MFA Fine Arts

The MFA Fine Arts Program at Otis College of Art and Design is open, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. We are looking for advanced artists who are engaged and committed to exploring an art practice in its various forms, traditions, and contexts. We value interdisciplinary critical dialogue and lifelong learning within our close-knit community. Outside of rigid divisions and subdivisions, students are free to pursue a medium-specific practice - or not. Our elective course offerings in the field of Art + Social Practice present opportunities for students to engage in cross-cultural research and culturally syncretic forms of meaning-making and problem-solving.  

Artists in our program are simultaneously supported and challenged. The balance of group critiques, rigorous academic coursework, and one-on-one studio visits with faculty fosters the development of sustained interdisciplinary practices.

In Critique, students acquire a critical understanding of their work and how to locate it within critical cultural debates through generous group conversations. Weekly individual studio meetings with faculty offer one-on-one conversations on work in progress, ideas, readings, or plans. Critical inquiry into various histories, methodologies, and frames of thought structures our Theory and Art History seminars. Our Visiting Artist Lecture Series brings distinguished artists, curators, and thinkers into close dialogue with students. Studies culminate in a written thesis and final MFA exhibition.

MFA students have 24-hour access to work in their individual studios located at the Elaine and Bram Goldsmith Campus. Project Rooms provide additional space for installations. Annual Open Studios, the Mid-residency show, as well as the final Thesis shows in the Bolsky gallery offer ample exhibition opportunities over the course of the two-year program. Students have full access to the state-of-the-art wood and metal shops, video, photo, printmaking, and ceramics labs, the library, as well as the gallery on the Elaine and Bram Goldsmith campus located in Westchester. 

Past residencies have included Anderson Ranch, Colorado; Fundacion Sebastian, Mexico City; Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts Paris-Cergy, France. MFA students have the opportunity to participate in national and international study courses, including New York City; Venice Biennale, Italy; Documenta, Germany; Sculpture Projects, Germany.