The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(August 2010) |
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) [1] [2] [3] [4] is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management [5] [6] [7] or arts administration. [8] It is a graduate degree that typically requires two to three years of postgraduate study after a bachelor's degree, though the term of study varies by country or university. Coursework is primarily of an applied or performing nature, with the program often culminating in a thesis exhibition or performance. The first university to admit students to the degree of Master of Fine Arts was the University of Iowa in 1940. [9]
A candidate for an MFA typically holds a bachelor's degree prior to admission, but many institutions do not require that the candidate's undergraduate major conform with their proposed path of study in the MFA program. Admissions requirements often consist of a sample portfolio of artworks or a performance audition. [10] [11] [12] [13]
The Master of Fine Arts differs from the Master of Arts in that the MFA, while still an academic program, centers on professional artistic practice in the particular field, whereas programs leading to the MA usually center on the scholarly, academic, or critical study of the field. Additionally, in the United States, an MFA is typically recognized as a terminal degree for practitioners of visual art, design, dance, photography, theatre, film/video, new media, and creative writing—meaning that it is considered the highest degree in its field, qualifying an individual to become a professor at the university level in these disciplines.
In European academic traditions, fine art is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function or is generally of limited artistic quality in order to appeal to the masses. In the aesthetic theories developed in the Italian Renaissance, the highest art was that which allowed the full expression and display of the artist's imagination, unrestricted by any of the practical considerations involved in, say, making and decorating a teapot. It was also considered important that making the artwork did not involve dividing the work between different individuals with specialized skills, as might be necessary with a piece of furniture, for example. Even within the fine arts, there was a hierarchy of genres based on the amount of creative imagination required, with history painting placed higher than still life.
The School of Visual Arts New York City is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine, or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases.
The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in San Francisco; in 2022, the Oakland campus was closed and merged into the San Francisco campus. CCA enrolls approximately 1,239 undergraduates and 380 graduate students.
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University.
The Columbia University School of the Arts is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre and Writing, as well as the Master of Arts (MA) degree in Film Studies. It also works closely with the Arts Initiative at Columbia University (CUArts) and organizes the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF), a week-long program of screenings, screenplay, and teleplay readings.
College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Partnerships program and its Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies.
The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. It has an enrollment of about 500 students. The college merged with Willamette University in 2021.
A low-residency program is a form of education, normally at the university level, which involves some amount of distance education and brief on-campus or specific-site residencies—residencies may be one weekend or several weeks. These programs are most frequently offered by colleges and universities that also teach standard full-time courses on campus. There are numerous master's degree programs in a wide range of content areas; one of the most popular limited residency degree programs is the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. The first such program was developed by Evalyn Bates and launched in 1963 at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.
Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) is a private art school in Columbus, Ohio. It was founded in 1879 as the Columbus Art School and is one of the oldest private art and design colleges in the United States. Located in downtown Columbus, CCAD's campus consists of 11 buildings on 9 acres (36,000 m2) and is adjacent to the Columbus Museum of Art. Approximately 900 full-time students are enrolled.
The College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA) is a multi-disciplinary art school at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) is a private college in Laguna Beach, California. With an enrollment of more than 700 students, the college offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in 11 majors and three Master of Fine Arts degree programs as well as a post-baccalaureate certificate program in Drawing and Painting.
The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) is a non-profit consortium of art and design schools in the United States and Canada. All AICAD member institutions have a curriculum with full liberal arts and sciences requirements complementing studio work, and all are accredited to grant Bachelor of Fine Arts and/or Master of Fine Arts degrees. To qualify for AICAD membership an art school must be: a free-standing college specializing in art or design; a non-profit institution; grant BFA and/or MFA degrees; and have accreditation from both the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and the relevant academic accrediting organization in their region.
The New Hampshire Institute of Art (NHIA) was a private art school in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and was a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). NHIA offered the Bachelor of Fine Arts as well as Master of Fine Arts and Master of Arts in Teaching.
The Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) was a private art college from 1907 to 2019 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, Newbery Medal honorees, Guggenheim Fellowship and Fulbright Program fellows, and Ford Foundation grant recipients. The literary magazine Hunger Mountain is operated by VCFA writing faculty and students.
A Bachelor of Design degree is usually an undergraduate degree in the field of design awarded for a course or major that generally lasts three or four years. It is the undergraduate equivalent of the Master of Design, MDes. Bachelor of Design degrees have been popular in Canada and Australia for several decades and are gaining popularity in the United States as discipline-specific design education expands and becomes more specialized. There are several variants of the Bachelor of Design degree, including the Bachelor of Design Arts and the Bachelor of Design Studies.
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is one of 10 schools constituting Chapman University, located in Orange, California, 40 miles (64 km) south of Los Angeles. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, with programs in film production, screenwriting, creative producing, news, documentary, public relations, advertising, digital arts, film studies, television writing, producing, and screen acting.
NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts is composed of three schools. The college also administers several university programs including, the NIU Art Museum, the NIU Community School of Arts, and NIU Huskie Marching Band.
New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) is a private college focused exclusively on interior design and located in New York City. The college offers certificate, three undergraduate, and four master's degree programs.