School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The SMFA program was designed by artists, for artists. It puts you, the artist, at the center. You will be encouraged here. You will be pushed. To take risks. To work in a medium you've never tried before. But you won't be told what to do. You will work with the faculty to develop your own voice, your own point of view. Which is why our students, our graduates, go on to define new directions in the arts. Many are pioneers in their field. Others create entirely new fields. The education you receive here will prepare you for a world that is constantly changing and constantly placing very high demands on its participants.

The Museum School is a challenging place; it is designed to be that way. But in the end, it is an experience that will be profoundly rewarding. And that is what a really good education is all about.

Mission
The mission of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is to provide an education in the fine arts—for undergraduate and graduate artists—that is interdisciplinary and self-directed. This education values cultural, artistic and intellectual diversity; it embraces a wide range of media; it stresses the development of individual vision and its relation to culture in general; it values equally the knowledge gained by thinking and doing; it is deeply engaged with the world as a whole. If the mission is constant, its practice is always transforming.

History
SMFA has been educating artists since its founding in 1876. The School was conceived at the same time as the Museum itself, as the crucial second part of a mission to educate through the arts. SMFA was intended to be a school of art; not simply a technical institute, but a school of the most rigorous ideas and concepts. Since its founding, the School's faculty, administration and curriculum have been dynamically engaged in questions of education in general, and art education in particular.

Since 1876, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has been educating artists by providing them with the respect and freedom they need to develop. At SMFA, you'll find exceptional teachers who are expert mentors as well as working artists. You'll find cutting-edge art-making; enviable relationships with Tufts University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and an extraordinary heritage of launching great artists.

Each of our eight programs of study has its own emphasis, but each resounds with the intensity that comes from the exploration of ideas by a community of nearly 1,000 artists.

Bachelor of Fine Arts
The BFA program provides the opportunity to combine an in-depth, rigorous liberal arts education at Tufts University with intensive studio arts training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Students are considered to be fully enrolled at both schools, and graduate with a BFA degree from Tufts University. A wide array of art history courses taught by Tufts faculty are offered on the Museum School campus, allowing you to begin your academic studies while enrolled in a concentrated studio program. The studio curriculum in the BFA program is entirely elective; so you are free to select the courses, faculty members and community resources deemed most important to your artistic development.

Students in the Tufts BFA program who are interested in becoming an art teacher can apply to the MAT program in Art Education. This rigorous path of study is well-suited for artists who are interested in urban education and teaching in multicultural environments. Graduates of the BFA + MAT are highly qualified for positions in the teaching field.

Master of Fine Arts
Both rigorous and highly selective, the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program will prepare you for a career as a working artist or a teacher at the college level. The curriculum integrates practical and critical skills across diverse media and disciplines; you'll hone your practice through individual innovation, creative collaborations, informal mentorships and academic discourse. MFA students are enrolled at both SMFA and Tufts University, and graduate in two years with an MFA degree from Tufts.

Key aspects of the program include:

• A varied curriculum that integrates practical and critical skills across diverse media and disciplines.
• Professional development, including: a Professional Practices course and the Artist Resource Center.
• Teaching opportunities and the ability to apply for outside exhibitions and grants, including SMFA Travel Grants.
• Colloquia that explore timely ideas in the visual arts and art theory. The March 30, 2012 colloqium "Artists Collectives and Artistic Collectivism" explored the role of collectives and collectivism throughout the development and discourse of practice in the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Distinguished visiting faculty and guest artists.

In this program you will complete 60 credits, including studio, four graduate seminars and two art history and two academic electives at the upper or graduate level at Tufts University. You'll have your own semi-private studio space and access to the School's faculty and equipment. The final thesis exhibition is held at Tufts University. 

Masters of Arts in Teaching, Art Education
The Master of Arts in Teaching in Art Education (MAT) program prepares the artist to teach in elementary, middle and high schools with a critical focus on both contemporary visual culture and traditional arts. The resources of Tufts University and the Museum School combine to enhance your understanding of urban and multicultural education and to develop your capacity as a reflective studio artist.

