Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts
Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts
The Master of Fine Arts Program at Wilson College serves as a creative and academic incubator for our community of artist-scholars. As an interdisciplinary program, our students and faculty work in a range of modes of artistic and academic inquiry and creation in our quest to better understand the spectrum and scope of the human condition and experience. The program is designed for working professionals or experienced practitioners in choreography, physical/movement-based performance, creative writing, visual art, and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary artists.
The program offers concentrations in:
- Choreography – for artists working in concert dance, musical theatre, film, performance art, or other movement-based artforms
- Creative Writing – for writers working across a range of forms from creative nonfiction to fiction, performance writing, poetry, and other practices*
- Devised Performance – for performance artists who make original dance or theatrical work via transdisciplinary practices, often (though not always) through ensemble building.
- Directing – for artists working in theatre or musical theatre
- Directing & Choreography – for artists who direct and choreograph in a combined/integrated capacity
- Visual Art – for artists working in any 2D or 3D medium/media
- Interdisciplinary Arts – for artists incorporating multiple artforms (and other disciplines) in an integrated practice
*We do not currently accept applications for the Young Adult category.
The program locates the study and practice of artmaking within human ecology, examining historical perspectives and approaches and developing creative practices by investigating the human relationship to our natural, sociopolitical, constructed, and curated environments.
This program offers a low-residency schedule tailored to the needs of artists who are already working in their respective fields, allowing them to reach the next level in their field with the terminal degree while working with others to expand their conceptual and technical expertise.
Program
The MFA Program is a two-year, 60 credit hour, low-residency terminal degree program which requires two consecutive summer residency periods (four weeks each). The summer residencies consist of individual and collaborative studio practice along with faculty mentoring and feedback/critique in the creative process and completion of realized works, as well as coursework addressing major areas in the disciplines. The courses are conducted with students from all concentrations to foster in-depth interdisciplinary exploration and the opportunity to consider art and artmaking from a variety of approaches and perspectives. Each student is responsible for substantial preparation to make the most effective use of the residency period. During the non-residency periods, students engage in remote coursework along with regular contact with the Wilson program faculty and an additional outside mentor that the student nominates each semester (with MFA Director approval). Non-residency semesters include online coursework, work-in-progress showings, and engagement in the Critical Response Process with the works-in-progress among members of the program’s learning community. Study concludes with a thesis project and oral defense.
Admissions and Academic Procedures
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis for either Summer Residency or Fall start. Degree program admission is based on the following criteria:
- Completion of a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher learning.
- A minimum undergraduate cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Completion of an application for admission into the MFA program.
- Official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate colleges and universities.
- Non-native speakers of English who did not graduate from an English-speaking institution of higher learning will be required to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores. Candidates will be required to submit TOEFL scores of 570 (paper-based) or 88 (internet-based) or higher, or an IELTS score of 6.5 or higher.
- A resume or curriculum vita. Portfolio of representative professional work completed within the last five years.
- A personal interview (in-person or via video conference), with the director of the MFA.
- Additional Portfolio Requirements: Electronic Downloadable formats are required, and a table of contents document must be included. Links to websites are not a substitute for submitting a portfolio, and CD/DVD submissions will not be accepted. Additional documentation such as reviews, up to five pages, may be included in the portfolio. All work in the portfolio must have been completed within the last five years.
- Choreography/Performance/Time-Based Work: Performance-based artists must submit 15 minutes of video files. Please indicate in the title, description, location/space, medium, duration, and date. With longer pieces, indicate by timestamp the portion you would like the review committee to focus on; for example [13:34 - 16:54].
- Image Portfolio: Visual artists must submit 15 images. Include title, medium, dimension, and date of each image. Up to four images may be details of other objects in the portfolio.
- Writing Portfolio: Writers must submit 15 pages. Submissions may include poetry, short stories, writing for performance (excerpts from scripts, spoken word text, or scores for dance theatre, etc.).
The MFA program is designed as an intense, 24-month program that must be completed within five years of matriculation. However, a student may take a one-semester (summer campus residency or academic year semester), or full academic year leave of absence. The leave of absence requires approval from the Director and must be submitted in writing. A leave of absence beyond one full year or two missed summer residency intensives will be considered a withdrawal and will require the student to reapply to the program. Credit for completed coursework will be honored as long as the five-year completion deadline is met. Partial attendance of the summer campus residency is strongly discouraged but may be permitted by the Director. Incompletes for the summer campus residency will be arranged with the Director and Registrar. Withdrawal and incompletes for individual courses will be granted as allowed under standard Wilson academic procedures.
Course Sequence
Students enter the program in the summer campus residency and complete the program in 24 months as long as they are continuously enrolled full-time. (Fall starts are accepted but require completion of the second summer residency after thesis completion.)
Enrollment in MFA courses requires admission to the MFA Program. A general exception is made for students admitted to the MA Humanities Program, who may enroll in MFA 523 Artmaking as Fieldwork and MFA 526 Contemporary Practices in Creative Writing.
Degree Requirements
Year 1 Summer Residency
Year 1 Fall Online
Year 1 Spring Online
| MFA 521 | Studio Practice III | 3 |
| MFA 524 | Contemporary Practices- Creative Writing | 3 |
| MFA 527 | Educational Theory & Pedagogy in Arts | 3 |
Year 2 Summer Online
Year 2 Summer Residency
Year 2 Fall Online
Year 2 Spring Online