Making Friends at SAIC: Studio Culture in the Middle of the Loop

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a set of buildings in the Loop wrapped around one of the great museums in the world. There is no quad, no stadium and no obvious student centre. What there is instead is studio culture: long hours in shared spaces, critiques where strangers discuss your work in detail, and a student body that came here from everywhere to make things.

If you want friends at SAIC, the answer is almost embarrassingly simple: work in the shared studios instead of your bedroom, and stay after critique.

• Vertical and downtown. Michigan Avenue, Wabash and the museum, with lifts instead of paths and the whole Loop as your surroundings.
• Interdisciplinary. Students move between departments, so your circle rarely stays inside one medium.
• Very international and postgraduate-heavy in places. A lot of people arrived alone, which means a lot of people are quietly looking for the same thing you are.
• Critique culture. Structured, intense conversation about work — a strange but effective friendship engine.

Shared studios and shops

Work where other people work. The wood shop, print shop, fibres studio, ceramics room and computer labs are the equivalent of a dorm floor here: proximity plus repetition. Book the same slots each week.

Critiques and after-critiques

Critique gives you a licence to talk seriously about someone''s work in your first week. Follow it up: "Do you want to get coffee and finish that argument?" is a normal SAIC sentence.

Student groups, clubs and the museum

SAIC runs student organisations, publications, performance nights, exhibitions and free access to the Art Institute. Go to openings, screenings and student shows — and go to the museum with one other person, which is one of the best low-stakes hangouts in the city.

Help each other install

Installing a show is hard, physical and time-consuming. Volunteering to help someone hang work makes you a known and liked quantity faster than any social event.

• Free and near: Millennium Park, the lakefront, Grant Park and the museum itself. Our free things to do in Chicago guide has more.
• Galleries. West Town, the West Loop and Pilsen carry the city''s gallery scene — see the best art galleries and museums in Chicago and making friends in Pilsen.
• Books, coffee and long sits: the best bookstores and the best coffee shops in Chicago.
• Nights out. Live music and cheap late food — see late-night food in Chicago.

MFA cohorts are small and become the primary circle almost automatically — the risk is never leaving it. Transfers should treat the shared shops as the fastest route in. International students, who make up a large part of SAIC, often find the first month brutal and the second month fine; the thing that speeds it up is choosing one recurring, non-academic activity in the city, so you have people who are not also your critics.

• Weeks 1–2: pick your shared studio slots and go to every opening you hear about.
• Weeks 3–6: ask two people for coffee after critique. Help someone install.
• Weeks 7–10: visit the museum or a gallery with one person, repeatedly. It becomes a ritual quickly.
• Weeks 11+: add one thing in the city with nothing to do with art — a run club, a game night, a league.

Is it hard to make friends at SAIC?

Not if you work in shared spaces. It is very hard if you make work alone at home, because there is no campus to catch you.

Where do SAIC students hang out?

The studios and shops, the Art Institute, Loop cafés, and gallery openings in the West Loop, West Town and Pilsen.

Does SAIC have student housing?

Yes, downtown residences, and living in them makes the first term considerably easier socially.

I came from abroad and know nobody. What is the first move?

Book a weekly studio slot and go to three openings in your first two weeks. Both give you a reason to talk to people without introducing yourself cold.

How do I meet people outside art school?

See the Chicago city guide and the best apps for making friends in Chicago.