EXPO Chicago officially launches today, and for SAIC students, the weekend-long event and all of its associated programs will be available for free.

In addition to the annual fair’s exposition space teeming with artwork from galleries from all over the world, visitors will also have access to a variety of artist talks, video screenings, exhibitions, and book sellers.

This year’s Dialogues program kicked off this morning with a talk on the realties of running contemporary art foundations, and the talks will continue all weekend and cover a wide variety of arts-related topics. (I’m personally excited for Sunday afternoon’s discussion between artists Alex Soth and Justine Kurland and Aperture Foundation Photobook Editor Denise Wolff.)

EXPO will also be featuring a wide variety of exciting film, video, and animation artists this year, including a number of Chicago-based and SAIC_affiliated artists. The EXPO video program will also feature work from a number of up-and-coming film and video students from Columbia College.

Special exhibitions this year will include contributions from SAIC, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Renaissance Society, the Flag Art Foundation (in association with Shaquille O’Neal), the Aperture Foundation, and truly too many more to list here.

F Newsmagazine will be producing forthcoming coverage of the fair, but interested parties should get out to Navy Pier this weekend to check out the festivities in person.