Richard Maxwell is a playwright, director, and the artistic director of New York City Players. He studied acting at Illinois State University and then became a co-founder of the Cook County Theater Department in Chicago. He was the recipient of the 2014 Spalding Gray Award from the commissioning consortium of Performance Space 122, the Andy Warhol Museum, On the Boards, and the Walker Art Center. He was a Doris Duke Performing Artist and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, and was an invited artist in the 75th Whitney Biennial (2010). In 2018, his play Paradiso premiered at Greene Naftali Gallery. In the fall of 2018 Maxwell presented new work at ICA London and also participated in the Chinati Foundation’s artist-in-residency program, located in Marfa, Texas, where his work Ads was presented this past October. His latest book is the first monograph on his plays, The Theater Years (Greene Naftali and Westreich Wagner, 2017). Other publications include Theater for Beginners (TCG, 2015), and Plays, 1999-2000 (TCG, 2004).

The Graduate Art Seminar is a forum for graduate students and members of the ArtCenter community to enter into dialog with internationally recognized artists, critics, and art historians. The Seminar is a core component of ArtCenter's Graduate Art program. The Seminar is also free and open to the public.

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio that provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres—film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.