> Visiting artists and critics
> Individual/Private Graduate Spaces and Communal Studios
Visual Studies graduate programs
Visual artists and designers create the most provocative and enduring expressions of culture. At UB, emerging artists are given the resources to pursue their research and practice in an art environment that is constantly evolving.
The Master of Fine Arts program is dedicated to individual artistic development through an intellectually broad-based and culturally cognizant curricular approach to art and design. We strive to advance each student’s unique abilities and potential in a community of students and faculty who are engaged in intensive discourse, investigation, and production of challenging new work. Critiques, presentations, readings, and discussions with resident faculty, visiting artists, designers and critics form the core of graduate level involvement. The program requires a serious work ethic, and the ability to chart a course of personal development.
The MFA program at UB is a master’s degree in visual art without the usual studio boundaries; promoting freedom of creative inquiry and production. We encourage research which: redefines parameters; confronts contemporary issues, forms an understanding of past and present cultural contexts; and utilizes the extraordinary resources available at UB’s comprehensive research facility.
The MFA has no designation of studio areas or concentrations. There are undergraduate programs in communication design, emerging practices, painting, photography, printmaking, or sculpture, along with faculty to support them and comprehensive labs in each area. However, M.F.A. students are free to work in any studio area and to use methods appropriate to their research, with no concentration requirements. During the first semester of study, graduate students identify and formulate a thesis committee of three faculty members. The candidate meets regularly with these and other faculty, helping to shape research and evaluate progress. The second year project culminates in a thesis exhibition or alternative public presentation and written thesis statement.Seminars and Academics
Academic/studio seminars provide graduate students with a context for their art practice within current trends and developments in visual arts and communication design fields. During the two year graduate program, academic requirements include: Introduction to Critical Theory and two graduate level seminars: a critique-based Graduate Seminar led by resident faculty (Fall) and Topics in Aesthetics and Contemporary Criticism (Spring), taught by a rotating distinguished visiting artist or curator.
Rounding out the program of study are two art history electives and two academic electives outside of art at the graduate level. Full time study and residency for the duration of the two-year program is required. In addition to this program, Visual Studies seminar courses such as The Revolutionary Sublime and Art and Aesthetics are offered as electives.
Visiting artists and critics
Lectures and critiques by visiting artists and designers, visits to area collections and alternative spaces, including day trips to galleries in Toronto, can be scheduled.
All of these activities bring M.F.A. students and faculty together for dialogue.
Individual/Private Graduate Spaces and Communal Studios
Graduate MFA students are provided with a private or semi-private securable studio space as well as full access to the well equipped communal labs. Some studios have natural sky lighting, and all are equipped with Ethernet and/or wireless connections.
