Graduate Programs
The School of Art+Design offers a two-year in-residency study program or a three-year low-residency program leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Art Practice. In-residency students choose an emphasis in either Studio Practice or Social Practice and low-residency students must select Social Practice. These 90-credit programs prepare the student to be a practicing artist within a regional, national, and international arts community.
The student will acquire a strong theoretical foundation in order to analyze and discuss their work and that of others as well as to place their work in a historical and socio-cultural context. In addition, the student cultivates work, process, and research habits required of the self-directed artist. The MFA in Contemporary Art Practice is a small, individualized program that offers the student great accessibility to the MFA faculty, providing constant assessment and direction.
Contemporary Art Practices M.F.A.
Degree requirements
Working with designated faculty during the first year, students are encouraged to explore new media, models and ideas as they develop a proposal for creative activity that culminates with an exhibition project in their final year of the program.
Students are admitted conditionally and must pass a midpoint candidacy review to gain regular admission to the university and continue work towards their degree. (Students in-residency receive a candidacy review at the end of their first year; low-residency students are reviewed at the end of their second year.) Individual faculty discussions, peer critiques, seminars in current issues/contemporary art history and lectures by nationally and internationally recognized visiting artists help students broaden their field of inquiry.
Students complete 90 credits, distributed in the following way:
- 40 credits Contemporary Art Practice/Directed Studies
- 12 credits Visiting Artist Program/Group Critique
- 12 credits Contemporary Art History/Theory
- 8 credits Electives (outside School of Art+Design)
- 12 credits Graduate Seminars
- 6 credits Exhibition Project/Statement
Upon successful completion of the candidacy review students work with a faculty adviser in their specified concentration to produce their graduate project. The project is presented in a public exhibition or other appropriate form in the spring quarter of the second or third year.