Application deadline: January 15, 2020
The University of Houston School of Art invites applications for our Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art and Master of Arts in Art History degree programs. We offer a low-cost, high reward arts education in one of the nation’s largest and most diverse cities.
The School of Art is a collection of impressive resources—both human and material—focused on creating and sustaining the intellectual, emotional and physical environments necessary to cultivate emerging artists, designers, theorists, and art historians.
In the SoA, we provide each student with expertise in a particular discipline, alongside the possibility of exploring and combining multiple disciplines. Each student’s degree program is flexible, based on their individual needs and interests. Students benefit from the vast resources available at the University of Houston, a Tier One research institution.
We offer the Master of Fine Arts with concentrations in Graphic Design, Interdisciplinary Practices and Emerging Forms (IPEF), Painting, Photography/Digital Media (PDM), and Sculpture, and the Master of Arts in Art History.
Funding
The School of Art extends generous scholarship and fellowship assistance to all graduate students. Many students engage in an active program of paid teaching and internship opportunities available during the second and third year of study.
New studios
In 2020 our MFA student community will relocate to a state-of-the-art facility: The Studios at Garage 5. Students will have generous private studios or open-plan work spaces to use as their home for creation and collaboration. With new sculpture facilities, exhibition spaces and social areas students will develop their practices in an art production space with limitless potential.
Faculty
Faculty in The School of Art are leading practitioners in their fields who have earned recognition from preeminent institutions including the American Academy in Rome, American Council of Learned Societies, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Getty Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and many others. Faculty have exhibited internationally at prestigious exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial, São Paulo Art Biennial, and Venice Biennale.
Current Faculty: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Nick Barbee, Cheryl Beckett, Michael Ray Charles, Jillian Conrad, Beckham Dossett, Dana Frankfort, Sibylle Hagman, Jack Hanna, Natilee Harren, Rachel Hecker, Stephan Hillerbrand, Yoon Kim, Paul Kittelson, Rex Koontz, Rick Lowe, Patrick Masterson, Anna Mayer, Fiona McGettigan, Abinadi Meza, Delilah Montoya, H. Rodney Nevitt, Jr, Luisa Orto, Aaron Parazette, David Politzer, Leopoldine Prosperetti, John Reed, Raphael Rubenstein, Gael Stack, Judith Steinhoff, Roberto Tejada, Joshua Unikel and Sandra Zalman.
Visiting artists
The School of Art’s visiting speaker series features practitioners and thinkers at the forefront of contemporary art and design. These distinguished guests offer a rich range of approaches to the most pertinent issues facing today’s makers and scholars. Recent visitors include: Diana Al-Hadid, Linda Benglis, Claire Bishop, Nina Canell, Ken Carbone, Alejandro Cartagena, Thomas Crow, Moyra Davey, Allan deSouza, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Jess T. Dugan, Darby English, Beverly Fishman, Coco Fusco, Jeffrey Gibson, Denise Gonzalez Crisp, Douglas Crimp, Harry Gamboa, Jr, Michelle Grabner, Barbara Hammer, Steven Heller, Suzanne Hudson, Caroline A. Jones, Demetrius Oliver, David Rokeby, Ramell Ross, Steve Rowell, Jason Salavon, Katy Siegel, Bryan Schutmaat, Richard The, Lucille Tenazas, Ben Van Dyke, Charlene Villaseñor Black and Margaret Wertheim.
Houston
Our neighbor, Blaffer Art Museum, one of the country’s most respected university art museums, is another asset that supports our academic structure at the School of Art. Its innovative, challenging exhibitions and programs bring the university and the extended community into closer engagement with important cultural issues of our time.
The city of Houston, our extended campus, is the most ethnically diverse and the fourth largest in the country. Home to world-class cultural institutions including the Menil Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, it is a city that embodies the country’s cultural and demographic future.