The studio component of the program intersects with art teaching methods, art education curriculum development, visual-critical studies and supervised pre-practicum internships in public schools and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Full-time practicum internships in urban, suburban and urban-rim communities engage MAT students in the study, analysis and production of visual culture with youth in the classroom.

MAT students are enrolled at both the SMFA and Tufts University, and graduate with an MAT degree from Tufts. You will complete a 12-month program of study in education foundations, art theory and curriculum and studio art. Many MAT students start with three education classes at Tufts in the summer, then take eight studio credits and two art education classes in the fall. They then complete their course of study in the spring with a student-teaching internship that includes a weekly seminar and an art curriculum development course. When you graduate, you'll be eligible to apply for grades PK-8 or 5-12 Massachusetts Initial Teaching Licensure in Art Education. 46 states have signed the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification contract with Massachusetts for interstate licensure reciprocity.

Interdisciplinary

Artists working in today's culture understand that their vision may take many forms: object-making, performance, film or combinations thereof. SMFA's unique interdisciplinary, all-elective studio art curriculum is designed to help students embrace this approach. SMFA continually incorporates new media, new concepts, new theories and new approaches into the studio curriculum. Our focus is on creative investigation, risk-taking and the exploration of your individual vision. 

The Ceramics area supports the creative and expressive use of clay through a broad range of approaches, including installation, performance, mixed media, large-scale commission sculpture, time-based media, papermaking, printmaking, painting, silkscreen and other processes. Whether your interest is sculptural, painterly or functional, versatile clay brings something special to this intersection of media and processes. Look forward to an in-depth ceramic experience that will reinforce practical connections and aesthetic perspectives applicable to all artistic pursuits.

Core (formerly Foundations) courses introduce students of all levels to the vast possibilities of a career in the arts. In addition to teaching basic studio skills, courses in this area pay special attention to current developments in contemporary thought. They also equip you with the intellectual tools for self-discovery, personal vision and self-motivation.

Courses range from practical introductions to advanced studio practice and include lectures, discussion groups and seminars concerning visual, critical and historical studies. There is an active visiting artist program, classes visit local galleries and museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, and every year the area produces a Foundations student exhibition. Drawing is a personal practice used as a vehicle for developing visual awareness; a combination of seeing, thinking and planning that is relevant to all art disciplines. Drawing not only represents the visible, but also examines and realizes ideas and emotions.

The Drawing area, which fosters visual investigation through the practice of drawing, encompasses a variety of courses representing a range of methods, sources and dialogues. A full complement of courses emphasizes the translation and observation of relationships within the figure and objects in three-dimensional space. Several courses explore the development and combination of visual ideas along with the application of differing materials, techniques and strategies.

The Film/Animation area offers a range of courses that build critical, conceptual and technical skills in production and post-production in all genres and gauges, including single-screen and multiple projection. Seminar courses examine film and animation's history through contemporary thought, aesthetic and historical movements and cultural practice.

Whether hand-processing celluloid, shooting with the Bolex or 24-frame Panasonic digital camera, editing on the Steenbecks or in the Avid suite, animating images frame-by-frame or projecting two screens side by side, you will work with both traditional and cutting-edge processes. We encourage individual projects, and advanced students are encouraged to finish on to film, enabled by our Oxberry animation stand, JK optical printer, matchback capabilities in digital post and the 16mm developer and contact printer. You also have the option to produce digitally in Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, Avid and Flash in our individual and group edit suites.

Screenings and visiting artists and critics are a regular part of the semester, providing exposure to a wide variety of contemporary, personal and experimental works. The Metals area focuses on the direct study of sculptural processes and all that occurs in the visual language of three-dimensional art. Courses offer an in-depth study of the technical and aesthetic development of metals.

You will develop professional skills through hands-on work, technical demonstrations and critiques and exploration of traditional and contemporary metals. Weekly events include critiques, demonstrations, field trips and presentations by artists. The Metal shop offers individual bench facilities, a forging and metalsmithing area, new gravity and centrifugal casting equipment, a lapidary, polishing equipment and enameling facilities.

