Kanye West announced on Twitter that he’ll be teaching at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
But he actually won’t be.
The art school issued a polite statement Monday saying administrators were “flattered that Mr. West would have an interest in teaching emerging artists and designers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.”
But he is “not currently teaching at SAIC, and at this time, there are no plans for him to do so,” said the statement.
Bizarrely, West told “Extra” over the weekend that his wife, Kim Kardashian, “is in law school now, and it’s extremely serious to us.” A rep for her told Page Six (and other media) that she’s not attending law school (she didn’t graduate from college) but that she is working on prison reform.
He tweeted that he’ll be teaching at the American Academy of Art in Chicago as well, which also is not happening, reported ABC 7.
The teaching gigs were part of a stream of tweets from West on Sunday about various Chicago plans. The hip-hopper said he aimed to set up a “Yeezy office” in the city. And he tweeted, “We’re going to do Chicago Comedy Jam” in October and “restore the Regal Theatre,” likely referring to the Avalon Regal cinema in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
He said he visited the Stony Island Art Bank in Chicago and found it “super inspiring.”
It’s unclear what the fantasy tweets about teaching and the law school were all about. West revealed this summer that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which can sometimes fuel inflated ideas and plans. He tweeted simply “2024” on Saturday, leading some to believe he was dreaming of a true West Wing. He has called his mental condition a “superpower.” There are “some cases of bipolar where people go low,” he said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “I’m one that goes high.”
The Art Institute of Chicago granted West an honorary doctorate in 2015. He was recognized for his “transformative, genre-defying work” and was chosen in part because an institute staff member had read that he had always wanted to go to the school, the BBC reported.
After his teaching tweet, some students at the institute asked him what classes he would be teaching so they could sign up, while others talked about their school choices.
Despite his expressed support for President Donald Trump, in a tweet Monday, West backed Colin Kaepernick, who launched the kneeling protests against racial injustice, and Nike for choosing the former San Francisco quarterback as the face of its latest ad campaign. Trump said he is furious about the move.
