The Art Studio MFA in the Department of Art & Art History at UC
Davis is a two-year, generously funded, critically engaged
graduate program that provides an opportunity for
interdisciplinary study in the visual arts. Drawing on the vast
resources of a research one university, the program offers MFA
students the opportunity to engage in intensive artistic work
supported with individual, spacious 24-hour access studios, while
interacting with other artists, scholars and STEM professionals
across campus. Art Studio is committed to delivering an
innovative educational curriculum in preparation for professional
public engagement in the arts including arts education,
exhibition and curatorial practices, and community-based work.
The culmination of two years study is presented in the
cross-campus, cross-disciplinary thesis exhibition in the
beautiful Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.
The Art Studio MFA program offers substantial financial support
through paid teaching assistant positions and through Art Studio
and Graduate Studies Fellowships. UC Davis is an academic partner
of many professional programs, and granting agencies including
The Headlands Center for the Arts, Dedalus Foundation, the Joan
Mitchell Foundation, Skowhegan, Provincetown Fine Arts Work
Center, the Vermont Studio Center among others.
Our educational and creative community is committed to empower
diverse perspectives and varied research interests contributing
to conversations in social justice, sustainability, public
interest and public-engaged scholarship.
The Art Studio MFA Program offers substantial financial support
through paid Teaching Assistant positions each quarter and
through Art Studio Program Fellowships, made possible by generous
private endowments. Students may also apply for university
support through Graduate Studies Travel Awards, the Davis
Humanities Institute, and the University of California
Institute for Research in the Arts.
UC Davis is an academic partner of The Headlands Center for the
Arts, Graduate Fellowship Program, which offers a year-long
artist residency for one of our M.F.A. graduates each year. Over
the years, graduates of the program have won many nationally
competitive graduate fellowships and post-graduate awards from
the Dedalus Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation http,
Skowhegan, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio
Center, the Roswell-Artist in Residence Program, and Eyebeam.
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Faculty
The entire Art Studio faculty shares responsibility for the
graduate program and teaches both graduate and undergraduate
courses. Our faculty represents a diversity of approaches
across all disciplines. Faculty include Robin Hill, Tim
Hyde, Darrin Martin, Graham McDougal, Hearne
Pardee, Annabeth Rosen, Youngsuk Suh, Gina Werfel, and Shiva
Ahmadi. See our People section
for more information about our faculty and lecturers.
Facilities
Graduate students are also provided with large, individual
studios on campus, located near the main art building with 24/7
access.
The Art Studio Program has facilities for the following
media: drawing, ceramic sculpture, painting, photography,
printmaking, video, and sculpture. See our Resources page for more information
about each facility and its equipment.
The University is an unparalleled resource in all disciplines of
research to broaden and deepen the work of an artist. Graduate
students in the Art Studio Program have many opportunities to
interact with their peers in Art History, Cinema & Digital Media,
Music, Performance Studies, and Design, through facilities/labs,
exhibitions, lecture series, and course offerings.
Visiting Artists, Residencies and Lecture Series
Visiting Artist Lecture Series
A dynamic, interdisciplinary Visiting Artist Lecture
Series is a key component of the Art Studio
MFA curriculum, providing students with the opportunity to
conduct studio visits with world-renowned
artists, critics and curators.
Past visitors have included Jerry Saltz, Phong
Bui, Joan Jonas, Gregory Amenoff, Mary Lucier, Robert
Storr, Vito Acconci, Ken Johnson, Jed Perl, Fred Tomaselli,
Kalup Linzy, Terry Winters, Larry Rinder, Jennifer and Kevin
McCoy, Rochelle Feinstein, Dana Schutz, Lucy Lippard, Angela
Dufresne, Ryan Trecartin, Shana Moulton, Rico Gatson, Rirkrit
Tiravanija and LaToya Ruby Frazier among others.
