Graduate Department of Art
College of Fine Arts
Website: https://art.fsu.edu/
Chair: Lilian Garcia-Roig; Professors: Baade, Bookwalter, Hanessian, Rushin-Knopf; Associate Professors: Beekman, Duarte, Ingram, Roberson, Stagg; Assistant Professors: Ali, Bouscaren, Bozorgi, Luedtke, Sleeper, Spence, Stagg; Associate Teaching Professor: Curry; Assistant Teaching Professor: Di Donna; Visiting Teaching Professor: Fielding; Professors Emeriti: Bell, Blakely, Burggraff, Fichter, Hartwell, Messersmith, Rubini, Rutkovsky, Stewart
The Department of Art offers a course of study leading to the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. The program is national in orientation and contributes to the cultural life of the University, the Tallahassee community, and the state of Florida. The strength of the department lies in the excellence of its artist-faculty members and their commitment to the personal practice of art as a vital part of a university.
A major role of the University is to maintain and develop a sense of research and inquiry. Within this context, students of the department are taught how to approach and solve visual problems in two and three dimensions. The program has several general goals: to stimulate students to the free expression of their creative ideas, to provide instruction in the skills and techniques necessary to this expression, to develop strong critical and self-reflective skills, and to guide students to an understanding of contemporary issues in the visual arts.
The curriculum of the Department of Art is largely designed to train professional studio artists, giving students the discipline, artistic, and critical understanding required for life as practitioners. Students develop the capacity for creative thinking and a sense of open inquiry, together with a thorough awareness of the multiplicity of new and traditional principles, thus enabling them to make a valuable contribution as artists, teachers, or arts administrators. For more information about our program, visit the Department of Art Website at https://art.fsu.edu/.
Media
It is the graduate student's responsibility, in concert with his or her faculty, to find the appropriate media with which to express an original aesthetic vision. Work may be done in ceramics, electronic media, design, drawing, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, sculpture, video, or any combination. The studio workshop class structure and interdisciplinary freedom that is part of the departmental philosophy allow the ideas to dictate the medium that students use.
Student and Faculty Responsibilities
Just as the primary responsibility rests with the students to find their own appropriate media, they are also expected to find an articulate visual language. The MFA program is for those persons who are ambitious and willing to grow as artists. As students, they must search for their own appropriate media and work toward becoming fluid practitioners in art. The faculty is challenged to respond to the students' individual needs, helping them in their search for a personal position in their work.
The representative career choices for graduates in studio art include: professional studio artist (painter, sculptor, photographer, ceramicist, printmaker, multimedia artist, digital arts artist), designer, creative director, illustrator, and production artist, to name the most obvious. Some graduates of the MFA program choose careers in college teaching, while others pursue careers as exhibiting artists or freelance designers. Additionally, the program fosters interdisciplinary research and investigation, preparing artists who can embrace unknowable future career options. Faculty members are proactive in assisting students with individual professional goals both during and after their degree.
Facilities
The department is housed in five locations, including large spaces converted to studio spaces and equipped to meet the needs of working artists. All MFA students are provided with a suitable space to work. In these spaces, students participate in group seminar classes and individual tutorials, and faculty members will typically visit the studio to talk about specific problems suggested by the work, or they may bring up more general artistic issues or technical problems. These discussions may be formal reviews with the student's thesis committee or may be very informal. A rich dialogue always occurs among students.
Graduate students also have access to the department's photography labs, sculpture labs, computer labs, digital fabrication labs, printmaking labs, sound and video editing lab, and installation rooms. The Working Method Contemporary Gallery provides an exhibition space devoted to regular MFA exhibitions while also serving other departmental uses. This space offers monthly exhibition opportunities with excellent public exposure.
Visiting Artist and Scholar Program
The Department of Art recognizes the value of presenting diverse experiences to our students; the visiting artist and scholar program is essential to this goal. An active visiting artist and scholar program brings in artists, designers, and critics from all parts of the country who are experts in their field. They will usually give a public lecture, as well as student critiques, seminars, and workshops.
Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA)
The Museum of Fine Arts is an integral part of the educational mission of the department. It has a tradition of originating exhibitions of important contemporary and historical issues, as well as bringing to the community some of the best shows other galleries have originated. The program regularly includes national and regional competitions and invitational, faculty, and student exhibitions, along with lectures and symposia devoted to significant developments in art history and art criticism. Graduating students display their thesis exhibitions in the museum. The University and the city offer a variety of other exhibition spaces.
Academic Study
Academic study is an essential part of the MFA program. A broad range of art history or other academic courses are available to help provide depth of understanding of fundamental artistic issues that include graduate level seminars, which are thematically based to discuss theory and contemporary practice.
Financial Assistance
The art department offers financial support in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and technical or laboratory assistantships. Those who are interested in a teaching assistantship are required to take a college art teaching course prior to the award. Technical assistantships may be awarded to first-year, second-year, and/or third-year students. Teaching assistantships may be awarded in the second and/or third year of residency except in the case of students with a master's degree or equivalent teaching experience, who may be awarded a teaching assistantship earlier. Financial assistance is awarded based on merit. For more specific information, see the "Financial Information" chapter of this Graduate Bulletin. Graduate students may also be eligible for the following funding on a competitive basis. For details, please visit https://art.fsu.edu/about/graduate/support/.
