School of the Art Institute of Chicago Students Stage Walkout in Protest of War in Gaza

Students, faculty, and staff at theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicagoon October 24 participated in a walkout to protest Israel’s ongoing war with Gaza and “SAIC’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians,” according to the activist group Students for Palestinian Liberation (SPL), which organized the action.Artnewsreported that roughly two hundred demonstrators participated in the action, meeting in front of the school’s Maclean Center and proceeding up Michigan Avenue to a public park carrying signs bearing slogans such as WHEN ISRAEL BOMBS, SAIC PROFITS and AIC STAFF SUPPORT SAIC STUDENTS, the latter referring to the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), which shares a board with the school.

At issue is SAIC’s connection to the Chicago-based billionaire Crown family, a major donor to the school.Forbesreports that the family owns a 10 percent stake in General Dynamics, one of the United States’s largest defense contractors and a supplier of weapons to the Israeli military. “There is no freedom of speech, radical artistic expression and progressive education while a Crown family member sits on our board of trustees and holds more power than any student or faculty member,” wrote the SPL in anInstagrampost.

The SAIC, like many institutions of higher learning across the country, has been roiled by protests relating to the war in Gaza since its outbreak following Hamas’s attack on Israel last October. Dozens of student demonstrators from SAIC and Columbia College were arrested following a protest in the AIC’s North Garden this past May; though all charges were dropped, SAIC greeted incoming students at the beginning of the 2024–25 school year with a newly amended handbook. The recently modified rules prohibit the disruption of the school’s operations and stipulate that on-campus protests be limited to a single site, with approval to demonstrate gained three business days prior. A spokesperson told the Art Newspaper that by staging the walkout off campus, the protesters had not violated the school’s regulations.