Information session: Friday December 4, 2015, 2–4pm
Application deadline: January 15, 2016
Roski School of Art and Design
University of Southern California
850 W 37th Street, Watt Hall 104
Los Angeles, CA 90089
The final information session for the MFA will be held December 4 from 2–4pm. For details about either program, please email Katherine Guevarra, Graduate Program Coordinator at [email protected].
MFA program
Led by Vice Dean of Art Nao Bustamante, the MFA is a two-year, full-time, studio-based program located in the center of Los Angeles. The program is designed to maximize each student’s individual studio experience, and its instructional model is focused on critical dialogue as provided by regular studio visits with faculty, guest artists, scholars, and group critiques with student peers. Students also take courses with USC Roski’s renowned Critical Studies faculty that trace intellectual histories and address pluralistic art practices. Electives provide a broader platform for experimentation, and the program encourages students to explore complementary fields of research at one of the world’s leading research universities.
In addition to private studios for all MFA students, the graduate building features the Gayle and Ed Roski Master of Fine Arts Gallery, a 2000-square-foot gallery serving solo and group exhibitions throughout the year.
MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere program
Led by Vice Dean of Critical Studies Amelia Jones, the MA is a two-year program in the practice and history of curating, studied through the lens of critical theory and the history of art. 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 social questions 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.
The MA Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere/Master of Planning (MPL) dual-degree program, offered by USC Roski and the USC Price School of Public Policy, expands professional pathways in urban public space with an MPL’s knowledge of planning, community development, and administration.
Both programs work closely with USC Roski’s internationally acclaimed faculty, as well as an expanded community of leading professional artists, critics, and curators who participate in the weekly Visiting Artist and Scholar Seminar and the Resident Artists and Scholars Program. Both programs benefit from USC Roski’s formal affiliations with the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Department of Special Collections, the Pacific Asian Museum, and the California African American Museum.
In addition to Roski’s full-time faculty, recent and current visiting faculty in the MFA program have included Tala Madani, Allen Ruppersberg, Ali Subotnick, Sadie Benning, Paul Sietsema, Evan Holloway, Bruce Hainley, Paul Chan, Britt Salvesen, Glenn Phillips, and Stanya Kahn. Recent guest lecturers include John Baldessari, Tania Bruguera, Meg Cranston, Fred Moten, Ian Svenonius, the Yes Men, Tirdad Zolghadr, Silke Otto-Knapp, Franklin Sirmans, Huma Bhabha, Benjamin Bratton, Jim Hodges, Zackary Drucker, Dominic Johnson, Chon Noriega, Nance Klehm, Ken Gonzales-Day, Jane Burton, Lorraine O’Grady, Meiling Cheng, Stuart Comer, Sheila de Brettville, Mary Kelly and Lucía Sanromán.
USC Roski School of Art and Design
A supportive environment for experimentation in visual art of all media, the school encourages progressive, interdisciplinary approaches to studio art, design, curatorial practice, and critical studies. Ranked #8 nationally in Multimedia/Visual Communication by US News & World Report, USC Roski programs are constructed with powerful areas of overlap, and offer students a unique ability to explore broader definitions of making, curating, research and teaching. With equal emphasis on making and thinking, the USC Roski School prepares artists, designers, curators, and writers to contribute in new and meaningful ways both to their fields and to society at large.