San José State University Accepting MFA Applications

The MFA offered in the Department of Art & Art History at San José State University is a 2.5-3 year program of study including seminars, studio courses, art history/theory, and independent tutorials. Student progress is monitored through a series of open faculty reviews and the exhibition of work, including a final exhibition. Students specialize in one of four areas–Digital Media Art, Photography, Pictorial Art, Spatial Art—but are encouraged to work across disciplines and have considerable freedom to design individualized programs combining studio practice, academic classes, and teaching. The department, which celebrated its centennial in 2013-14, is best known for outstanding technical and fabrication facilities, for the teaching opportunities it provides to qualified students, for its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, and for its friendly and supportive community.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY:
They tell us that the program is well-rounded and truly interdisciplinary; that it’s rigorous and passionate; that it’s accessible and affordable and diverse; that it trains students for university teaching; that faculty and students maintain a strong network that supports personal and professional development after graduation; that SJSU’s location in the bay area, near Oakland and San Francisco is important to them.

HOW TO APPLY:
The application process for our Graduate Program is a two-step procedure. Prospective students apply BOTH to the Department of Art and Art History and to SJSU. See the department’s Application and deadline link for more information. If you have questions, please contact Elizabeth Quintana ([email protected] or 408-924-4320). The departmental deadline is JANUARY 9, and the SJSU deadline is FEBRUARY 1.

CONTACT INFO for program coordinators:
G. Craig Hobbs (Digital Media Art, Graduate Advisor for the MFA): [email protected]
Valerie Mendoza (Photography): [email protected]
Gale Antokal (Pictorial Art): [email protected]
Shannon Wright (Spatial Art): [email protected]
Anne Simonson (department chair): [email protected]

VIEW THE ART & ART HISTORY DEPARTMENT VIDEO HERE: https://vimeo.com/76630840

PROGRAM AREAS:
DIGITAL MEDIA ART: The Digital Media Art (DMA) program at San Jose State University is a multidisciplinary degree offering digital art and design curriculum in the areas of computer graphics, web development, programming, physical computing, fabrication, prototyping, interactivity and computer games. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the DMA program is dedicated to the advancement of contemporary technologies through research and experimentation at the intersection of art and science.

The MFA is a 2-3 year program of study including seminars, art history, studio courses and independent study. Student progress is monitored through a series of open faculty reviews and exhibition of art works. Candidates for the MFA in Digital Media Art must demonstrate strong artistic accomplishment. Applicants must provide a statement of intent indicating conceptual orientation and proposed direction of study. Academic programs emphasize artistic experimentation within a context of historical, cultural, and theoretical study.

DMA operates two labs including the CADRE Institute’s Physical Computing Lab and the DMA Game Design Lab providing research-based pedagogy in microcircuits, fabrication and prototyping, computer games and interactive programming. We offer fabrication facilities in our comprehensive wood and metal shops including laser cutters, CNC routers, and vacuform, in addition to metal and large-scale sculpture fabrication through the department's Spatial Art Program Area.

PHOTOGRAPHY: The Photography program supports and encourages a wide range of traditional, conceptual and interdisciplinary approaches to lens related imaging. Philosophically, the program is committed to addressing the breadth of contemporary issues and practices while realistically preparing students for a career in the field. The faculty is comprised of artists/photographers with national and international careers whose work ranges from conceptual installation and new genres to traditional and commercial. There is no pervasive aesthetic trend at SJSU; the faculty has been carefully selected to offer a wide range of aesthetic and technical possibilities to the students. Our program welcomes and promotes diverse styles and viewpoints. We encourage students to produce thoughtful artwork that deals with meaningful issues, and the faculty is here to help you refine your direction and create your best work.
Our technical facilities are among the best and largest in the West and include Six Epson printers (9600, 4880, 4800, 7600 and 4000), a Canon large format printer, a large complement of digital support equipment, digital and film based cameras, and four instructional complexes with fifty enlargers, eight commercial lighting studio stations, and facilities for alternative photographic processes. We recognize the future of most photographic practice to be digital, yet we honor and respect the educational value and the potential for self-expression available in traditional darkroom facilities. To that end, we maintain traditional darkrooms and an alternative processes lab, while we continue to upgrade our digital equipment as the technology advances.

