CV
EDUCATION
2024 Masters of Fine Arts, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Chicago
University Fellowship Nominee
2019 Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago
Trustees Merit Scholar
AWARDS
2022 Provost Graduate Research Award, UIC, Chicago
The Provost's Graduate Research Award (PGRA) supports scholarship by providing students early in their studies to develop new research directions for their PhD dissertations or terminal degree thesis/capstone project. This annual "seed funding" competition helps students to develop stronger applications for funding from external sources. Inter- or multi-disciplinarity is strongly encouraged.
2020 Arts for Illinois Relief Funds (AIRF) Grant, 3Arts, Chicago
3Arts is a nonprofit organization that supports Chicago’s women artists, artists of color,
and Deaf and disabled artists who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts.
2019 Equity Award to attend Present Tense Conference, American Craft Council, Philadelphia
The American Craft Council is a national non-profit organization that supports craft-based artists, practices, and communities
2015 - Trustees Merit Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC),
2019 Chicago
SAIC awards merit scholarships to students who demonstrate exceptional levels of thoughtfulness, skill, conceptual capabilities, and academic groundedness.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Chinese American Museum, Chicago, What Color Am I?, curated by Larry Lee
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Agitator Gallery, Chicago, Home Not Home
2023 Chicago Art Department, Chicago, On Mending
2022 Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Kitchen Table Stories
2022 Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, 10th Annual Bridgeport Art Center’s Art Competition
2021 Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, The Bridge Program Continuous Span
2021 Weinberg Newton Gallery, Chicago, Experimental Makers
2021 The Martin, Chicago, Return
2021 Rostrum, Chicago, 312 Event
2019 Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, BFA Show
2017 Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Especially Now, “Advanced Fiber Exhibition”
2017 Logan Bar and Grill, Chicago, Building an Identity
2016 Fairbanks Morse Building, Chicago, Vans “Off the Wall” Shoe Design Showcase
PUBLIC EVENTS
2023 Chinese American Museum, Chicago, Adoptee Identity Are We Asian American Too?
Panel conversation with Joy Messinger, Danae Kovac, and Sarah Whyte as both speaker and moderator.
2023 Gallery 400 Lecture Rooms UIC, Chicago, Is the Humanitarian a Hero or a Villain
Panel conversation with Mark Hagland, Joy Messinger, Madeleine Fine, and Sarah Whyte as both speaker and moderator.
2023 Woman’s Leadership Resource Center (WLRC) UIC, Chicago, Artist-Activists Reimagining Justice
Panel conversation with Ashlyey Dequilla and Ramona Gupta as the moderator.
2021 Weinberg Newton Gallery, Chicago, Experimental Makers Workshop
Experimental Makers Workshop: Community Event encourages visitors to interact with the garments constructed in the workshop by artists. The event welcomes visitors to screen-print their own t-shirts with an exclusive design created by Whyte, Couch, and Lefthand.
2019 Chicago, Potluck: The Curatorial Parties
Potluck: The Curatorial Parties is a student-run gathering encouraging emerging artists to talk about and display their work.
2019 Columbus Drive Building, Chicago, SENIOR EXPO
SENIOR EXPO is a weeklong exhibition of curated displays, student selections, and site-specific installations by The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) graduating seniors enrolled in Capstone courses.
2018 Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, Chicago, Chicago Artist Book Fair
Chicago Artist Book Fair is a showcasing of an emerging international group of over 125 arts publishers, small presses, book artists, comic artists, zine-makers, and printmakers.
Lectures
2023 Woman’s Leadership Resource Center (WLRC) UIC, Chicago, What is the Asian American Adoptee
Diaspora
2022 Evanston Art Center, Evanston, What Color Am I? Exploring Transnational Adoption
RESIDENCIES
2022 Chicago Art Department, Chicago, On Mending with Silvia Inés Gonzalez
During a two-and-a-half-month period, participants reflect on practices rooted in activism, abolition, organizing, and healing praxis. Researching how artistic interventions take form to combat systems of trauma to then produce a series of skill-share opportunities, art objects, and/or experiences geared at engaging the larger public in a culminating exhibition. Artists receive a $500 micro-grant to support their participation in the Think Tank.
2021 Weinberg Newton Gallery, Chicago, Experimental Makers Workshop Residency with Joseph Lefthand and Isaac Couch
During a two-and-a-half-month period this residency places a strong emphasis on cultivating a progressive and intuitive working process through the use of embodied practice and mindful self-awareness, the three artists are constructing garments that they will activate through a series of performances.
2021 Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Bridge Program
The Bridge Program is a competitively juried program that fosters generative dialogue among a select group of artists, in a seminar-style course designed to push your artistic practice.
COLLECTIONS
2018 Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, Artist Book “Dear Stranger”
The Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection is one of SAIC's most popular Special Collections. It was officially named and established in 1989 as a separate entity within the John M. Flaxman Library. Today it exceeds 6,000 artworks, complemented by extensive reference materials.
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Koji Taylor, “Untangling Identity” Artist Sarah Whyte Makes Space for Transnational Adoptees”,
published by Chicago Reader
2023 Max Herman, “Borderless’ Weekly Things-To-Do”, published by Borderless
2021 Whyte, Sarah, “Experimental Makers Workshop (Měiguó rén 美国人)”, published by
Weinberg Newton Gallery
2018 Whyte, Sarah, “Dear Strangers”, Limited Edition Japanese Stab Bound Artist Book,
Edition of five, published in conjunction with the Chicago Artist Book Fair
MURALS
2021 Roosevelt Collection Shops, Chicago, AAPI Mural Participant (window murals to Stop
Asian Hate)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2018 - present Studio Assistant for Aram Han Sifuentes in Chicago, IL
Assisting Aram Han Sifuentes and her collaborators with projects including Protest Banner Lending Library, Protest Garment Lab, U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler, and Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting for All Who Legally Can’t. Daily tasks include, but are not limited to embroidering, hand applique, banner making, garment construction, and various administrative tasks.
2019 - present Studio Art Conservator for Jane Wenger in Chicago, IL
Conservation of art and artifacts including skeletal collection, taxidermy insects, wooden and brass sculptures, and ceramics
2019-2020 Server for Little Beet Table in Chicago, IL
2017 - 2019 Studio Assistant for Anne Wilson in Chicago, IL
Assistance with fabrication and elaboration of fine craftwork of internationally renowned artist.