Application deadline: February 1, 2013
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Graduate Admissions Office
230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
T 617 369 3626 or 800 643 6078
About the program
The two-year Master of Fine Arts graduate program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), emphasizes the relationship of art and ideas within an interdisciplinary framework. Its objective is to provide an education in the fine arts that is rigorous and engaging, integrating multiple discourses through the development of practical and critical skills across diverse media and disciplines. The MFA supports the forging and inventing of contemporary art practices through the promotion of individual innovation and creative collaborations that extend learning beyond the School community into the local and global cultures of art. The degree culminates with a thesis exhibition, an in-depth presentation of the students’ practice and its aesthetic, social and political implications.
SMFA shares its campus with the internationally renowned Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—one of only three schools nationally that are partnered with a major museum. Our students have unsurpassed access to an encyclopedic collection of art and the Museum’s curatorial, conservation and history departments.
Students also have access to the exceptional academic resources of our academic partner, Tufts University, in addition to the full range of SMFA’s studio classes and resources. Our students work with advisors from SMFA’s international roster of faculty, explore professional development, have teaching opportunities, apply for internal and external exhibitions and grants, attend graduate seminars, develop colloquia and interact with distinguished visiting faculty and guest artists. Our November 26 colloquium, “No Dust in the Digital Archive?” explores how contemporary archiving affects notions of copyright, accessibility and permanency. Recent visiting artists include: Perry Bard, John Divola, Sunil Gupta + Anna Fox, Annette Lemieux, Karyn Olivier, Lucy Orta, Dan Peterman, William Powhida, Raqs Media Collective and Sara VanderBeek.
Graduate Committee: Second-year MFA students build their own graduate committee, comprised of graduate advisors and faculty as well as curators and artists from institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; MIT List Visual Arts Center; DeCordova Museum + Sculpture Park; Tufts University and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
Awards: The MFA program has produced 12 Joan Mitchell Grant Recipients since 1997, the most by any school to date; three Fulbright Scholars since 2000; a recipient of the Terra Foundation Residency in Giverny, France; and a recipient of the prestigious Dedalus Foundation Fellowship. Our graduates teach at universities and colleges such as the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College, Marlboro College (VT), Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the School of Visual Arts, SUNY New Paltz and Wellesley College. Recent alumni artists include Jowhara AlSaud, Nuno deCampos, Lalla Essaydi, Neeta Madahar, Sheila Pepe, Daniel Rich, Benjamin Sloat and Youngsuk Suh.
Open House: Learn more about our MFA program and get your portfolio reviewed at SMFA’s Graduate Open House, December 1, 2012. Contact us for details and to RSVP: 800 643 6078 or [email protected].
Apply
We are now accepting applications for the fall 2013 term. Apply online or contact us at 800 643 6078 or [email protected] for more information.
The mission of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is to provide an education in the fine arts—for undergraduate and graduate artists—that is interdisciplinary and self-directed. This education values cultural, artistic and intellectual diversity; it embraces a wide range of media; it stresses the development of individual vision and its relation to culture in general; it values equally the knowledge gained by thinking and doing; it is deeply engaged with the world as a whole. If the mission is constant, its practice is always transforming.
