The Building of Art
2006
Web Based Call for Proposals.
www.building-of-art.com
The Building of Art began as a thesis project of Stuart Keeler to encourage and engage the worlds of design and art in a continued conversation about the expanding role of the artist, especially in relation to impacting the built environment. The RFP evolved into a professional design competition organized by Keeler. The RFP and organizer do not suggest that any of the designs will be built. Rather the dialogue, charettes and topics that emerge from the RFP will support an evolving discussion about the role of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as civic icon and the artists’ presence and impact in an evolving Chicago. Neither the Art Institute of Chicago nor The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a sponsor of this RFP.
Art schools across the country award thousands of MFA degrees each year. It has been estimated that only 3% of these graduates go on to careers in the art system. To continue to have a meaningful role in the 21st century, artists must extend their role outside of the gallery system. Artists can have great affect on their world through the invention of practices in the community, business, non-profits, and government agencies. Is there a role for academia in the promotion of a more pervasive place for the artist?
As is the case at other schools, students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago are offered a diverse range of means by which to create their art. Traditionally their voices have been nurtured in a out of public view, one can even say in a vacuum, with only completed work emerging into the gallery. The enigmatic and elusive institutions of the art world are the primary venue. The role of the academy in this paradigm is accepted. What are the other venues for the work of artists? What is the role of the art school in expanding the menu of opportunities?
This RFP seeks to probe the possibility of the learning environment in encouraging students to seek, discover and invent for themselves, unique and meaningful roles after leaving the confines of academia.