Artistic Excellence › MFA

MECA is thrilled to announce that MFA candidate Anna Valenti ’20 is the recipient of the 2020 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship Grant. The fellowship is awarded to a graduate student to foster knowledge . . .

Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways is a wide-ranging exhibition of a dynamic group of contemporary artists whose work engages the theme of migration. Organized by Erin Hutton ’98, . . .

When did you graduate? Were you a full or low resident? May 2018 and I was a full resident in the program. Why did you decide to get your MFA at MECA? I decided to get my MFA at MECA because of the . . .

Maine College of Art shares deep roots with the Portland Museum of Art. In 1882, the Portland Society of Art was founded, which encompassed both the art school and the museum. Not until 1982 did the Portland . . .

My experience during the 2017 MFA research trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles was a fruitful one. Along with the established itinerary, packed with visits to art institutions and scenic locations relevant . . .

Tessa Greene O’Brien MFA ’16 and her husband, Will Sears, both painters, had a long-standing dream to fill the city of Portland with colorful, graphic works of art in public spaces. Immersed in the worlds . . .

The following excerpt is sourced from an article published in the Portland Press Herald, by Bob Keyes Adriene Herman, an interdisciplinary Maine artist and MECA Professor of the MFA in Studio Art and . . .

Sharon Shapiro MFA '19 was one of 27 Virginia art students and professional artists out of 771 applicants to receive a 2018-2019 fellowship and one of six graduate students to receive an award. The program was . . .

About The Work I was invited to take part in the inauguration exhibition of The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit. I finished my summer intensive course at Maine College of Art in Portland and went back to . . .

Inspired by the historic tradition of allegorical painting, my work depicts figures in ambiguous situations as a way of exploring the strange, nebulous rules of human behavior. I intend my paintings to be both . . .

Assistant Professor in MFA Julie Poitras Santos' site-specific visual practice takes many forms, including installations, video, performances and public projects. Much of her recent work uses walking as a . . .

What differentiates MECA from your own college and grad school experience? MECA’s intimate scale facilitates symbiotic flow between faculty and students. Of course, significant connections evolve at all . . .

The Portland Mural Initiative aims to bring contemporary art into the public spaces of Portland and its surrounding areas. They work with emerging and established artists that have a strong connection to . . .

Matthew Tanzi, MFA '15: Camille Saint-Saens — Danse Macabre from Maine College of Art on Vimeo. On October 18th, 2015, the Portland Symphony Orchestra held a "Trick or Treat" concert at the Merrill . . .

H. Maxwell Fisher was a visionary toy shopkeeper and pioneer amateur space aeronaut whose estate sale featured amazing collectible artifacts, including his personal hand‐built spacecraft, the “Fisher . . .

How does the term 'public engagement' differ from artist to curator? Public engagement is a form that an idea can take in the same way that a painting or a photograph or a table is a form. Artists who make . . .

Susan Bickford has been a full‐time practicing artist for over 25 years, often working in Digtal Media, creating installations that utilize video, animation, sound and theater.  She is an Adjunct Professor . . .

Susan Bickford often works in digital media, creating installations that utilize video, animation, sound and theater. She is an Adjunct Professor of Visual & Electronic Art at the University of Maine at . . .