in Partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)

Contact Program DirectorS Susie Quillinan or SYOWIA KYAMBI
by EMAIL or sign up for one-to-one meeting here.

Intro
Structure
CURRICULUM
labs
TESTIMONIALS

The one-year low-residency MFA

Our new, One-Year Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Creative Practice is for anyone with an advanced creative practice (10 years +) with a specific research project or question/s they want to examine in order to develop their work. The MFA is a low-residency, self-directed, creative research-based project in which writing is an integral contributor, culminating in a public presentation, which may include exhibition, a publication, reading, performance, screening, or other form of dissemination of new work and thesis. Led by your research question/s, the project is a combination of your praxis and reflection where your writing—a thesis or exegesis of 6,000-8,000 words—actively contribute to the creative work itself.

Situated Research, Global Community

Mastery is not expansive enough to describe what encompasses our MFA. Fixed academic nomenclature such as “mastery” (a holdover from colonial ways of thinking) is a contested notion at Transart. We aim to de-centre the idea of individual mastery and instead encourage tentacular, inter-dependent research deeply engaged with trans-local, more-than-human ontologies, intersectional feminist and queer subjectivities, collaborative and activist practices and education as a site for staging the future.

This MFA supports you where you live and work while connecting you to people, practices, ideas and ways of being beyond the current scope of your praxis. With opportunities to exhibit, present, screen or publish internationally to a global community of peer and public discourse, the program also encourages you to deepen your engagement with your local community: to practice, research, present and think with the specificity of where you live and work. Transart believes in moving away from the model of global art centers and moving towards supporting generative environments of creative practice throughout the world, on and offline. We believe creative practitioners are vital agents in society and seek to support creative research that contributes to the ecologies of knowledge needed to address the eco-social challenges faced by our worlds, recognizing that those challenges are unequally distributed.

This program fosters intense focus, critical awareness and care towards your practice. Supported and guided by advisors; powered by topically relevant seminars, nurtured by guests sharing diverse practices, research methodologies and ways of knowing; and accompanied by peers from distinct geographies, positions and fields, you will deepen your praxis and hone your independent research focus. 

Expansive, Interdisciplinary Approach

We define this as 10+ years of experience in making, curating, designing, writing, performing, educating, publishing, instituting or any combination of these. Your practice may be hyper-focused on a particular discipline, or it may be a non-medium specific praxis of interconnected explorations. You might be exhibiting in galleries or the public sphere; working online, in academia or alternative spaces. You might work at the intersection of science and art, curating and agriculture, dance and technology or any other interdisciplinary constellation. Transart’s MFA believes in disciplinary promiscuity and the complex, urgent and invigorating experience of listening, sharing and thinking with practitioners from diverse practices, positions and territories.

Nomadic low-residency

Transart has always welcomed practitioners working all over the world, supporting you where you are without requiring that you re-locate to undertake an MFA, develop a global network of peers, or have your practice supported by dedicated advisors. If you are living in rural Colombia or downtown Manila, on the outskirts of Nairobi or the middle of Brooklyn, we are interested in the form your practice takes where you live and work. We will support you as you deepen those roots, developing a sustainable praxis while also connecting you to a new community of peers worldwide. 

You are required to attend at least one residency at the close of the program to present your research publicly. Throughout the year you are also invited and encouraged to attend shorter residencies in different locations around the world.

This program encourages fieldwork through flexible study options, and accessibility for practitioners with domestic or other professional responsibilities. Monthly intensives take place online over weekends. Your advisory meeting schedules are designed by you in conversation with your advisors. Many Transart students already teach at the university level, so our summer residencies are scheduled as much as possible to work with breaks in academic calendars.

Less Time, More Sustainable

The Transart One-Year MFA is designed for practitioners with an established practice and a particular research question or project in mind. You know your praxis, understand what it means to be self-directed and can commit to developing your research project in one focused year.

A one-year program means less tuition and less time before you can transition into a PhD program or receive your degree if that is your goal. But we think about this time not only as an acceleration towards a goal. We invite you to think of it as a radical slowing down, sinking into your practice, giving yourself the dedicated time and support to fully explore that research question or project that’s been on your mind. To find out what’s in that corner of your practice that you are yet to explore.

This is a year for devoting attention to your practice. Time for thinking-with others and exploring what practice-driven research looks like for you. Space for re-imagining the shape, engagement and context of your work, how and where you situate it and what it means to make, curate, educate, perform, listen, write, exhibit, care for, think-with and circulate creative practice today.

Drawing from your established practice, you will follow your research instincts to deepen your critical engagement with your practice in-situ, accompanied by the nurturing of a global community of peers. It is a year for planting seeds for your future practice. Your peers become a living, vital global network while Transart remains a hub and site for sharing future research, and transitioning into the PhD program to further your research is a viable option.

Modular study options

For early bird applicants (Nov 15), Transart offers further support in finding your project's voice or refining your direction before embarking on the MFA, via the 3-month Transart Pre-Flight Academy Program. All early bird applicants are eligible.

The MFA program can also optionally be a practice PhD-track course of study. You may orient your trajectory to segue into the PhD with the final MFA residency. Your path will need to be agreed upon with your advisors no later than the end of the first intensive. Optionally, develop a proposal for a PhD in the following year and commence in the subsequent summer.

I. Independent research

The heart of the One-Year MFA program is your independent creative practice research project. Led by your research questions, your thesis will be an entwining of praxis, reflection and research in which writing is an integral contributor to your creative inquiry. You will formulate research question/s that are relevant to your creative practice, devise your own research project, define its outcomes and work consistently throughout the year, feeding your research with input from your advisors, faculty, peers and guests. Research proposal and training sessions will be held during monthly intensives to guide you in the process and introduce you to a range of research methods and critical research skills.

Your project outcome may take the form of an exhibition, a suite of paintings, a public art intervention, a performance, a publication, a listening session, a garden, a film, a website or any other shape that best fits your research. A written component will support the practice outcome that situates your project within a clear conceptual, critical framework, informed by interdisciplinary perspectives and critically engaged practices.

II. GATHERINGS

Monthly intensives, annual residencies at LJMU and peripatetic micro-residencies are the spaces where we gather as a group. Operating at a level of intensity not found in campus-based programmes, intensives take place online, while residencies and micro-residencies take place in person globally.

Monthly Intensives

Your independent research will be punctuated by monthly trans-local intensives. Intensives take place via monthly zoom sessions the last weekend of every month that we are in session. Intensives include topic-based workshops, research training, artist talks, lectures, somatic sessions, research group meetings; class meetings; individual and group critiques with established artists, writers, philosophers, theorists, mediators and curators; and project presentations in a variety of formats (learning to present your work progressively). See the current Intensive program here.

• Topic-based, non-medium specific workshops help you contextualise work and discover ways of informing projects through research while exploring concepts and testing new ideas and working methods through a series of creative exercises and assignments (realised in media of choice and completed individually or in collaboration). Our unique hybrid practice/theory workshops aim to equip participants with expanded conceptual and aesthetic toolsets; leaving you feeling invigorated and inventive about applying the workshop ideas and processes to your respective practices and locales. Workshops are not intended to further technical virtuosity but rather to enhance creativity, by exposing you to new approaches, practices and knowledges in various genres. In these sessions, it often makes sense to work with what you are technically familiar with (in this case, you should bring your own tools, equipment and materials).

• Research Training modules with LJMU faculty, which will support your research development, writing process and the synthesis of your practice and written components.

• Project Presentations and Critiques with faculty, guests and alumni. Formats vary considerably based on input, guests, curiosity, experimentation and culture. The goal is for you to benefit from different perspectives on your work. Issues of audience, delivery, content, aesthetics, technique, media, genre, identity, culture, and process are discussed, and resources are shared. You will learn to present work effectively in response to specific goals in different cultures and situations. You will present your work monthly in your crit groups and in research group meetings during monthly intensive sessions, leading up to your final presentation at the LJMU residency.

