The MFA Fine Arts program reflects the diversity of New York’s many art worlds. Together, the faculty and students form a community of established and emerging artists from many backgrounds who work across disciplines and modes of practice. Our main goals are to provide a stimulating and supportive environment in which students can thrive and develop as artists; to foster rigorous critical engagement with contemporary art and other cultural forms; and to produce an ongoing conversation, through work as much as through words, about what we make, how we make it, and why.

MFA Fine Arts is a full-time, two-year, 60-credit program. Seminars and workshops are complemented by weekly visits from artists, curators, critics, and gallerists, who are invited to give lectures and meet with students in their studios. Each student is given a private studio with 24-hour access. At the end of each semester, open studios provide students with opportunities to present their work to the public and gain professional exposure. Graduating students take part in our annual thesis exhibition. 

We respect craft and form, but we also encourage an approach to art-making in which ideas or questions serve as points of departure for artistic processes that may lead in unforeseen directions. While some students may remain committed to a single medium for the duration of their study, most experiment with multiple modes of production.

In addition to drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, students may explore animation, digital art, installation, performance, photography, public projects, social practice, video, and numerous other disciplines. Students in the MFA Fine Arts program have the freedom to reinvent themselves. And with access to private departmental facilities for photography, video production, large format printing, and woodworking, and to innovative labs at SVA for digital fabrication, bio art, printmaking, metalworking, ceramics, textiles, and risography, students can pursue many approaches to making their art.

The close relationship between faculty and students—formed in studio visits, critique groups, seminars, and workshops, but also through informal interactions—gives students the confidence to produce as much work as they can and to follow a personal course of intellectual and aesthetic investigation.

A cumulative grade point average of 3.0 is required for degree conferral. In exceptional instances, students may be allowed to transfer up to 15 credits from other accredited graduate programs and be eligible to complete the program in three semesters.

A full list of our Facilities and Resources can be found at the bottom of this page under “Resources.”

Studio Visits are a unique opportunity for MFA Fine Art graduate students to meet a diverse group of established artists, curators, and writers working in the art world. Studio Visits give students the chance to share their work, share dialogue, and get feedback from new perspectives. Every student gets at least one studio visit per semester, with additional studio visits dependent on availability.