September 23–November 5, 2025
720 S Michigan Ave
60605 Chicago IL
Join the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Visiting Artists Program for a new season of artists talks by today’s most influential makers and thinkers.
Formalized in 1951 with an endowment 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.
Objects of Common Interest
Tuesday, September 23, 6–7:30pm
Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Founded by Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis, Objects of Common Interest explores the boundary between art, architecture, and design through sculptural installations, public art, and spatial experiments. Their work Surfaces in Flux is on view as part of the sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial—SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, September 19, 2025–February 28, 2026. Presented in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the William Bronson and Grayce Slovet Mitchell Lecture Series in SAIC’s Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects.
Art Spiegelman in Conversation with Mark Pascale
Monday, September 29, 12:30–1:45pm
Visit here to join via Zoom.
Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves, and in 1992, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful Holocaust narrative Maus. He will discuss his work with Mark Pascale, the Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Presented on the occasion of SAIC's new Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Comics program, an innovative, interdisciplinary pathway designed for aspiring comic artists.
Pablo Helguera: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series
Monday, October 6, 6–7:30pm
Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Pablo Helguera (BFA 1993) is a New York–based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. He is the curator of the exhibition Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on view through July 5, 2026. Presented in partnership with SAIC Alumni Engagement.
Lee Mingwei: Bill & Stephanie Sick Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture
Tuesday, October 21, 6–7:30pm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Lee Mingwei creates participatory installations, where strangers can explore issues of trust, intimacy, and self-awareness, and one-on-one events, in which visitors contemplate these issues with the artist through eating, sleeping, walking, and conversation. Lee’s projects are often open-ended scenarios for everyday interaction and take on different forms with participants' involvement and change during an exhibition. Established in 2006 by a generous gift from Bill and Stephanie Sick, this distinguished visiting professorship enables internationally renowned artists and designers to visit and teach at SAIC.
Jennifer Packer
Wednesday, November 5, 6–7:30pm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Jennifer Packer creates portraits, interior scenes, and still lifes that suggest a casual intimacy. Her work was most recently featured in two major solo exhibitions: Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing at Serpentine Galleries and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Department of Painting and Drawing.
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.
