HUNTER COLLEGE
MFA PROGRAM in Creative Arts
Goals
The MFA Program is designed to offer students intensive training
toward the development of work in a wide range of media, including
time based work, painting, sculpture, photography, combined media,
clay and casting, and printmaking and drawing. Interdisciplinary in
approach, the focus is on the development of critical and analytical
thinking as it applies to making. Students develop their work through
group critique in critical seminars, individual work with faculty tutors,
studio electives and courses in the theory, criticism and history of art.
Additionally, many artists, critics, curators and historians from outside
the University visit the program to lecture and to conduct studio visits
and public critiques.
No program can maintain accountability for positive student
development without full time faculty, who have ongoing involvement
with the students and can therefore track and assess development
over time. Only full time faculty teach in the MFA program except for
occasional visiting artists who are high level professionals rotated
through the program to enhance the variety of perspectives already
available from the resident faculty.
Structure and Features
Tutorials and Seminars
The basic form of instruction in the MFA program is the critical
assessment of ongoing work by resident and visiting faculty. Through
tutorial and seminar critique, faculty and peer assessment of student
work is rigorous, accounting for nearly half the credits students earn
in the program.
Seminars are group critique vehicles focusing on student work. In
seminar, students present ongoing work, which is assessed as to
originality, creativity, incorporation of influence from historical models
and traditions, as well as awareness of pertinent issues relevant to
national and international practice. Frequently, reading, research and
writing assignments augment the critical dialog.
Tutorials consist of ongoing assessment of student development in
the form of individual faculty critique, and then followed up each
semester with tutorial reports which are included in each student`s
file. Tutorials typically involve several meetings between the student
and professor, usually conducted in the student`s studio. The tutor is
concerned to see that a student is creatively engaged in her work and
making progress. As graduate level work is self-directed, the tutor will
discuss the area of investigation the student is engaged in,
questioning and sometimes challenging the general direction of the
work, its underlying assumptions and overall ramifications. An
awareness of historical prototypes and related work by
contemporaries is assumed. The professor may suggest specific
research and related reading and may also suggest inviting particular
faculty and students in for additional feedback. Professors also make
themselves available for feedback and criticism to students they are
not currently working with or have never worked with formally.
Studio Electives
Studio electives ensure that students have the opportunity to branch
out and explore media and methodologies that are new to them. The
program offers a changing selection of courses ranging from drawing,
printmaking photography and time based to “Art in Public Spaces’,
which focuses on site specific issues, and “Collage Logic”, which
follows extensions of the collage impulse into digital and time based
practices and follows assemblage into installation work.
Art History Electives
Our excellent art history faculty provide a full spectrum of course
offerings from Greek and Roman to Theory and Criticism, providing a
deep and varied root system for MFA students to draw from. The
combination of studio and art history components in the Art
department allows for an effective integration of critical thinking and
making strategies.
MFA students can also participate in the Artist’s Institute; a project
that brings Hunter MA and MFA students into a gallery space located
at 163 Eldridge Street a dedicate each semester to a single artist,
and look at the broader context of contemporary art through the lens
of that artist’s work.
Additionally, faculty from throughout the university, from psychology,
philosophy, political science, etc. are invited to teach or co-teach
courses in our program. Additionally courses offered at the CUNY
Graduate Center may be taken for credit in the MFA Program with the
permission of the MFA Committee.
Teaching Assistantships and Apprenticeships
Teaching assistantships and apprenticeships with arts professionals
provide students with the opportunity to learn different teaching
approaches and to function in various aspects of the New York art
world. Students may assist artists, curators or historians in the
preparation and realization of exhibitions, conferences and a wide
variety of projects.
Lecture Series and Visiting Artist Programs
Outside artists, critics and historians influence the students through
lectures and studio visits under the auspices of the MFA lecture
series, the Zabar Visiting Artist Program, the student organization
visiting artist series and events organized by the photo and video
collectives.
