, a prime example of his mastery of the medium, and has made the school an international destination for the study of his work. In 2019, Patti Smith performed in front of it; a passionate admirer of the Mexican artists of his generation, particularly Rivera himself and Frida Kahlo, and of the revolutionary spirit of their country, she wrote of the event, “It was a moving experience, to sing so close to his work. The historic SFAI is a jewel, a work centric atmosphere of communal process and artistic evolution.” 4

Since the middle of the twentieth century the school has been at or near the heart of each new national and regional artistic movement. After the end of World War II, its enrollment surged in part due to an influx of older artists taking advantage of the GI Bill. In his role as president of the school, legendary educator and curator Douglas MacAgy hired Elmer Bischoff, Dorr Bothwell, former student Richard Diebenkorn, Claire Falkenstein, David Park, Hassel Smith, and Clyfford Still, and invited New York artists Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko to teach summer sessions, making the school a center for Abstract Expressionism. Although Still was only at the school from 1946 to 1950, he was especially influential, espousing a romantic, intensely anticommercial view of the role of the artist that, as we shall see, persisted across departments long after he departed.

Mark Rothko teaching at SFAI, 1949. Photo: William Heick, courtesy SFAI

The Painting Department continued to be the engine of the school. Major figures of the Bay Area Figurative movement Theophilus Brown and Paul Wonner, in addition to the aforementioned Bischoff, Diebenkorn, and Park, taught there for a time, and many students would become prominent artists, among them Dara Birnbaum, Don Ed Hardy (responsible for elevating tattoo to a fine art), Mike Henderson, Paul McCarthy, and Jason Rhoades. Kehinde Wiley, whom Barack Obama chose to paint his official presidential portrait in 2018, has said of his time there, “SFAI is where I honed in on my skills and identity as an artist, and I’ve carried that experience with me throughout my career.” 5

In the 1950s, it was the Beat era. Allen Ginsberg famously gave his first reading of Howl in 1955 at the Six Gallery, which was run by artists of the school. Jay DeFeo taught at SFAI even as her magnum opus The Rose (1958–66; now in the collection of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art) slowly deteriorated for years behind a temporary wall in the school’s conference room (it was conserved in that same location in 1995). DeFeo and fellow teachers Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Wally Hedrick, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Kenneth Rexroth were key figures in the artistic and literary community that gave rise to the San Francisco Renaissance, a blossoming of underground art that transformed the city into a center of the avant-garde. Conner would later propose an undergraduate seminar described in the course catalogue as “Wasted Time: unproductive activity of no practical application.” 6

Poster for “The Films of Bruce Conner,” SFAI, c. 1983, designed by Sharon Chickanzeff and Marcia Smith. Photo: courtesy SFAI

Bill Berkson in front of Jay DeFeo’s painting The Rose (1958–66), 1995. Artwork © The Jay DeFeo Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy SFAI

A decade later, Peter Selz included SFAI alumni Roy De Forest, Peter Saul, and William T. Wiley in his 1967 exhibition Funk , at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, which gave a name to this regional movement characterized by the personal, the antiformal, the irreverent, and, often, the crude. By that time SFAI was fully immersed in the counterculture, from anti–Vietnam War protests to the Black Liberation Movement. The gallery showed psychedelic rock posters in November 1966, Sun Ra performed in the courtyard in December 1968 and again in April 1969, and mind-expanding drugs were prevalent among faculty members and students. In that spirit, in 1966, several SFAI photography students organized The Experience , an exhibition of “hallucinatory photography among five people over a twelve-hour period” in which the artists took hallucinogenic drugs and collectively documented the experience. 7 Annie Leibovitz began photographing for Rolling Stone in 1968 while still a student (she became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973). 8 SFAI faculty member James Robertson designed Artforum magazine, its square format mimicking that of the school’s catalogue; and alumni photographers Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones documented Black Panther rallies, Haight Street hippies, and Sausalito’s off-the-grid houseboat community. Angela Davis joined the faculty five or so years after being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

Pirkle Jones, Black Panthers and crowd, Free Huey Rally, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, Oakland, CA , from A Photographic Essay on the Black Panthers , 1968 © The Regents of the University of California; courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz, Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones Photographs

Angela Davis teaching at SFAI, c. 1978. Photo: Julie McManus, courtesy SFAI

The school responded to the emergence of experimental performance, video, and Conceptual forms in the 1970s by establishing the Performance/Video Department (later renamed “New Genres”). The main members of the area’s nascent Conceptual scene populated the department: Howard Fried was the first chair, followed by Paul Kos (a former painting student at the school) and, soon after, Sharon Grace and Doug Hall. Eventually, former student Tony Labat joined the faculty, along with Kathy Acker. Guest instructors and visiting artists over the years have included Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Chris Burden, Terry Fox, the Kipper Kids, Shigeko Kubota, Gerhard Lischka, Mary Lucier, Linda Montano, Nam June Paik, David Ross, and Bonnie Sherk. Karen Finley was one of the department’s first students, and Nao Bustamante, Kota Ezawa, and David Ireland are among its many other notable graduates. The atmosphere was nonhierarchical, irreverent, open to all forms of expression. Kos described it as “arrogant and pompous. And humble and unassuming . . . brusque, brazen, and alive, welcoming and scary.” 9 Former student Carol Szymanski remembers, “Ours was a small, close-knit department, with no interaction with the other departments. I felt as though I was experiencing something very important about what art and life were and could be. Nothing was saddled with convention or history. It was all about the act of creating and discussing.” 10

Kathy Acker reading from In Memoriam to Identity , SFAI, 1990. Photo: Sven Wiederholt, courtesy SFAI

Barry McGee, Alicia McCarthy, Ruby Neri, and Rigo 23, all SFAI graduates, were the core artists of San Francisco’s Mission School, which flourished during the 1990s and 2000s and grew from the region’s vibrant mural and graffiti street art. McGee summed up his experience as a student: “I think about all the weird kids and teachers, how we all came together in SF at 800 Chestnut. It’s one of the strongest art communities I have been involved with. SFAI is steeped in SF art history . . . the real deal. Its location and relaxed campus make it one of the last great art schools in America.” 11

From the beginning, film and photography have been central to the school’s curriculum. For starters, the first public showing of a moving picture occurred there in 1880 with Eadweard Muybridge’s presentation of his Zoopraxiscope. In 1945, Ansel Adams founded the country’s first department of art photography at SFAI, and hired leading photographers of the day including Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Lisette Model, Edward Weston, and Minor White. Other notable faculty followed: Jones, Ellen Brooks, Jerry Burchard, Linda Connor, John Collier, Reagan Louie, Larry Sultan, Henry Wessel, and current chair Lindsey White. Among those who studied in the department are Jim Goldberg, Sharon Lockhart, Mike Mandel, and Catherine Opie. While technique was taught in the foundation classes, the stress was always on innovation and experimentation. Leibovitz discovered her true talent was for photography in the department, although she was a painting major. (She also took a sculpture class taught by Bruce Nauman.) According to Leibovitz (and the same sentiment was expressed by several other former students), “A lot of schools teach you technique. At the [San Francisco Art Institute], they teach you how to see.” 12 Former student Jane Reed recalls, “We were a very close-knit group of people dedicated to making art for the creative impulse not the commercial return.” 13

California School of Fine Arts (now SFAI) catalogue cover, 1940–41, featuring a photograph of the campus by Ansel Adams. Image: courtesy SFAI, reproduced with permission from The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

