Meet Dr. Kanye West

Kanye West has yet again been at a receiving end of a public outrage. For whatever reason the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has awarded West with an honorary doctorate during this year’s graduations ceremony. The day before the ceremony poor students had to sit through an hour-long lecture he was invited to give.

Just to be clear, SAIC is one of the most prestigious art schools in the whole country. They hand out honorary doctorates to “influential individuals who earned this distinguished award through their work, which is always imaginative and aesthetically rich, and sometimes also provocative and controversial, shifting the cultural landscape in significant ways. The recipients are also considered “remarkable examples of creative success and determination, who are often inspirations to our students, faculty, and entire SAIC community.”

Doctorates were awarded to figures like Jeff Koons, Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic in the past so the public outraged that ensued was to be expected in Kanye’s case.

Dean Lisa Wainwrigh defened the decision:

“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.”

The recipients are also considered “remarkable examples of creative success and determination, who are often inspirations to our students, faculty, and entire SAIC community.”

There has been some backlash surrounding the school’s decision to give him the award, an award that’s been handed to figures like Jeff Koons, Marina Abramovic, and Yoko Ono.

But Dean Lisa Wainwrigh said:

“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.”

https://youtu.be/Jr5nkAgqF6M