MFA in Art

The School of Art + Art History at the University of Florida invites applications for the MFA degree in studio art. In this three-year program, students engage in an experimental, research-based art-making practice around an array of intersecting topics, ranging from race, gender, and environmental studies to postcolonialism, migration, and new technologies. Our graduate students receive health insurance, individual studios, teaching opportunities, assistantships, and scholarships to enjoy a fully-funded graduate studies experience.

The University of Florida (UF) is a large research institution, ranked number six best public university in the US for 2024 (US News & World Report). UF’s College of the Arts, guided by a forward-looking meta-strategy that prepares students to access and unsettle centers of power in a radically changing world, is at the forefront of all research and teaching activities. The college hosts unique research centers that engage with timely issues, including the Center for Arts, Migration & Entrepreneurship, Center for Arts in Medicine, and Digital Worlds Institute. A center for emerging technologies and ideas, UF is the site of a major artificial intelligence initiative in the arts, hosting the most powerful university-owned supercomputer in the US.

Our internationally diverse student community works within and across disciplines in state-of-the-art facilities, labs, and workshops, and in off-campus studios with 24/7 access. Areas of expertise include painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, performance, installation, ceramics, video, art + technology, and artificial intelligence. Coursework involves art history, critical theory, social practice, race and gender studies, social and environmental justice, decolonial strategies, emerging technologies, sustainability, and ecology.

An experimental approach to art making in a major research institution allows for students to regularly engage with departments and centers across campus, including UF’s Center for Latin American Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies, Department of Film & Media Studies, School of Architecture, Department of Biology, and Department of Anthropology.

The campus boasts a top-ranked natural history museum, the Florida Museum of Natural History, and one of the largest US university art museums, the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. The College of the Arts houses the University Galleries, three exhibition spaces which host an international program of events and graduate thesis exhibitions.

Located halfway between Atlanta and Miami, the UF Studio Art program sustains an active presence in the art world with trips to Miami’s Art Week and New York City. Gainesville boasts incredible natural beauty, biodiversity, and mild climate.

Our stellar Visiting Artist program features artist lectures and studio visits with some of the most renowned practitioners of contemporary art. Recent visitors include: Diana Al-Hadid, Kader Attia, Wafaa Bilal, Andrea Bowers, Candice Breitz, Mel Chin, William Cordova, Philip Corner, Abigail DeVille, Mark Dion, Sam Durant, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Anoka Faruqee, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Nikita Gale, Chitra Ganesh, Jules Gimbrone, Guerrilla Girls, Adela Goldbard, Dan Graham, Sharon Hayes, Edgar Heap of Birds, Pablo Helguera, Camille Henrot, Oliver Herring, Saki Mafundikwa, Kerry James Marshall, Troy Montes Michie, Jack Massing, Wael Morcos, Timothy Morton, Warren Neidich, Aliza Nisenbaum, Glexis Novoa, Pepón Osorio, Benjamin Patterson, Dan Perjovschi, Walid Raad, Michael Rakowitz, Martha Rosler, Judith Schwartz, Dread Scott, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Elena Sisto, and Fred Wilson.

Faculty: Anthea Behm, Rose Briccetti, Sean Carney, Katerie Gladdys, Adrian Gonzalez, Logan Marconi, Sean Miller, Julia Morrisroe, Jesse Ring, Craig Smith, Jack Stenner, Bethany Taylor, Fatimah Tuggar, Sergio Vega, and Antoine Williams. Works by our Studio Art faculty have been featured at MoMA, Documenta, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Smack Mellon, Smithsonian, National Academy of Sciences, Joan Mitchell Center, Corcoran Gallery, ICA Boston, Perez Art Museum, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Moderna Museet, Mori Art Museum, Printed Matter, Skowhegan, and Venice Biennale, among others.