Joeann Argue, 2013 MFA in Visual Art
In the spring of 2023, VCFA spoke to Visual Art Alumnx Joeann Argue (VA ‘13) about her involvement in the creation of the Nogojiwanong Indigenous...
MFA in Visual Art
Earn your MFA in Visual Art in two years through an interdisciplinary program grounded in transformative, individualized learning. Combine on-campus residencies with self-designed semesters in your own home community.
About the Program
Key Information
Residency Dates & Locations
- Winter 2025: January 3 – 11, 2025
Valencia, California - Summer 2025: June 24 – July 2, 2025
Valencia, California
Contact our admissions team at [email protected].
Who is it for?
This program is ideal for those with substantial experience in making art and a working knowledge of art history and visual culture, who are seeking contemporary discourse, community, and to elevate their artistic practice through a realistic model of education.
How will your practice develop?
Our faculty encourage experimentation and exploration. Students learn to define and own their art practice, leaving the program attuned to who they are as artists and why they make the work they do.
Join us to learn more about our low residency MFA programs and the application process. In this session we will discuss:
- Overview of VCFA programs
- What does low residency look like at VCFA?
- What is expected in a typical semester?
- What is residency?
- Learn more about our faculty mentorship model
- First steps for preparing your application
- Financing your MFA overview
- Q&A
Visit the event page to learn more and RSVP.
You can go out of your comfort zone. This is the program to do it. This is the time to do it.
Maria Trujillo
| 2021
Residency
Experience VCFA’s low-residency model
VCFA’s academic calendar is divided into two semesters per year: a summer and winter semester respectively. Each semester begins with a 9-day residency that provides a dynamic, student-centered learning environment that supports a broad diversity of artistic practices.
During residencies, students present their critical and studio work to each other, faculty, and visiting artists and plan their semester’s study. Critiques, lectures, research groups, and student presentations provide the foundation of each student’s semester.
Our world-class faculty maintains a rigorous critical and creative environment where individual artists can succeed on their own terms. They empower students to create and sustain generative practices that value their own experience and challenge received notions of success.
In addition to their Visual Art community, students are on campus with our five other MFA programs during residency: Film, Graphic Design, Music Composition, Writing, and Writing for Children & Young Adults. All students will have the opportunity during residency for interdisciplinary study, work, and networking.
Upon completion of the two-year program, students will have attended five unique and invigorating residencies that guide their creative work while offering minimal disruption to their professional life and personal schedule.
SEMESTER WORK
Mentorship & Individualized Study
During the semester, students return to their home studios where they work with an Artist-Mentor from our expansive list of national and international artists. Students form lasting professional relationships with artists in their own region while determining their own educational values and professional expectations. Students also receive academic guidance from their faculty advisors on their visual culture research project.
Using the mediums and method of their choosing, students design projects that will challenge them to meet new artistic goals. They engage in critical dialogue with their mentors and strive to effectively integrate form and content.
Try something new, see a new perspective, and challenge yourself. It's a time for growth.
Naomi Even-Aberle
| 2019 MFA in Visual Art
Graduate Catalog
The MFA in Visual Art program now produces a full-color, designed, and printed catalog for each graduating class. Printed copies are available to graduates, as well as current students and faculty. Check out the digital version here! (Right: Jeff Dornenburg, “e Pluribus Unum,” 2020)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is an Artist-Mentor?
Artist-Mentors are prominent, contemporary artists and educators who are contracted to work with students in person during the semester. With a network of hundreds of artist-mentors in the US and Canada, the program ensures that every student, regardless of home location, will study with a committed, professional artist each semester.
Are you a prospective artist-mentor? Click below for more information about the position.
What is "visual culture"?
Visual culture is what we call the writing and research component of the MFA in Visual Art. Students choose research topics that enrich the ideas they are exploring in their studio practice, with guidance from a different faculty advisor each semester.
What happens during residency?
Each semester begins with a nine-day residency where we welcome students, faculty, and visiting artists to campus. Composed of student exhibitions, individual and group critiques, faculty and guest lectures, and a thematic symposium, residency is an exciting week that prepares students for the semester.
How do the exhibitions work?
Upon arrival, students spend the first days of residency installing their artwork in the VCFA galleries, with support from the Exhibition Team. Public receptions, well attended by the broader Vermont arts community, are held for both the new/returning-student and graduating-student exhibitions respectively. Students do not typically make work while on campus, as residencies are time for the critiques, feedback, and crucial dialogue that sustain their practice off campus.
So, I bring my artwork to campus?
Yes. Whether commercially shipped, loaded into a car, or packed into a suitcase, the artwork also travels to residency. Students graduate from the program prepared for the logistics of transporting their work to all of the national and international exhibition opportunities that come their way.