SFAI’s Film Department, established in 1969, became a home to the country’s burgeoning avant-garde filmmaking scene. (Well before that, beginning in 1947, the first noncommercial film classes anywhere were taught at the school by Sidney Peterson. Stan Brakhage studied at the school in the early 1950s.) Robert Nelson, the first filmmaker hired when the Film Department was established, set the tone, stressing self-expression and experimentation. Eventually the faculty included filmmakers James Broughton, Ernie Gehr, Lawrence Jordan, George Kuchar, and Gunvor Nelson, as well as famed film curator Edith Kramer. The department also established a residency program that attracted Chantal Akerman, Hollis Frampton, Carolee Schneemann, and others. Steve Anker, director of the San Francisco Cinematheque and, later, dean at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Los Angeles, as well as a faculty member at SFAI, organized regular screenings in the auditorium. Even when video was attracting students in the 1980s and ’90s, Anker would write, “Most students were still excited by the sensuality of celluloid.” 14

The department continues its commitment to avant-garde film while also teaching narrative and documentary approaches. Graduates include the Taiwanese installation artist Su-Chen Hung; Ruby Yang, who in 2007 received the Short Film Documentary Academy Award for The Blood of Yingzhou District , about HIV in China; Lance Acord, cinematographer on Sofia Coppola’s award-winning Lost in Translation (2003); and Kathryn Bigelow (a painting major who also studied film), whose film The Hurt Locker (2008) made her the first woman to win a Best Director Academy Award. In accepting the honorary doctorate bestowed on her by the school in 2013, Bigelow said that “art education really is vital and unique.” 15 Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, who studied experimental filmmaking at SFAI, won the Academy Award for best documentary feature for Citizenfour (2014), and Peter Pau, who studied photography with Jones and filmmaking with Kuchar at the school in the 1980s, won an Academy Award for Cinematography for Ang Lee’s movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

Sargent Johnson in his studio, Berkeley, California, c. 1930. Photo: Alpha Stock/Alamy Stock Photo

Sculpture, too, is vital to the program. Sargent Johnson, a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance, graduated from the school in 1923. In later decades, some of the area’s leading ceramic artists—Jim Melchert, Ron Nagle, Manuel Neri, and Richard Shaw—taught there full- or part-time, and Nauman was a part-time instructor in the department in the late 1960s. Stephanie Syjuco wrote of her experience as a student in the department,

SFAI has always been super experimental—many students were pushing the envelope in terms of performance, new genres, and conceptual works. . . . the program at SFAI created feral artists. . . . SFAI didn’t seem to care about training students toward even thinking about [the art market] at all. . . . The legacy of SFAI is huge and I will always remain thankful that I went there. SFAI felt a bit out of time and place, adhering to the primacy of a fine-arts degree over the decades while other schools added architecture and design programs to bolster their student numbers and financial support. But I do appreciate the purely fine arts focus it had, despite its potentially unmarketable reality. This defiance feels very much like the spirit of SFAI. 16

John Cage speaking at SFAI, 1991. Photo: courtesy SFAI

The Humanities Department’s outstanding teachers attracted students throughout the school. Poet and art critic Bill Berkson taught art history and poetry classes. One of his students was singer/songwriter and visual artist Devendra Banhart, who says, “I am certain that without Bill Berkson’s guidance and encouragement I would 100% not have a career, no doubt about it.” 17 Other faculty included Davis (aesthetics), composer Charles Boone (music), and Bernard Mayes, the openly gay ordained priest and radio broadcaster who, in 1961, having learned of San Francisco’s high suicide rate, singlehandedly created the nation’s first suicide hotline.

Given the sheer breadth and ambition of the lectures and public programs that SFAI has hosted, the question is less who has spoken at the school than who hasn’t . For over twenty years, Berkson ran a speaker program that included not just artists of all stripes, from Robert Rauschenberg to David Hammons, but also prominent art critics and curators such as Arthur Danto, Lucy Lippard, and Walter Hopps, internationally recognized poets (John Ashbery), and cultural figures from Emory Douglas of the Black Panthers to John Cage and Rem Koolhaas. As for conferences, in 1949 MacAgy hosted the landmark “Western Roundtable on Modern Art.” 18 The object was simply to examine the art of that moment. To name just a few of the participants: cultural anthropologist Gregory Bateson (who also taught at the school), the artists Marcel Duchamp and Mark Tobey, the critic and art historian Robert Goldwater, the composers Darius Milhaud and Arnold Schoenberg, and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose antipathy to the avant-garde was on full display. Seventeen years later the school sponsored another conference, “The Current Moment in Art,” to assess the art of that era. It featured Hopps, Selz, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Larry Rivers, Frank Stella, Wayne Thiebaud, and others. 19 Between 1989 and 1991, former student and painting faculty member Carlos Villa organized a series of symposia, part of his “Worlds in Collision” project.

“Western Roundtable on Modern Art,” SFAI, 1949. Photo: William Heick, courtesy SFAI

Poster for the Spring 1985 lecture series at SFAI, designed by Peter Belsito. Photo: courtesy SFAI

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the importance of the school’s gallery, which over the years and under its various directors has mounted many provocative shows. 20 Among them: The Hot Rod Aesthetic (1968); American Primitive and Naive Art (1970); 21 18' 6" × 6' 9" × 11' 2 1/2" × 47' 11 3/16" × 29' 8 1/2" × 31' 9 3/16" (1969), which brought the work of artists such as Michael Asher, Edward Kienholz, Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner to SFAI and was an early example of institutional support for the Conceptual movement; and Other Sources: An American Essay (1976), a pioneering exhibition and performance series, organized by Villa, that celebrated cultural diversity and a more inclusive art world by showcasing the work and cultural traditions of artists of color. Another groundbreaking exhibition, Touch: Relational Art from the 1990s to Now (2002), cocurated by Karen Moss and Nicolas Bourriaud, featured an international roster of artists associated with Bourriaud’s concept of “relational aesthetics,” the first exhibition in the United States to fully explore the phenomenon of social interaction that Bourriaud had identified.

Despite its stellar history, the school reached a crisis point in March 2020. What went wrong? SFAI has had financial difficulties off and on for years but always rose phoenixlike from the proverbial ashes. There is not just one cause of the current dire circumstance; as noted earlier, SFAI is one among many art schools that are in jeopardy. Historically, most started as community-based art centers. Once they shifted to the category of degree-granting colleges, they were required to increase administrative staff to satisfy nonprofit guidelines and federal regulations, such as Title IX. AICAD’s Obalil observes that such costs never level off; they always increase. 22 Most art schools lack an ample endowment and traditionally have not attracted major philanthropy. Consequently, they rely on tuition. That leaves two options: raise tuition, which is usually quite steep (SFAI’s, which is fairly typical, is around $45,000), or increase the size of the student body. In the case of SFAI, neither one, nor even both, can meet the yearly operating budget of approximately $18 million.

In fact, enrollment in SFAI has fallen off in recent years from its peak of around 1,000 in the late 1960s and early ’70s to 300 or so in recent years. This was due in part to rising tuition costs and in part to a decrease in the number of foreign students, who traditionally have made up a good portion of the student body and who pay full tuition. Most other students take out substantial loans to finance their education, a deterrent when a fine-art degree doesn’t clearly lead to a financially secure career. In this way, SFAI’s dedication to a purely fine-arts education has made it difficult to attract students in today’s economy. Those art schools that also offer design and other applied arts, such as the California College of the Arts (CCA), based in San Francisco, have fared better.

Plein air life drawing class, SFAI, c. 1958. Photo: courtesy SFAI

Then there was the decision to develop a second campus. In 2015, the school secured a sixty-year lease on one of the piers at nearby Fort Mason, a former military site administered by the National Park Service and now home to nonprofit arts-oriented venues. The school struck an attractive deal whereby Fort Mason offered a very favorable lease. In return the school was responsible for a much-needed, costly renovation. It seemed like a good idea at a time when enrollment was still relatively healthy and the school had outgrown the rented, rather dismal graduate studios and classrooms in the Dogpatch neighborhood across town. However, just as the new campus opened in 2017, enrollment began to decline (the school had lacked a director of admissions for over a year). Moreover, the fundraising goal for the build-out was not met—SFAI’s alumni base had been somewhat mystifyingly neglected—raising the debt to $19 million. 23 This resulted in a bank loan, the collateral for which was the Russian Hill property and all other assets of the school. The yearly interest was crushing.

By March 2020, it looked as if the school might not make it this time. The coup de grâce was that, just as negotiations to merge with the University of San Francisco, a local private Jesuit university, were all but finalized, the deal fell victim to the covi d -19 pandemic and other contributing factors. Once the merger collapsed, then-SFAI-president Gordon Knox and board chair Pam Rorke Levy announced that the school would not enroll new students in fall 2021 and laid off adjunct faculty and all but a skeleton staff. That so alarmed the community that there was a significant uptick in fundraising, which, along with the receipt of a second round of funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, averted the school’s closure. But what really saved the day was that the board was able to renegotiate the bank loan by reaching an agreement with the University of California, which assumed the loan and allowed SFAI six years to repay the debt, including a year of relief. The school was also able to secure permission from Fort Mason to sublet the new campus and found a short-term tenant, with others expressing interest in renting part or all of the space in the future—a viable arrangement as long as the tenant fits Fort Mason’s guidelines that it be a nonprofit.

Flyer for a Sun Ra concert at SFAI, 1968. Photo: courtesy SFAI

In July 2020, the board created the Reimagine Committee, made up of SFAI faculty, alumni, staff, and artists unaffiliated with the school, along with local cultural leaders and external consultants. This body was charged with addressing the school’s problems and coming up with ideas on how to make it healthier economically and more relevant to today’s world. The committee identified many of the school’s weaknesses—a lack of transparency in its decision-making, for example—and proposed, among other ideas, decentralizing the current organizing structure in favor of collective leadership (a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach). Unfortunately, an adversarial relationship between the board and the committee ensued when the committee, which felt its findings weren’t sufficiently appreciated, announced that it wouldn’t present them to the board until then-chair Levy stepped down. Levy and other stalwarts had stayed on through the worst of the crisis and had fought to enable the school to stay open and to retain its tenured faculty.

The school was the subject of a great deal of negative press when it was leaked that negotiations were underway to monetize the Rivera mural. According to Levy and other trustees, it was the board’s fiduciary responsibility to investigate all avenues to shore up the school’s finances in the short term, including by selling the mural, while exploring longer-term solutions. The fresco was appraised at approximately $50 million, and it was hoped that a partner would endow it in place. 24 To that end, trustee and architect John Marx came up with a brilliant plan that would allow the fresco to remain in its present location by opening the gallery to the public (the gallery has an exterior wall facing the fresco). It could then become a pocket museum, classroom, and center for the study of fresco, conservation, Rivera, and the Mexican mural movement.

Rendering of a proposal to add a new entrance to SFAI’s Diego Rivera Gallery, December 2020. Image: Form4 Architecture/Teapot

Former faculty artist Mildred Howard had drafted a petition signed by dozens of artists (both affiliated and unaffiliated with the school), curators, arts-organization leaders, and gallerists across the country, urging the sale of the fresco only as a last resort. Unfortunately, the press focused on the possibility of removing the mural, which was not the board’s preferred option; in fact it was vehemently opposed. For one thing, while the removal of the fresco from the wall is technically possible (although not without endangering it), on a symbolic level it would be tantamount to tearing the soul out of the school. This is a moot point now, since the fresco is up for landmark status, which, if achieved as expected, would decrease its value. (The Chestnut Street campus is itself landmarked.) The mural could still generate funds, however, if another donor is identified who would endow it in place, or by making it the focus of a public space such as Marx conceived, or, ideally, both.

The new board chair, the photographer, educator, and alumnus Lonnie Graham, is exploring ways to keep the school afloat for three years (he calls it a “runway”) while preparing for a long-term solution. To that end, he and the other trustees, now numbering seven (all but three had resigned during the Rivera controversy), have embarked on a series of listening tours with faculty, staff, alumni, and current students (who seem especially energized by being included) in order not only to hear their points of view but also to establish much-needed trust among these groups. If all goes well, the plan is to be able to rehire those adjunct teachers and staff who were laid off. The school has remained open (a handful of students will graduate this spring) and is expecting to enroll approximately 50 students for fall 2021, 100 the following year, and 300 the year after that, numbers that should allow time to develop a sustainable operating structure.

There are plans for a 150th-anniversary exhibition and benefit sale at the school in November of 2021. Titled Looking Forward , it will include a large selection of works by artists, both local and national, donated by the artists themselves, as well as by alumni, friends, collectors, foundations, current and former trustees, and prominent galleries. The following is a partial list of the artists to be represented: Cunningham, Diebenkorn, Ireland, Kienholz, Opie, Diane Arbus, Michael Heizer, Hans Hofmann, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Hung Liu, Julie Mehretu, Gary Simmons, and William T. Wiley. In addition, major works by Hall, Rivers, and Thiebaud are being offered for sale before the exhibition.

The long-term solution would most likely be a partnership with a college or university, or perhaps an alliance of art schools with complementary strengths. No one believes that returning to the way the school has operated in the past could or should be the goal.

SFAI alumnus Kehinde Wiley unveiling his portrait of former President Barack Obama, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 2018. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

It must be noted that one contributor to the school’s troubles has been a lack of consistent leadership: between 1987 and 2021 there were six presidents or interim presidents. Currently, SFAI has no president but rather a chief academic officer and an interim chief operational officer. Perhaps it’s unnecessary to have a single president; instead, several officers could share responsibility for the governance of the school according to their expertise. Meanwhile, the covid -19 pandemic has shown that there are educational models that do not require on-site presence. Some students might be on campus, others could learn from afar. The same goes for faculty, guest teachers, and speakers. San Francisco, after all, is situated in the center of the tech world and should be in an advantageous position to devise new models.

Where do things stand now? The school’s debt has been deferred and recruitment and marketing officers have been retained. While working to increase enrollment, the board is also seeking a guarantor for a $7 million bridge loan. Several new, promising trustees have joined the board and there has been some impressive success in fundraising. The Access 50 Scholarship Fund, established under Knox’s presidency and directed at people of color, has received donations from artist Sam Gilliam and from Julie Wainwright, founder and CEO of RealReal, an online consignment market for luxury goods, who transferred a substantial amount of stock. The fund is currently valued at $750,000, and the first scholarships will be awarded in the fall of 2021. Expected income from leasing the Fort Mason campus might well yield $1 million a year over the fifty-five-year duration of the lease, which the school can borrow against. Over time, the new leadership is committed to implementing many of the Reimagine Committee’s suggestions, not least of which is finding new, more equitable and sustainable models that will enable it to lower tuition.

