Call for graduate applications

Purchase College offers three separate two-year-long master’s degrees that encourage interdisciplinarity: the MFA in Media Arts & Culture; the MFA in Visual Arts; and the MA in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism, and Theory. In addition, students may opt for a three-year joint MFA/MA degree that combines the latter two programs.

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As part of the State University of New York system, Purchase College is committed to the notion of public education that combines academic excellence and affordability. Enriching their experience, students have access to the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College’s campus museum and the eighth largest university museum in the country; to a renowned Performing Arts Center; and to various Westchester-based spaces that combine exhibition, performance and community engagement.

The MFA in Media Arts & Culture: Students work with a department of creative and diverse faculty who are prominent in the worlds of media art and technology. Faculty specialties include video art, socially engaged art, digital printmaking, creative coding, AR / VR, internet art, installation art, physical computing, sound art, tactical media, distributed media and more. Engaging with artists, art spaces, and community organizations in the greater New York City area, the program provides resources to create media art that is formally inventive, rigorously theorized, historically reflective, and socially engaged. Our curriculum treats art as critical inquiry and explores emerging technologies as media for creative expression. 

The MFA in Visual Arts is a small and highly selective interdisciplinary program that fosters the artistic, intellectual, and professional growth of students through a melding of independent studio work and rigorous academic studies. State-of-the-art facilities include photography, video and digital labs, a woodshop and metal shop, and printmaking and letterpress studios. A half-hour south, the vast art communities in New York City play a crucial role in curricular and extracurricular activities. Students present a culminating exhibition at a New York gallery in one of the city’s thriving arts neighborhoods. The 2019 thesis show will take place at PS122 Gallery in Manhattan’s East Village, May 10–19.

The MA in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism, and Theory offers a two-year progression designed to immerse students in the history of the discipline, its methodologies, and its challenges, and to prepare them to engage in contemporary debates about art’s roles in society and its critical capacities. Thinking globally, the curriculum attends to the flows of arts practices within and across borders. The program augments its course offerings with an object-based approach, incorporating into the curriculum the collection and exhibitions of the internationally acclaimed Neuberger Museum of Art, a top ten university art museum within the United States.

The MA program offers a concentration in museum and curatorial studies, which features historical and theoretical training, as well as hands-on experience with exhibition projects at both the Neuberger Museum of Art and nearby New York City arts institutions.

Joint MFA/MA degree: Students may apply for a joint MFA/MA degree in Visual Art and Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism, and Theory with the art history requirements completed in a third year of study.

A vibrant community of makers and thinkers
Graduate students have the opportunity to interface with over 35 full time faculty working in all areas. Additionally, students have access to a robust visiting artist and curator lecture series which encourages a rigorous and diverse public conversation for the academic community. Visiting practitioners, recent and upcoming, include Ann Agee, David Altmejd, Doug Ashford, Huma Bhabha, David Brooks, A.K. Burns, Adam Cvijanovic, Rochelle Feinstein, Barnaby Furnas, Chitra Ganesh, Liz Glynn, David Humphrey, Martin Kersels, Jon Kessler, Judith Linhares, Catherine Lord, Suzanne McClelland, Carlos Motta, Sarah Oppenheimer, Virginia Overton, Sheila Pepe, Gilad Ratman, Lucy Raven, Kara Rooney, Amanda Ross-Ho, Raphael Rubinstein, Barry Schwabsky, Dread Scott, and Michael St. John, among many others.

Financial assistance
Purchase College’s position in the State University of New York system offers a significant financial advantage. Half- to full-tuition scholarships are available, depending on residency status. Teaching stipends may supplement costs of attendance. Students can expect to pay significantly less than one-half the cost of attendance of equivalent private graduate programs.

For application information
Caitlin Read, Dean of Enrollment Management: T +1 914 251 6306 / caitlin.read [​at​] purchase.edu
The online application can be found here.