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Z.LeBreton Collage

Graduate Studio

Graduate Studio focuses on a critical iterative process. During the course, students cultivate working methodologies to discover varied outcomes through working fluidly across media. With guidance and mentorship from faculty, students develop a body of work reflecting their interests, agendas, and values.

Final Studio

Unlike a traditional thesis project, our program  recognizes the value of completing  the degree with a series of wide ranging artifacts. Based on the work and research generated in previous semesters, students frame a position and a future practice.

Theory and Criticism

A diversity of critical approaches to twentieth and twenty-first century design are situated historically while introducing current themes and debates in contemporary design practice and related disciplines.

Models of Practice

Students work to contextualize their future practice through close examination of their own body of work, research, and on and off-site visits with contemporary design practitioners. This course provides opportunities to experience the many roles that designers can play today, exploring how practice models evolve in response to technological, cultural, economic, and political conditions.

Entrepreneurship

Unlike a traditional thesis project, In addition to exploring their own practice, students learn about various aspects of running a business including business entity setup, accounting and taxes, contracts, marketing, and project management. Students will design and develop business materials needed to operate a freelance or design studio and build industry-related knowledge.

Suggested Electives

Web Coding Fundamentals • Type Design 1 • Experimental Typography (Motion and Web) • On-Screen Production and Concepts • Visual Language • Identity and Systems • Experimental Broadcasting

Course Sequence

  • MFA Fine Arts First Year - Fall

    Special Topics in Art History I: Modernism To Conceptualism AHCS585 - 3 Credits

    This course examines the development of Modernism as a discourse in the visual arts, from its development in the 1840s to challenges of its key assumptions in the 1960s. Attendance at Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) is required as part of this course.

    Graduate Critique I GRAD610 - 3 Credits

    Part of the two year course sequence GRAD610 / GRAD611 / GRAD710 / GRAD711.

    In this two-year course sequence, all graduate students, regardless of media, discuss common issues of studio practice. The course provides an in-depth discussion and investigation of how an artist’s work is perceived as a public statement, and how one’s work exists in the world.

    Graduate Studio I GRAD620 - 3 Credits

    Part of the course sequence GRAD620 / GRAD621 / GRAD720 / GRAD721.

    Graduate Studio is a 6-hour course structured around dedicated studio time and one-on- one studio visits between students and faculty members. This two-year course sequence focuses on each individual student’s practice, specifically directed toward an interrogation of the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical issues arising out of their work. It will culminate in the end-of-semester review during which the student and a review committee will discuss and evaluate the development of the student’s practice as observed over the course of the semester within the framework of the seminar.

    Critical Theory and Practice I: Aesthetics And Politics LIBS650 - 3 Credits

    This two-semester course is a cross-disciplinary investigation of the various intersections of the realms of the aesthetic and the political, and engages in questions of humanity, power, and representation. We will discuss how orderings of social relations become manifest in the world and how the political becomes ‘sensible’. Through the discussion of assigned readings, we will develop an understanding of the ways in which visual cultural production provides the very frameworks for what becomes perceptible and legible. We will consider how works of art can produce encounters that slow our perceptual operations and reading capabilities in a world of easily disseminated, readymade perspectives in service of dominant values and worldviews. Assigned texts will bridge and interrogate the discourses of class, race, gender, disability, art, and the social realm. We will discuss how artists and theorists have responded to the representational politics of the present moment in order to locate individual prac- tices within the larger cultural and socio-political environment. Our goal will be the development of individual, subjective voices within a collective, collaborative, and relational process.

    Elective* - 3 Credits

    Please see your department for available electives.

  • MFA Fine Arts First Year - Spring

    Special Topics in Art History II: 1960s To The Present AHCS585 - 3 Credits

    The historical development of the discourse of Modernism established a narrative that proved very influential. However, the terms of that narrative came under question from a diverse range artists and voices. This course looks at Contemporary Art as a varied field arising out of challenges to historical “modern art” in the late 1960s and developing a range of practices that continue to challenge our understanding of art and its relation to society today. Attendance at Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) required as part of this course.

    Graduate Critique II GRAD611 - 3 Credits

    Part of the two year course sequence GRAD610 / GRAD611 / GRAD710 / GRAD711.

    In this two-year course sequence, all graduate students, regardless of media, discuss common issues of studio practice. The course provides an in-depth discussion and investigation of how an artist’s work is perceived as a public statement, and how one’s work exists in the world.

    Graduate Critique II GRAD611 - 3 Credits

    Part of the two year course sequence GRAD610 / GRAD611 / GRAD710 / GRAD711.