It seems that the school has been able to retreat from the abyss.

Peppered throughout this text are quotations from former students about their love for the school. Why does it inspire such passion? According to what they have said over and over, it is because of SFAI’s unique commitment to a purely fine-arts education that teaches students not only to be artists but, just as important, to think and see, to innovate and experiment. The school isn’t for everyone. Some former students cite the prohibitive cost and the lack of sufficient facilities, but most have positive, even rapturous memories of their time there. Many appreciate that they were treated as artists from day one; others cite the cultural and artistic diversity of the student body, and still others the support of the faculty. 25 Dara Birnbaum wrote simply, “I was able to fall in love with art there.” 26

I wish to acknowledge the many people who helped me with this article. I couldn’t have written the history of the San Francisco Art Institute without the good-natured help of Jeff Gunderson, librarian and archivist at the school, and his assistant Rebecca Alexander, whose chronology I drew upon and who helped me identify sources and answered what must have seemed endless questions. Steve Anker guided me through the history of the school’s Film Department and Linda Conner did the same for the Photography Department. I couldn’t have navigated the twists and turns of recent events and future plans without the assistance of Deborah Obalil, Lonnie Graham, John Marx, Doug Hall, Jennifer Rissler, Gordon Knox, Jeremy Stone, Lindsey White, Leonie Guyer, and Joyce Burstein. Finally, I am grateful to Judy Bloch, who deftly edited the essay, as she has so many of those I have written in the past.

1 Deborah Obalil, telephone conversation with the author, March 9, 2021.

2 Bakewell & Brown designed many San Francisco landmarks, including City Hall, and Arthur Brown Jr. later designed Coit Tower. A 1969 addition to the campus was designed by Paffard Keatinge-Clay. The school changed its name from California School of Fine Arts to San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in 1961; for simplicity, the school is referred to by its current name throughout this article.

3 San Francisco Art Association Bulletin , April 1930, p. 4. SFAI Archives, Anne Bremer Memorial Library, SFAI.

4 Patti Smith, Instagram post, thisispattismith, January 19, 2019. Available online at https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs1Mcx_hpUx/ (accessed June 7, 2021).

5 Kehinde Wiley, quoted in SFAI, “Kehinde Wiley to deliver keynote address at San Francisco Art Institute Commencement and receive honorary degree,” March 21, 2018. Available online at https://sfai.edu/uploads/about-sfai/2018_SFAI_Commencement_Release_03212018.pdf  (accessed June 7, 2021).

6 Gunderson, illustrated chronology, 1954–69, unpublished.

7 “The Experience,” press release, SFAI, May 23, 1966. SFAI Archives.

8 Annie Leibovitz had been a student in Bruce Nauman’s sculpture class.

9 Paul Kos, “Studio 10,” in San Francisco Art Institute MFA Catalog, 2002 (San Francisco: SFAI, 2002).

10 Carol Szymanski, quoted in Taylor Dafoe, “‘I Fell in Love With Art There’: As the San Francisco Art Institute Closes, 5 Celebrated Artists Reflect on How the School Shaped Them,” Artnet News , April 1, 2020. Available online at https://news.artnet.com/art-world/san-francisco-art-institute-alumni-1820244 (accessed June 10, 2021).

11 Barry McGee, quoted in “10 Famous Artists You Didn’t Know Went to SFAI,” (im)material Blog , SFAI, n.d. Available online at https://sfai.edu/blog/ten-famous-artists-who-went-to-sfai (accessed June 10, 2021).

12 Leibovitz, quoted in Cynthia Robins, “Celebrities Wow Art Crowd,” San Francisco Examiner , March 18, 1996.

13 Jane Reed, email to the author, April 9, 2021.

14 Steve Anker, “Radicalizing Vision: Film and Video in the Schools,” in Anker, Kathy Geritz, and Steve Seid, eds., Radical Light: Alternative Film & Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010), p. 155. This account was drawn from Anker’s essay, pp. 152–58.

15 Kathryn Bigelow, quoted in “SFAI Alumna Spotlight: Kathryn Bigelow,” Art & Education , June 26, 2013. Available online at https://www.artandeducation.net/announcements/108449/sfai-alumna-spotlight-kathryn-bigelow (accessed June 10, 2021).

16 Stephanie Syjuco, quoted in Dafoe, “‘I Fell in Love With Art There.’”

17 Devendra Banhart, email to the author, April 20, 2021.

18 A transcript of the conference is available online at https://www.ubu.com/historical/wrtma/transcript.htm (accessed June 10, 2021).

19 The transcript is currently being digitized; see https://sfai.edu/press-releases/sfai-receives-prestigious-grant-to-digitize-recordings-featuring-some-of-the-most-prominent-names-in-20th-century-art-history (accessed June 24, 2021).

20 Directors of the exhibition program over the years have included James Monte, Phil Linhares, Helene Fried, David Rubin, Richard Pinnegar, Jeanie Weiffenbach, Karen Moss, Hou Hanru, Andrew McClintock, Hesse McGraw, Katie Morgan, and Kat Trataris.

21 Artists represented in American Primitive and Naïve Art were W. L. Caldwell, Carlos Carvajal Sr., Jim Colclough, Flipper, B. J. Newton, Harold Pedersen, Jane Porter, Martín Ramírez, Pauline Simon, P. M. Wentworth, and Joseph Yoakum.

22 Obalil, telephone conversation with the author.

23 A group of alumni, noting that fundraising outreach to alumni had virtually and inexplicably fallen off, have formed their own committee, SF Artists Alumni, to promote a collaborative way forward. They maintain and expand outreach to alumni all over the world and publish a newsletter covering alumni activities.

24 See Zachary Small, “San Francisco’s Top Art School Says Future Hinges on a Diego Rivera Mural,” New York Times , January 5, 2021.

25 See “San Francisco Art Institute Reviews,” Niche. Available online at https://www.niche.com/colleges/san-francisco-art-institute/reviews/ (accessed June 10, 2021).

26 Dara Birnbaum, quoted in Dafoe, “‘I Fell in Love With Art There.’”

SFAI’s benefit auction and sale, Looking Forward, featuring works by  Edward and Nancy Kienholz, Diane Arbus, Hans Hofmann, Hung Liu, Wayne Thiebaud, and William T. Wiley, among others, will take place at SFAI  on November 4, 2021; to attend the event, purchase tickets at  sfai.edu

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20 Artworks Not to Miss at the Art Institute of Chicago

By Hannah Edgar

Hannah Edgar

Even if you have never set foot in the Windy City, you may still feel as if you’ve ambled through the Art Institute of Chicago. No American art museum, besides the Met in New York, has so embedded itself in the popular imagination, whether through the iconic montage of Ferris Bueller and pals visiting the museum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or via the classic Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece , whose 1996 version features works from the Art Institute’s collection.

Yes, American Gothic , Nighthawks , and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte are all must-sees. But there are plenty of other treasures that are just as worthy of your time—if you know where to look. With the help of Art Institute curators, we have gathered 20 of them here.

Follow along with the Art Institute’s handy online map here .

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, Thorne Miniature Rooms, c. 1937–40 (Gallery 11)

Upon entering the Art Institute from Michigan Avenue, it’s likely your eyes will immediately be drawn to the Women’s Board Grand Staircase. Resist the urge to ascend and instead head one level down, where you’ll find a tucked-away Art Institute favorite.

