Transart Institute

	What is a Master of Fine Art degree? Is the Transart Institute’s Master of Fine Arts program accredited? How much is the program per year? Is there some form of financial aid available? What if I don’t have an undergraduate degree? I am already approved for a Stafford Loan. May I use this loan for your school? What financial aid is available? Where will I do the library research necessary for the program? What is the residency? Does the faculty I choose to work with have to reside near me? How do I find a mentor artist teacher? What if I want to work unplugged? How much research work is involved in the program? What if I can’t work 20 hours a week on my studio project? How is this program different from other MFA programs? With the distance, how is my progress evaluated? Do I need a visa to come? Will getting my MFA from you help me to qualify for teaching at the college level? How many applicants do you usually have each year? And how many do you accept? How detailed should my study plan be? Will there be time in the future to develop it more? How good does my English need to be to participate in the program? Do students bring their work physically or only virtually to the residency in Linz? How accessible are the professors during the course of the year? How much discussion is there about integrating theory with studio practice? Are there artists in the program who also like to show in the white box aside from being outside of it? Can I start the program with the fall semester or winter residency? What is a Master of Fine Art degree? "The M.F.A., unlike most master's degrees, is used as a guarantee of a high level of professional competence in the visual arts. It is also accepted as an indication that the recipient has reached the end of the formal aspects of his/her education in the making of art, that is to say, it is the terminal degree in visual arts education and thus equivalent to terminal degrees in other fields." (CAA) The Transart Institute meets the MFA Definitions and Standards adopted by CAA, the College Art Association. Is the Transart Institute’s Master of Fine Arts program accredited? Yes, the Transart Institute Master of Fine Arts in New Media program is accredited through Danube University Krems. www.danube-uni.ac.at How much is the program per year? Current tuition can always be found here Is there some form of financial aid available? Many students are eligible for scholarships. Complete information is here What if I don’t have an undergraduate degree? If you are 24 years of age, with a portfolio and relevant work experience it is possible to be admitted to the MFA program. Applicants will be considered on an individual basis and a selection of supplementary assigned readings and essays can be provided, tailored to the individual applicants needs. ^ I am already approved for a Stafford Loan in the United States. May I use this loan for your school? Danube University Krems does not accept Stafford loans at this time. DUK does however accept student loans from the International Education Finance Corporation. More information about private student loans is here. While private student loans have variable rates there is always the possibilty to consolidate them to a fixed rate at the end of the program. Where will I do the library research necessary for the program? Transart Institute offers access to hundreds of periodicals and subscriptions via online licensed databases as well as a wealth of library research opportunitites and tools. What is the residency? 18 days of intensive on-site work consisting of symposia, workshops, seminars, critiques, presentations, exhibitions and performances as well as meetings with faculty, semester review and planning. Residencies are annual events occurring at the beginning, middle and end of the program. Two semesters of off-site independent work occur between residencies. ^ Does the faculty I choose to work with have to reside near me? No, students choose their faculty based on academic compatibility, not geographic proximity. Communication is by telephone, e-mail, postal mail, and in-person meetings at residencies. How do I find a mentor artist teacher? Students choose their own mentors. Faculty, guest artists and lecturers are all good sources for suggestions. Your chosen faculty person will advise you and support your research efforts to find the right mentor and/or media specialist for you and your project. As well, a growing list of available mentors and media specialists with their locations, bios, areas of interest and websites will be listed on our site this spring. It is possible to work with someone not in your geographic proximity as long as it is possible to meet in person, for the required studio visits. What if I want to work unplugged? The art work itself, the ideas, content, process and presentation are the focus of the program. Your choice of media is up to you. It should be the media that best expresses what you have to communicate. New media is an open term and is intended here to be inclusive of genres and media not traditionally considered “fine art” as well as analog work like photography or film that do not necessarily involve digital processes. It also implies an awareness of current media and media practices. Although one needs to have some interest in new media, it isn’t necessary to work digitally to reach the goals of the program. ^ I’m an artist, not an art historian or a writer, how much research work is involved in the program? The main emphasis in the program is on studio art. Cultural studies, writing and research are undertaken to inform the studio project. In the first semester each year students read in preparation for their research and write an introduction to their paper. In the second semester students write a 10-15 page paper, sending a first draft by email to their assigned faculty person at the mid-point for comments and a final draft at the end of the year for evaluation. There are no grades given. Faculty is assigned on the basis of the research topic. This process is repeated in the second year. You can expected to spend around 5 hours per week on reading, researching and writing these two papers. It depends on the student though and how much experience they have with research. What if I can’t work 20 hours a week on my studio project? Students need to work an average of 20 hours a week. As working professionals it is understood that the work will not necessarily be evenly distributed among the weeks. Each person must find their rhythm and process of working. 