Graduate Information

The studio art M.F.A. is taught by internationally recognized faculty members whose works appear in such prestigious museums as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Art and Design, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Faculty murals and public art commissions can be found across the country, from subway stops to college campuses. The department’s alumni exhibit, teach, and curate internationally.

Our program trains painters, photographers, sculptors, digital artists, cartoonists, and more. First-year students work in divided group spaces; second-year students inhabit spacious private studios. Students plan and host a lively lecture and visiting artist series that is amplified by an annual artist-in-residence, hired as part of the department’s diversity initiative. The final M.F.A. thesis exhibition, which has garnered significant media attention, has been housed in prestigious venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The exhibition attracts attendees from all over the tri-state region. The Art Department has forged new partnerships allowing for student internships and residencies in leading institutions. Teaching assistantships and monetary awards are distributed annually.

The Art Department strives to create a learning community that acknowledges, values, and celebrates diversity in all its forms, including race, gender, religion, sexuality, cultural heritage, and differing physical and linguistic abilities. Inspired by the activism of our students, in fall 2020 the department created the Anti-Racist and Inclusivity Committee to ensure these values are being upheld by our students, staff, and faculty and that necessary changes continue to be made.