Bard MFA Class of 2017 Thesis Exhibition

Founded in 1981 as the first of its kind, Bard MFA is a nontraditional school for visual, written and time-based arts. At Bard, the MFA community itself is the primary resource for the student—serving as audience, teacher, and peer group in an ongoing dialogue. Immersion in this community ultimately influences each artist’s practice, within the program and beyond. The community promotes diversity of approach, fosters imaginative responses and insights, and develops innovative solutions to aesthetic problems in all disciplines. In interdisciplinary group critiques with 80 students and more than 60 noted faculty, discipline caucuses, one-on-one conferences and all school presentations, our students learn to address film/video, writing, painting, sculpture, photography, and music/sound. This low residency program takes place over two years and two months, with students in residence on campus during three consecutive 8-week summer sessions, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus. 2017 applications are due January 9, 2017 with program dates beginning June 12 through August 4, 2017.

2017 MFA Candidates:

Film/Video: Amy Ruhl.

Music/Sound: Eric Farber, Kyle Kessler.

Painting: Michele Abramowitz, Amanda Friedman, Maryam Hoseini, Ryan Lucero, Annabeth Marks, Tran Truong.

Photography: Phoebe D’Heurle, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Judith Kakon, Carmen Kende, Megan Plunkett.

Sculpture: Alan Danielson, Brian Fernandes-Halloran, Anne Libby, Caiti Slegr, Charlie Smith.

Writing: Nicholas Chiarella, Mel Elberg, Joshua Escobar and Marianne Shaneen.

Thesis Exhibition Coordinators: Emer Grant & Lisa Long, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Images courtesy of Pete Mauney, 2016.