- Legacy Fellowships worth $10,000 per year for three years
- American Association of University Women International Fellowship
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Book Stipend
- Leslie N. Wilson – Delores Auzenne Fellowship for Minorities
- Bivins-Harrison Fellowship
- Socially Engaged Scholarship
- MoFA Award
- Specialty Tech Award
Requirements
Admission
In addition to University admission requirements, the department requires that all applicants submit a portfolio of up to twenty images of recent original work and an artist's statement describing and contextualizing the work submitted for review. Where it is necessary, other media, such as video, may be submitted. The Department of Art faculty admits graduate students in the Fall of each year. Please go to the Department of Art Graduate Program Website at https://art.fsu.edu/programs-2/graduate/ for more specific admission information and a link to the MFA Handbook. The Department of Art no longer requires the GRE examination if the applicant has a 3.0 or better cumulative average on work undertaken at the undergraduate level.
Program
The MFA is a terminal degree for those who wish to practice studio art, teach at the college level, or function in a curatorial role. It is a three-year residency with a minimum requirement of sixty semester hours at the graduate level. The program includes a minimum of forty-two semester hours in studio art, nine hours of electives within or outside the department, and a minimum of three courses (nine hours) in academic study at the graduate level. A minimum of nine hours of the forty-two studio art hours must go towards preparation of the graduate thesis exhibition and written component. All students are required to write a thesis paper as part of their graduation thesis exhibition. The thesis paper defines the intensive research leading up to the thesis exhibition and cites the student's artwork within a larger context.
Review Process
The student progresses through the MFA program by passing a series of reviews held each semester. During these reviews, students present their work and engage in a constructive dialogue with the faculty. The students must pass their final formal committee reviews in conjunction with their thesis exhibition; students who do not pass are required to resubmit their work at a later time. For specific details regarding reviews, please go to the MFA Handbook https://art.fsu.edu/programs-2/graduate/.
Definition of Prefix
ARE—Art Education
ART—Art
Graduate Courses in Studio Art
ARE 5557. Interpreting and Using Symbols in Art Therapy (3). This course emphasizes the universal, cultural, and personal aspects of symbols as they manifest meaning through artistic expression and provide pathways to understanding self and others. An art therapy focus expands study through the exploration of psychological frameworks, social contexts, and etiological and developmental references.
Graduate Workshops
The workshop system permits the student to select professors based on the students' interests and needs.
ARE 5387 Teaching College Art (3). This course fosters the development of skills, knowledge, and experience needed for effective post-secondary art instruction.
ARE 5810r. Studio Research + Exhibition Defense (0). (S/U grade only). In this course, students will deliver two oral defenses of their studio research and graduation exhibition. The Studio Research Committee will meet as a group upon completion of these two oral defenses for a discussion and to determine the final assessment results.
ART 5812r. MFA All Media Critique (3). This course is designed as a studio course in which students work on their own projects and engage in group critiques with their peers and instructor individually. The outcome and benefits of this course are based on student focus, work ethic, and willingness to participate. May be repeated up to six credit hours per term and up to 24 credit hours in total.
ART 5816r. Third-Year Seminar: Professional Practices (3). Prerequisites: Students must have completed all first and second year coursework and passed all their reviews. Corequisite: ART 5972. This course is designed to assist the graduate students in developing a cohesive career plan. Through workshops, group discussions, critique, research, lectures, project assignments and presentations, each student is provided opportunities to expand their understanding and creation of the professional materials they will require for their studio practice.
ART 5899r. Third-Year Exhibition Seminar (3-6). Prerequisite: ART 5972. Co-requisite: ART 5810. This course focuses on the development and completion of the MFA graduation exhibition and studio research paper. Exhibition preparations are in the form of group and individual critiques that provide feedback for successful completion and installation of the exhibition. Students meet set checkpoints for studio research preparation.
ART 5907r. Directed Individual Study (1–4). (S/U grade only).
ART 5927Cr. Graduate Workshop (1–4). May be repeated to a maximum of fifty-one semester hours within the same term.
ART 5928Cr. Graduate Workshop (1–6). Prerequisite: ART 5927C. May be repeated to a maximum of fifty-one semester hours within the same term.
ART 5929Cr. Graduate Workshop (4). Prerequisites: ART 5927C and ART 5928C. May be repeated to a maximum of twenty-eight semester hours within the same term.
ART 5940r. Supervised Teaching (1–3). (S/U grade only). Prerequisite: ART 5927C. This course combines practical discussion, theory, and supervised practice in reference to teaching at the college level. May be repeated to a maximum of five semester hours.
ART 5972r. Supervised Studio Research + Exhibition (1–8). (S/U grade only). In this course, students prepare their summative exhibition and MFA defense. May be repeated to a maximum of twelve (12) credit hours; repeatable within the same term.