Application deadline: February 1, 2020
Mills College’s MFA program in studio art provides artists with both a formal and a conceptual foundation in contemporary art. Mills’ interdisciplinary community of artists provides the perfect setting for the development of a personal practice and professional engagement in contemporary art dialogue.
In the context of a small liberal arts college, students receive individual attention from Mills’ distinguished professors and visiting artists. Admission into this two-year graduate program is competitive and designed to facilitate personal, artistic growth and meet the demanding standards of the profession.
Students are encouraged to work across disciplines, but select a focus among painting, sculpture, installation, photography, intermedia, sound, new genres, video, and electronic arts. Mills College houses excellent studios for all of these disciplines. Other resources include the Mills College Art Museum, sculpture labs, digital computer lab, video suites, dark rooms and state of the art digital printing lab.
Graduate students in studio art also enjoy spacious, private studios during the entire two years of their program. Students are required to work in these on-campus studios to facilitate interaction with fellow artists, faculty, and visiting artists and scholars.
Substantial graduate fellowships in the first year and teaching assistantships in the second year are available.
The MFA program culminates in a thesis exhibition of student work in the Mills College Art Museum which draws substantial interest from the Bay Area arts community, including local gallerists, curators and critics.
More information
MFA program / MFA blog / Mills College Art Museum
Studio Art and Art History Faculty
Meryl Bailey, Stephanie Hanor (Director, Mills College Art Museum), Yulia Pinkusevich, Chris Sollars, and Catherine Wagner
Studio Art and Art History Adjunct Faculty
Jennifer Brandon, Chris Fraser, Samara Halperin, Glen Helfand, Cathy Lu, Sarah Miller, Sandra Ono, Will Rogan, Alice Shaw, and Genevieve Quick
Recent Visiting Artists and Scholars
Anna Betbeze, Abelardo Morell, Yasufumi Nakamori, Nayland Blake, Lawrence Rinder, Isaac Julien, Daniel Canogar, Karthik Pandian, Jackie Im, and Diana Al-Hadid
About Mills College
Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering a dynamic progressive education that fosters leadership, social responsibility, and creativity in approximately 950 undergraduate women and more than 600 graduate women and men. The College ranks as one of the Best 377 Colleges in the country and one of the greenest colleges in the nation by The Princeton Review. U.S. News & World Reportranked Mills one of the top-tier regional universities in the country and lists it among the top colleges and universities in the West in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category.
