WVU, IUP, ECU printmaking, painting

[brianmc]

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of these programs...attended or at least visited, or have a friend that has? Just trying to find out more about schools within my radius. Thanks.

[michaelwebster]

Yea I know about ECU, that is where I went to undergrad, and although I only took 1 screen printing course I know a bit about the program. I also worked with the graduate director while I was in school a lot. The two print professors are Michael Ehlbeck and Matt Egan:

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/printmaking/ehlbeckwork.cfm

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/printmaking/eganwork.cfm

I think you should apply there based on your work because many of the faculty have related practices to you in some way. Printmaking has a small number of MFA students (maybe 3-4?) but the school as a whole has about 40-50, so its almost necessary to work with people in other departments as well. One art history faculty, Ron Graziani, is awesome and one of the standouts at the school and I think he would be interested in your work. Message me if you have any more specific questions, I would be happy to help.

[michaelwebster]

I think the facilities are at least average, if not better than average. I don't know that much about the technical issues of printmaking, so its hard to give advice in that area. The screenprinting room is a little small for a big class of 15 people, but its not crowded outside of class time. The school of art has about 600 students including the 50 grad students so it is not a small school. Most students aren't fans of Greenville, but for a couple of years its not bad. Oh, also the MFA program is 3 years.

[michaelwebster]

The beach is about an hour away. The school environment is good there, with many students putting in long hours all the time. At SAIC the buildings become empty at night, its strange.

[losemygrip]

I've had a couple of former students to to WVU, one in printmaking. She seemed to do OK. It's a less competitive program, so a good fallback. IUP doesn't do much with print for some reason, even though they have an interesting faculty member. I don't recommend anyone get an MFA at any of the SSHE schools in Pennsylvania because grad students typically can't get teaching experience there. Undergrad, yes. Graduate, no.

I think ECU is the best of the ones you've mentioned, although in printmaking the big names are places like ASU and Wisconsin.