Narcissa Niblack Thorne’s miniature rooms, produced at a 1:12 scale, depict imagined rooms in various locales and periods, from contemporary China to Colonial Massachusetts. Thorne first publicly displayed her intricately crafted rooms at the 1933 Century of Progress Fair in Chicago, where viewers stricken by the Great Depression were enthralled by the rooms’ opulence and detail.

Thorne was able to sustain her craft thanks to the financial support of her husband, heir to the Montgomery Ward fortune, and a studio of highly skilled craftspeople, many of whom had special architectural expertise in the period or milieu depicted. Just under 100 Thorne miniature rooms survive today, with the majority—68 in total—held by the Art Institute in this specially constructed wing.

Tadao Ando, Ando Gallery, 1992 (Gallery 109)

The gallery adjacent isn’t just a dimly lit oasis in the midst of a bustling museum; it is renowned architect Tadao Ando’s first American commission. Best known for his residential spaces, Ando took inspiration from traditional Japanese domestic interiors in designing the gallery: Visitors are greeted by 16 freestanding wooden pillars, past which one can take in the art in illuminated displays.

Ando went on to pursue more Chicago-based projects, designing a house for philanthropist-activist Fred Eychaner and the interior of the adjacent art museum Wrightwood 659. He received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995.

Unknown Moche artist, Portrait Vessel of a Ruler, 100 BCE–500 CE (Gallery 136)

In the nearby Arts of the Americas gallery is this stunning portrait vessel from Peru. Imperiously handsome, the face is so naturalistic as to be almost animate, its mouth expressively bracketed by creases. We don’t know what middle-aged Moche leader this vessel depicts, but we can immediately identify his regal status by his headdress, face paint, and ear ornaments.

The exact function of these vessels remains somewhat unclear; they were often buried as funerary offerings, but scholars are unsure whether they were specifically made for that purpose. The vessels may have been circulated through neighboring communities as emblems of royal might and goodwill.

Unknown Senufo Artist, Female Caryatid Drum (Pinge), c. 1930–50 (Gallery 137)

This remarkable artwork, on view in the Arts of Africa gallery next door, takes a familiar motif from sub-Saharan Africa—of women balancing loads on their head—and turns the act monumental, almost superhuman. A small yet mighty figure bears the weight of this four-foot high wooden ceremonial drum capped by hide. Many have hailed this artwork as an allegory for Senufo society: The West African culture is matrilineal, holding women as its foundation.

Attributed to the Varrese Painter, Loutrophoros (Container for Bath Water), 350–340 BCE (Gallery 151)

Grecian vessels like this one—which you’ll find in the galleries devoted to Greek and Roman art—were traditionally used for bathing a bride before her nupitals. This particular vase, however, was probably commissioned for burial, not marriage. That’s because it depicts a woman seated in a naiskos , a small temple marking the grave site of a wealthy family. The vase imagines what the woman’s wedding day might have looked like, with female family members and friends lovingly doting on her with perfume and jewelry.

The artist of this standout artifact is unknown, but the style is consistent with an artist called simply the Varrese Painter, the most representative, prolific, and accomplished exponent of Apulian red-figure vase pottery.

Unknown Roman artist after an original by Praxiteles, Statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos, 2nd century (Gallery 151)

Today nude statues of Greek goddesses seem ubiquitous; they’re what many of us imagine first when thinking of Greco-Roman statuary. But the artistic trend had to start somewhere, and scholars believe it began with the now-lost Aphrodite of Knidos, a devotional statue carved by sculptor Praxiteles in 365 BCE.

The Aphrodite of Knidos was built for a temple whose footprint still survives in modern-day Turkey. Its gender was groundbreaking—it was far more common at the time to depict nude male heroes—as was its size. Carved in lifelike dimensions, it was the largest statue of its kind at the time of its creation.

Unfortunately, the original statue was lost to time. Fortunately , it became fashionable among wealthy Romans to own reproductions of the statue, no longer for temple use but for secular, decorative purposes. This example, while having sustained significant damage, is immediately identifiable as one of many such reproductions.

Walter T. Bailey, Facade Panel from the National Pythian Temple, c. 1927 (Gallery 200)

Ascending to the second level, you will be tempted to head straight to the Arts of Europe galleries. But after you’ve seen Gustave Caillebotte’s massive Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) in Gallery 201, slow your roll and check out the northern wall, which bears this pharaonic likeness. (It will be off to the left when looking at Paris Street .)

This fragment survives from a building designed by Walter T. Bailey, believed to be Illinois’s first licensed Black architect. In 1922 Bailey was commissioned to design the national headquarters of the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, a Black analog to the white Knights of Pythias fraternal order.

Eight stories tall and boasting a 1,500-seat auditorium as well as plenty of office and commercial space, the National Pythian Temple stood at 3737 South State Street in Bronzeville, one of the most economically prosperous Black neighborhoods in the United States. The project was hailed at the time as the largest building entirely financed, designed, and built by African-Americans. That cultural pride manifested in the many Egyptian symbols carved into its glazed terracotta facade—not just the pharaoh in his nemes but griffins, rams, and other sacred animals.

In 1933 the temple hosted a Negro Exposition that ran parallel to the city’s World’s Fair, attesting to the building’s significance in Black Chicago at the time. Sadly, the edifice was razed in 1980; in a characteristic case of generational disinvestment, the bustling State Street corridor it once anchored is now an empty lot.

Adriaen van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris, Trompe-l’Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain, 1658 (Gallery 212)

This collaboration between two skilled painters is as clever as it is masterful. The teeming Technicolor floral arrangement at center is Van der Spelt’s handiwork; a tulip, at the time a recent import to Holland, is prominently featured. Meanwhile, the hyperrealistic silk curtain covering a third of the canvas was contributed by Van Mieris.

So what’s the point here? The curtain reference in this trompe-l’oeil painting (literally, “to trick the eye” in French) is likely two-pronged. First, it was common to protect paintings by drawing a curtain over them when not being viewed. Second, the curtain nods to an apocryphal tale about ancient Greek painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius in which the latter tricked the former into believing a curtain he’d painted was real. Regard this canvas in person, and you might understand Zeuxis’s error.

Rosalba Carriera, A Young Lady with a Parrot , c. 1730 (Gallery 216)

The great Venetian Rococo artist Rosalba Carriera was well enough respected to get the mononymic treatment: She’s usually just known as Rosalba. The soft shading, plush colors, and lively face of her subject in this pastel portrait is a clear demonstration of her mastery.

After getting her start working in miniature, Rosalba explored portraits and allegories with her pastel works. This canvas is a rare mix of the two genres. The bird tugs at the girl’s neckline to scandalously bare her breast; the fact that its plumage is almost the exact same hue as her dress, however, cleverly conflates the bird’s and woman’s actions

John Philip Simpson, The Captive Slave (Ira Aldridge) , 1827 (Gallery 220)

It is likely that John Philip Simpson painted this portrait to curry support for the abolitionist cause in upper-crust British society. His sitter, the actor Ira Aldridge, was an antislavery activist himself. Born a free man in New York City in 1807, Aldridge was one of the first African-American Shakespeareans and dramatists to receive broad acclaim, though racism in his home country forced him to build his career in Europe.

