MFA in Art—application deadline: January 15, 2014
MFA in Art with a Concentration in Critical & Curatorial Studies—application deadline: March 1, 2014
UC Irvine
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
3229 Art Culture and Technology
Irvine, CA 92697-2775
MFA in Art
The graduate program offers a rigorous, interdisciplinary environment for training in the visual arts. The program provides a thorough and intensive professional training for students wishing to pursue careers in the field of contemporary art, and emphasizes experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to art making, while also providing a solid grounding in various disciplinary mediums and post-studio practices. Students undergo a rigorous course of study combining seminars, intensive critique courses, and independent study. Students may take advantage of the academic excellence UCI provides as a leading research university by taking courses in other departments and programs. In addition to faculty dedicated to facilitating students’ understanding of visual art and its cultural contexts, students have access to visiting artists through lectures, studio visits, and colloquia.
Faculty: Kevin Appel, Juli Carson, Miles Coolidge, Bryan Jackson, Ulysses Jenkins, Antoinette LaFarge, Simon Leung, Joseph S. Lewis III, Mara Lonner, Monica Majoli, Daniel Martinez, Yong Soon Min, Gifford Myers, Deborah Oliver, Simon Penny, Shelby Roberts, Connie Samaras, David Trend, and Bruce Yonemoto.
The Department of Art welcomes the following new faculty: Jesse Colin Jackson, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jennifer Pastor, Litia Perta, Lowery Stokes Sims
Application and additional information here.
MFA in Art with a concentration in Critical & Curatorial Studies
The program educates graduate students to pursue careers in the fields of curatorial practice, art criticism, and public programming. Upon completion of this three-year program, students will be well versed in debates that define art and visual culture from modernism to the present, capable of conceiving new models of contemporary exhibition and criticism, and trained to execute professional, innovative projects in the field.The curriculum is interdisciplinary, taught and administered by a core faculty selected from the Department of Art and the Visual Studies PhD program in the School of the Humanities, a collaboration designed to prepare students for careers in such visual art venues as museums, art galleries, publications, and archives. The curriculum and resulting degree combine aspects of MA and MFA training, reflecting the concentration’s location in the School of the Arts and its partnership with the School of Humanities.
Faculty—from the Department of Art: Juli Carson (director), Kevin Appel, Miles Coolidge, Daniel Martinez, Litia Perta, and Bruce Yonemoto; from the Visual Studies program: Cécile Whiting, Bridget R. Cooks, Bliss Cua Lim, Catherine Liu, and James Nisbet.
Application and additional information can be found here.
Exhibition opportunities
Graduate students have opportunities to exhibit in the University Art Gallery. First-year and second-year MFAs conduct Open Studios and mount exhibitions to demonstrate their progress towards the degree. Third-year MFAs mount a thesis exhibition in the spring and mount a second exhibition outside campus in the summer after graduation.
Teaching opportunities
Each graduate student is normally appointed to 6 Teaching Assistant and/or Teaching Associate positions during the three years in the program. In addition, some students are appointed as Graduate Student Researchers, or as instructors for the Summer Academy, an outreach program for high school students. The department also appoints some graduate students to teach the summer school curriculum as Lecturers in the summer immediately following graduation.
Financial packages and fellowship opportunities
Successful applicants normally receive full academic financial support. Successful international applicants are guaranteed full academic financial support for the first year and partial academic support for the second and third year. The department is committed to providing as much funding as possible to assist international students in the completion of the degree. Students also take advantage of the numerous grant and fellowship opportunities available through the School of the Arts, the UC Institute for Research in the Arts, and other external agencies.
For more information about the Department of Art in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine, please go to studioart.arts.uci.edu.