20 hours per week gives you an indication of the overall amount of work expected by faculty and mentors throughout the program. How is this program different from other MFA programs? Transart Institute is the only low-residency fine art program which is open to all media genres. Our students are generally working professionals with wider world experience than students from a serial undergraduate/graduate course of study. The low-residency approach, with intensive residencies, gives our students the opportunity for deeper academic experiences than within a traditional full residency context. A significant opportunity which arises with the intensive residency format is the possibility of inviting practicing artists, media specialists and theorists who would not be able to commit to a full residency program because of their careers. Other unique qualities of the program are that it is entirely individual. Each student creates his/her own educational experience through independent study, one-on-one with self-chosen faculty and mentors. Finally, students work in their own studios in their own environment. Traditional programs often necessitate working in temporary on-site studio spaces. Balancing work, family and jobs is one of the more difficult challenges artists face. If students can establish a good, solid artistic praxis with the support of the program in their own environment, chances are much greater the praxis will continue after the program. ^ With the distance, how is my progress evaluated? A schedule of written evaluations between you and your chosen faculty and mentor is on going throughout the semesters. Copies of these exchanges are sent to Transart Institute as well. The directors of the program are your guidance counsellors. They review your mentor, faculty and self-evaluations throughout the program and are always available to discuss your work and all other academic matters with you. Do I need a visa to come? Due to the low-residency nature of the program you can come with a tourist visa. Transart Institute and Danube University will write you a letter confirming your status as either an applicant or an accepted student. Will getting my MFA from you help me to qualify for teaching at the college level? Yes. If you've explored the CAA job listings at www.collegeart.org and the Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com you'll find that an MFA is required almost without exception. It is a good idea to join these organizations and begin to study their ads so you can prepare yourself. As this is a European degree, 95 percent of human resource departments will be fine with a copy of your diploma and/or transcripts. If you apply for teaching jobs in community colleges, notably in California, they will ask you for a credential evaluation which will cost you approximately $100. Here is a first list of places which do this: Global Credential Evaluators, Inc. P.O. Box 9203 College Station, TX 77842-9203 512-528-0908 Office International Education Services AACRAO One Dupont Circle, NW Suite # 370 Washington, DC 20036-1110 International Education Research Foundations, Inc. P.O. Box 3665 Culver City, CA 90231 310-258-9451 A more complete list is available from NACES, the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services and is currently located here. ^ How many applicants do you usually have each year? And how many do you accept? We had 175 applicants last year and accepted 25. How detailed should my study plan be? Will there be time in the future to develop it more? Students continue to develop their project plans throughout the summer residency. How good does my english need to be to participate in the program? The program runs in English. Your english must be good enough to read critical texts and have discussions and attend lecture on this level at the residency. Students can work with their mentors in any language they choose. Students can do their research and write their papers in any language their appointed faculy person speaks. Currently we have faculty in German, Italian, Spanish and possibly French. All administrative work including student evaluations and other paper work must be in English. ^ Do students bring their work physically or only virtually to the residency in Linz? Most students bring digital work or digital documentation, a few bring physical work for critiques in the first and second summer. For the third many more will bring physical work for their graduate exhibition. How accessible are the professors during the course of the year? Is the correspondence only online through Moodle? One faculty accompanies you through your research project each semester, assigned on the basis of your project plan. Communication is generally by email sometimes by Skype or in person, it depends on the teacher and student. All assignments and evaluations by faculty and student must go up in Moodle (our virtual online space) so it is also possible to communicate just in Moodle. There are formally three exchanges offsite per semester. Onsite, during the residencies students tell us they have a remarkable amount of exchange with their teachers. It does feel at times like one big family. This has to do with the fact that everyone pops out of the regular life for this intensive period. We spend a lot of time together and naturally socialize in the few moments we aren't in lectures, seminars, critiques, workshops etc... How much discussion is there about integrating theory with studio practice? It depends on the student and teacher. Students are expected to connect the projects in their project plans. Sometimes the connections are obvious and sometimes the connections require discussion. Sometimes integration occurs in more subtle ways. As students learn to think critically and to inform their work and their ideas, changes just begin to occur in the work. More and more we find students do not distinguish between their art or curatorial projects and their research. There is a tendency to see them as one project and we encourage this kind of thinking. ^ Are there artists in the program who also like to show in the white box aside from being outside of it? Absolutely. There are many professional and mid-career artists and teachers in the program. More are interested in traditional venues than not. We do see an increased interest in non-traditional or non-corporate exhibition venues, partly due to a vital dialogue and exchange of ideas about audiences and intentions and the fact that there are several curators in the program who are also thinking about these issues in new ways. And many artists in the program are working in new genres or new combinations of genres where there aren't 200 or 2000 years of precedences set for showing work i.e. animation, cyberart, digital and experimental media, gaming, robotics, virtual reality. Can I start the program with the fall semester or winter residency? Students can only begin the program at the summer residency. Project plans for the independent study semesters offsite are discussed and approved. We feel it is important for students and teachers to spend concentrated time together. Creative workshops, seminars and critiques have a lot of influence on the project plans students leave the residency with as well. Winter residencies are much shorter, focussed mainly on feed back about the prior semester's work and potential adjustments to the existing project plan. ^