SAIC Named Co-Commissioner of United States Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

August 30, 2017
Office of the President

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was named a co-commissioner of the United States Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. The US Department of State selected SAIC and the University of Chicago for their proposed exhibition, Dimensions of Citizenship, which will serve as the official US contribution to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, on view from May 26 through November 25, 2018.

Dimensions of Citizenship graphic by Project Projects

SAIC is engaging with how artists, designers, and scholars enact their citizenship. This means recognizing the responsibility artists and designers have to explore pressing issues, like the politics of belonging, and generate new ideas, which help us better share our common humanity. The Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects at SAIC has a history of embracing this challenge head-on, pursuing urgent questions across disciplines with distinguished peers like the University of Chicago and at international forums like the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Ann Lui, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects at SAIC and co-founder of the architecture and design research office Future Firm; Niall Atkinson, Associate Professor of Architectural History at the University of Chicago; and Mimi Zeiger, an independent critic, editor, curator, and educator based in Los Angeles, will curate Dimensions of Citizenship, which will present the United States as a site of critical research and practice in architecture, at the intersection of old and new forms of community engagement, political action, and public policy. The exhibitors selected for the US Pavilion will be announced at a later date.

This exhibition places SAIC and Chicago at the center of global conversations on architecture and design. Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Craig Barton, Vice Provost and Dean of Community Engagement Paul Coffey, and Director of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects Jonathan Solomon are recognized for their leadership on this incredible opportunity for SAIC.