Aldridge had a tradition of directly addressing audiences in the final run of a production, where he often sounded off about social issues of the day, like abolition. At the time of Simpson’s portrait, he had just starred in the musical drama The Slave in London, which may have inspired Simpson’s associating him with the abolitionist cause.

Toshiko Takaezu, Dancing Brush , 1990 (Gallery 262)

In the Arts of the Americas wing, the gallery featuring a tranche of Toshiko Takaezu’s vessels is a bustling one: Ivan Albright’s Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida (see below) is at one end, and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks is at the other. But do take a moment with Dancing Brush and its peers. These eloquent, controlled works grew out of Takaezu’s commitment to Zen Buddhism and late-life explorations of Japanese pottery, inspired by her studies in Japan in the 1950s. This sculpture—lustrous greens and golds dancing entrancingly over sun-bleached sand—was completed while Takaezu was on the faculty of Princeton University; she would retire to focus on her practice two years later.

Ivan Albright, Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida , 1929–30 (Gallery 262)

Ivan Albright’s Picture of Dorian Gray (1943–44) might be the late Chicago artist’s most (in)famous piece in the Art Institute collection; it shocked and disgusted visitors when it was first displayed in 1945. If that’s the case, Ida , located in the adjacent room,is his most thought-provoking.

Albright’s subject, Ida Rogers, was just 19 when she sat for this painting, but Albright used her only as a very loose basis for this grotesquely decrepit depiction. What Ida sees in her hand mirror, and what we see, is open to interpretation. Is this how Albright’s Ida actually appears? Or how she sees herself? Is Ida a critique of the beauty standards imposed on women of all ages, or a misogynistic jab at aging female bodies?

Complicating the artist’s intent even further, Albright was apparently infatuated with the real Ida Rogers and presented her with a poetic declaration of his love. She giggled while reading it, inciting the painter to angrily snatch it from her hands and tear it up. Some analysts suspect the singed paper fragment at the fictional Ida’s feet is a reference to that letter and to unrequited infatuation. It wouldn’t be the only real-life detail Albright included: Also on the floor is a cracked peanut shell, a wink at the peanuts Rogers snacked on to pass the time during sittings.

Currently the informational placard that accompanied Ida has been replaced by commentary from Northwestern University psychology professor Renee Engeln. “I want Ida to be angry,” Engeln writes. “Put the mirror down, Ida. Break it. Stomp on it.”

Kelly Church, Sustaining Traditions—Digital Teachings , 2018 (Gallery 262)

Turn around and head to the glass case on the wall opposite Takaezu’s vessels. What looks to be a futuristic capsule is actually made of intricately woven and dyed black ash wood, a favored material for Indigenous basket makers across the United States. “As my grandmother once said, ‘We made baskets before they made cameras,’” Church writes in an essay on the Art Institute’s website.

But the invasive emerald ash borer—a green jewel beetle native to northeastern Asia—now poses an existential threat to North America’s ash trees. Church, a fifth-generation Anishinaabe basket maker, embedded a preserved emerald ash borer and a flash drive inside this basket, the latter holding digital files documenting the art of black ash basketry in both English and Anishinaabemowin (or Ojibwe) translations.

The strident colors of the basket’s exterior are inspired by the shell (teal green), belly (copper), and larvae (natural wood) of the emerald ash borer. Just as Native basket makers have created their handiwork since time immemorial, so, too, does Church imagine this time capsule as persisting into an unknown future.

Eldzier Cortor, The Room No. VI , 1948 (Gallery 263)

In the same room as Albright’s Picture of Dorian Gray , this work by Eldzier Cortor takes the idealized genre of the female nude to lob a pointed social critique of tenement housing in Chicago. The woman, whose ribs and hip bone are visible, shares a mattress with other sleepers next to a glowing stove. We can imagine the oppressive heat and crowded conditions, even as we marvel at the painting’s technical authority. Cortor—who grew up in Chicago and studied at the School of the Art Institute—uses gesso to texturize the hair of the nude subject and that of one of her roommates.

At the time, Cortor’s focus on the Black female nude was groundbreaking, with some critics accusing him of sexualizing his subjects or perpetuating Eurocentric artistic motifs. But like so much of Cortor’s work, The Room No. VI was simply taken from life. His subject’s elongated features were inspired by the African sculpture he absorbed at the nearby Field Museum; the piles of newspapers and inserts lying on the floor, ready to be burned for warmth, are likely meant to be the Chicago Defender , of which Cortor was an avid reader.

Cortor told an interviewer that he connected the conditions depicted in The Room No. VI with those described in Richard Wright’s Native Son , also set in 20th-century Chicago. “It was a common thing, a family in one room. . . . That’s what I know the painting by, how I know it’s in Chicago,” Cortor said.

Alma Thomas, Starry Night and the Astronauts , 1972 (Gallery 291)

One sees this Alma Thomas painting, in the second floor’s Contemporary section, all over the Art Institute these days, as it’s featured on the cover of the museum’s latest visitor’s guides. The same year she painted Starry Night and the Astronauts ,Thomas, a retired public school teacher in Washington, D.C., was honored with a retrospective at the Whitney. The exhibition made her the first African-American woman to receive a solo show at a major art museum.

By then in her 80s, Thomas avidly followed the Apollo missions and other advances in space exploration and air travel. (“I was born at the end of the 19th century, horse-and-buggy days, and experienced the phenomenal changes of the 20th-century machine and space age,” she once marveled.) Her fascination inspired a pivot from representational painting to the kind of semi-pointillistic abstraction seen in this work, the vast blue expanse on the canvas a humbling reminder of man’s smallness in an immense universe.

Takashi Murakami, Mr. Pointy , 2011 (Gallery 292)

Much like frequent collaborator (and Chicagoan) Virgil Abloh, Takashi Murakami has found an ardent audience beyond the fine art realm. His “superflat” artistic philosophy pays homage to Japanese art styles of previous decades—from woodcuts to manga—and posits, in broad strokes, that dichotomies like past and present and high and low art find potent expression in two-dimensional representational works. Chicago hosted Murakami’s first-ever painting retrospective in a hugely popular 2017 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but this is the only work by the Pop artist in the Art Institute’s permanent collection.

This work needs to be seen in person to be taken in. A standout exemplar of Murakami’s superflat philosophy, this work was painted with acrylics on canvas, but it almost seems drawn from granite or created by machine manufacturing. The black canvas is flecked with sparkles, looking like a starry sky, with Murakami’s massive rendering of Mr. Pointy—a recurring character in his work—superimposed on it.

Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) , 1991 (Gallery 293)

The gallery holding this work is surely the people-watching center of the Art Institute: just take a piece of candy and watch as passersby gasp and gawk.

Interactive and slowly depleting installations are a González-Torres trademark. This piece, a pile of individually wrapped candies that visitors are encouraged to enjoy, is no exception. Its specified “ideal weight” of 175 pounds of candy (though owners or borrowers of the work may choose their own starting weight) and its gradual winnowing away are often read as an allegory for the decline of González-Torres’s then-partner, Ross Laycock, and for the sweetness and fleetingness of memory. Laycock died of AIDS in 1991, the year the artwork is dated. González-Torres himself succumbed to AIDS five years later.

This work was the subject of controversy in 2022 when an X (formerly Twitter) user pointed out that the Art Institute had tweaked its placard to elide Laycock’s identity and González-Torres’s sexuality. (A museum spokesperson later noted that the piece’s audio guide, which mentions Laycock, remained unchanged.) A replacement placard once again mentioning Laycock and AIDS was unveiled a few days later in response to social media criticism.

