Each year, the NYU MFA Program in Studio Art brings together an exceptional group of committed artists to develop their work within a community of faculty and colleagues, asking them to engage for two years in a process that is both intensely introspective and collectively open to the challenges and issues of the larger world. We invite students in the program to consider their own practices and assumptions, as well as those of the contemporary art-world, both critically and irreverently, and to pursue their visions to the point of excess as needed. The MFA program is dedicated to assisting in this endeavor.

The MFA program is small in size, with only 24 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 two-year 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 or critics and full-time faculty.

The acclaimed artists who make up the Full-time and Adjunct MFA faculty include artists, critics, and writers with many diverse interests and disciplines who see teaching as an integral part of an ongoing and influential creative practice. Drawn from the surrounding New York art-world, yet deeply engaged with their students, the relationship between the faculty and students represents the core of the MFA 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, glass, printmaking, installation, and curatorial projects, as well as Natalie Jeremijenko’s new Environmental Health Clinic. All studios, shops, and labs are available to MFA students, and courses may be taken in any of these areas.

Additional requirements include Critical Theory, Visual Culture, or Interdisciplinary Projects courses, which integrate theory and practice. In addition to courses offered within the Art Department, many courses throughout the university are available to MFA students, including those in academic and creative disciplines. This flexibility encourages cross-disciplinary research and collaboration, and allows artists to place their work within a broad intellectual and cultural context.

Teaching Assistantships, with tuition remission and stipends are available on a competitive basis to both first and second year MFA students. Teaching experience is available to all students in the program through the Internship in College Teaching course.

The Visiting Artist Lecture Series is held each Thursday evening at 5pm following the afternoon studio visits. Lectures are open to the public and visitors are welcome.

Open Studio events are held once each semester, throughout the 6 floors of the art building, and combine Friday evening performances, festivities, and exhibitions with a Saturday afternoon walk-through of MFA studios.

MFA Thesis Exhibitions are held in late spring at the Art Department’s 80 Washington Square East 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.

2008 MFA Thesis Exhibition

2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition