OVERVIEW

Headed by an internationally distinguished faculty, the Department of Studio Art Graduate Program offers a rigorous, interdisciplinary environment for professional training in the visual arts. The three-year MFA program comprises a series of core and elective classes in production, theory, and contemporary issues. In addition to a wide range of classes in Studio Art, students may also take advantage of the academic excellence UCI provides as a leading research university by taking courses in other departments and programs. Through a combination of one-on-one faculty mentorship, seminars, and regular comprehensive peer critiques, the Department of Studio Art affords an optimal intellectual setting for fostering creative development and critical thinking. In addition to a core faculty dedicated to facilitating students’ understanding of visual art and its cultural contexts, graduate students have access to visiting faculty through lectures, studio visits, and concentrated colloquia. Located forty-five miles south of Los Angeles, UCI is in close proximity to the multi-layered Los Angeles art community. Additionally, the Department has shared programming with the leading contemporary arts venue in the area, the Orange County Museum of Art.


CURRICULUM

The MFA program is designed to provide a thorough and intensive professional training for independently motivated students wishing to pursue careers in the field of contemporary art. The program emphasizes experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to art making, while also providing a solid grounding in various disciplinary mediums. Students undergo a rigorous course of study combining seminar classes, intensive critique courses, and independent study. The three year studio curriculum emphasizes studio production developed in tandem with seminars and courses that address a range of critical issues in contemporary art, designed to help students develop intellectual and theoretically positions relevant to their art practices, broadly defined.

During the first two years, students take courses from a curriculum totaling 12 units each quarter. Beyond that, students can select additional course work from any sector of the Department or University including approved upper-division undergraduate courses. The third year is structured so that students can devote themselves to the production of their thesis exhibition, working intensively with a small faculty committee. Students may also individualize their course of study through a wide selection of classes depending on their interests. For example, students wishing to focus primarily on studio production can do so through a combination of independent studies, critique and technical classes; or students can design their third year to focus on course work in a research area or graduate emphasis (e.g. visual studies, critical theory in the School of Humanities).

Various programs and courses incorporate visiting artists and lecturers as an integral part of the student experience. Artists, curators, critics, and gallerists are invited as guests to give lectures and conduct studio visits with graduate students. The Studio Art 220 seminar (required both first and second year) incorporates visiting lecturers into a colloquium setting where students engage in-depth discussions with a given visitor.


FACILITIES & OPPORTUNITIES

All M.F.A. candidates are provided with a studio space. Facilities include photography laboratories (analog and digital), video production studios, data laboratories, and sculpture laboratories for work in wood and metal. There are also facilities to support work in digital media, painting, performance, drawing, and ceramics. Students have regular opportunities to exhibit in the University Art Gallery, and the Room Gallery.

Each year, graduate students are awarded production scholarships for the realization of individual projects and exhibitions. Competitive scholarship funding for graduate research is additionally available through the School of Arts Medici Scholarship; Travel and Reseach fellowhip; Department of Studio Art summer research scholarhip, and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts.