Master of Fine Arts in Visual and Performing Arts
APPLICATION DEADLINES: MARCH 15 – FUNDING DEADLINE; MAY 1 AND OCTOBER 15 – STANDARD DEADLINE
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a terminal degree that prepares students to become professional artists, work in technology or arts-related fields, and teach at the university level. The College of Visual and Performing Arts offers an MFA in Visual Arts and Graphic Design. Candidates are required to complete 60 credits, culminating in a Thesis Exhibition of the student’s work in George Mason’s Fine Arts Gallery. Of those credits, 45 credits are made up from both core and studio requirements, and an additional 15 credits are based on comprehensive experience. MFA Visual Arts students may choose an emphasis in new media art, painting+drawing, photography, printmaking, or sculpture. For course information, please visit the University Catalog.
George Mason University’s School of Art MFA Program seeks to develop in students a self-directed studio practice, derived simultaneously from an earnest personal search and an engagement with contemporary discourses and practices.
Housed in a small community of studios, the MFA program offers an environment that fosters the deepening of a student’s individual practice in the context of shared experience and dialogue with peers. Daily studio practice is supplemented by courses in research, writing, and contemporary critical theory. Regular formal critiques with peers and faculty track student progress, while training them to articulate ideas relevant to the production of their work. Visiting artists, monthly trips to New York galleries, and suggested supplementary lectures at local venues contribute to the student’s ability to contextualize his or her own work and process within the larger conversation of contemporary studio practices. MFA students have numerous opportunities to collaborate and exhibit their work in local galleries; including but not limited to the Workhouse Arts Center.