Choose your Graduate Committee
Students must form a masters’ committee by the end of the 3rd semester of their academic career. MFA committees are comprised of four faculty members. Three members must be Art department faculty with the ranking of assistant, associate, or full professor with one of these individuals serving as Chair of the committee. The fourth member can be an art department faculty or faculty member from another UW-Madison department.
MFA Qualifier
Students will host a solo exhibition of their work during the 4th semester of the program. This exhibition serves as an opportunity for the student to meet with their committee to discuss their research as it relates to contemporary studio practice and content, historical context, and formal issues. The qualifier functions as a critique in which students can expect to defend the work and field specific questions asked by their committee. After the hour-long meeting, the committee will give the student a list of questions that the student will write responses to. Two weeks following the exhibition, the student submits their written responses for evaluation. The committee will then approve the student to advance in the program.
Final MFA Exhibition
After the successful completion of the qualifier, students will host a solo exhibition of their work. This exhibition takes place during the 6th semester of the program. The students’ committee will come together one time to discuss the candidates’ masters body of work along with the decisions the student made in presenting both their work and research. At this meeting, students should expect to defend not only their practice, but be able to articulate evidence of their academic research as it relates to the exhibited works. After the hour-long meeting, the committee will convene and make their recommendations for the conferring of the MFA degree.