Call for applications 2021: Image Text MFA

The Ithaca College low-residency Image Text MFA is a unique terminal degree program focused on the intersection of writing and photography.

Students in our exploratory, flexible and innovative twenty-five month program work directly with faculty and visiting artists during three annual month-long summer sessions in Ithaca, New York and during two annual week-long winter sessions in a major international cultural center (most recently London and Mexico City). During the fall and spring academic terms, students pursue independent study in close consultation with their faculty advisors.

Integrating theoretical, historical and conceptual studies with rigorous artistic practice, the program seeks to create a community that brings photography and writing into a shared arena of discussion and invention, including, but not limited to, cross-disciplinary and collaborative work. This approach evolves out of the creative interactions featured in our iTi Workshops, where writers and photographers, both emerging and established, gather to share and make work in an open, experimental and playful environment. Each MFA summer session will likewise begin with an iTi Workshop and retreat in an isolated rural setting, followed by four weeks of
intensive coursework.

Graduate students work closely with the Image Text Ithaca Symposium (a two-day event that gathers internationally-known writers and photographers for a wide range of presentations) and the Image Text Ithaca Press. The iTi press, modeled on contemporary photographic and literary small presses, publishes original text and image works by national and international writers and artists.

We welcome applicants with backgrounds in writing, photography and other lens-based media, and artists working across these forms and disciplines. Experience in both text and image-making is not required, but applicants must submit a portfolio that demonstrates sustained work in at least one of these areas, if not both.

Fellowships and funding
Scholarships for national and international applicants are available on a competitive basis.

Application deadline for scholarship consideration: February 1, 2021

Recent and upcoming iTi faculty and fellows include
Rosa Alcalá, Stephanie Barber, Lucas Blalock, Nydia Blas, Tisa Bryant, Melissa Catanese, Bruno Ceschel, Tony Cokes, Matthew Connors, Danielle Dutton, Tonya M. Foster, Renee Gladman, David Hartt, Whitney Hubbs, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Lucy Ives, John Keene, Justine Kurland, David Levine, Manolo Márquez, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Mark Nowak, Ed Panar, Claudia Rankine, Drew Sawyer, Elana Schlenker, Cauleen Smith, Paul Soulellis, Luke Stettner, Jo Ann Walters, Carmen Winant, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa and Program Directors Nicholas Muellner and Catherine Taylor.

Facilities
Students have year-round access to the Park School of Communications and its state-of-the-art photography, film/video and audio facilities and equipment. These include two digital photography suites with Imacon scanners and Epson printers, analog darkroom, lighting studio, soundstages, video editing suites, and portable resources ranging from medium and large format film cameras to professional HD video equipment.

Application
Applications are accessible online at imagetextithaca.com.
Please write to imagetext [​at​] ithaca.edu with questions about the Image Text MFA or the application process, or to schedule a conversation with the Program Directors.

Want more information about what the program offers and how to apply? Join us for one of our virtual information sessions where you will hear from the program directors, faculty, and students. 

The sessions will take place via Zoom on October 29 and December 10 at 6pm ET.

To attend a session, click here to register.