Jiseon Lee Isbara will be the next president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after a national search.
Lee Isbara will be the first woman of color and the second woman to serve as president in SAIC’s 158-year history. She will be the school’s 16th president.
Lee Isbara is a first-generation immigrant from South Korea, which she told Otis College of Art and Design has “a recent history of colonial occupation, war, military dictatorship and rapid political and economic advancement,” making her perspective of political and cultural systems “uniquely complex.” She is also raising a multicultural family, she told Otis, but tries “to be keenly aware of biases and prejudices” she might have because of her background.
Lee Isbara is a practicing artist whose textile work takes a lens through her experience as an immigrant of color. Her textile work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
“I will work tirelessly to advocate for our students’ futures and celebrate the talents that SAIC’s staff and faculty have nurtured, strengthening the School’s remarkable global community that makes a difference in art and design, education, and beyond,” Lee Isbara said in an SAIC news release.
She is provost of Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. During her four-year tenure, Otis saw enrollment growth, more focus on student mental health and career preparedness and a strengthening of the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion infrastructure, SAIC said in a statement.
Lee Isbara was previously the head of the Fibers Department, interim president, dean of academic affairs and chief academic officer at Oregon College of Art and Craft, where she had a 16-year tenure.
She earned a master of fine arts degree from Colorado State University and master and bachelor of fine arts degrees from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, where she was born and raised.
“I am so thrilled that Jiseon will serve as the next president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,” Board Chair Denise B. Gardner said in a release. “Given her record of bold leadership and deep commitment to creative communities, I have no doubt she will continue SAIC’s legacy as one of the world’s top art and design colleges. I look forward to working alongside her in service of the School’s artists, designers, and scholars.”
Lee Isbara will begin her term July 16. Current President Elissa Tenny is retiring after a seven year term.
Tenny became president in 2016 at SAIC after being hired as a provost in 2010. During her tenure, she helped increase the school’s endowment by more than $102 million and addressed issues of diversity and inclusion. She created an anti-racism committee in 2020 and increased hires of full-time faculty of color by 30% from 2016 to 2019.
