Client
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Year Completed
2016—2018

Type of Work
Strategic Planning
Community Town Hall Event

Strategic Planning & Community Town Hall Event

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) engaged Bespoke to support their strategic planning process which they named SAIC NEXT. This included, a senior leadership retreat, a series of focus groups and the work culminated in the planning and delivery of a 200 person townhall event that welcomed a mix of students, alumni, staff, board and educators.

The strategic planning process was an important opportunity for the SAIC community to discuss and think through where the future of art and design education is headed. Bespoke conceptualized and designed six facilitation activations inspired by art and design strategies. Activities included: sketching, collage, storytelling, re-imagining a day at school, co-curricular mapping and an envelope wall installation that invited writing down personal concerns. The core focus was a series of rapid-fire ‘speed dating’ styled round tables where groups could discuss a range of relevant themes, such as: affordability, community, the future of art and design education, diversity and inclusion. We integrated a tech program to display real-time conversations, sharing some of the most popular words and themes from the round table conversations with the entire room. This work culminated with a full synthesis report.