WELCOME

I’m thrilled to introduce you to this semester’s culminating thesis exhibitions and festivals at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This work comes into being at a moment of significant change in our global society, a time marked by rapid shifts in technology, economics, and political terrain. The role of artists, writers, and designers is frequently questioned, instrumentalized, or deferred, and this volatility itself has become essential material for practice. The artists, writers, and designers in this cohort have shown remarkable resilience and determination, sometimes at great personal and professional sacrifice, precisely because the stakes of their work feel urgent and consequential. Across diverse media, the work resists simplification, proposing instead forms of inquiry that remain open, critical, and generative, engaging directly with the uncertainties of our present moment. These creative makers affirm the studio as a space where uncertainty can be held, where meaning is made through iterative process, and where alternative ways of understanding the world can be rehearsed. I congratulate this cohort on the seriousness of their engagement and invite viewers to encounter these exhibitions as sites of reflection, exchange, and possibility: spaces to think alongside artists, designers, and writers who are grappling with the most pressing questions of our time.

-Delinda Collier, Dean of Graduate Studies