Dual Degree | MA + MFA

MFA in Studio Art

• Conceptual Qualities. Demonstrates a developed conceptual framework of the work and its relationship to historical antecedents and contemporary critical discourse (i.e., clarity of ideas).
• Formal Qualities. Engages appropriately the materials and tools of the media used to produce the work (i.e., mastery of materials and technique, as well as how effectively the form follows the concept).
• Presentation. Clearly articulates and presents the ideas behind the work. Produces a cohesive and accomplished visual presentation.
• Research. Invests an appropriate level of research to develop the work, from both a conceptual and formal perspective (i.e. effectiveness of experimentation and methodology).

MA in Art, Place + Public Studies

• Develop contextualized understandings of urban and public art by studying the ways in which place-making, diverse lived experiences, and spatial contestations are entangled with creative practices.
• Demonstrate general, global knowledge of the history of art and visual culture and are able to situate these discourses in broader social, political, technological, and geographic transformations.
• Develop knowledge of urban and public artworks that challenge the art historical canon, including site-specific works, community and street art, urban art interventions, social practice art and socially-engaged art, and forms of public performance and assembly.
• Engage with major theoretical works that problematize public art practices and interrogate notions of the “public” in relation to place-making as a site of cultural and material struggle, and through multidisciplinary approaches in visual culture, critical theory, social sciences, and humanities.
• Develop a writing practice characterized by mastery of a diverse range of theoretical frameworks and periodizations.
• Learn current methodologies for conducting public arts and visual culture research, including archival, institutional, critical, and ethnographic approaches.
• Learn proposal writing and develop a research proposal that engages relevant literatures and articulates an original thesis project.
• Complete and publicly present an MA Thesis that exhibits a high standard of excellence in its methodological and theoretical framework, and makes an original contribution to contemporary critical discourse on the topic.

MFA in Studio Art

• Conceptual Qualities. Demonstrates a developed conceptual framework of the work and its relationship to historical antecedents and contemporary critical discourse (i.e., clarity of ideas).
• Formal Qualities. Engages appropriately the materials and tools of the media used to produce the work (i.e., mastery of materials and technique, as well as how effectively the form follows the concept).
• Presentation. Clearly articulates and presents the ideas behind the work. Produces a cohesive and accomplished visual presentation.
• Research. Invests an appropriate level of research to develop the work, from both a conceptual and formal perspective (i.e. effectiveness of experimentation and methodology).

MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies

• Students will demonstrate substantial knowledge of global artists, art practices, spatial relations, and exhibitions, whether surveyed (in breadth) or specifically focused (in depth) – as presented in individual courses, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations, and projects.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to find linkages between art and cultural theory, history, and practice across the boundaries of disciplines and periodization – as presented in individual courses, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations, and projects.
• Students will establish professional practices that account for the place of art within various spheres of cultural production – as presented in individual courses, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations, and curatorial and collaborative projects.
• Students will demonstrate a nuanced and principled understanding of the possible roles of the artist-scholar in the world, including as agents of social, political, and cultural change – as presented in individual courses, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations, and curatorial and collaborative projects.
• Students will develop a writing practice characterized by mastery of a diverse range of theoretical frameworks and of research methodologies, including archival work – as presented in individual courses, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations, and the MA Intermediate and Final Reviews.
• Students will complete and present publically an MA Thesis exhibiting a high standard of excellence in its methodological framework, relationship to historical antecedents, and making an original contribution to contemporary critical discourse – as assessed in the MA Intermediate and Final Reviews.

MFA in Studio Art

• Conceptual Qualities. Demonstrates a developed conceptual framework of the work and its relationship to historical antecedents and contemporary critical discourse (i.e., clarity of ideas).
• Formal Qualities. Engages appropriately the materials and tools of the media used to produce the work (i.e., mastery of materials and technique, as well as how effectively the form follows the concept).
• Presentation. Clearly articulates and presents the ideas behind the work. Produces a cohesive and accomplished visual presentation.
• Research. Invests an appropriate level of research to develop the work, from both a conceptual and formal perspective (i.e. effectiveness of experimentation and methodology).

MA in History and Theory of Contemporary Art

• Students will gain sufficient knowledge of artists, art practices and artworks, whether broadly surveyed or specifically focused, as presented in each course, and as assessed by written assignments, class presentations and projects, and exams.
• Students will gain increasing aptitude in skills of visual literacy, and visual and representational analysis.
• Students will gain increasing ability to demonstrate historical thinking, however methodologically constituted, through written assignments and class presentations.
• Students will gain increasing awareness of the contingency of historical thinking viewed from contemporary perspectives.
• Students will gain an increasingly complicated understanding of the relationships between representational orders and practices and the constitution of subjectivity as multiply situated and contingent.
• Students will gain an increasing ability to find linkages between art theory and art practice across boundaries of discipline and periodization.
• Students will gain an increasing awareness of the place of art with regard to a larger context of visual production that includes mass media and mass culture, and old and new technologies.
• Students will gain an increasingly nuanced and principled understanding of the possible roles of the artist in the world, including roles as activists and agents of social and cultural change.