Studio Practice, Art and Social Practice
Accepting Applications for Academic Year 2008-09
Dedicated to helping students understand and explore the ways that artists and their work function within a larger social context, Portland State University’s Department of Art offers a Master of Fine Arts in Contemporary Art Practice with emphases in Studio Practice and a newly developed Art and Social Practice. Applications for Fall 2008 will be accepted through February 1.
The two-year, interdisciplinary program is built around a core of directed study with a strong foundation in theory. Opportunities for critical dialogue are offered via a weekly series of nationally and internationally recognized visiting artists. Supported by an acclaimed urban university, itself an integral component of one of the fastest growing creative centers on the West Coast, Portland State University’s MFA program allows students to pursue investigations at the forefront of
contemporary art.
Within the new Art and Social Practice emphasis, one of the few such programs in the country, students explore the social role of the artist and seek to transcend traditional boundaries through direct engagement with the public. The program takes social interaction and the relationships between people and their surroundings as a starting point for a wide variety of projects in multiple media.
Students in Studio Practice engage in independent research and production, combining disciplines or concentrating on a single discipline, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, digital or time-based media. The program offers individual studio spaces, multiple galleries, state-of-the-art computer graphics and multimedia facilities, a foundry, a welding studio, a printmaking studio, a darkroom, and wood and metal workshops.
Recent visiting artists include Dan Graham, Jim Drain, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, , Julia Bryan-Wilson, Allan McCollum, San Keller, Lisa Sigal, Byron Kim, Dave McKenzie, Anne Daems, Fritz Haeg, Robert Pruitt, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Rigo 23, Vanessa Renwick, Melinda Stone, Jim Goldberg, Jeanne Finley and Lynne Kirby.
Art and Social Practice faculty are Harrell Fletcher and Jen Delos Reyes. Studio Practice faculty include Pat Boas, Horia Boboia, Erik Geschke, Bill LePore and Rita Robillard.
Part of the university’s School of Fine and Performing Arts, the Department of Art is located within walking distance of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Northwest Film Center and major downtown galleries and design firms. With over 700 undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, a dedicated faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers and scholars and a dynamic visiting artist program, PSU’s Department of Art is a place where students from a variety of backgrounds interact, exchange ideas and
broaden perspectives.
Application deadline: February 1, 2008
Information: http://www.pdx.edu/art/graduate.html
Department website: http://www.pdx.edu/art/mfa.html
Email: [email protected]