Residencies

Intensive, in-person residencies are the heart of Transart’s approach as these are critical hubs for events and exchange. Residencies are both milestones and resources where students present research, participate in topic-based workshops (see above), artist talks, lectures, somatic sessions, walk-shops, pecha kuchas, symposia, colloquia, exhibitions and performances. Connect with local art communities by visiting artist studios, exhibitions, screenings and performances. Residencies also include individual and group critiques with established artists, curators, writers, philosophers and theorists, as well as time for independent and collective research. Transart members are encouraged to collectively or individually organize exhibitions, screenings, performances, publications, conference, talks, listening sessions and other events—see them here.

For the One-Year MFA program you are required to attend a residency at Liverpool John Moores University at the close of the program (July) to present your final project. Optionally, you can begin your MFA year with a residency, which we strongly encourage.

Thesis Project/ presentation

Experiment with exhibition and performance possibilities as appropriate to the nature of your thesis project. You will disseminate your project through either:

• self-organised events in your local context and/or online. This option would be accompanied by the presentation of documentation of projects at your final presentation at LJMU

• OR organize exhibition or performance at LJMU as part of your final presentation.

Whichever mode you choose, it is essential that work is disseminated in ways that are relevant and that best express and communicate what your project and praxis are about to the intended audience. This process is integral to the project from the earliest stages of project planning and through constant dialogue with your advisors throughout.

Micro-residencies

Optional 4-day micro residencies take place throughout the year around the world (including prior to the LJMU summer residency so that you can make the most of your travel time). Micro-residencies often align with events such as biennials and conferences. We encourage suggestions for micro-residencies from students. Recent residencies have taken place in Berlin, New York City and Mexico City.

III. Inter-dependent study

Dedicated advisory team

You will be accompanied by two advisors throughout the year who will be chosen specifically for your project, to support, guide and challenge you as you develop your project. We endeavour to design your advisory team with a mix of experience in the Transart system; expertise in your field or research topic; and where appropriate, knowledge of your geographical context. You will meet monthly with your advisors according to a schedule you decide on together.

sharing practice groups

Monthly sessions with your peers to share work in process, get and give feedback and resources. Transart alumni have often continued on meeting with their sharing practice groups after graduating from the program as a result of deeply forged connections.

Research Groups

All students are members of a peer research group which meets monthly.  Every member has the opportunity to lead a two-hour session each year as you wish in any format (i.e. presenting research; critiques; deep reading sessions; discussion with guests; etc)—whatever furthers your personal research or that of the group. The institute encourages you to organise additional sessions independently so that you each have two sessions. Designating a moderator and note taker is also encouraged. While the groups are independent, the institute will support your efforts by providing a monthly platform at the beginning of the intensives and student research support as needed or desired here. Additionally, it is our hope that these groups will spawn new initiatives i.e. panels, exhibitions, writing groups, online publications, screenings, discussion groups, listening sessions, rehearsal sessions, etc. The institute is happy to provide support for your initiatives in terms of platforms, announcements, etc. by proposal via your student rep. Investing in your research group will lead to long term support to sustain you in your praxis long after your studies, including informed input from colleagues you have a history and connection with  as you continue to exhibit, perform, produce and publish together.

creative Research journal

Transart asks you to create and maintain an online research journal (with monthly posts) to document your ideas, processes and the progress of your project, and to respond to critique. Think of your research journal as a laboratory, an online studio, or the kitchen table of your practice. We encourage you to devise a format that best suits your own research, making it a vital part of your practice where you experiment with presentation, documentation and articulation. Your journal can be password protected but will be available to your peers and advisors, forming an invaluable resource, archive and means of communication for the broader Transart research community.

