Hosted by the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the 2023 Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) Symposium, "What is Freedom?", takes place November 8–10, 2023, in Cincinnati. "What is Freedom?" seeks to explore and share values, pedagogies, research, challenges and successes, bringing students, faculty, and administrators together in sometimes difficult dialogues regarding institutional climates to develop an inclusive vision for high quality art and design education.

Now 30 years following the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition here in Cincinnati, we reflect on the evolving question “What is creative freedom today?” Art and design colleges are forging new pathways in teaching and learning as we adapt to societal disruptions existing both pre and post pandemic. What is Freedom? aims to advance conversations surrounding “freedom in the classroom” on AICAD and other college and university campuses which come from both internal and external constituencies. How do we as educators, institutions, students and, perhaps most importantly as humans, support academic and creative freedom to ensure successful outcomes and enact our values? How are we accountable in setting and monitoring our creative freedom goals?

The 2023 AICAD Symposium will see presentations from art and design programs around the world that reflect and develop the themes of creative freedom, guest speakers, and outings to explore Cincinnati's art and culture.

See the Conference Schedule Here

Keynote Speaker: Charles Gaines, Artist

A pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art, Charles Gaines’ body of work engages formulas and systems that interrogate relationships between the objective and the subjective realms. Using a generative approach to create a series of works in a variety of mediums, he has built a bridge between the early conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s and subsequent generations of artists pushing the limits of conceptualism today. Gaines lives and works in Los Angeles. He recently retired from the CalArts School of Art, where he was on faculty for over 30 years and established a fellowship to provide critical scholarship support for Black students in the M.F.A. program. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and around the world, most notably at Dia:Beacon, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum, Harlem NY, and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA. His work has also been presented at the 1975 Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2015. In addition to his artistic practice, Gaines has published several essays on contemporary art, including Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism (University of California, Irvine, 1993) and The New Cosmopolitanism (California State University, Fullerton, 2008). In 2019, Gaines received the 60th Edward MacDowell Medal. He was inducted into the National Academy of Design’s 2020 class of National Academicians and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2022. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

Call For Proposals

AAC seeks proposals that will explore the symposium’s theme, including:

• - How our students’ stories tell us about the work we need to do; 
• - Strategies for initiating and managing a classroom that promotes risk-taking among faculty and students engaging in difficult dialogues; 
• - How to decolonize the curriculum in a post-pandemic era, 
• - How art and design educators can effectively advocate for freedom and support engaged inclusivity within environments that may have competing priorities or divergent goals; 
• - Defining pedagogical freedom with an emphasis on the critique; 
• - Equitable assessment practices; 
• - How campus leaders can address politically-driven resistance to inclusivity, freedom, and institutional change; 
• - Ways that campuses are transforming to create an intentionally inclusive sense of creative freedom and well-being for all; 
• - Ways to value and affirm the cultural capital of creative freedom for students and what biases or stereotypes may be standing in the way; 
• - Ways that campuses are diversifying their faculty, staff, and administrators to reflect current and emerging student demographics; 
• - and faculty and staff development opportunities that can promote increased intercultural awareness and competencies surrounding the theme of the conference.

All calls for proposals are currently closed. 

Registration

Registration for the 2023 Symposium is now open, REGISTER HERE

AICAD Member Early Bird Registration (Through Sept 5th) - $275

Non- AICAD Member Early Bird Registration (Through Sept 5th) - $300

AICAD Member General Registration - $300

Non-AICAD Member General Registration - $350

Hotel Information

AICAD Has Secured a special rate at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati for the Symposium at $165 per night. The Hyatt Regency Cincinnati is a few blocks from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and conviently located next to the city's free Streetcar system that links the hotel, campus, and other sites withing the downtown area.

Book your stay here: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/CINCI/G-KAIC

Sponsors

We'd like to thank the VonLehman CPA and Advisory Firm for sponsoring our keynote presentation, and Ron Bates and his team at 1919 Investment Council, LLC for sponsoring student participation!

AICAD

AICAD—the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design—is a nonprofit consortium of the leading art schools in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1991 by a group of 25 presidents who felt a need for the similarly structured art schools to come together so as to mutually develop their schools and programs. Our mission is to help strengthen the member colleges individually and collectively, and to inform the public about these colleges and the value of studying art and design.

AAC

The Art Academy of Cincinnati’s roots are in the McMicken School of Drawing and Design, founded in 1869 for the “promotion of taste and design in the industrial arts.” The McMicken School became one of the first established departments of the University of Cincinnati. In 1884, Joseph Longworth, a Cincinnati philanthropist, was instrumental in the founding of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. The McMicken School separated from the University of Cincinnati and became part of the Cincinnati Museum Association. The change of association culminated in an official name change to the Art Academy of Cincinnati and a move to a new facility built adjacent to the Cincinnati Art Museum in Eden Park in November of 1887.

Between 1884 and 1998, the Art Academy of Cincinnati operated as a museum school providing quality education to students. The Art Academy of Cincinnati became a charter member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) in 1948. In 1950, a four-year curriculum was introduced, and students earned Certificates. In 1979, the Art Academy of Cincinnati established a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program approved by the Ohio Board of Regents and NASAD. In 1998, the Art Academy of Cincinnati separated from the Cincinnati Museum Association and became a fully independent college of art and design.

In 2005 the Art Academy of Cincinnati moved from its Eden Park and Mount Adams locations to its current campus in historic Over-the-Rhine, a move that enabled the college to provide 24-hour access to over 100 student studio spaces, improved instructional studios, and other updated campus facilities. The Art Academy of Cincinnati was awarded numerous awards for the development, design and construction of the new facility and achieved LEED Certification by the US Green Building Council in 2008.