Application deadline: January 1, 2020
Pratt Institute’s interdisciplinary MFA in Fine Arts is accepting applications now for the fall 2020 semester. The program is ranked among the top fifteen nationally out of almost 300 graduate fine arts programs by U.S. News and World Reports. Areas of emphasis include painting/drawing, printmaking, integrated practices, and sculpture.
Pratt Institute’s MFA program provides advanced education for artists supported by a distinguished faculty, exceptional facilities, and a supportive community of peers. Driven by exploration and enriched by the abundance and inspiration of New York City, Pratt’s critically engaged faculty respond to each student’s individual practice, fostering their development within the diverse cultures and myriad practices of contemporary art-making.
Interdisciplinary program
Pratt’s MFA Fine Arts degree supports interdisciplinary practice. Many students remain committed to the area of interest that they identified upon entering the program—whether painting and drawing, printmaking, sculpture or integrated practices—however, they are free to explore other forms and approaches as their work evolves. Faculty and students build close relationships through structured studio visits, seminars, and informal conversations. These relationships create a vital community and supportive network that endures long after graduation.
Curriculum
The curriculum is both rigorous and flexible, offering wide latitude for exploration while fostering critical perspectives and a deeper understanding of the histories, issues, cultural and transdisciplinary contexts that inform art practices today. With the art world on our doorstep, there are many opportunities to meet influential contemporary curators, critics and cultural producers. Professional practice education is integrated throughout the program, providing students the tools they need to make their way as professional artists and cultural innovators after graduation.
Faculty
Our faculty are active professional artists distinguished by their numerous national and international exhibitions and inclusion in major publications. Many have also received significant awards from prestigious organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Creative Capital, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Facilities
Graduate Fine Arts facilities are outstanding. Students have individual studios located in the Pfizer Building, a renovated industrial building that also houses our fabrication shops, temporary exhibition spaces, seminar rooms, and a student lounge. Campus facilities include a fully equipped woodshop, metal shop, print shop, ceramics studios, darkrooms, and a digital output lab with high-resolution scanners and printers, as well as dedicated campus galleries. There are many opportunities to show work in a variety of traditional and non-traditional spaces and students are encouraged to curate self-initiated exhibitions. In both fall and spring, MFA students host a public open studio event. In the spring second-year students mount individual thesis capstone exhibitions and have the option of showing their work in a curated group show at Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
Community & programming
We are a vibrant, socially-engaged and generous community! The department initiates many discussions around contemporary issues and collaborates with arts organizations to ensure we actively participate in the cultural life of the surrounding neighborhood, as well as broader national and international communities, two such initiatives are Project Third and PIE. Project Third is a ten-week gallery residency where we invite artists/collaborative groups whose community work is research-oriented and/or motivated by the desire to instigate social change.
Visiting artists, curators, and critics
In addition to a regular schedule of studio visits by faculty members, the department’s Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) brings internationally renowned artists to campus to give public lectures and conduct individual studio visits with graduate students. Upcoming and recent artists include: Diana Al-Hadid, Korakrit Arunanaondchai, Judith Bernstein, Michael Berryhill, The Black School, Pradeep Dalal, Nicole Eisenman, Rochelle Feinstein, Keltie Ferris, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Rico Gatson, Nancy Grossman, Trenton Doyle Hancock,Savannah Knoop, Leigh Ledare, Kalup Linzey, Jill Magid, Ibrahim Mahama, Lavar Munroe, Narcissister, Rashaad Newsome, Catherine Opie, Alexis Rockman, Carrie Schneider, Shahzia Sikander, Lorna Simpson, Tom Sachs, Aura Satz, Peter Saul, Mary Walling-Blackburn, Dan Walsh, and Phoebe Washburn
Alumni
Fine Arts alumni thrive. Graduates have been accepted into prestigious residencies such as Skowhegan, Black Rock, Senegal, MacDowell Colony, the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, the Elizabeth Foundation, the Siena Art Institute, and the Whitney Independent Study Program. Our alumni have exhibited at museums such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum, and MoMA, along with galleries such as Miguel Abreu, James Cohan, Marianne Boesky, Lyles & King, Lehmann Maupin, Matthew Marks, Minus Space, Pierogi, and Jack Tilton. They have received grants from around the world such as Anonymous Was A Woman, Banditto Art Award, Creative Capital, the Dedalus Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant, and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Their work is represented in international public and private collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan, and the Panza Collection in Varese, Italy. Graduates have careers as professors at schools such as Hunter College, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Cooper Union, and Columbia University.
Many also find their place in the world as writers, gallerists, and curators, or working in the community as social justice advocates, educators, and change-makers. Others forge their own paths and become innovators in many emerging creative fields. Graduating from our Fine Arts MFA program is just the beginning!
Scholarships
Graduate scholarships are available to incoming domestic and international students based on merit.
Applying
View application and portfolio requirements.
Request information
Join our mailing list to receive a full-color catalog filled with student work, curricula, and more.
Pratt Institute is ranked among the top design schools by BusinessWeek and fifth in the world out of 50 art and design colleges by QS World University Rankings by Subject. Top-ranked programs, a distinguished faculty of professional artists and designers, and an ideally located campus in Brooklyn, New York, make Pratt an excellent choice for graduate study.
Contact: T 800 331 0834 / admissions [at] pratt.edu