The Painting area is committed to teaching students the fundamental skills to make a good painting at the beginning level, encouraging them to find their personal vision at the intermediate level, and challenging them to engage with painting in an interdisciplinary, historically and theoretically aware way at the advanced level. The area offers a diverse range of courses that explore a multiplicity of painting media and related skills, procedures and techniques. We believe in encouraging the development of personal vision as the means of inquiry into such concepts as quality of artistic achievement, and considers the causes of uncertainty that may arise through this inquiry.

Students are encouraged to move through the painting curriculum from beginning to advanced, building skills and developing concept and voice. You may choose to focus on representation, abstraction, painting and technology, or you may want to mix classes to form a hybrid curriculum. The School has a diverse and highly regarded faculty with national and international reputations, and hosts a broad range of visiting artists.

Performance courses at the Museum School help you develop your own voice in creating live, time-based art. Our focus is on solo work based in the visual, but we also encourage you to engage in an interdisciplinary practice incorporating other media. Courses familiarize you with a range of approaches to developing original performance work, improve your technical production skills and introduce you to the theories and history of performance. We encourage you to experiment with different performance techniques and performance structures, and to examine the relationship between audience and artist.

Each year we host visits from internationally known performance artists who perform, give artist talks and teach intensive workshops. The photography area spans a range of practices in the 21st century, constantly questioning and reframing the evolution of photographic and post-photographic approaches. Gaining a solid grounding in photography history students explore the pluralities of contemporary photo related practice with a range of professional tools at their disposal.

Students learn to make exhibition quality prints and photo objects with digital or analog technologies, frequently seamlessly integrating the two. Courses reflect the research of an accomplished and diverse faculty encouraging deep critical thinking around a range of issues such as visual literacy in a photo saturated society, engagement with contemporary international subjects, site specificity, abstraction, reenactment and performativity. Students are expected to cultivate a unique relationship to their work from an array of instructional options including reading, lectures, technical demos, critiques, visiting artists talks, one on one meetings, participation in colloquia and local art events and discussions. Experimentation and risk taking are supported to cultivate individual interests and working methods.

The area places a high value on all school-wide visiting lectures and encourages an active understanding of and engagement with various fields of contemporary art and photography. Students are expected to attend SMFA lectures and also events at neighboring institutions such as: The MFA, MIT List Center, Harvard Carpenter Center, Fogg Museum, the Rose Museum at Brandeis, the ICA, Massart, the Photographic Resource Center and local galleries. Printmaking and papermaking offer artists from varied disciplines an alternative direction for development and growth. Print and Paper area courses present a diverse menu of media and approaches that enable students to develop, understand and expand their visual ideas. Students with experience in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography and digital media may find unique applications and combinations in print and paper media.

Printmaking
Print courses offer in-depth instruction of the traditional printmaking techniques--relief, intaglio, lithography and screenprinting--as well as a wide variety of mixed-media and interdisciplinary approaches. Processes are taught as a means of visual expression and exploration while edition and production skills are addressed by means of various print exchange portfolios throughout the year.

The relief and intaglio area has three etching presses, and the adjoining lithography area has a large selection of stones and four presses. The screenprinting studio is entirely water-based and is equipped with darkroom facilities as well as a large vacuum-frame exposure unit. The studios share four Macintosh G4 computer workstations equipped with scanners and appropriate software for digital imaging, and printers for color output and production of film positives for photo processes in all media.

Paper
Papermaking courses explore the possibilities of pulp as a dynamic and versatile material that can be used two- and three- dimensionally as well as made from a variety of materials (plant fibers, old clothing, recycled papers). Its incorporation with sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking can expand and personalize more traditional uses of these media. The Paper studio is fully equipped with two Hollander beaters, a mixer/hydropulper, hydraulic press, vacuum table and pulp sprayers. The studio is open (outside of regularly scheduled class) to students who have successfully completed a papermaking course and have the permission of the instructor. Monitors are available to assist students outside of class.

