The MFA Creative Practice at Transart Institute
Application form
Up to eight scholarships are available in the low-residency MFA Creative Practice for strong, independent artists. The admissions process is explained online.
The Transart Experience
- Summer intensives in Berlin, winter residencies in New York City
– Workshops, seminars and optional professional development, studio and performance tours in every residency
– A highly individualized contemporary learning experience without grades
– Realizing creative projects with the support of curators, faculty and self-chosen advisors
– Low-residency format allows students to keep professional and family obligations while advancing their careers
– International make-up of students and faculty that fosters exchange across cultural boundaries
– Offsite study, critiques and advisement wherever you live and work
The MFA Creative Practice is a student-centered, project oriented postgraduate art program which fosters independent thinking, risk-taking and the creation of an informed and sustainable art praxis. The program is tailored to suit the needs of working artists with summer residencies in Berlin, winter residencies in New York and one-on-one advisement during the academic year, wherever students work and live. Students are free to pursue work in any art-related genre and to create their own course of study, working independently and with the support of self-chosen studio and research advisors. Short periods of intensive residency permit students to continue with their professional work and keep a balanced personal life while participating in the program.
Transart Faculty comes from a wide range of academic and artistic backgrounds as well as geographic locations. Current theoretical areas of expertise include curatorial work, cyberfeminism, African diaspora, interface technologies, digital arts, continental philosophy, media, social studies in colonialism, capitalism and tourism, word and image relationships, and contemporary asian art history. Studio faculty include international artists working with sound, performance, dance and choreography, photography, drawing, sculpture, film and video, intervention and installation.
Transart Students
The majority of Transart students are emerging and mid-career artists and teachers at tertiary institutions. Students’ experiences at the Institute are unique and often transformational. New York-based artist Virgil Wong found that “the community I’ve become a part of through Transart is already much more immersive than what I’ve developed in ten years of living and working as an artist in New York City.” For composer and artist David Dunn, “perhaps the most important aspect of the program, to me personally, has been the realization of just how constrained my professional life can be. I have no lack of colleagues or opportunities to present my work but my network of association tends to reinforce a particular set of intellectual and aesthetic assumptions that become the set of assumptions. Transart succeeds at prying apart some of those entrenched viewpoints to provide space for new ideas and concerns. The truly international makeup of the students and faculty reinforces this.” More details online. You can learn more about the experiences other students have had at Transart.
Transart Institute
As the “Unschool Art School,” Transart grew out of a desire to go beyond established institutional education where pre-formed and pre-formatted knowledge is passed on to all students in the same way. Transart works the other way around: a plethora of models and diverse input in a multi-perspective environment form a truly student-driven program. The Institute is also a platform for faculty to expand their teaching praxis by making space for creativity and experimentation. Beyond its educational objectives, Transart is engaged in building an international community in support of students, alumni, faculty and their artistic and academic practices.
Finances and Scholarships: The application committee is authorized to award scholarships of up to 25% (50% for citizens/residents of developing countries) with acceptance into the MFA. Please note that Transart has no full scholarships. Assistantships will be discussed with accepted applicants. Additional financing should be available through sources in your country of residence/citizenship. Funding letters are mailed with acceptance into the program.
Application deadline: December 1, 2012
Contact and further information
Subscribe to the monthly Transart MFA newsletter.
For more information please visit the Transart website or contact Drew Henmi.
If you have further questions one of the faculty will be happy to discuss the program with you in detail. To schedule an appointment, please email Drew Henmi.
Transart Institute
Mail: 228 Park Ave. South
New York, NY 10003
T +1 (347) 410 9905
[email protected]
www.transart.org