123mfa

Hi! The only on-site time is spent over eight weeks during the summer. To complete the program, you participate in a total of three summer sessions. The calendar for each year is posted here: https://www.bard.edu/mfa/calendar/. The rest of the year students and faculty are teaching, developing their work, spending time with families, etc. Some students stay in New York State and find studios/jobs locally before the next session begins. The school also offers a limited number of teaching fellowships, so some students return to Bard during the fall or spring semester to teach undergraduate classes. There is no MFA programming during fall and spring. In my mind, this is the best preparation for real life, as most people will need to work and find their own studios in order to keep developing their work after school. There's no shock of returning to the real world when the program ends because you're never in the "bubble" that year-round programs create. The students at Bard have all different backgrounds. When I was there, the youngest student was 25 and the oldest in their mid 40s. Some people are just out of undergraduate, or never got a formal education at all, or returned to school very late, or have other masters degrees in different fields or already have gallery representation. Also, a good portion of the students are international (maybe 1 in 5?). The program is interdisciplinary, so you can work in any medium when you get there. You still meet with your discipline (other sound students) multiple times a week, so your "focus" would still be expected to be sound. But a lot of sound students incorporate sculpture, video, performance, dance, photography and other media into their practices. You have a lot of freedom to interpret your medium as you wish, and a lot of students collaborate on projects together. Hope that was helpful!

Hi, I'm a former Bard student (in sculpture) and am happy to answer any questions people might have about the MFA program. I think the program is often lumped in with other low residency MFAs, but I found the format helped me make better work and be better prepared for life after school (instead of being in MFA-land for two years and then confronted with reality). The school attracts a lot of different types of students and interesting work. I'm not here in any official capacity, just happy to demystify anything for people interested in applying.