Graduate Department of Art
College of Fine Arts
Website: https://art.fsu.edu
Chair: Jeff Beekman; Professors: Baade, Bookwalter, Garcia-Roig, Hanessian, Rushin-Knopf; Associate Professors: Beekman, Duarte, Roberson, Stagg; Assistant Professors: Ali, Bozorgi, Curry, Fielding, Kehoe, Luedtke, Lynn, Moon, Sleeper, Spence; Assistant Teaching Professor: Di Donna; Professors Emeriti: Bell, Blakely, Burggraff, Fichter, Hartwell, Henne, 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 international 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 think critically about issues and express their ideas through the production of artwork. 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 valuable contributions 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 to become 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 four locations, including studios and labs equipped to meet the needs of working artists. All MFA students are provided with studio spaces in which they can work and participate in discussions with faculty and peers about their research. Regularly scheduled formal reviews with faculty afford an ongoing dialogue about the student's progress.
Graduate students also have access to the department's installation rooms and facilities including photography, sculpture, digital fabrication, printmaking, sound, and computer labs. The Working Method Contemporary Gallery provides an exhibition space devoted to 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. These invited visitors normally give a public lecture and often participate in 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 normally 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 and other academic courses are available to help provide depth of understanding of fundamental artistic issues. These 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 Fellowship 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
- MoFA Award
- Specialty Tech Award
- Jim Boone in Art Scholarship
- Graduate Fellowships in the Arts
Requirements
Admission
In addition to University admission requirements, the department requires that all applicants submit:
Portfolio of fifteen to twenty (15-20) images of your most recent work. Images, videos, or QuickTime files should show continuity of development. Include title, year completed, medium, and size of each work.
Statement of Purpose (500-750 words) Briefly present your educational objectives listing your technical strengths and skills and the media and research areas you intend to study/pursue. Files should be sent as Word doc. or PDF. Please name your files as lastname_firstname and make sure your name appears on the top of each document.
Artist Statement (250-500 words) describing your artistic vision and the context of your work within con-temporary art. Guide | Artist Statement
Vitae/resume list of exhibitions, art related work experience, workshops attended etc. Honors record: list any academic and art related achievements.
Unofficial transcripts (optional). In order to expedite your application, you have the additional option of uploading scanned copies of unofficial transcripts to the Graduate Admissions Portal. You may upload up to two transcripts that documents, at a minimum, the last 60 hours of coursework up to graduation.
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/about/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 60 semester hours at the graduate level. The program includes a minimum of 45 credit hours in studio art, 12 hours of electives within or outside the department, and a minimum of three courses (nine hours) in academic study at the graduate level relating to contemporary art. Nine hours of the 45 studio art hours must go towards preparation of the Studio Research + Exhibition (SR+E) and written component. All students are required to write a SR+E paper as part of their graduation exhibition. The SR+E paper defines the intensive research leading up to the graduating 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
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.
ARE 5387 Teaching College Art (3). This course fosters the development of skills, knowledge, and experience needed for effective post-secondary art instruction.
ART 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).
Graduate Workshops
The workshop system permits the student to select professors based on the students' interests and needs.
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 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.