David Levi Strauss, Chair
Applications are now being accepted for entry in Fall 2012. The early acceptance application deadline is January 20th, but we will continue to accept applications on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.
For more information, contact [email protected], (212) 592-2408 or go to artcriticism.sva.edu.
The Art Criticism & Writing program at the School of Visual Arts is one of the only graduate programs in the world that focuses specifically on criticism and art writing. This program is not involved in “discourse production” or the prevarications of curatorial rhetoric, but rather in the practice of criticism writ large, aspiring to literature.
The practice of criticism involves making finer and finer distinctions among like things, but it is also a way to ask fundamental questions about art and life. The MFA program in Art Criticism & Writing is designed to give students a grounding in the philosophical and historical bases of criticism, to improve both their writing and their seeing, and to provide sources that they can draw on for the rest of their lives.
Critics cannot afford to be specialists, so our curriculum is wide-ranging. In addition to the foundation seminar, Bases of Criticism I & II, taught by chair David Levi Strauss, three levels of writing practicums, and the thesis seminar, we offer an array of continually changing electives taught by prominent writers and critics. We concentrate on the essay as form, as well as on shorter forms of review, and learn criticism by doing it. The thesis that students write at the end of their course of study is intended to be a substantial piece of criticism. We want students to come out of this program better prepared to write in the world.
From its inception, this program has had a special emphasis on the history and future of the image. The critics of tomorrow must study images in all of their manifestations in order to better understand how we are subject to them.
In addition to our exceptional core faculty, we invite many writers, critics, philosophers, editors, artists, and art historians in each year to give lectures and to meet with our students individually and in small groups. Recent guests include: Susan Buck-Morss, Sylvère Lotringer, Robert Storr, Avital Ronell, W.J.T. Mitchell, Lynne Tillman, Michael Taussig, Boris Groys, Cuauhtémoc Medina, T. J. Clark, Peter Schjeldahl, Ann Lauterbach, Michael Brenson, Bill Berkson, Lucy Lippard, Amy Sillman, Linda Nochlin, and Dave Hickey.
Our acclaimed lecture series at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea continues this spring with anarchist anthropologist and principal contributor to the Occupy Wall Street movement David Graeber on January 19th, art historian Anne Wagner on February 14th, and scholar and writer Joan Richardson on April 12th.
In January 2012 we moved into our newly built facilities (including a new library) on the 6th floor of 132 West 21st Street in Chelsea. It is obviously a big advantage to have such a program situated in the heart of New York City, amidst the greatest concentration of artists and art activity in the world.
Our students produce an online journal of timely reviews of current exhibitions in New York City and other writings called Degree Critical, edited by Raphael Rubinstein and Nancy Princenthal. Read Degree Critical on our website, at artcriticism.sva.edu.
We are now accepting applications for the Fall 2012 term. If you cannot apply by the January 20th early admission date, we will be accepting applications on a rolling admissions basis until all positions are filled. Generous departmental scholarships are available on a competitive basis. To download an application, go to www.applyweb.com/apply/svag, or contact us at [email protected], or (212) 592-2408 for further information.
To see sample programs, faculty bios, news, the Degree Critical online journal, recordings of past lectures, and admissions procedures, go to artcriticism.sva.edu.
