10 Peachtree Center Ave. SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
United States
MA & MFA application deadline: February 1
MAT & MA Ed application deadline: April 1
The Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, of the College of the Arts at Georgia State University, features an internationally active faculty and a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for professional careers in art and design. The programs foster critical thinking and dynamic artistic production within an interdisciplinary environment. The school offers an MA in Art History, MA in Art Education, MAT and MAEd in Art Education, and an MFA in Studio Art with concentrations in Ceramics, Drawing and Painting, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Textiles.
Acclaimed Faculty
Darien Arikoski-Johnson, Jeffrey Boortz, Kimberly Cleveland, Ryan Crooks, Melanie Davenport, Craig Dongoski, Craig Drennen, Tim Flowers, Jill Frank, Ralph Gilbert, Maria Gindhart, Glenn Gunhouse, Ryan Rasmussen, Jeremy Bolen, Grace Harpster, Dawn Haynie, Kevin Hsieh, Jess Jones, Pam Longobardi, Carrie Brown, Jennifer Siegler, Joseph Peragine, Neill Prewitt, Joshua Dudley Greer, Katherine Cunningham, Meta Gary, Cynthia Farnell, Nimer Aleck, Susan Richmond, Jennifer Hamrock, Wesley Harvey, Jason Snape, Ruth Stanford, Matthew Sugarman, Catherine Trugman, Christina West, Stephanie Kolpy, and Michael White
Faculty accomplishments
In the last decade, over 55 of the region’s most prestigious grants and fellowships have been awarded to Georgia State’s community of artists, faculty, and alumni. Fellowships and awards include MOCA GA’s Working Artist Project Grant, the Idea Capital Grant, WonderRoot’s Hughley Fellows grant, the Swan Coach House Emerging Artist Award, The Southern Arts Prize, and the Hudgens Prize.
Ceramics Associate Professor, Darien Arikoski-Johnson, is a finalist for the highly-competitive 2019 Hudgens Prize; the award of 50,000 USD and a solo exhibition is one of the nation’s largest monetary, merit prizes given to a single artist. Notably, Craig Drennen, Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting, was awarded the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship in the Fine Arts. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has recognized the greatest artists, writers, and researchers “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts” since 1925.
In the last year alone, three Ernest G. Welch professors have had museum shows: Pam Longobardi, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah; Christina West, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; and Jill Frank, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA. Associate Photo Professor, Jill Frank, and Foundations Instructor, Jiha Moon, were both included in the newly-reinstated Atlanta Biennial this January 2019.
Faculty Darien Arikoski-Johnson, Jess Jones, Ruth Stanford, Maria Gindhart, and Craig Dongoski have all participated in residencies, symposiums, and led workshops abroad in the last year in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Zambia, France, and Greece respectively. In the states, Professor Ralph Gilbert has been selected for panoramic paintings, commissioned by Penn State Health, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and the Penn State College of Medicine.
In just the past year, Ernest G. Welch faculty & instructors Cynthia Farnell, Jess Jones, Joseph Peragine, Nancy Floyd, Ryan Rasmussen, Jeremy Bolen, Darien Arikoski-Johnson, Craig Dongoski, Craig Drennen, Jill Frank, Pamela Longobardi, Jiha Moon, and Christina West have all had solo exhibitions in major galleries and esteemed museums around the country.
Art History Associate Professor, Dr. Kimberly Cleveland, a Humanities Research Fellow, is soon publishing a book, “Artistic Renderings of Brazil’s Black Wet Nurses: Visualizing the Women Who Nourished a Nation,” Cambria Press 2019. This follows a year of curatorial work and research, titled “Ghada Amer: The Breakthrough,” which brought internationally-acclaimed artist Ghada Amer to the University.
More about the MFA + MA programs at Georgia State University
–NASAD accredited
–MFA students receive full tuition waivers and monthly through assistantships. MFAs are also eligible for competitive fellowships including the premium Welch Fellowship.
–Year-round Welch Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series
–Thesis exhibitions and gallery venues both on and off campus
–Located in the urban center of Atlanta
–24-hour access & studio spaces
–Nationally notable alumni
For information and to apply, please visit artdesign.gsu.edu or contact Graduate Coordinator, Wes Harvey, T 404 413 5256 / wharvey [at] gsu.edu