MICA’s Master of Fine Arts Programs provide unique opportunities to study with internationally renowned program directors, resident artists, and visiting artists, scholars, and critics. Our MFA programs are designed around the individual artist, within a diverse, supportive, art-focused community.
MICA’s MFA programs were ranked among the top four in the nation, with those of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Yale University, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, by U.S. News & World Report, in its 2009 “Best Graduate Schools” edition.
The Community Arts (MFA) prepares artists to use their artmaking as a means of civic, youth, and community development, or to teach at the post-secondary level. The curriculum highlights the relationship between the community, art, and the artist. Real-world experience that integrates advanced independent artmaking with community-based projects allows students to discover firsthand how artists and their work help articulate the unique personality of a community-and how that community in turn inspires their own creative expression-generating positive change and new artforms in the process.
The Graphic Design (MFA) offers a uniquely pragmatic, hands-on approach to advanced design study. Students are active initiators of original creative projects and pursue advanced studio work in design, art, and digital media; coursework in the history and theory of art, design, and culture deepen students’ understanding of the issues driving contemporary design and culture.
Hoffberger School of Painting (MFA) is among the most selective graduate painting programs in the country. The program has a singular focus: engaging a select group of highly talented painters in the process of discovering the sources of their originality and vision and preparing them for careers as seriously exhibiting artists.
Mount Royal School of Ar (Multidisciplinary MFA) is a multi-disciplinary program with an open approach to materials and media, focusing on independent studio work and critical thought. Mount Royal students tap the many opportunities available at MICA and the major metropolitan centers of the Northeast in creating a unique program of study that fosters the realization of their creative vision.
The Photographic and Electronic Media (MFA) is a platform for exploring the social and artistic uses of optical and electronic media technologies, grounding artistic practice in rigorous investigation of historical and critical contexts—this program provides the technical and intellectual skills for professional practice and teaching.
Rinehart School of Sculpture (MFA), one of the oldest programs of its type in the United States, is at the center of innovation in this evolving art form. Students work in a wide range of mediums and approaches—from stone carving and metals-casting to installation and time-based art—reflecting in their work the complex nature of sculpture as contemporary art’s “meta-medium.”
The Studio Art (Summer Low-Residency MFA), the first program of its kind in the country, allows experienced artists and educators to develop a professional body of work, a unique personal voice, and an expanded understanding of contemporary art through intensive studio practice. This low-residency program includes four summers of 6-week residencies at MICA, a winter critique each year, and distance learning when students are not in residence at MICA.
In development for 2011, the Curatorial Practice (MFA, 2011) will be the first MFA in the U.S. devoted to curatorial practice. The two-year, 60-credit, full-time program will prepare leaders and innovators in the field by serving as a laboratory investigating the process and work methods of exhibition creation; helping shape the role and responsibilities of curators; and examining curatorial practice as an artistic, social, and critical pursuit.
The 60-credit, two-year Illustration Practice (MFA, 2011) program at the Center for Illustration Practice will combine coursework that allows students to hone their creative vision with real-world investigations in the form of collaborations among students, professionals, and organizations such as MICA's Dolphin Print & Press and Center for Design Thinking, and research institutions such as the Modern Graphics History Library and the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies.
Maps & Directions