PICTORIAL ART: The painting, drawing, and printmaking faculty at San Jose State University are actively involved in the contemporary art community and exhibit nationally and internationally. Faculty work ranges from realism to abstraction, from conceptual to environmental. Graduate students are encouraged to develop their own creative and expressive directions through work with the faculty, individual studio projects, gallery exhibitions, interaction with the professional art community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the investigation of current issues and concepts as presented in the graduate seminars.

In addition to studio/classroom space for painting and drawing and the individual studios assigned to MFA students in all programs, there are well-equipped support facilities such as wood and metal shops. Graduate printmakers have the use of four large studio/classrooms, as well as the intaglio and lithography press prep rooms. Three intaglio presses and four lithography presses allow the printer to work in monoprint or in editions, on stones or aluminum plates. The screen printing studio has a large vacuum-exposure table for exposing plates and stencils. The photo darkroom, with graphic arts camera and enlargers, allows printmakers access to a variety of photo-printmaking processes for all printmaking media

SPATIAL ART: Spatial Art is an interdisciplinary program that encompasses a broad range of media including Ceramics, Glass, Installation Art, Metal Fabrication and Casting, Multimedia, Performance Art, and Sculpture. It provides excellent facilities and resources for students who wish to realize their ideas in three-dimensional form. The area is guided by a faculty with varying philosophical approaches and technical expertise and a common concern for spatial issues.

Many Spatial Art students work in the area of installation. There are seven galleries of varying size within the Art building that can be used on a weekly basis for such projects. There are also two brand new shipping containers, known as the Freight and Cargo Galleries, for installation projects. Students also have access to University and School digital and video equipment that may be needed as a part of installation work. Graduate students are encouraged to explore and utilize any and all of these facilities as resources. As they grow in their abilities to visualize and express the form and content of their ideas in three-dimensional terms, they may see each concept dictating its own technique and material. The resources of the Department of Art and Art History faculty and laboratories offer rich critical and technical support.

Technical Facilities available to Spatial Art and to all MFA students include well-equipped shops in a variety of areas. The jewelry lab allows for smithing and casting of small metal works. The large ceramics facility has complete clay mixing capacity and fifteen kilns which can serve almost any purpose, including a fifty cubic foot gas kiln. The glass area is a modern lab with heat recuperative furnaces, as well as slumping and casting facilities. A large foundry and outdoor sculpture yard provide for the realization of ideas in cast and fabricated metal, stone and mixed media, including large scale work, with all the major welding equipment, vacuum casting capability, two 285 lb casting crucibles, a 140 cubic foot burnout kiln, and a fork lift. The wood shop is fully equipped for furniture making and construction of sculpture in wood, foam and plastics. The machine shop has mills and lathes, and metal-cutting bandsaws. Other shop facilities include a laser cutter, plastic vacuum former, spray booth, sandblaster, and sheet-metal working machines.

Teaching Opportunities are also available to all. During the course of their studies in the program, qualified graduate students may apply for the opportunity to teach at the Teaching Associate level, which provides a generous stipend and tuition waiver. Students are offered considerable freedom between teaching, studio practice, academic classes and outside internships within which to design a program specific to their individual needs.

Gallery System: The Department houses the endowed and professionally-curated Natalie and James Thompson Gallery which hosts four to six exhibitions each year. The Gallery’s endowment also supports a weekly 5pm lecture series which brings prominent guest speakers to campus each Tuesday evening. Tuesday evenings also see the weekly opening of MFA, BFA, and class exhibitions in the six student galleries located in the Art and Industrial Studies buildings. Galleries and display cases change each week.