Pablo Picasso, The Red Armchair , 1931 (Gallery 394)

On the third floor, in the Art Institute’s renowned Modern Wing, is Pablo Picasso’s The Red Armchair of (1931). What has become an iconic Picasso motif—faces that appear to be viewed both in profile and head-on—began with this canvas, rendered in a mixture of oil and house paint. It was one of a series of works Picasso painted depicting his lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter, in December 1931; the “two-faced” motif may symbolize the illicit circumstances of the affair, which he concealed from his wife, Olga Khokhlova.

To underscore his tilt away from Khokhlova and toward Walter, Picasso completed several paintings of women in red armchairs during this period. Those that were modeled after Khokhlova were abstract, even grotesque; those depicting Walter, like this one, were more clearly humanoid and erotic.

Joseph Cornell, Boxes, 1939–1969 (Galleries 389–399)

Of any museum, the Art Institute has the largest on-view collection of artworks by Joseph Cornell (1903–1972), best known for his diorama-like “boxes” made from found materials. Cornell lived at home in Queens, New York, with his mother and brother nearly his entire life, and his reclusiveness and lack of formal artistic training have led many to dub him an “outsider artist.” If he is, he received the sort of acclaim in life usually reserved for insiders. He exhibited in the same spaces as admired Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists; Marcel Duchamp and Willem de Kooning became acolytes.

The Art Institute owns 42 boxes or collages by Cornell, most of which are displayed in the Modern Wing under low lighting. Though kept behind glass, some invite viewer interaction to illuminate their secrets. Two Cornell boxes, Untitled (Lighted Dancer) and Untitled (Lighted Owl) , light up when approached. And Untitled (Forgotten Game) contains an adjustable system of ramps and bells; when aligned correctly, a marble or ball rings the bells while rolling down the box.

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Kansas City Art Institute

• Cost & scholarships
• Essay prompt

Want to see your chances of admission at Kansas City Art Institute?

We take every aspect of your personal profile into consideration when calculating your admissions chances.

Kansas City Art Institute’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Personal statement essay.

Your personal statement is a way for us to get to know you! In approximately 500 words, tell us about your background in art, your goals while at KCAI, and your career goals.

Common App Personal Essay

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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The Art Institute of New York City

Introduction.

The Art Institute of New York City is located in the SoHo/TriBeCa district of Manhattan, and is part of the larger The Art Institutes system headquartered out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (which includes dozens of other art institutes across North America). Founded in 1980 as The New York Restaurant School, it changed its name to the present version in 2001 and actually discontinued its culinary arts program in 2008.

The Art Institute of New York City offers students a challenging venue to hone their skills in the creative and the applied arts in a very diverse, highly interactive urban setting, with excellent chances of entry-level jobs in the field of their choice.

Information Summary

The Art Institute of New York City is broken down into four main academic departments, which are: Design, Fashion, Media Arts, and General Education.

The Design Department is perhaps the most popular at the school, and students engaged in the design program will learn how to harness their creative side and create compelling products that meet and exceed market standards. A typical degree from this department may be either an Associate of Occupational Studies in Graphic Design or an Associate of Applied Science in Graphic Design.

The Fashion Department is right up there with the Design Department in terms of popularity, and students in this program will be working towards an Associate of Applied Science in Fashion Design as their final degree. In the Media Arts Department, students will work towards an Associate of Occupational Studies in either Wed Design & Interactive Media or Art & Design Technology. Finally, in the General Education Department students participate in certificate courses in complementary fields that could potentially boost their skills in the career path of their choice.

The Art Institute of New York City does not have very stringent admissions requirements, yet nonetheless due to the popularity of the school (due to the nature of the programs and the attractive downtown NYC setting) the school has a fairly selective admissions rate, stable at roughly 50% of total applicants per year. The admissions procedure at The Art Institute of New York City involves writing a 150-word entrance essay, paying the $50 admissions fee, and sitting for an in-person interview with an admissions counselor. (The school allows for phone interviews for students located more than 200 miles from the campus).

Of course, applicants need to present their high school diploma or GED along with official transcripts, or some sort of equivalent for international students. For those that have attended classes at the university level already, official transcripts from all schools attended are required for admissions.

Upon admission, students will be subjected to placement testing, and depending on the results thereof students may have to participate in what are known as “transitional study courses” that help bring less qualified individuals up to pace in a smooth manner.

The admissions calendar for The Art Institute of New York City is quite flexible, and admitted students may begin their studies at the beginning of the Fall, Winter, Spring or Summer quarters, or even mid-quarter of any of these terms.

Financial Aid

Financial aid at The Art Institute of New York City is more or less equal to that available at other institutions of higher education in the state and nationally. The primary recourse for financial aid is to be had through the FAFSA form, though there are a few particular financial aid options such as the EDMC Education Foundation and a limited list of local scholarship opportunities. The EDMC Education Foundation helps prospective or enrolled students at Education Management LLC schools (such as The Art Institute of New York City) meet their tuition needs, and all funds bequeathed in the name of a given Education Management LLC school are returned specifically to it as scholarship funds.

Student Financial Aid Details

The Art Institute of New York City is well known for its diverse (in terms of ethnicity as well as age) student body. The school has a limited amount of students housing available on a first come, first served basis in either the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood or in the 92nd Street Y neighborhood. These are highly modern student housing facilities with all the amenities students need to get ahead in their studies.

The art institute puts together regular “Study Trips” intended to expose students to the actuality of the creative arts, and these trips are a central part of the student’s learning process at the school; trips are usually aimed at destinations within the city, though occasionally take students farther afield.

Student Enrollment Demographics

Nearby Schools

Schools geographically nearby

• USA Beauty School International
• New York Academy of Art
• New York Law School
• Metropolitan College of New York
• The International Culinary Center
• A.B.I. School of Barbering & Cosmetology of Tribeca Inc.

Similar Schools

Schools similar in rank, size, etc.

• Heritage College-Oklahoma City
• International Academy of Design and Technology-Sacramento
• Heald College-Portland
• ITT Technical Institute-Dunmore
• Harrisburg Area Community College-Lancaster
• Heritage College-Kansas City

This website and its associated pages are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by this school. StateUniversity.com has no official or unofficial affiliation with The Art Institute of New York City.

My Admission Essay for [Art Institute of Inland Empire, CA] (wip)

lydiavonebers 1 / 1   Sep 26, 2012   #2 I want to receive the best education, mentors, and inspiration to be the best as a individual I can be with my passion for Graphic and Web design. ... my Design-Bachelor of Science Degree s o I can have a thriving company in Web design and interactive media including Large format printing. I want a career that will further artistic abilities while also exploring my creative side . I am highly interested in learning about how to take on clients as well as being prepared and organized presenting my artwork to others . I would like to earn a great amount in salary s o I can expand my company...

2024 14th Annual Art & Essay Contest WINNERS

Learn to draw & paint.

“I followed my passion in basketball and used it to have a voice as a human rights activist, and I admire that you guys are also following your passions in art and writing”

Enes Kanter Freedom

“One example of the organization’s many rewarding activities and educational programs, the Art & Essay Contest has given young people the opportunity to share their views on the major social issues of today.”

Chris Christie

Theme the sound of peace, application.

The Awards Ceremony

Perspective

Why Should You Join The Art & Essay Contest?

