SAIC MAAAP equips and empowers our students to shape and sustain
their own artistic and professional practices.
their own artistic and professional practices.
What Students Say About Management Studio?
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Mariela Acuña, Class 2022
current position: Exhibitions and Residency Coordinator at Hyde Park Art Center After working in an art museum in Florida for the last 5 years, I was excited to move to Chicago to learn from and about Chicago's experimental artist-run spaces. Management Studio I and II offered a unique platform to do just that. Together with my project group, I worked with Terrain Exhibitions to evaluate the Terrain Biennial, an international biennial that takes place in people's porches, windows, balconies and front lawns. I was grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with a project team that embraced playful approaches to art administration and to have a space and a team with whom I could put in practice the ideas and theories that we discussed in class.
Adia Sykes, Class of 2018
current position: Grant Manager for SPARK Chicago Artists Coalition and Communications Associate at Hyde Park Jazz Festival The Chicago Voices project was my first taste of working collaboratively with a large organization to realize a project that had to weave together history, site specificity, community, curatorial practice, and legibility. To do that in the very first semester was a challenge, of course, but also eye opening about the many facets of arts administration"
Jameson Paige, Class of 2018
current position: Independent Curator "Right at the start of my studies at SAIC, the Management Studio curriculum provided me with the artistic agency and real-time constraints to thoughtfully produce public programs for projects happening across Chicago. I chose to work on projects that would allow me to develop a curatorial voice and portfolio, the most fruitful of which was the Borderland Collective's exhibition Northern Triangle. My colleagues and I collaborated to initiate a series of workshops, tours, and programs which culminated in a night of performances by current MFA students. This final program in particular ignited my curatorial and scholarly interest in performance practices which guided much of my subsequent graduate studies and thesis work. Without the excitement and accountability the Management Studio projects provide, I would not have solidified the interests that made my time at SAIC so productive, intentional, and hungry for what's next."
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Nicolas Rodriguez, Class of 2018
current position: Assistant Director of Community Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art "After being active for 8 years in socially engaged art practices through my non-profit in Colombia, the idea of pausing for graduate school terrified me. But the Master in Arts Administration and Policy at SAIC proved my fears wrong.
An example of this was Management Studio I and II, where I was paired with the Chicago Cultural Alliance to work on the INHERIT Chicago festival project, an opportunity that not only provided insight into the vast and diverse cultural landscape of the city, but also served as a scenario for me to put my knowledge to test, expanding my skill sets and providing a global understanding of community and culture; bringing theory to practice. |
Becca Devlin, Class 2020
MA in Arts Administration & Policy "My time with ARTogether provided me hands-on experience working through the beginning stages of a nonprofit organization. I learned about active and complex collaboration, and how much more is able to emerge when the bonds of trust form. In the research phase, I learned and discovered a tremendous amount about the current nonprofit landscape and the specific components that are vital to an organization's health. In budgeting, I acquired skills in measuring risk and calculating consequences, as well as the details of grant and fundraising modeling. Overall, I was humbled to be a part of ARTogether's work, and the experience has proven incredibly valuable to me as I prepare to enter the arts workforce. "
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Courtney Graham, Class of 2018
current position: Assistant Director of Evening Associates at Art Institute of Chicago "A truly exciting way to see theory put into action, Management Studio allowed me and my colleagues to work with real partners on real projects. During the course, we were given the opportunity to help the founder of Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange (CCRX) launch key pieces of the nonprofit establishing 501(c)3 status, initial grant applications, website launch, and more. This experience provided invaluable practice without the safety net of the classroom, important preparation for working as citizens of our arts community. My time with CCRX during Management Studio was more than a just a project, it was the chance to make an lasting impact with an organization that will shape the way in which our city thinks and responds to sustainable practices."
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Lasondra Kerns , Class 2021
Dual MA in Arts Administration & Policy and Modern & Contemporary Art History “Our Management Studio project not only helped me develop new skills around organizing an exhibition, it also gave me confidence in myself as an administrator. Since being a part of Management Studio I've been working on an independent project. I owe a lot of my “know-how” to what I learned in those classes.”
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Raquel Iglesias, Class of 2016
current position: Senior Program Associate, RSF Social Finance "Working on the Homan Square Story Share project in Management Studio allowed me to put the methods and theories we were learning in the classroom into practice. The project became a case-study to work from and learn from as I evolved through the program, and continued to significantly impact my approach to arts administration and community engagement long after the project was completed. "
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Hayley Blackstone, Class 2021
Dual MA in Arts Administration & Policy and Modern & Contemporary Art History “Management Studio challenged me not only to think through the untold details of a large-scale administrative project in the arts practically, but also to realize a provocative and meaningful concept. As part of the project team for New Monuments for New Cities, my group worked with eight civic partners to execute the design, contracting, marketing concept, and all public programming for the inaugural arts initiative of the High Line Network, an organization linking infrastructure reuse sites across North America."
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