MA information session: November 17, 2016, 2–4pm
MFA information sessions: November 11 and December 5, 2–4pm
Application deadline: January 15, 2017
USC Roski
Watt Hall 104
University Park Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0292
The graduate programs at USC Roski take full advantage of faculty across the university (including USC’s world-renowned six major arts schools) and the huge range of art events across Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Students engage via classes and fieldtrips with visiting artists, curators, and scholars and with galleries, museums, studios, and alternative venues for art and performance art across the city and beyond. With formal affiliations with the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Hancock Memorial Museum, the Pacific Asian Museum, and the California African American Museum, USC Roski is tied into the fabric of the LA art scene.
The Visiting Artist and Scholar Seminar and the Resident Artists and Scholars Program also bring in internationally and nationally known artists, curators, and scholars to work directly with the MA and MFA students throughout each semester. Recent and planned visitors include Tania Bruguera, Julia Mehretu, Dan Cameron, Nayland Blake, Mónica Mayer, Mira Schor, Yong Soon Min, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Pilar Tomkins Rivas, and Naima Keith.
MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere program
Intensive Master’s-level program in the practice and history of curating studied through the lens of critical theory and the history of art and visual culture; headed by Amelia Jones. With a focus on the research and exhibition of contemporary art, as well as attending to art historical curating and broader conceptions of curating such as performance art programming, instructors with international careers lead students in asking questions about the role of the curator and about the exhibition of art (broadly construed) in relation to its publics. Over two years of full-time academic study, students explore modes of curatorial practice in a curriculum combining seminars and professional training, including MA Practicum courses (resulting in an exhibition or programmed events) and a master’s thesis. Courses are led by USC Roski’s internationally acclaimed faculty, which currently includes: Andy Campbell, Amelia Jones, Karen Moss, Rochelle Steiner, John Tain, and Noura Wedell.
The MA program can also be combined with a Master of Planning in a dual-degree program offered by USC Roski and the USC Price School of Public Policy to pair public policy knowledge of planning, community development, and administration with an understanding of urban public space. See: priceschool.usc.edu
The Master of Fine Arts program
Two-year, full-time, studio-based program located in the center of Los Angeles, led by Director Nao Bustamante. With a select cohort enrolled each year, the program provides a unique experience that focuses on interdisciplinary and wide-ranging experimental, creative, and intellectual exploration. Current MFA graduate faculty includes Edgar Arceneaux, Nao Bustamante, Suzanne Lacy and Tala Madani. Graduate students have access to work with all fulltime and visiting art faculty including Shannon Ebner and Jennifer West and our most recent appointments—Patty Chang, David Kelley, Keith Mayerson, and Kori Newkirk.
The USC Roski MFA is designed to maximize each graduate student’s individual studio experience, and its instructional model is focused on critical dialogue as provided by regular studio visits with faculty artists and scholars, as well as guest artists, scholars, and curators. Group critiques with student peers also play a crucial role in building relationships, collaborations and expressive strategies. MFA graduates also take courses with USC Roski’s renowned Critical Studies faculty, tracing intellectual and artistic histories, understanding the complexities of theories applied to the visual arts, and addressing global art practices. In addition to open studios, graduate students produce an MFA graduate thesis paper and a thesis exhibition.
MFA students have private studios, a shared woodshop and the graduate building features the Gayle and Ed Roski Master of Fine Arts Gallery for solo and group exhibitions. Additional facilities on the main campus include the Galen Ceramic Studio, the Galen 3D Print Lab with professional-grade 3D printer, a printmaking lab, two photography labs, and a sculpture studio.
For more details about either program, contact [email protected].