Bring middle and high school students from around the state of New Jersey together.

Promote awareness on issues of common concern among New Jersey youth.

Facilitate their personal and academic growth through a healthy competitive environment.

Inspire them to make a positive change in their communities. Since its inception in 2010, the annual Art & Essay Contest attracts submissions from around 200 New Jersey public, private, and charter schools.

Don't miss the application deadline!

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Archive of Contemporary Art in Krasnodar Krai

The Archive of Contemporary Art in Krasnodar Krai was founded in Krasnodar in 2019 by the artists of ZIP Group (Evegny Rimkevich, Vasily Subbotin, Stepan Subbotin) and the researchers and curators Elena Ishchenko and Marianna Kruchinski.

The archive team aims to collect and systematize information about the processes linked to the development of contemporary art in the region since the 1970s. Most of the material covers the period from 2000 to 2020.

The archive is constructed around a broad range of personalities, starting with Evgeny Tsei, who is considered the main representative of Krasnodar nonconformism, and ending with young artists. The collection includes biographical information, portfolios, information about exhibitions, press releases, photographs, and videos. The majority of the material is digital copies, with the originals remaining with the artists.

The team also collects and systematizes information about institutions whose activities aim to develop the artistic environment in the region. This part of the archive concerns the work of state, independent, and self‑organized initiatives, such as Krasnodar Institute of Contemporary Art (KICA), Typography Center for Contemporary Art, and Larina Gallery.

The materials cover Krasnodar, Novorossiisk, Gelendzhik, Anapa, Armavir, Kropotkin, the village of Golubitskaya, and other cities, including some outside Russia, that are connected to the activities of the people in the archive.

In 2020, a separate sub‑archive was created based on the collection of researcher Tatyana Ukolova, which focuses on contemporary art in Sochi.

Until 2022, the archive was based at the Typography Center for Contemporary Art.

Krasnodar: Lines on a Flat Surface. The History of KISI, exhibition view, Fabrika Center for Creative Industries, Moscow, 2013. Courtesy of ZIP Group

Immersing Students in Sustainable Art Education

Recommendations and insights from art educator and tc doctoral student iván d. asin, a sustainability champion inside and outside the classroom.

As he approaches his 14th year teaching art in New York City, TC doctoral student Iván D. Asin recalls when he first strived for a more sustainable way of living. Art, Asin had realized, was not impervious to the pitfalls of overconsumption. 

“Even if we had unlimited resources, that doesn’t mean we should abuse them or the world around us,” explains Asin, who moved to the U.S. from Chile, later began teaching, and then wanted to do more.

“When I came across the doctoral program in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, it just made sense,” says Asin, who leveraged insights from the program to establish the Center for Education and Sustainability (CAES), a nonprofit through which Asin helps art educators implement sustainable practices in their teaching. “Teachers College laid the framework for combining my passions for art education and sustainability to create something bigger.”

“Something bigger” was on full display recently at Teachers College, where Asin joined TC experts and others in helping 40 middle school educators incorporate sustainability and climate science into their teaching. In honor of the College’s recent Summer Climate Institute , Asin shares key insights from his art education and sustainability work. 

Iván D. Asin discusses sustainable art education the 2024 Summer Climate Institute in July. (Photo: TC Archives)  

 Iván D. Asin leading a workshop at TC's Hollingworth Center. (Photo courtesy of Center for Education and Sustainability)

Doctoral student Iván Asin (center) speaks during a panel about interdisciplinary climate instruction, featuring Sian Zelbo, Rochy Flint, Courtney Brown, Sandra Schmidt and Ann Rivet. (Photo: TC Archives) 

Sustainability is a mindset. 

For Asin, embracing a sustainable lifestyle is more comprehensive than a simple list of to-dos. It requires a reframing of the world around oneself — one that rejects shallow demonstrations of greenwashing. 

“If you ask people why they recycle or why they do the things they do, the answer is not much further than ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming.’ But when we see it as a lifestyle change, we’re inclined to contribute to something much bigger,” says the art educator, who recommends partnering with community members to leverage local resources, particularly in metropolitan areas, which makes all the difference.

Asin’s track record includes employing this strategy in a variety of contexts, such as at an orphanage in Lima, Peru, where Asin helped students create pigments and dyes from the abundant Tara seeds surrounding them. “It is crucial that we provide our students — regardless of their age — with enough intellectual tools so they can continue exploring the possibilities for developing a sustainable art studio on their own.”

Students participating in Asin's Mural Exchange Program. (Photo: Center for Education and Sustainability) 

(Photo courtesy of Center for Education and Sustainability) 

Strive for real, sustainable change with community partnerships. 

It’s no secret that community building is key in widespread change.  “The most important thing is to understand the local issues,” says Asin, reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of the power of local thinking. “It’s much easier to get people to care when you’re talking about people they know – their neighbors, their kids, families— that has a much bigger impact. When it hits you closer to home, people want to get involved and take action. It’s the same concept for sustainability issues.”

The same sentiment applies to the classroom, too. “Often one of the greatest obstacles that schools face in successful, sustainable art education is connecting and having access to local community resources. It’s important that we create a genuine environmental consciousness so that our students feel compelled to act on what they have learned beyond the classroom walls,” Asin wrote in 2018. 

“Focusing on being part of your smaller community is much more useful and empowering than looking too much at the global situation. At the core, what matters is your ability to talk about these issues.”

(Photo courtesy of Center for Education and Sustainability)

Learn more about TC’s recent Summer Climate Institute, which prepares teachers to integrate climate change into the classroom here . 

— Morgan Gilbard and Jackie Teschon

Tags: Arts Arts Climate Change K-12 Education Student Profiles Sustainability

Programs: Art and Art Education

Departments: Arts & Humanities

Published Wednesday, Aug 7, 2024

Teachers College Newsroom

Address: Institutional Advancement 193-197 Grace Dodge Hall

Box: 306 Phone: (212) 678-3231 Email: views@tc.columbia.edu

Art & Essay Contest

The Art & Essay Contest is one of Atlantic Institute’s educational events. Consistent with the Atlantic Institutes’ mission of promoting pluralism and bringing people from different backgrounds together, Art & Essay Contest (A&E ) aims to:

• 1 Bring middle and high school students from different states together
• 2 Promote awareness on issues of common concern among the youth
• 3 Facilitate their personal and academic growth through a healthy competitive environment
• 4 Inspire them to make a positive change in their communities. Since, annual Art & Essay Contest attracts submissions from around several public, private, and charter schools.

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Krasnodar State University of Arts and Culture

Ulitsa 40-Letiya Pobedy, 33, Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, 350072

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Krasnodar State University of Culture and Arts — public university. It is located in Krasnodar, Russia. Krasnodar State University of Culture and Arts works in several scientific areas and is waiting for new students. The university campus is located in Krasnodar. KGIK today Krasnodar State Institute of Culture - e is the leading complex of South Russia to train specialists in the sphere of culture and art, one of the largest research centers in the field of cultural studies, national artistic and socio-cultural activities. The Institute conducted training on 10 specialties of secondary vocational education, 38 areas of undergraduate, nine specialty programs, 19 master's directions, 10 postgraduate programs, nine - post-graduate course. The Institute of over 3,700 students and over 250 teachers.

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School Director: Sergei Semenovich Zengin

Population: 2000

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+78612577632

[email protected]

https://kgik1966.ru/

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Era Art Gallery

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