1 -YEAR MFA CURRICULUM

SESSION 1

Summer Residency Liverpool, UK (July 14 - 28) (required)
Registration + Orientation (Sep)
Monthly Advisor Meetings (Sep, Oct, Nov)
Monthly Weekend Virtual Intensives (Sep, Oct, Nov)
Monthly Independent Research Sessions (Sep, Oct, Nov)
Independent Research (Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec)

—-

Module 7501: Intro to theory/research/proposal (1500 words), (30 credits)
Module 7502: Practice/scoping/experimentation (30 credits)
ADVISORS WRITTEN FEEDBACK

SESSion 2

Monthly Advisor Meetings (Jan, Feb, Mar)
Residency NYC or Mexico City (Jan)
Monthly Weekend Virtual Intensives (Feb, Mar)
Monthly Independent Research Sessions (Jan, Feb, Mar)
Independent Research (Jan, Feb, Mar)
—-

Module 7503: Reflection/synthesis/revised proposal (1500 words), (30 credits)
Module 754: Practice/ project development (30 credits)
ADVISORS WRITTEN FEEDBACK

SESSion 3

Weekend Virtual Intensives (last weekend of April, May)
Monthly Advisor Meetings continue (Apr, May, Jun)
Monthly Independent Research sessions (Apr, May, Jun)
Independent Research (Apr, May, Jun)
—-

Module 7505: MFA Thesis/project finalization/reflection/project report (6-10,000 words), (60 credits)
ADVISORS WRITTEN FEEDBACK

Summer Residency Liverpool, UK (July 14-28, 2024)
Option to continue on to the PhD at this residency with an accepted proposal.

——

MFA = 180 ECT credits OR 90 US CREDITS
PG Diploma = 120 ECT credits or 60 US ECT Credits
PG Certificate = 60 ECT credits or 30 ETC Credits

LJMU labs & schools

THE CITY LAB 

The Lab asks how we can use art more effectively in society.

Lab leader: Professor John Byrne

All the research fields within The City Lab expose the impact and influence of architecture, art, fashion and design within the context of our everyday environment. The City Lab’s research projects embody how the production of original knowledge, through practice and critical theory, can lead to real, impactful and sustainable change within our contemporary culture.

Rethinking and reimagining the city through constituent practices of sustainability, material constructions and applications of technology contributes to the enhancement of our local, national and global environments. 

The research themes of City Lab simultaneously occupy the cutting edge of their disciplinary specificities whilst remaining active within the real-world context of the city. City Lab supports research and practice that embraces or focuses on those elements that are undiscovered or operate in the realms of periphery, such as design for well-being and constituent practices that enable the reimagination of marginal cultures within the urban environment.

EXHIBITION RESEARCH LAB 

The Exhibition Research Lab is an academic centre and public venue dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of exhibitions and curatorial knowledge.

Lab leader: Professor Joasia Krysa

Founded in 2012 as part of Liverpool School of Art and Design, the Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is uniquely positioned across academic research and the cultural ecology of Liverpool, underpinned by partnerships with cultural institutions in the city including Tate Liverpool, John Moores Painting Prize, and Liverpool Biennial.

ERL proposes curatorial practice as a form of critical inquiry and knowledge production. It extends the traditional remit of an art gallery as a site for display or pedagogical resource, to an expanded concept of a ‘lab’ where experimental thinking and making takes place, and where curatorial knowledge is enacted, produced and made public.

ERL disseminates its research through the public programme of exhibitions, talks, seminars, conferences, workshops and publications, including partnership with DATA Browser book series (Open Humanities Press) and Liverpool Biennial journal Stages. The residencies and fellowship programme is dedicated to connecting international artists, curators and scholars working across diverse disciplines.

The lab supports research in the following areas: Contemporary Curatorial PracticeExhibitionary Practices and Histories; Museums and Institutions; Collections and Archival Practices; World Biennials; Socially Engaged Practice; Digital Curating; Computational Cultures and Curating.

CONTEMPORARY ART LAB

Work undertaken at the Contemporary Art Lab is dedicated to historical, theoretical and practice-led research in the creative and performing arts.

Lab leader: Professor Colin Fallows

The Contemporary Art Lab is an interdisciplinary research group within the Liverpool School of Art and Design – representing the latest incarnation of the oldest research area in LJMU dating back to the 1820s. The Contemporary Art Lab and its forerunners have a long tradition of engagement with the academic and cultural ecology of Liverpool, together with well-established national and international collaborative partnerships.

The Lab supports research and practice in a diverse range of fields which intersect with concerns and concepts in contemporary art and curatorial practice. It explores understandings of contemporary art and curatorial practice as forms of critical inquiry and knowledge production.

