Fine Arts - Art

For those passionate about art making, our MFA offers the ideal opportunity to develop your studio practice to the advanced level expected of practicing artists by critics, curators, museums, and galleries. You have two years to focus on self-directed studio work, informed by courses in professional practice, critical theory, three academic courses that you have selected from all over the UC campus, and a written thesis that addresses the context for your own artwork. This accumulating experience over two years of intensively making, writing, and discussing contemporary art adds depth and confidence to your identity as a practicing artist. The course gives you the capabilities to determine the professional direction of your later pursuit of studio work more effectively, art writing, college teaching, or gallery curating.

This kind of successful outcome occurs because the MFA gives you the opportunity to focus on conceptual and critical thinking in relation to sustained research projects that will deepen and expand your studio practice. Your artistic development is that much more exponential for happening within a cohort of other committed MFA students being taught and advised by a diverse community of artist professors, who are themselves exhibiting and writing internationally. The degree, moreover, enables you to participate in attending city-wide contemporary art events and institutions, visiting local artists, collectors, and administrators, some of whom participate directly in studio crits.

We are very enthusiastic about our MFA students arriving with a range of non-art experiences as these can be influential in stimulating new directions for your work. If you have degrees in other fields than art, you should definitely not feel this disqualifies you from embarking on MFA studies. Some of our most successful MFA graduates have come from academic backgrounds that don’t directly relate to art.

The MFA is the terminal Fine Art degree in the United States and is therefore essential for teaching at the college level. Our alumni have gone on to university and college teaching jobs across the country.

The MFA is crucial for developing the kind of complex and mature studio practice likely to lead to successful gallery and museum exhibitions. It is also a way for you to build lifelong professional relationships with your fellow MFA students that will generate future opportunities. Many of our MFA alumni are successful exhibiting artists in the region as well as showing their work nationally and internationally.

The MFA instills the professionalism that leads to roles in arts administration and enterprise. These skills are further enabled by our Professional Practices and Museum Studies courses which engage students with local arts communities and institutions. We have alumni working in many local art institutions, including the Contemporary Arts Center and the Cincinnati Art Museum. We also have MFA alumni who run the successful non-profit venture Wave Pool Gallery, direct FotoFocus Cincinnati Biennial, the Weston Art Gallery, Clay Street Press, and administer Visionaries + Voices.

Each 1st year MFA student will have 2 faculty mentors and one 2nd year graduate student. These mentors will help you successfully make the most of the of the program’s assets and to use the resources of the whole campus.

Mark Harris
Director, MFA Program
mark.harris@uc.edu

• The city of Cincinnati, once called the "Queen City of the West" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, provides an excellent array of cultural resources for students who intend to pursue a degree in the visual arts. It offers the energy and assets of a larger city, along with quiet neighborhoods steeped in rich traditions. Cincinnati offers live music venues that range from top-notch symphony and opera companies to a growing pop and rock community. Home to the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Taft Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center, the city also enjoys the presence of numerous art galleries and a strong support system among practicing artists.
• UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) is one of the most comprehensive colleges of its type in the country. A collection of nationally respected design and art programs is housed in a unique and educationally stimulating architectural setting. Students have opportunities to enroll in courses in a range of related disciplines and to participate in interdisciplinary studios or special projects.
• Students learn creative and technical skills in the studio environment, taught by a passionate faculty who interact with their students on a daily basis. The goal is to guide students as they grow both intellectually and professionally.
• Other educational opportunities include study abroad and certificate programs within the college and the university. Students are encouraged to share their interests in these opportunities with their academic advisor.
• The Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning has an outstanding collection of books, periodicals and visual resources supporting architecture, planning, design, art history, and related subjects. Access to library holdings is provided by an automated online catalogue, UCLID, which provides access to the University of Cincinnati Library information database, and through OhioLINK, the holdings of other academic libraries throughout Ohio.
• DAAP’s multiple labs, centers and initiatives support our programs and the creative work and research of our faculty, staff, and students.

Complimentary graduate certificates with the MFA include:

• Museum Studies
• Public Art & Placemaking

Students must:

• Successfully complete 60 semester hour credits 
• Successfully pass the first-year review 
• Successfully complete their master’s thesis exhibition and written thesis 

As part of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, the Art History program and Fine Arts program are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Arts and Design (NASAD).