Some recent innovations to the program include: round table
discussions among arts professionals on a variety of topics, public
critiques of student work conducted by teams of outside artists and
critics, and artist in residence barter programs which allow national
and international artists the opportunity to realize major projects in
New York with the assistance of Hunter students and faculty in
exchange for lectures and studio visits for our students. There are
also additional lectures provided by the Zabar Visiting Artist Program,
the Kossack and the MFA Student Organization (MFASO).
Hunter College Art Galleries
The Colleges maintains two art galleries; the Leubsdorf at 68 St. and
the Hunter College Times Square Gallery, one of the largest nonmuseum exhibition spaces in the city. In addition to presenting
museum level historical exhibitions and cutting-edge contemporary
shows, the galleries also function as teaching tools for both MA and
MFA. students. Large scale exhibitions are linked to seminars taught
by studio and art history faculty so that MA and MFA students work
side by side from the inception of an exhibition, participating in
transportation catalog design and essay writing, installation, lighting,
etc.
Exchange Programs
A multiplicity of historical traditions and perspectives is represented in
the international makeup of our MFA student body, as roughly twenty
percent of our students are from abroad. This diversity is enhanced
by our exchange programs with institutions in Paris, London, Berlin,
Glasgow, and Groningen, the Netherlands. Several of our students
study abroad each year as we host students from our exchange
partners. Both faculty and students from our exchange institutions
visit the campus, do presentations and lectures, engage in panel
discussions and enrich the Hunter creative community. We are
currently organizing an ambitious combined studio and art history
exchange program with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
Mid-Program Review
The mid-program review is an important assessment tool that is
conducted each semester for students who are half way through the
program. Each student is assigned a space in the gallery to present
all work completed in the program to date, for review by the full-time
faculty. Professors report on the class performance of each student,
tutorial reports are referred to and grades are reviewed. Judgments
are based on the development and quality of the students work and
their participation and overall performance in the program. The review
provides an opportunity for the full faculty to become familiar with
each student and to have input into their development. Students must
pass the mid-program review in order to continue in the program and
move on to their thesis projects. If, for any reason, the committee has
questions concerning a student’s development, direction or level of
participation, they may vote to have the student resubmit work in the
next semester’s review. The student then meets with the program
director and department chair to outline a curricular plan capable of
addressing the particular needs of that student. The committee
generally makes suggestions as to courses and instructors that might
be most helpful but the student is also consulted as to what they feel
would be useful. This review is an accountability feature designed to
insure that students don’t fall through the cracks. It constitutes an
attempt to tailor the program to the needs of each student in order to
insure an optimal environment for individual development. Many well
known alumnae, returning as visiting artists or lecturers have noted
the mid-program review as a turning point in their growth as artists.
Thesis Project
The culmination of the MFA program is the thesis project which
consists of two components. Under the close supervision of a faculty
sponsor, each student prepares work for a professional level solo
exhibition of fully realized work, with attendant photographic and
electronic documentation. Students also produce a bound thesis
statement discussing the salient features and thematics of their work
and a consideration of the personal, historical and contextual issues
that inform it.
These aspects of the program have been altered and honed over the
years in an attempt to provide a supportive and critical environment
where students are both challenged and nurtured within a creative
community with real vested interest in their ongoing development.
Students graduating with the MFA degree are fully equipped to
contribute to the cultural life of our society in a number of capacities;
through the production of a broad array of types of artworks, the
organizing and curating of exhibitions, the founding and development
of galleries and exhibition venues, critical writing on contemporary art
and culture, and teaching at all levels, especially at the college and
university levels. The Hunter College MFA Program is widely
recognized as one of the preeminent programs in the country and
enjoys a worldwide reputation. The program receives over seven
hundred applications each year for approximately forty available
places. We receive applications from throughout the country and
around the world.
The Hunter College MFA Program has recently moved to 250
Hudson Street in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood. All Hunter
College Facilities, including and particularly the MFA building, are
smoke, drug and alcohol-free environments. The MFA Studio Building
is open for student use from 7:00am to 1:00am except for the last two
weeks of each semester when it is open for 24-hour access.