columbiamfa

Hey, current visual arts MFA at Columbia University here. The administration isn't being transparent with those of you who've been admitted and we current students feel you have the right to know what you're potentially getting into; Columbia's COV-19 recovery plan will affect the incoming MFA class of 2022. To anyone who is considering accepting Columbia's offer, please contact columbia.covid2022@gmail.com. Speaking more generally as someone living in New York City right now, I would advise all prospective MFAs (no matter the school) to tread very carefully right now and consider deferral if it is an option for you. Nothing in the arts will return to "business as usual" anytime soon. There is no guarantee that course requirements such as studio visits and group critique will resume normally in the fall. Even if shelter in place orders are suspended, understand that the range of visiting artists/critics/curators willing to travel your way and conduct studio visits/give lectures/attend crits in person will be greatly reduced. Events like open studios and thesis shows will see vastly decreased attendance volume. These interactions are where your opportunities for professional development post-grad school would have ostensibly gotten their start-- you will find them increasingly unavailable in the immediate aftermath of this current global health crisis. That leads me to my last point, a broad one but it seems necessary to reiterate in case the severity and far reaching implications of our current situation still aren't clear to everyone: the aftermath of this pandemic will see catastrophic blows to opportunities in the art world as we know it. Mid-tier galleries and museums without generous endowments will likely remain closed even after the smoke clears. Artist assistantships, fabrication jobs and art handling gigs will be all but gone as we hurtle towards a recession worse than the Great Depression, decimating production demand within the art market (art becomes a "nonessential" frivolity to moneyed collectors who will instead turn their investment efforts towards outfitting their pandemic-proof underground bunkers). All of this is to say, investing in your professional future as an artist has always involved accepting a great degree of precarity and risk. Our current moment increases that uncertainty tenfold, to a point where I feel personally compelled to address those for whom an MFA would mean assuming a lifetime of student loan debt. If you want to maximize the opportunities that an MFA experience could afford you, now is not the time to enroll.