Visual and Critical Studies - School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Visual and Critical Studies from School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a Campus Master Art History degree that prepares you for a Art and Design career. The Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies [MAVCS] at SAIC provides rigorous tools to explore cultural phenomena. The program is designed for students interested in the scholarly and creative investigation of the production, dissemination, and impact of visual images, objects, experiences, and practices. With the visual as a starting point, students use multiple methods of critical investigation to study the interactions between visual phenomena and their historical, disciplinary, and social contexts. The program culminates with two semesters of directed thesis work where the emphasis is on the development of the student's own criticism and/or creative production. A unique aspect of SAIC's MAVCS program is its option of combining studio and critical practices within the context of the field of visual and critical studies. A flexible curriculum allows students to choose from a variety of courses in art history, liberal arts , film criticism, and studio practices. The artists, designers, critics, writers, and scholars who teach in the program take a variety of approaches and come from diverse fields, including history; performance; art history; film, video, and new media; visual communication design; sociology; political science; sculpture; anthropology; and literature; among others. They share a common interest in understanding the cultural and social meanings of visual experience. Professor Joseph Grigely is an artist and critical theorist. His exhibitions include the Whitney, Venice, and Berlin Biennials, and his publications include Textualterity: Art , Theory, and Textual Criticism . Professor Maud Lavin is a writer and scholar who has written a number of cultural studies books; to be published next is Push Comes to Shove: New Images of Aggressive Women due out from MIT Press in fall 2010. Professor James Elkins is an art historian and visual theorist and director of the Stone Summer Theory Institute. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction. SAIC's MAVCS program also brings a wide range of visiting artists and scholars to campus. Visitors have included historian Lisa Brock; essayist and poet Hatto Fisher; cultural historian Anne Higonnet; anthropologist/historian Christopher Pinney; cultural theorist Zahid Chaudhary; journalist Judith Levine; ethnographer Myron Beasley; community artist Dan Peterman; Japanese cultural historian Julia Thomas; critical theorists Irit Rogoff, David Roediger, and Cheryl Johnson?Odim; and designers Cheryl Towler Weese and Sam Landers. View more details on School of the Art Institute of Chicago . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Art History courses.