    In this two-year course sequence, all graduate students, regardless of media, discuss common issues of studio practice. The course provides an in-depth discussion and investigation of how an artist’s work is perceived as a public statement, and how one’s work exists in the world.

    Graduate Studio II GRAD621 - 3 Credits

    Part of the course sequence GRAD620 / GRAD621 / GRAD720 / GRAD721.

    Graduate Studio is a 6-hour course structured around dedicated studio time and one-on- one studio visits between students and faculty members. This two-year course sequence focuses on each individual student’s practice, specifically directed toward an interrogation of the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical issues arising out of their work. It will culminate in the end-of-semester review during which the student and a review committee will discuss and evaluate the development of the student’s practice as observed over the course of the semester within the framework of the seminar.

    Critical Theory and Practice II: Aesthetics And Politics LIBS651 - 3 Credits

    This two-semester course is a cross-disciplinary investigation of the various intersections of the realms of the aesthetic and the political, and engages in questions of humanity, power, and representation. We will discuss how orderings of social relations become manifest in the world and how the political becomes ‘sensible’. Through the discussion of assigned readings, we will develop an understanding of the ways in which visual cultural production provides the very frameworks for what becomes perceptible and legible. We will consider how works of art can produce encounters that slow our perceptual operations and reading capabilities in a world of easily disseminated, readymade perspectives in service of dominant values and worldviews. Assigned texts will bridge and interrogate the discourses of class, race, gender, disability, art, and the social realm. We will discuss how artists and theorists have responded to the representational politics of the present moment in order to locate individual prac- tices within the larger cultural and socio-political environment. Our goal will be the development of individual, subjective voices within a collective, collaborative, and relational process.

    Elective* - 3 Credits

    Please see your department for available electives.

  • MFA Fine Arts Second Year - Fall

    Graduate Critique III GRAD710 - 3 Credits

    Part of the two year course sequence GRAD610 / GRAD611 / GRAD710 / GRAD711.

    In this two-year course sequence, all graduate students, regardless of media, discuss common issues of studio practice. The course provides an in-depth discussion and investigation of how an artist’s work is perceived as a public statement, and how one’s work exists in the world.

    Graduate Studio III GRAD720 - 3 Credits

    Part of the course sequence GRAD620 / GRAD621 / GRAD720 / GRAD721.

    Graduate Studio is a 6-hour course structured around dedicated studio time and one-on- one studio visits between students and faculty members. This two-year course sequence focuses on each individual student’s practice, specifically directed toward an interrogation of the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical issues arising out of their work. It will culminate in the end-of-semester review during which the student and a review committee will discuss and evaluate the development of the student’s practice as observed over the course of the semester within the framework of the seminar.

    Professional Practices GRAD776 - 3 Credits

    A seminar in which the intricacies, idiosyncrasies, and responsibilities of the professional artist are discussed and deconstructed. Attendance at Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) is required as part of this course.

    Thesis I LIBS774 - 3 Credits

    This course supports s students in the development of their written thesis about their work and practice. Students will acquire critical writing skills that will prepare them for the literary demands of an artist, including grant applications.

    Elective* - 3 Credits

    Please see your department for available electives.

  • MFA Fine Arts Second Year - Spring

    Graduate Critique IV GRAD711 - 3 Credits

    Part of the two year course sequence GRAD610 / GRAD611 / GRAD710 / GRAD711.

    In this two-year course sequence, all graduate students, regardless of media, discuss common issues of studio practice. The course provides an in-depth discussion and investigation of how an artist’s work is perceived as a public statement, and how one’s work exists in the world.

    Graduate Studio IV GRAD721 - 3 Credits

    Part of the course sequence GRAD620 / GRAD621 / GRAD720 / GRAD721.

    Graduate Studio is a 6-hour course structured around dedicated studio time and one-on- one studio visits between students and faculty members. This two-year course sequence focuses on each individual student’s practice, specifically directed toward an interrogation of the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical issues arising out of their work. It will culminate in the end-of-semester review during which the student and a review committee will discuss and evaluate the development of the student’s practice as observed over the course of the semester within the framework of the seminar.

    Exhibition Preparation GRAD777 - 3 Credits

    Each student in the final year works on the organization, planning, and installation of MFA exhibitions. The course focuses on exhibition psychology, design, and documentation.  Attendance at Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) is required as part of this course.

    Thesis II LIBS775 - 3 Credits

    This course supports s students in the development of their written thesis about their work and practice. Students will acquire critical writing skills that will prepare them for the literary demands of an artist, including grant applications.

    Elective - 3 Credits

    Please see your department for available electives.

* In addition to Independent Studies, electives may be taken from the offerings of Fine Arts, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and other departments with department approval.