Kanye West claims he'll teach a course at the Art Institute, school says that's not true
Kanye West fans rejoiced this week when the superstar rapper announced plans to teach a course at the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art, but the celebration came to a halt on Monday as the college shot down his announcement.
West made the apparently false claims during a tweet storm on Sunday, sparking online chatter from social media users who cheered the announcement and shared ideas on what the art class should cover.
“We need to be overwhelmed with love and inspiration,” he tweeted. “I will teach a course at the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art.”
The posts gained a lot of traction online, accumulating more than 233,000 likes and retweets and nearly 2,000 comments on Twitter, but the schools said the claims were untrue.
Representatives for both the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art told Chicago ABC station WLS that there were no such plans in place.
The Art Institute of Chicago’s public relations director, Bree Witt, also issued a statement on the matter.
“We're flattered that Mr. West would have an interest in teaching emerging artists and designers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,” Witt told The Chicago Tribune on Monday. “However, Mr. West is not currently teaching at SAIC, and at this time, there are no plans for him to do so.”
It’s unclear if West, 41, intended to refer to another school or entity. ABC News couldn’t immediately reach West's representatives for comment.
The Chicago rapper made headlines last week when he fired off several tweets to address the ongoing “confusion” about his rumored feud with fellow rapper Drake.
He published nine Drake-related tweets within a 45-minute time span last Wednesday morning, just a few hours after a music website leaked a snippet of a forthcoming Drake track that appeared to insult West.
“Let me start by apologizing for stepping on your release date in the first place,” he wrote in another post. “When I put the dates up I was a bit ramped up doing 25 tweets a day [and] TMZ happened shortly after,” he said, making an apparent reference to his pro-President Donald Trump Twitter rants and his controversial rant on TMZ about slavery being "a choice."
“I haven’t seen the show in person but the images look incredible online. I understand where the confusion started,” West wrote in another tweet. “I will be coming to your show within the next seven days to give love and be inspired by the art you have created.”
