Inquiry, scholarship, and pedagogy concerning art from beyond the academic mainstream has been a facet of teaching and learning at SAIC for many years. The tradition can be traced to the teaching legacies of renowned art historian Helen Gardner (known for her one-volume art history book Art Through The Ages) and her protégé Kathleen Blackshear. Continuing in their footsteps, professors Whitney Halstead and Ray Yoshida are fondly remembered as influential teachers who taught about and encouraged students to explore folk, self-taught, and other currents of art not intentionally created for the mainstream "art world" audience.
The significance of this genre to our art culture continues to be promoted at SAIC and is reflected SAIC courses and collections, and in the ongoing research, writing, and curatorial work of faculty and students. The spheres of art in question are not precisely defined and most terms used to describe the art in question are flawed. Nonetheless, SAIC has several course offerings concerning self-taught, outsider, vernacular, folk art, popular culture, and collecting.
Students at colleges and universities around the country often encounter obstacles when trying to find advisors and/or get permission to write theses on aspects of non-academic art. A number of SAIC students have been supported by SAIC faculty and have completed graduate theses on aspects of art from beyond the mainstream.
The Roger Brown Study Collection has rich holdings of self-taught, folk, and so-called "outsider" art, and objects from popular and material culture. The RBSC contains over 100 works by 36 self-taught artists, as well as works by artists who have not been identified, and folk art from many cultures. The RBSC archive includes many books and archival materials on the subject, numerous slides of vernacular art environments, and other study materials reflecting Roger Brown's strong interest in works by artists from beyond the mainstream.
SAIC's John M. Flaxman Library has an impressive collection of books, periodicals, and DVDs that support teaching and research in this realm, and continues to collect new titles requested by faculty for courses.
SAIC offers two scholarships that support research and travel related to non-mainstream, non-academic art.
Roads Scholarship awards are offered to students who have successfully completed the Better Homes & Gardens: Vernacular Art Environments art history course (offered in spring semester) to encourage scholarly research and documentation of the genre of art environments and to advance the recognition and understanding of art environments as a significant genre of 20th and 21st century art. The Roads Scholarship awards are intended to provide students the opportunity to travel to experience a site or sites, and conduct original research that they would be unable to do without support. As of 2014, 49 Roads Scholarships have been awarded since 2002.
The Clay Morrison Scholarship was established in 2011 to encourage and support SAIC graduate students from any department or program in their 2nd year (or dual degree students in their 2nd or 3rd years) who are studying art created independently from the academic mainstream, including self-taught art, "outsider art," popular culture, and international folk art. Each year one scholarship in the amount of $1500 is awarded to a student based on an outstanding statement of interest in the area(s) described.
The Clay Morrison Scholarship was established in memory of SAIC alumnus Thomas Clay Morrison (1948–2007), who studied at SAIC (1975 to 1977) and received his MFA in 1977. At SAIC Morrison was deeply involved in studying art originating from beyond the academic mainstream, which can be can be traced to the teaching legacies of Helen Gardner, Kathleen Blackshear, Whitney Halstead, Ray Yoshida, and is ongoing. Morrison was an avid collector of folk and self-taught art and objects from popular culture. He was especially interested in the Mexican celebration Dia de los Muertos and he curated what's thought to be the first exhibit of Day of the Dead altars and objects in Chicago. He traveled widely to visit environments by self-taught artists, and spectacles such as the Bread and Puppet Theatre; he was instrumental in arranging a performance of the Bread and Puppet Theatre at the Art Institute of Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 1983. He was a founding member of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (1991). Morrison's slides and archival materials are housed at the RBSC.