MFA Full-time Program*

The M.F.A. programs*, offered with concentrations in Painting or in Sculpture, continue the ethos of the teaching methods defined by the School's history within a recognized degree program. The M.F.A. is based on maintaining a full-time, rigorous studio practice.

Curriculum Descriptions

In their first year, students choose a core faculty member with whom they will work closely during each semester. Faculty are present in the atelier for two days of each week. Students are expected to continue working on the objectives set by the faculty throughout the week. In the second year, faculty contact hours are reduced as students work in semi-private studios towards the completion of their individual thesis project.

Degree candidates are assessed on a continual basis throughout their time at the School. Courses are graded by faculty in accordance with the School's grading policy. Students must complete 60 credits to successfully complete the degree. These credits must include all required courses. A residency of at least two academic years is required to complete the degree.

Marathons

The concept of the Marathon was originally conceived by the Dean, Graham Nickson, as a measure of students' intensity of purpose. Performance in the Marathon is an indicator of the overall performance that is expected from students during the remainder of the semester and their tenure at the School.

The Marathon program combines continuous discovery in an extended time frame that allows the student a level of engagement normally unavailable except for the successful professional artist.

Marathons are taught by both regular faculty and visiting artists with strong drawing credentials, who are present daily for the entire two weeks. This allows access for students to outside attitudes, systems and methodologies, as well as confirming the particular qualities of the internal studio program.

Drawing

At the School, drawing is seen as the most direct way to describe an idea or an experience for an artist, and is a crucial tool for realizing the ultimate goal of a personal vision for each student.

Drawing plays a major role in the educational philosophy of the School. Drawing is seen as essential in the practice of the painter and sculptor and necessary for a rich and deep understanding of painting, sculpture and art in general. This special language is made available in order to appreciate the art of the present and the past.

Drawing is taught by a range of instructors who believe in its indispensibility for translating perceptual ideas and conceptual investigation. These beliefs are mirrored in their own work as professional artists.

Painting

The School makes use of the Atelier system: a group of students working from with the intellectual framework and practice of a particular studio, with an Atelier Head and support faculty.

All the ateliers are run by significant professional artist/educators. Each Atelier has a different persona, directed by the Atelier Head, allowing a wide range of possibilities within the system. There is also a constant range of visiting artists and critics constituting a tutorial support system.

Issues of figuration, abstraction and image-based work all need a strong understanding of the plastic language of painting. This is a primary concern. Analysis of this plasticity and related issues are discussed frequently.

The perceptual route often leads to elaborate set-ups based on the figure or still-life, and the environment. These set-ups are designed to be a catalyst for pictorial ideas for a wide range of possibilities. The use of models is a major element at the School.

Regular critiques are part of the program, with the addition of one-on-one Atelier dialogues between faculty and students. In critiques, students are expected to be able to converse and discuss ideas, and to translate and organize their own work.

Sculpture

The Sculpture curriculum demonstrates the viability and ongiong power of more traditional media, yet the intellectual force is very much of our time. The School is very committed to the use of the model as a basis for both figuration and abstraction.

The Sculpture Ateliers are organized into two distinct areas: one is centered on the teaching of the abstract qualities of anatomy; the other on an understanding of how form exists in reality. These two different approaches are still firmly focused on the individual's experience with the model.

Clay is the primary medium used for both small sketch pieces and for life size figurative works. However, students may work from a variety of different mediums and forms during their career. The pursuit of the language of sculptural form and mass is very visible.

Distinguished visiting artists are present for end of term critiques, and at various times throughout the semester for critiques and seminars.

Independent Practice

The goal of the School's program is to launch students on a path of original vision through rigorous means. Students are expected to commit to working in unsupervised Atelier sessions during part of the week, continuing to produce work based on the set-ups created by their individual faculty instructor, using strategies from these to expand the realm of possibilities for their own work.

The student is given increasing responsibility for such independent practice as they progress towards their Thesis Show, which is seen as their entry into the milieu of the contemporary world.

Critical Studies

Critical Studies seminars are a major resource for the young sculptor and painter to both enlarge and endorse their personal vision.

The Critical Studies seminars are group sessions, led by a recognized working art historan and critic. Seminars are divided over the two years into specific topics, with the first year concentrating on historical contacts of criticism and contemporary practice, and the second focusing on more independent study topics and research, culminating in the production of a thesis statement in the final semester.

Students are also expected to compliment the seminars with their own objective comment, based on outside reading as well as visits to concurrent museum and gallery exhibitions. Students are expected to be able to think, write and discuss cogently and be erudite and succinct with their peers.

Thesis Project

Students develop ideas for their final Thesis Project during the latter part of their first year. Over the course of the final year, students work on an increasingly independent basis to develop their proposal through to its fullest expression, culminating in a body of work that represents a distillation of their time at the School.

At mid-point in the fourth semester, each student will have a critique with visiting artists or critics and members of the faculty in order to address relevant issues in their work, therefore enabling the student to be represented by their strongest work in the final show.

As a supplement to the visual work, students also submit a companion statement. This serves to support, explain and justify the ideas, processes and objectives of the final thesis project.

For further information regarding the M.F.A. program, please contact the Recruitment Office via email.

*Registration with the New York State Board of Regents pending.