PNCA
1241 NW Johnson St
Portland OR 97217
www.pnca.edu
PNCA Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies is currently accepting applications for admission for 2013. For students unable to commit 18–24 months of their lives to the rigors of full-time schooling this program provides a platform to engage in rigorous study and a high-level experience of a diverse range of artistic, scholarly philosophical and cultural voices.
This Summer 2013 session begins on June 17 and hosts an ongoing Graduate Lecture Series at 6:30pm on Thursday evenings throughout the summer session. Information about the Graduate Lecture Series can be found here: PNCA Calendar.
Program Description:
Our Low Residency MFA in Visual Studies is designed for the non-traditional student who has an independent creative practice. The MFA in Visual Studies / Low Residency is a sixty-credit practice-oriented program. It is structured as an individualized, self-designed, mentor-based program. The low residency program’s longer degree-completion times, flexible schedules, lower tuition and cost of attendance, and the distance-learning component that does not require students to permanently relocate will make it suitable for those arts professionals, such as teachers, curators, and designers, who are already engaged in the professional world as well as those independent artists who are seeking a new career path.
The Low-Residency program includes:
- eight-week summer session
- graduate seminars
- critique sessions
- visiting artist lectures
- workshops
- intensive periods of studio practice
- four-day winter intensives
- working closely with faculty, artists-in-residence, visiting artists/scholars, and local mentors
Fall and Spring Semesters
These are periods of deeper contemplation and productivity during which the MFA students work off-site in their personal studios to incorporate the ideas and insights gained from the summer into their studio practice, research, and writing. Each semester the MFA Chair assists in the selection of a local mentor for these semesters, an expert in the student’s area of focus who will provide guidance and support while maintaining the rigorous standards of the program. This mentorship is an integral component of the program bringing diversity, richness, and depth of experience to the MFA candidates.
2013 Artist-in-residence
Sarah McNeil who grew up in a family of antique auctioneers in a small town on the coast of Maine. She inherited from them a collector’s love of handcrafted objects, historic artifacts, and the richly layered stories behind them, all of which are still great influences on her today. In her art practice, she mines the history of medical science, outmoded technologies, and folklore, to provoke thinking about the contemporary world she lives in. She has done a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and was the recipient of the Henry Walters Traveling Fellowship where she spent three months in Prague immersed in the studies of traditional Czech puppetry, and puppet animation.
2012 Artist-in-residence
Thomas Zummer is an independent scholar, writer, artist, and curator, who posits philosophical investigations through his engagement with media as diverse as photographic-like drawings in carbon, painting, sculpture, and architectural plans and models. He studied under/worked with theorists such as Derrida, Foucault, Paul de Man, and Paul Ricoeur.
Past/Upcoming Visitings Artists
Richard Shaw, Martha Buskirk, Ryan Pierce, Robert Ortal, John McNeil, Sa Schloff, Miriam Harris, Kirsten Swenson, Brian Dunn, Hayley Barker, Arnold Kemp, MK Guth, James Reid, Cynthia Ona Innis, Lauri Twitchell & Peter Suchecki, Thingamajigs Performance Group, Phil Dadson, Shannon Stratton, and Peter Halley.
For questions about how to apply call or email our Graduate Admissions Coordinator Bill Watt at
501 821 8972 /[email protected].
