Areas of Study
Graphic Design
GRAPHIC DESIGN (MFA)
The graphic design program focuses on the development of a cohesive, investigative body of work, also known as the student’s thesis. At Yale, the graphic design thesis is conceived as a loose framework within which each student’s visual method is deployed across many diverse projects during his or her two-year course of study. While every thesis project is unique, there are several common features: a focus on methodology, the application of a visual method to studio work, and the organization of the work in a thoughtfully argued written document and catalogue raisonné, also known as the “Thesis Book.”
The individual collection of graphic design work by each student is supported on several levels simultaneously: studio work led by faculty meeting weekly; small five- or six-person thesis groups meeting biweekly; individual sessions with writing and editing tutors; and lectures, presentations, and workshops.
Although the School of Art provides digital lab facilities, all graphic design students are expected to have their own personal computer for use in their studio work space. Each student has a designated work space in the design studio loft and has access to bookbinding materials and workshops, and to printing and digital work spaces in the School of Art and the Digital Media Center for the Arts. In addition, students draw on the extraordinary resources of Yale University courses, conferences, films, lectures, and museums, and especially the extensive reasearch and rare book collections of Sterling and Beinecke libraries.
Each year, up to ten students are admitted into the two-year graphic design program, and up to seven students are admitted into the preliminary-year program. Two-year program students are expected to have substantial and distinguished experience in visual studies and related professional experience. Students applying to the preliminary-year program typically have relevant experience in a field of study outside design and demonstrate evidence of visual acuity. After successful completion of the preliminary year, these students automatically continue on in the two-year M.F.A. program.
Credit Requirements 42 credits in area of concentration, including Art 949a, and 18 additional credits, including a minimum of 6 academic credits in courses outside the School of Art.
Typical Plan of Study Preliminary year minimum credits
Graphic Design 710a and 711b: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Art 264a and 265b: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Art 468a and 469b: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 3 … Spring: 3
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
First year minimum credits
Graphic Design 720: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Graphic Design Sequence: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Art 949a, Critical Practice: … Fall: 3; Spring: 0
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 3 … Spring: 6
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Second year minimum credits
Graphic Design 730: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Graphic Design 739: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Graphic Design Sequence: … Fall: 0; Spring: 3
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 6; Spring: 3
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Painting/Print Making
PAINTING AND PRINTMAKING (MFA)
Instruction in the program is rooted in the investigation of painting as a unique genre with its own complex syntax and history. Within this setting, the program encourages diversity of practice and interpretation, innovation, and experimentation on the part of students.
Approximately twenty-one students are admitted each year. At the core of instruction are individual and group critiques with faculty, visiting critics, and visiting artists. In addition, students participate in a variety of seminars taught by both faculty and critics. The study of printmaking is integrated into the painting program, and a student may concentrate in painting, printmaking, or a combination of the two.
Students work in individual 300-square-foot studios at 353 Crown Street adjacent to Green Hall. Students have access to a printmaking workshop in the Crown Street building, equipped with two etching presses and a lithography press, a fully equipped silkscreen facility, as well as digital resources available in the print studio, the throughout the School and the Digital Media Center for the Arts (DMCA).
Credit Requirements 42 credits in area of concentration, including Art 949a, and 18 additional credits, including a minimum of 6 academic credits in courses outside the School of Art.
Typical Plan of Study First year minimum credits
Painting 545: … Fall: 9; Spring: 9
Printmaking Elective: … Fall: 0; Spring: 3
Art 949a, Critical Practice: … Fall: 3; Spring: 0
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 3 … Spring: 3
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Second year minimum credits
Painting 545: … Fall: 9; Spring: 9
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Photography
PHOTOGRAPHY (MFA)
Photography is a two-year program of study admitting nine students a year. Darkroom, studio, and computer facilities are provided. Students receive technical instruction in black-and-white and color photography as well as nonsilver processes and digital image production.
The program is committed to a broad definition of photography as a lens-based medium open to a variety of expressive means. Students work both individually and in groups with faculty and visiting artists. In addition, a critique panel composed of faculty and other artists or critics meets weekly, as well as for a final review each term, to discuss student work.
All students are required to successfully complete two academic courses in the University before they receive their degree. In addition, first-year students are required to take two terms of Photography 828 and, in the first term, Art 949a, Critical Practice.
Credit Requirements A minimum of 42 credits in area of concentration, including Art 949a, and 18 additional credits, including a minimum of 6 academic credits in courses outside the School of Art.
Typical Plan of Study First year minimum credits
Photography 845: … Fall: 9; Spring: 9
Photography 828: … Fall: 0; Spring: 3
Art 949a, Critical Practice: … Fall: 3, Spring: 0
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 3 … Spring: 3
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Second year minimum credits
Photography 845: … Fall: 9; Spring: 9
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Sculpture
SCULPTURE (MFA)
The sculpture program offers students the opportunity to develop their work and to choose their own path, in concert with a broad array of different voices. The field of sculpture, at the moment, includes a collection of quite diverse methods; one set of tools is not privileged over another. Students work independently in individual studio spaces and have access to a woodworking shop, a metal shop, plaster facilities, a small computer lab, and some video equipment in the sculpture building in addition to further resources offered by the School of Art and the University at large. No metal-casting facilities are available.
The main focus of this program is to facilitate the development of conversation among students and faculty. Our aim is to articulate student work vis à vis its own trajectory and in relation to art history and the current moment. This conversation is formally structured to take place one-on-one between students and faculty, in small groups, and within a more public larger group involving the whole sculpture department.
First-year students are required to take Art 949a, Critical Practice, offered in the fall term. In addition, the sculpture program offers a critical issues seminar in the spring term. Students are encouraged to take courses in other departments within the School, and students are required to successfully complete two academic courses outside of the School of Art prior to graduation.
Approximately ten students are admitted each year.
Credit Requirements 42 credits in area of concentration, including Art 949a, and 18 additional credits, including a minimum of 6 academic credits in courses outside the School of Art.
Typical Plan of Study First year minimum credits
Sculpture 645: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Sculpture 630: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Sculpture 649b: … Fall: 0; Spring: 3
Art 949a, Critical Practice: … Fall: 3; Spring: 0
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 3 … Spring: 3
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Second year minimum credits
Sculpture 645: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Sculpture 630: … Fall: 3; Spring: 3
Academic or Studio Electives: … Fall: 6; Spring: 6
Total minimum credits for Fall Term: 15
Total minimum credits for Spring Term: 15
Film
(FILM, VIDEO, INTERDISCIPLINARY)
Film/Video/Interdisciplinary is not a formal area of study in the School of Art; however, a number of students work primarily in film/video or interdisciplinary while enrolled in other areas. The School offers graduate video courses taught by practicing video artists. These classes address fundamental technical issues as well as the far more challenging questions of the contemporary practice of video by artists and this medium’s relation to other forms of art practice. Classes in video are taught in a variety of locations throughout the School of Art and are attended by students from all areas of study.