In addition to chairing the Liberal Arts Department at the San Francisco Art Institute, Balliger was Chair of Urban Studies from 2006 until the program was discontinued in 2013. Urban Studies at SFAI was innovative and “ahead of its time” in terms of critiquing the arts in specific social contexts. Urban Studies had energetic faculty and students (many of whom have gone on to prestigious PhD programs or are employed in important arts institutions/museums or do great activist work). Many other colleges now focus on questions of the “public” in relation to creative practices. SFAI is in the process of reimagining the Urban Studies program as “Art, Place, and Public Studies,” which will hopefully launch in Fall 2020. Stay tuned!

Urban Studies-sponsored events 2011-2012