The Sculpture area encourages flexible, creative sculptural responses as informed by individual experience. Courses aim to use sculpture as a medium that encourages an open exchange of ideas, facilitates communications and nurtures discovery. Courses also introduce computer-aided design with a fabrication component to facilitate the conception and transformation of sculptural concepts from the cyber world to the real world.

Sculpture facilities include welding facilities with eight oxy-acetylene stations, four arc welders, one heliarc, three MIGs, one plasma arc cutter, a horizontal and a vertical band saw, drill press, a gas forge and a jump shear and finger break. The wood shop is fully equipped with lathes, band and table saws, a joiner, planer, sanders, air-powered chisels and grinders, and portable tools and equipment. The plaster studio provides supplies and materials to make moldspiece and rubberas well as work in direct plaster.

With its rich heritage as one of the oldest programs of its kind in the country, the Sound area at SMFA continues to lead in the development of a history, theory and practice of sound art. It distinguishes itself from conventional conservatory approaches by fusing three discourses––twentieth-century avant-garde music, late modern conceptualism in the visual arts and contemporary do-it-yourself (DIY) culture in order to address the ways in which artists have used (and abused!) sound as an expressive and critical medium.

Courses offerings are topical and have included, among others: a survey of contemporary sound art; introduction to digital audio production tools; field recording and acoustic ecology; history of sonic arts; appropriation art and remix culture; sound installation and sculpture; and, circuit bending and hacked electronics. Technical skills are balanced with rigorous theoretical concerns. Overlap into other media––for example video and performance––is encouraged.

The Sound area facilities include individual work stations with digital audio recording, mixing and mastering capability, a surround sound speaker environment and a studio room with old-school analog synths, tape decks and FX centered around a robust digital audio workstation. There is also a range of audio gear that students may take out on loan. Finally, keeping abreast of the state of the field is important, and to that end visiting artists often make appearances for lectures and workshops.

The Text and Image Arts area teaches visual communication through graphic design, artists' books, interactive Web and multimedia while encouraging students to develop a personal voice. Beginning classes teach typography skills, various computer software programs and a range of bookmaking strategies. At an intermediate level, classes focus on text and image integration, interactivity and the creation of book and Web narratives. Advanced students work on more complex projects through critical analysis, instruction and directed studies.

Our facilities include Mac and PC computer labs that are fully equipped with high resolution color monitors, the latest version of desktop publishing and Web publishing software, scanners, laser, thermal-wax and large-format inkjet printers, and complete equipment for any type of hand bookbinding. The focus of SMFA's Video program is the production of installation. Video area courses and equipment constantly adapt: to new ideas, new practices and the evolving discourse of video art. Courses combine technical production with critical theory, cultural studies and art history.

Video art is rarely a stand-alone medium, and often incorporates new and traditional media including performance, sculpture, music, painting, drawing, movement-based practices and sound. Video students work closely and collaboratively with other departments. Along with cross media experimentation, students' video projects are pursued and generated through interdisciplinary and research-based practices, working with multiple disciplines in the humanities and sciences.

Video courses focus on the critical, conceptual and technical skills that support the production of video installation, single channel video, web-based projects and interactivity. Our seminars examine the many histories of video art as well as contemporary individual artists and collectives working with new technologies. The program hosts international visiting artists, critics and curators to expose students to a range of viewpoints in contemporary art.

The SMFA video area fully supports the production of complex, large-scale video installation. Students learn a range of methods to spacialize moving picture and sound. A high-profile annual video installation exhibition in a Boston gallery presents intermediate and advanced students' work. We feature ongoing topic-based seminars to insure that our students are informed about the global context of media arts production. Topics address a range of issues that impact media production including art history, aesthetics, social justice, cultural geography, environmental, performance and cultural studies.

Ref: http://www.smfa.edu/

Visual Arts, 230 The Fenway
Boston, MASSACHUSETTES 02115
617-267-6100