kafralal

Hi Fire bad! Welcome! Its pretty quiet here these days, so I thought I'd just send a message , so you know there is someone out there. Wish I could be more helpful—the only place that I could think of that might be of interest is MIT. Good Luck.

It is both a luxury of time and money. Even more so if there is no funding and if your time would be better (for any number of reasons) spent elsewhere. Depending on your long term desires, you have to decide whether it is a good use of your time and money. I don't think this is a discussion particular to art and an MFA; what you have described is common to most dedicated learning situations. I am an older student who home schooled—rather unschooled—four children and so I am a big proponent of both life (autodidactic)-learning and life-long learning, but university has provided me (and my children) access to an environment of accelerated learning and intensity that I have recently enjoyed making use of. It has also given me access to ideas and people that I have been hard pressed to find elsewhere. I dropped out of university when I was in my twenties because I wasn't capable of taking advantage of that particular situation at that particular time, neither emotionally, intellectually, economically, nor in terms of family. School can be an incubator of ideas if used well. How long each person will benefit from it is an individual choice. Some never get that benefit for all kinds of reasons. Some would like it and should have the opportunity but don't, while others find that kind of intense environment elsewhere—school is not the only incubator of ideas / way to get an education or opportunity to challenge default thinking. I think the key is being able to find the intensity of learning that you're looking for wherever you can find it. By all accounts education (including art education) is considered a luxury in every country that does't provide free access to higher education for everyone. Collectively, we don't really think it is worth the money necessary to make opportunities available at an institutional level to challenge the assumptions (both good and bad) that we absorb as we grow up. It is difficult to change that kind of embedded devaluation. The thinking is something like "it wasn't there for us, so you'll have to earn it, or not, like we did, or didn't". There is no collective sense of the huge benefits to society that thoughtful, self-reflexive people provide, both socially and economically—not (just) in terms of production and earning power, as we usually like to frame it—but because more thoughtful, self-reflexive people make life better for everyone. Art education (in school or otherwise) is just one of the ways that we can challenge ourselves to be more thoughtful and self-reflexive. That you are still checking in with this forum, TheStranger, seems to indicate that you might not (yet) have found the situation that will help you do all in life and art you aspire to, and that in some ways you would still like to do an MFA. It can be a difficult decision.

In general your images look good, but they are small so details are lost. If the source images are larger and you submit them that way, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm assuming that the admission committees project the images large onto a screen, so they need to look good that way.

You've done a lot of research. I don't know much about art ed. programs but one other program you may want to look into is SAIC's low-residency (not sure if low-res is of interest). It's an MFA and they are taking 20-30 people and are hoping to have educators, curators, art historians, as well as artists, apply. It seems like a MA Art Ed is what you are looking for though. Have you asked around in Nepal to see what the most effective and well regarded degree would be for what you want to do? (I think I read elsewhere that you would be returning to your home country after your degree)

Hi CLee, I'm also over 40 and applying this year. There have been a few threads that address this and some older applicants have posted both their age and where they got accepted.

I noticed that the webinar session still isn't up, so I'm posting the notes I took from it. I didn't write down anything that I'd already seen on the program web page. Navigaton on the webinar site was pretty clumsy and we were writing our questions while the presentation was going on, so I may have made mistakes - please double check this info if it is important to you. Non-residency (home) time: the expectation is that you devote 20hrs / week to your work. There will be 2 critiques per semester with the alumni assigned to advise you, plus ongoing online peer to peer discussions. 6 wk residency time: Very Intense. You have full range of facilities available to you. Individual studios will be all together during the first summer, the next two summers you have your choice of studios dispersed over the entire campus, depending on your needs. The dates will be mid-June to the end of July (2014 start is June 14). You will arrive over the weekend before the start date, get set up, have orientation and studio assignments for a Monday start. At the end you move out over the weekend after the end date. The core faculty will be there for the entire 6 wks, while other faculty will come and go. Visiting artists will stay for 1 week each. Dec 1st is deadline for priority application—we were encouraged to get applications in for the priority date. You can still apply until the beg of Jan, but because it is their first year and the residency starts in the summer, they are hoping to get the applications out of the way as soon as possible. Can contact S Romon with Portfolio questions: sramon@saic.edu They are hoping to fill 20-30 spots with a mix of artists, art historians, educators, curators, and feel that this mix is one of the unique features of their program They drew our attention to the letter from the director of the program on the wesite. Tuition hadn't been confirmed yet. Hope this helps

I have no experience in this area but thought this guide might be useful (plus another from uni of edinburgh), if it isn't I would call the UK border agency or the school you are going to—I'm would be surprised if they couldn't answer your questions. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/pbs/Tier4migrantguidance.pdf http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.35122!/fileManager/Immigration%20guide%202013_v2.pdf Good luck!

Thanks flow!

From all I have heard, limited exhibition experience is not something to worry about. Focus on the work, the ideas behind it and where you want to go with it. You can address what you have been doing instead of seeking out exhibitions and why that was a priority for you at that time etc. in your SOP if you think you need to.