The Thiebaud Lecture The
Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Lecture in the Theory, Practice
and Criticism of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture (formerly
the Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture) honors the
Thiebauds’ long commitment to educating the eye and hand along
with the mind. The endowment, started in 2015, complements
the Art Studio Program’s Visiting Artist Lecture
Series and The California Studio, both core
components of the Art Studio MFA Program. The Betty
Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Lecture in the Theory, Practice and
Criticism of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture
features practicing artists along with critics, curators,
writers, historians, and museum professionals, to provide
cultural insights and context for contemporary art. The
Thiebaud Endowment also aims to bring more than one guest per
year and/or extend the length of their UC Davis
engagement.
Past visitors have included: Njideka Akunyili
Crosby, Leonardo Drew, David Salle, Aliza
Nisenbaum, Catherine Murphy, Peter Schjeldahl,
and Rackstraw Downes.
The California Studio The California
Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies are dedicated to
the practice of art in a teaching and research environment. The
California Studio supports three to four spotlight
artists for week-long residencies and two teaching artists in
residence for ten-week, quarter-long residencies. Each
residency is student-centered and presents contemporary
forms of practice and approaches to studio art education.
Collaboration and Resources
UC Davis offers an array of programs that draw upon its wide
range of specialized academic fields. By stimulating
cross-disciplinary approaches and using its distinctive graduate
groups, UC Davis continues to follow and redefine the mandate of
a major research university and is committed to the land-grant
tradition on which it was founded, which holds that the broad
purpose of a university is service to people and society.
The University is an unparalleled resource in all disciplines of
research to broaden and deepen the work of an artist. Graduate
students in the Art Studio Program have many opportunities to
interact with their peers in Art History, Cinema and Digital
Media, Music, Performance Studies, and Design, through
facilities/labs, exhibitions, lecture series, and course
offerings.
The Jan Shrem
and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is an institution
dedicated to combining vanguard artistic and curatorial
innovation with audience engagement. Exploring new means to
connect visitors with art and participating in the process of art
are two aspects of the new museum that are at the very center of
its vision. The museum will encourage interdisciplinary exchange,
provide means to make an impact on curricular development and
create informal educational opportunities.
Keister & Allen Art Purchase Prize
The Keister & Allen Art Purchase Prize is awarded annually to a
graduating Master of Fine Arts student. The award, started in
2017, provides for the purchase of artwork created by the
recipient for the university’s Fine Arts Collection. The
purchase prize is made through an endowment fund established by
Shaun Keister, vice chancellor of the UC Davis Office of
Development and Alumni Relations, and Walter Allen, a business
analyst in the client services unit of UC Davis Information and
Educational Technology. Read
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LeShelle & Gary May Art Purchase Prize
The LeShelle & Gary May Art Purchase Prize is funded by Jock
Reynolds, an alumni (M.F.A., ‘72) and the former director of the
Yale University Art Gallery. Read
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About the Campus
Located in agricultural landscape of the Sacramento
Valley, UC Davis is about an hour’s drive from
Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco; a six-hour drive from Los
Angeles; a two-hour drive from the ocean and equidistant from
Lake Tahoe. Davis is situated on the floor of the Sacramento
Valley, hot and dry in the summer and cool and rainy in the
winter, and is surrounded by fruit and nut tree orchards. Napa
and Sonoma are close at hand.
Our M.F.A. Students
The MFA in Art Studio values a diversity of viewpoints,
backgrounds, and experiences among its students as this diversity
strengthens and enriches our research, scholarship, and teaching.
Our diverse graduate student population enhances the academic
experiences for all students. We are committed to a multicultural
academic environment that supports the success of all graduate
students. Diversity among students, faculty, and staff is a key,
integral factor in graduate education at UC Davis, to achieve an
equitable, hospitable and inclusive educational environment.
The M.F.A. in Art Studio is a two-year program. Our academic
year is divided into three 10-week quarters (Fall, Winter and
Spring). View the course plan details here.
