Art School Defends Decision to Give Kanye West an Honorary Doctorate

Last month, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago announced that they would be awarding Kanye West an honorary doctoral degree at the Class of 2015's commencement ceremony. Since the news broke, people have responded differently, some praising 'Ye, while others deny his contribution to the arts. The announcement also caused commotion on campus, with students handing out flyers and creating online campaigns either in support or against the decision. While speaking with Fader, SAIC President Walter E. Massey and Dean of Faculty Lisa Wainwright opened up about their decision to honor Yeezy.

On giving Kanye the degree:

Massey: Us giving Kanye this honorary degree shows a lot of complexity in his music and his creative persona that they didn't see before. I know you're going to ask whether we've had controversy, and, as you might expect, we've had some. But, what's been interesting is the people who have been positive. Those who seem to oppose it react in a kind of visceral way to what they see: his surface image, what they see on television about him taking the Grammy from Taylor Swift. So they haven't taken the time, haven't been interested enough, to really see behind those kind of surface images. What a good thing about this for me—I'm not an artist—is that this is provoking just the kind of discussion we like to have. What is art? Who's an artist?

On the push back from students:

Wainwright: Not much. A little from some alums. I actually think that's a high-low problem. There's still this sense that high art is what we do, is what we honor, is what we're about. And that pop culture is not what we teach in art school. Pop culture, mass culture—that's a whole other thing, and we're about high art. I think that's a problem. We're trying to collapse those boundaries a little bit. That's what I like about Kanye. Chicago's known for it. Chicago pop art. Harry Who and The Chicago Imagists. Chicago's known for really looking at source material that's popular. And yet we're associated with the museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, which features high art. A little bit of it was class within the art world. There are many classes in the art world, some of the push back was, "Wait a second, this is pop." That's what I dig. We're going to have, on stage, both the director of the Art Institute, Doug Druick, who's a very renowned historian of 19th century art and runs a major encyclopedic museum in the country, and Kanye West, who talks to the people on the street. It's perfect. I love the combination.

In other news, Kanye West was served a lawsuit upon his arrival at the LAX airport. 'Ye, his wife Kim Kardashian and daughter North were returning from their trip overseas when a man served Kanye papers for a court appearance. TMZ caught the whole ordeal on camera, which you can watch below.

Filed Under: Kanye West

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