It extends the traditional remit of artistic practice to an expanded research centre or ‘lab’ where experimental thinking and making takes place, and where artistic and curatorial knowledge is enacted, produced and published.

The Lab specialises in sound and visual arts, live performance, conceptual art, environmental art and contemporary printmaking.

Contemporary Art Lab produces: Art; Exhibitions and performances; Books, catalogues, recordings and journal publications; Research fellowships; Research and education at postgraduate and doctoral levels.

The Contemporary Art Lab produces work for a range of audiences through diverse media including: sound and performance, exhibitions, installations, interventions, workshops, screenings, talks and conference presentations. The fellowship programme is dedicated to artistic and curatorial research, the dissemination of knowledge, connecting members of the Lab to other national/international artists, curators and scholars working across disciplines. It also operates as a conduit to disseminate the work of its members and its key partners internationally.

Experimental Technologies Lab

Experimental Technologies Lab invites people to explore the possibilities of creative technology through hands-on experimentation  

Lab Leaders: Mark Wright and Pete Woodbridge

Experimental Technologies Lab (ETL) is an enhancement upon four years of research pursued at our pioneering workshop and research space, FACTLab, a collaboration with Liverpool’s FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technologies, the UK’s leading new technologies arts organisation. In ETL, researchers, artists and technologists produce innovative projects together as teams and you will also find artists in residence at work.

At Exhibition Technologies Lab we have perfected a research methodology of co-design. People are invited to explore the possibilities of creative technology through hands-on experimentation, with participants of a diversity of constituencies interested in getting involved with making and experimenting with electronics.

Since 2015, we have welcomed over 4,500 visitors to our events and activities. We are continuously exploring new ways to engage visitors and we work within a series of space resources: Liverpool Fab Lab for beta origination; Live Lab for testing; and the X-Gallery for dissemination. People are invited to become actively involved in what we do, no matter what their experience.

ETL operates across disciplines and functions as an incubator of creative production and critical thinking for practice-based research and experimentation in the context of critical research and theoretical expertise. In a future that we are literally creating, talent and skills development are amongst our objectives. ETL develops projects and activities aiming at cultural production and sharing of knowledge and resources, in collaboration with artists, designers, scientists, technologists, HEIs and the commercial sector.

Our facilities include traditional workshops, TV and sound studios, the X-Gallery digital and creative gallery for experimental media, an immersive projection room that we can set up for room scale multiplayer VR and projection mapping, wireless HTC Vives, Occulus Quests, Mixed Reality headsets, projectors, interactive sensors, 3D modelling tools, holographic displays, digital fabrication and 3d printing, 3D object scanners, 3D room scanners, 8K Stereoscopic 360 cameras, depth sensors, microcontrollers and sensors and a range of high end tablets, pcs, phones (iOS & Android) and devices for interface development.

Software includes games engines (Unity), 3D Creation (Maya, Cinema 4D), Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere etc), Projection Mapping (Madmapper, Lightform, Heavy M) and Volumetric Capture tools (Dephkit).

Liverpool Screen School

Liverpool Screen School has two main research clusters – Journalism, Media and Communication, as well as Culture, Identity and Policy. Within these areas our research teams explore a range of fields, from film studies, Documentary, Immersive Theatre to best practice within journalism.

Thanks to our blend of theory and practice, in the most recent research assessment (Research Excellence Framework 2014) 58% of our submitted work was rated as world leading or internationally recognised. In particular, the impact of our research into writing in prisons was noted for its excellence. Our work into journalism ethics has also gained an international reputation and informed the Leveson inquiry, which examined the culture, practices and ethics of the press.

In addition to our achievements within research, our School is also known for the strong links we have forged with local, national and international companies and institutions, including the BBC, ITV, Trinity Mirror, Lime Pictures, Classic FM, ZUMC in Hangzhou and the Institute of the Arts, Barcelona. We also organize the Liverpool Film Seminar series and are involved in both Sound City, Doc/Fest and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. These partnerships offer a wealth of opportunities for both staff and students.