Graduate Programs
The Schnitzer School of Art+Art History+Design offers a two-year in-residency program in Studio Practice (on hiatus beginning 2024-25 & expected to return during the 2025-26 academic year), or a three-year flexible-residency program in Social Practice leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Art Practice. These 90-credit programs prepare the student to be a practicing artist within a regional, national, and international arts community.
Contemporary Art Practices M.F.A.
Degree requirements
Working with designated faculty during the first year, students are encouraged to explore new media, models and ideas as they develop a proposal for creative activity that culminates with a graduate project in their final year of the program.
Students are admitted conditionally and must pass a midpoint candidacy review to gain regular admission to the university and continue work towards their degree. (Students in-residency receive a candidacy review at the end of their first year; flexible-residency students are reviewed at the end of their second year.)
Students complete 90 credits, distributed in the following way:
- 40 credits Contemporary Art Practice/Directed Studies
- 12 credits Visiting Artist Program/Group Critique
- 12 credits Contemporary Art History/Theory
- 8 credits Electives (outside Schnitzer School of Art+Art History+Design)
- 12 credits Graduate Seminars
- 6 credits Exhibition Project/Statement
Upon successful completion of the candidacy review students work with a faculty adviser in their specified concentration to produce their graduate project. The project is presented in a public exhibition or other appropriate form in the spring quarter of their final year.