graduate program
:
program
All candidates in the MECA MFA degree
in Studio Arts follow the same sequential educational process
and satisfy the same curricular requirements. In the first
year Summer Intensive each student works with a team of cross-disciplinary
faculty advisors. During non-residency, students are supported and evaluated by the resident faculty advisors and
a non-residency studio instructor who works directly with
each student in their studios. The second year student completing
the final thesis projects (studio and written) will be supported
by all of the MECA graduate faculty in collaboration.
The program is based around two eight-week summer intensives in Portland, two ten-day winter residencies in Portland and New York, a five-day May Intensive in Portland for Graduating students, and the fall and spring semesters in a home studio setting with supervised instruction from non-resident as well as resident faculty.
The summer intensives allow students to work on-site in state-of-the-art studios, (many students have multiple studios), attend seminars, discussions, and lectures by artists, critics, curators, historians, and theorists, participate in individual and group critiques, and help to develop a community through dinners, dialogues planned and unplanned, and various excursions.
Off-site, students in their home studios are partnered with a renowned faculty of Non-Resident Studio Instructors (NRSI) for one-on-one meetings that allow for a flexible, individualized, student-centered learning and year-round resident faculty contact.The NRSIare chosen by the director in communication with the students and resident faculty.
The program travels to New York City during the winter intensives to visit artists' studios and important cultural sites. Graduating students return to Portland in the spring of the second year to hang their studio thesis exhibition and defend their written and studio theses. The MFA students graduate with the BFA graduates in a commencement ceremony in Portland City Hall auditorium.
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