The NYU Steinhardt M.F.A. Program in Studio Art offers students the opportunity to study with accomplished artists and scholars within an interdisciplinary setting. The two-year program provides students with private studios and access to facilities in painting, printmaking, ceramics, photography, digital media, and sculpture.
The program is small in size, with only 20 students in residence. There are no restrictions on media, and students are encouraged to work with whatever formal means are best suited to their ideas.
During the course of study, students engage in a team-taught interdisciplinary critique class each semester, as well as one full afternoon each week of individual studio meetings with visiting artists, critics and full-time and visiting faculty. The acclaimed artists who make up the full-time and adjunct M.F.A. faculty include artists, critics, and writers with diverse interests and disciplines who see teaching as an integral part of an ongoing and influential creative practice. They are drawn from the surrounding New York art world and are deeply engaged with their students. The relationship between the faculty and students represents the core of the M.F.A. community.
The MFA studios are located in the Art Department’s 6 story Beaux-Arts Building at 34 Stuyvesant Street in the East Village. The building also houses facilities for painting, sculpture, photography, computer art, video, performance, ceramics, metalsmithing, sewing, and printmaking. All studios, shops, and labs are available to MFA students and courses may be taken in any of these areas.
Scholarship opportunities are available on a competitive basis to both first and second year MFA students.
The Visiting Artist Lecture Series is held each Thursday evening following the afternoon studio visits. Lectures are open to the public and visitors are welcome.
MFA Students plan Open Studio events that can combine performances, festivities, and exhibitions.
MFA Thesis Exhibitions are held in late spring at the Art Department’s 80WSE Galleries. During their final semester, students select a committee of three artists or critics to work with them during the final stages of their exhibition and written thesis.