2023 MFA + MDes Thesis Exhibition

The School of Art + Art History + Design is the center for creative innovation and study at the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public research institutions. The school’s focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of new practices enhances both studio and classroom learning as well as fostering dynamic engagement and critical discourse. Our students are inspired to learn through a rigorous and creative academic experience, competitive internships, and international opportunities. Learning from influential faculty, alumni, visiting artists, designers, and scholars, students of our undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs create and investigate in an environment of possibility. The School offers graduate degrees across our three divisions: art, art history, and design. 

The Division of Art offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in three areas: Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and 3D4M: ceramics + glass + sculpture. Photo/Media invites exploration in a range of forms or formats including, but not limited to, analog photography, digital imaging, video production, computer based technologies, performance, and installation. Through a rigorous critique process and regular meetings with faculty, professional artists, and visiting critics, students develop their individual creative process within a collaborative interdisciplinary environment and build on their ability to articulate their practice within larger historical, theoretical, cultural, and contemporary visual contexts. Painting + Drawing emphasizes self motivated and intensive studio work and research for advanced students who are highly motivated, self-directed, and committed to painting and drawing as visual expression. Graduate students work closely with a dedicated faculty who, in their own work, represent a broad range of contemporary painting. 3D4M (3-Dimensional Forum), a consortium that includes ceramics, glass, and sculpture, emphasizes an experimental approach to materials and ideas and is centered on individual directions within the broad spectrum of contemporary art making in a dynamic studio-based environment. Graduate students explore interdisciplinary exchanges that revolve around material study, concept, and critical dialogthat reflects and supports the nature of contemporary art in the context of a leading research university.

The Division of Art History offers a Master of Arts thesis track, Master of Arts practicum track, and a PhD. The Master of Arts in art history thesis track emphasizes research and writing in the discipline of art history and prepares students to continue further scholarly pursuits at the PhD level. The practicum track emphasizes applied learning using the discipline of art history to understand or promote the value of the visual arts in a variety of cultural, educational, or business settings. The PhD program in art history prepares graduates for university-level teaching, curator positions at major museums, and independent research in the field.

The Division of Design offers a Master in Design degree, a two-year full time program for designers who wish to deepen their practice by engaging in advanced research and scholarship, or who are interested in pursuing academic careers. The MDes courses, thesis projects, and independent studies converge in a space of practice-based creative research by focusing on how design works at the intersection of three main areas of interest: craft and making, theory and research, and innovation. Graduate thesis projects cover a wide range of topics and reflect both the interests of the student and the concerns of the program with forward-looking investigations into the professional, technological, and social questions facing the discipline.