The institute has its roots in the 1866 founding of the Chicago Academy of Design, which local artists established in rented rooms on Clark Street.

[citation needed] Because of the school's financial and managerial problems after this loss, business leaders in 1878 formed a board of trustees and founded the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

[8] SAIC also offers an interdisciplinary Low-Residency MFA for students wishing to study the fine arts and/or writing.

It showcases work in all media, including sound, video, performance, poetry, painting, and independent film; in addition to significant curators, critics, and art historians.

[12][citation needed] Recent visiting artists have included Raven Chacon, Stephanie Dinkins, and Guadalupe Maravilla (2023-24 school year).

[13] Other visiting artists have included Catherine Opie, Andi Zeisler, Aaron Koblin, Jean Shin, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Marilyn Minter, Pearl Fryar, Tehching Hsieh, Homi K. Bhabha, Bill Fontana, Wolfgang Laib, Suzanne Lee, and Amar Kanwar among others.

Alumni speakers have included Tania Bruguera, Jenni Sorkin, Kori Newkirk, Saya Woolfalk, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Trevor Paglen, and Sanford Biggers.

Program content and style vary but generally include music from all genres, sound art, narratives, live performances, current events and interviews.

[17] Featured bands and guests on Free Radio SAIC include Nü Sensae, The Black Belles, Thomas Comerford, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Carolyn Lawrence, and much more.

[26] Notable professors at SAIC include Nick Cave, James Elkins, Lisa Wainwright, Stephanie Brooks, Mary Jane Jacob, Frank Piatek, Edra Soto, Michelle Grabner, Jefferson Pinder, Adrian Wong, and Candida Alvarez.

[citation needed] Notable alumni include Ivan Albright,[27] Thomas Hart Benton,[28] Sanford Biggers,[29] Sonya Clark,[30] Amanda Crowe,[31] Megan Elizabeth Euker, Richard Hunt,[32] Rashid Johnson,[33] Jeff Koons,[34] Joan Mitchell,[citation needed] Georgia O'Keefe,[35] Trevor Paglen,[36] Sterling Ruby,[37] Dread Scott,[38] Belle Silveira,[citation needed] Charles W. White,[39] and Grant Wood.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department and the aldermen on the grounds that they had violated Nelson's First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The three aldermen agreed not to appeal the 1992 ruling, and the police department established procedures over seizure of materials protected by the First Amendment.

[43] Scott would go on to be one of the defendants in United States v. Eichman, a Supreme Court case in which it was eventually decided that federal laws banning flag desecration were unconstitutional.

[44] In 2018, then Dean of Faculty Martin Berger, an art historian, gave an academic lecture on the civil rights movement in which he read a quote that employed the n-word.

[45] In 2017, a controversy arose after Michael Bonesteel, an adjunct professor specializing in outsider art, and comics, resigned after actions taken by the institute following two Title IX complaints by transgender students being filed against him in which each criticized his comments and class discussion.

He claimed he was assumed to be "guilty until proven innocent" and that SAIC "feels more like a police state than a place where academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas is valued".