This fall, SAIC Galleries is pleased to present the SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial exhibition, featuring a wide range of work across multiple disciplines by 38 School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) faculty who have completed a sabbatical or other paid leave over the past three academic years. Significant gallery-based presentations, lectures and events, and a dedicated website represent the research and practices of these dedicated SAIC faculty members.
SAIC offers sabbaticals, or salaried leaves-of-absence, to eligible full- and part-time faculty after seven years of service. During a sabbatical, faculty are relieved of their teaching and administrative duties so they may embark on a dedicated period of inquiry, experimentation, and production to help sustain their instructional and professional excellence. The past three years, however, have been unlike any other, and sabbatical plans and experiences were dramatically altered by the pandemic. Nonetheless, SAIC’s resourceful educators used this time of isolation and uncertainty to develop and expand their practices, often finding inspiration in the familiar and exploring new ways of making. This exhibition and related programs celebrate the unrelenting creativity and resilience of SAIC’s renowned faculty.
The 2022 SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial is organized by Staci Boris, Director of Exhibitions, and Graduate Curatorial Assistants Clayton Kennedy (Dual MA 2023) and Christine Magill (Dual MA 2023).