For those interested in VCU sculpture, I talked to the interum chair, Carlton Newton, about what people do after graduating. He said that the trend is that 3 of the six leave Richmond the summer after graduating, while the rest usually leave within two years. Then I saw an interview with Carlton where he said that most graduates (not sure whether he is talking bfa, mfa or both) end up in Bushwick.

Yah, not sure about that. On the one hand, I'm thinking that your resume will show the connection and that maybe you should just focus on the art practice. But on the other hand, if your interests in education are radical and you can link them to expanding ideas in contemporary art, or if teaching serves as an important source of inspiration (in some unique, rather than romantic way) then maybe you should talk about your desire to teach. I think you would just need to be able to connect the teaching to your work in a meaningful way, beyond "I love to teach, and kids are so inspiring," because that kinda goes without saying. In regards to the LoR list I posted earlier...it was a list for grad school letters in general and not particular to mfa letters. I'm not sure if there is a difference.

Thought I would posts my shortlist of places I'm thinking of applying to. UCLA USC Calarts UCSD Bard SAIC (low-res) UBC

I would start by going to your undergrad profs and bringing images of the work that they may have known at the time. Try to refresh their memory both visually and verbally and perhaps show them your marks for the course work, then ask them if they think they could write you strong letters of recommendation. If they don't think they can, then I would try elsewhere. Then, it could be anyone outside academia who can attest to you and your work, and your likelyhood of success in an mfa program. The following is a list of things that are apparently discussed in a LoR (this comes with a disclaimer to the effect that I can't fully vouch for the acuracy of the content, but it sounds good to me!) . ability to work with others ability to work alone communication skills (both oral and written) creativity dedication and persistence independence industriousness initiative intellectual ability integrity judgment leadership maturity organizational skills originality teaching potential social skills As far as which area to apply to...I think that depends on which discourse you relate to the most. This can be part of what you talk about in your SOP. I'm pretty sure that just because you use some print-like techniques, you wouldn't be limited to that genre if you really think of yourself as a painter, let's say. Or, if on the other hand you want to be part of printmaking discourse, I wouldn't be concerned that they might look like something else. Anybody else want to weigh in?

I hope you don't mind, I'm going to copy your post over to the discussion for fall 2014 admissions. That's where the discussion is for this round.

So, I think you should include the url for your webpage in either your CV or SOP (where ever you decide is appropriate) because you've got a lot of work, and I think overall it will work in your favour. I think your prints add something more to the rest of the work but the images are too small. I found the sketches where everything was worked out ahead of time a little disappointing because it tells me that nothing new was discovered in the making, so I think the corresponding sculptures are better without them. That is not the case for the more schematic sketches. I agree in principle with Erpnope concerning yet to be realized work, but in this case I don't think it matters if the sketches stand alone. —and I've noted that some schools say you can include work in progress. One tiny thing more... about your statement…you use the word "interested." It standouts for me because I think it is a weak word in most statements, but even more so in yours where everything else is over the top.

I sent you a message.

I guess it depends on the institution, some seem to ask for an artist statement that accompanies the already completed work in the portfolio, while a proposal for the work you are going to do in grad school is presented in the SOP (which presumably also contains a discussion of the work that got you to this point)

I hear you. I mentioned Cranbrook because it looks to be well outside the city, but I've only seen it on Google maps. My thought was that it could be part of a plan on the chance that they give you money for tuition. You may get more helpful responces when there are more people logging on and posting. Thanks for posting the link!

I think this is pretty good and might only need to be refined over the next little while with a few grammatical corrections etc.. After reading this, you might want to experiment in the new photos by trying them both with frames and without, and see what you think. The frames just might be an integral part.

This is sooo much better! You can keep tweaking it over the months before apps are due, with emphasis on the 2nd paragraph. I would save the last two paragraphs for your statement of purpose and/or interview though. One other thought is that you might want to talk a little more about the way that you interact / participate (pragmatically) with the systems that emerge. Disclaimer: I'm in the same boat as you and have never gone through the app process before, so I may not know what I'm talking about!

Hi nairamushtag. I'm not big on commenting on people's art in this context and at this time. I think it is more helpful to make comments about things that are easy to change, but hard to get a handle on, like statements. Having said that I don't think you have any reason to feel insecure about your work. A general comment for your portfolio is that the "transfers on paper" look like they need to be re-photographed—without the frames. If I'm wrong and the frames are part of the imagery, then your statement can clarify that.

I recently read Johanna Burton's Power Difference: Time Space, Feminism in "Meaning Liam Gillick" which may give a context for those "stupid clay sculpture pot things." If youre interested and can't find it email me at camillahoratii@hotmail.com.

Love the first and third paragraphs. I think the second one says too much; you're telling me what the work does and I'd rather work that out for myself.

They listed the same options, fafsa loans and need-based scholarships, but there was no indication of how it will compare to the regular program. In the Q and A they said there will be only one or two merit based scholarships.