Call for applications 2023: MFA in Art at University of Florida

Students in this three-year program engage in an experimental, research-based art-making approach centered on a variety of overlapping issues such as racism, gender, and environmental studies, as well as postcolonialism, migration, and new technologies. Our graduate students receive health insurance, individual studios, teaching opportunities, assistantships, and scholarships as part of the school’s commitment to equity.

The University of Florida (UF) is a large research university that is recognized as the fifth greatest public university in the United States (US News & World Report, 2022). The College of the Arts at UF is led by a bold and forward-thinking meta-strategy that prioritizes diversity, equity, access, and inclusion in all research and teaching activities. The college is home to innovative research centers that address current concerns, such as the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Arts in Medicine, and the Digital Worlds Institute. UF, a hub for innovative technologies and ideas, is home to a major artificial intelligence program in the arts, as well as the most powerful university-owned supercomputer in the United States.

Our international student body works inside and across disciplines in cutting-edge facilities, labs, and workshops, as well as off-campus studios with 24-hour access. Painting, drawing, photography, printing, sculpture, performance, installation, ceramics, video, art & technology, and artificial intelligence are all areas of expertise. Art history, critical theory, social practice, racism and gender studies, social and environmental justice, decolonial methods, emerging technologies, sustainability, and ecology are all part of the curriculum.

Students at UF’s Center for Latin American Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies, Department of Film & Media Studies, School of Architecture, Department of Biology, and Department of Anthropology benefit from an experimental approach to art making in a major research institution.

The Florida Museum of Natural History is a top-ranked natural history museum on campus, as is the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, one of the largest university art museums in the United States. The University Galleries, three exhibition venues that offer an international program of events and graduate thesis exhibitions, are housed in the College of the Arts.

The UF Studio Art program, located midway between Atlanta and Miami, maintains an active presence in the art world with travels to Miami Art Week and New York City. Gainesville is known for its natural beauty, biodiversity, mild climate, low cost of living, and Floridian eccentricity.

Visiting Artist program features artist lectures and studio visits with some of the most renowned practitioners of contemporary art. Recent visitors include: Kader Attia, Wafaa Bilal, Andrea Bowers, Candice Breitz, Mel Chin, William Cordova, Philip Corner, Mark Dion, Sam Durant, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Anoka Faruqee, Latoya Ruby Frazer, Nikita Gale, Chitra Ganesh, Jules Gimbrone, Guerrilla Girls, Adela Goldbard, Dan Graham, Diana Al Hadid, Sharon Hayes, Edgar Heap of Birds, Pablo Helguera, Camille Henrot, Oliver Herring, Saki Mafundikwa, Kerry James Marshall, Jack Massing, Wael Morcos, Timothy Morton, Warren Neidich, Aliza Nisenbaum, Glexis Novoa, Pepón Osorio, Benjamin Patterson, Dan Perjovschi, Walid Raad, Michael Rakowitz, Martha Rosler, Judith Schwartz, Dread Scott, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Elena Sisto, Fred Wilson.

Faculty: Anthea Behm, Rose Briccetti, Katerie Gladdys, Adrian Gonzalez, Devin Harclerode, Logan Marconi, Sean Miller, Julia Morrisroe, Jesse Ring, Craig Smith, Jack Stenner, Bethany Taylor, Iren Tete, Fatimah Tuggar, and Sergio Vega. Works by our Studio Art faculty have been featured at MoMA, Documenta, Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian, National Academy of Sciences, Corcoran Gallery, ICA Boston, Perez Art Museum, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Moderna Museet, Mori Art Museum, and Venice Biennale, among others.