UCIrvine, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
M.F.A. in The Studio Art Department with a Concentration in Critical and Curatorial Studies
Aims and Objectives
The new M.F.A. Concentration in Critical and Curatorial Studies recruits and educates graduate students to pursue a career in the fields of curatorial practice, art criticism and public programming. Upon completion of this three-year program, the student will be well versed in debates that define art and visual culture from modernism to the present, capable of conceiving new models of contemporary exhibition and criticism, and trained to execute professional, innovative projects in the field. With Professor Juli Carson as the University Art Gallery Director, the Gallery will be prominently featured in the curriculum, serving as a ‘laboratory’ for cultural research conducted by the Critical and Curatorial students and faculty.
The Concentration’s curriculum is interdisciplinary, taught and administered by a Core Faculty selected from Department of Art and Visual Studies. The intensive collaboration between Visual Studies and Studio Art is consistent with the objective of entering graduates into the specialized field of visual art, where they will work with various museum programs, art galleries, publications, and archives. The Critical and Curatorial curriculum and resulting degree combine aspects of M.A. and M.F.A. training, reflecting the Concentration's location in the School of the Arts and its partnership with the School of Humanities.
Undergraduate preparation for admission
Undergraduates must have a B.A. or a B.F.A. from an accredited college/university in the humanities or fine arts. Overall G.P.A. should be 3.0, with a minimum of three undergraduate art history and/or art theory courses completed. Should the applicant not have the art history requirement upon admission, he/she must take these courses on route to the M.F.A. In addition to the official application to the M.F.A. program, Critical and Curatorial applicants must include (in lieu of portfolio): a letter of intent, a writing sample, and a proposed project. Please label: ATTN Critical Curatorial Concentration. Application Deadline March 1st for following Fall
Go To Application Process
Program of Study
Specific Fields of Emphasis
Students may choose from one of the following emphases for their M.F.A. Thesis: Exhibition, Public Programming, Art Criticism. In addition, a hybrid emphasis of these three areas is an option upon approval by the Thesis Advisor. Should students choose to emphasize one of these fields for their thesis project, courses in all three categories must still be taken on route to the degree.
Unit Requirements
As with the current M.F.A. in Studio Art, the proposed Concentration requires 108 units to matriculate to degree with no less than 12 units per quarter. Of the 20 minimum combined elective units, to be taken in either Department of Art or Visual Studies, the candidate must take at least 8 in Visual Studies. In addition, students are encouraged to select additional elective course work from any section of the Department or University including approved upper-division undergraduate courses. The third year is structured so that students can work independently with their advisor to produce their final project in the form of exhibition/public program/art criticism.
Thesis
The student completes his/her course of study with a written M.F.A. thesis that accompanies their final project. It is a publishable text submitted to the library.
Advising
Professor Carson will advise the students. In the first year, the student is advised to identify a critical mass of faculty to begin his/her research. In the second year, the student works intensively with the identified group of faculty, and by the end of that year commitments from select faculty are made to form the final thesis committee. In the third year, students work intensively with their thesis committee on the production of their final project. The thesis committee consists of no more than 5 members, one of which must be from Visual Studies. The Concentration's Director is the Thesis Advisor (i.e. chair) of that committee.
Sample Study Plan
The asterisks indicate requirements for the Curatorial students, open also to general M.F.A. students in Studio Art .
New, required Concentration Courses are in bold. Existing M.F.A. Courses are in regular type.
Year One:
FALL
Intro.
Exhibit System (SA 280A) 4 units*
1st Yr. Grad Seminar (SA 210) 4 units*
Grad Group Critique (SA 230) 4 units
|
WINTER
Grad Seminar (SA 250) Directed Reading Art 4 units
Grad Seminar (SA 220) Interdis.
Studies in Art & Culture 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective 4-8 units
|
SPRING
Curatorial Projects
(SA 240) 4 units
Grad Seminar (SA 215) Issues in Cont. Art 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective 4-8
|
Year Two:
FALL
Grad Seminar (SA 250) Directed Reading Art 4 units
Grad Group Critique (SA 230) 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective
4 - 8 units
|
WINTER
Exhibit
System (SA 280) 4 units*
Grad Seminar (SA 215) Interdis.
Studies in Art & Culture 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective 4-8 units
|
SPRING
Curatorial Projects
(SA 240) 4 units
Grad Seminar (SA 215) Interdis.
Studies in Art & Culture 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective 4-8 units
|
Year Three:
FALL
Grad Group Critique (SA 230) 4 units
Graduate Thesis Independent Study (SA 262) 4 units
Graduate
Thesis Writing Sem (SA 261A) 4 units* |
WINTER
Exhibit
System (SA 280) 4 units*
Graduate Thesis Independent Study (SA 262) 4 units
Studio or Visual Studies Elective 4-8 units
|
SPRING
Graduate Thesis Independent Study
(SA 262) 4 units
Critical
and Curatorial Thesis Exhibition (SA 264) 8 units*
|
Core Faculty, Studio Art
Juli Carson Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Associate Professor, Modern and Contemporary Art History
Director, Critical and Curatorial Concentration
Director, University Art Gallery
Kevin Appel, M.F.A. University of California, Los Angeles
Professor, Painting
Miles Coolidge M.F.A. California Institute of the Arts
Chair Studio Art Department
Associate Professor, Photography
Daniel Martinez, BFA, California Institute of the Arts
Professor, Public Art, Sculpture, Installation, Performance
Litia Perta, PhD, Dept. of Rhetoric, UC Berkeley
Assistant Professor, Arts Writing
Bruce Yonemoto M.F.A. Otis Art Institute
Professor, Video, Multimedia, Film Theory
Core Faculty, Visual Studies/Humanities:
Cecile Whiting, Ph.D. Stanford University
Professor and Chair of Art History
Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D. University of Rochester
Assistant Professor, Art History
Bliss Cua Lim, Ph.D. New York University
Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies
Director, Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies
Catherine Liu, Ph.D. City University of New York Graduate School and Center
Professor, Film and Media Studies; Comparative Literature
Director of the Humanities Center
James Nisbet Ph.D. Stanford University
Assistant Professor, Modern and Contemporary Art
