Alumni Opportunities

The Teaching Fellowship in the Visual Arts is a one-year program designed to enhance the pedagogical skills and extend the artistic practice of a current or recent graduate of DoVA. Teaching Fellows in the Visual Arts join an academic community around teaching, art making, and professional development, drawing on guidance and support from the Division, the Chicago Center for Teaching (CCT), and the Director of the TF Program for DoVA.

Successful candidates will be appointed as full-time Lecturers to teach four courses in the Arts core during the academic year at the undergraduate level. During this time the Teaching Fellows are expected to advance their own art practice, participate in campus activities, and attend the four quarter-end critiques for MFA students and undergraduate critiques in the spring quarter. Teaching Fellows will also participate in a program of pedagogical and professional development under the joint supervision of the CCT and the Director of the TF Program in DoVA.
 

Ground Floor—so named because it provides a crucial platform for new artists and fills the entire lower level of the Hyde Park Art Center—is an ongoing biennial project that began in 2010. Based on nominations of artists by respected members of the arts community, a small selection committee of artists and curators determine the twenty artists representing notable concepts and techniques in the past two years of art production coming out of Chicago’s five MFA programs: Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

The exhibition with an accompanying publication offers a single destination to discover diverse artists whose work demands to be seen and supported now. 
 

Each year, the Department of Visual Arts–in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts–will fund an exhibitor booth at EXPO CHICAGO, an international contemporary and modern art exhibition, to support and showcase the work of a recent MFA graduate class. The exhibiting group of artists will work closely with the Open Practice Committee Program Curator to propose and submit a number of representative works for the 4-day long art fair held each year at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. Participation in the fair provides our alumni with the opportunity to present their work to a local, regional and international audience of artists, collectors, gallerists, and other contributors to the art world as well as prompting them to consider professional presentation of their work to a market.
 

Every other year, the Arts Club of Chicago awards fellowships to emerging artists In the Chicago area. The Department of Visual Arts nominates a graduating student to be included in this competitive program. The Arts Club Fellows are invited to participate in various programming and exhibitions hosted at the Arts Club of Chicago. Previous fellows include Brit Barton (2016), Takashi Shallow (MFA 2018), Daisy Schultz (2020), and Quichen Wu (2023).
 

In the spirit of community building at DoVA, alumni of our programs are regularly invited back by faculty and the OPC as visiting critics for Tuesday Night Critiques, Quarter-End Critiques, Senior Seminars, as well as to give talks and do studio visits with the MFA students. Not only does this serve as an opportunity for our alumni to return and reconnect with the department, it provides current students the opportunity to meet and become more familiar with our previous graduates who are now active contributors in various fields of the contemporary art world. Past OPC alumni talks have featured John Preus (MFA 2006), Dado (MFA 2014), Matthew Metzger (MFA 2009), Karen Reimer (MFA 1989), and an alumni panel discussing artist-run spaces.