Low-Residency MFA
saic.edu/lowres
The Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts
(Low-Res MFA) program is a transdisciplinary course of study designed for 21st-century artists, writers, and educators looking for rigorous engagement, artistic community, and the flexibility of a self-directed schedule. Bringing together artists across all areas of practice, the Low-Res MFA emphasizes dialogue in community.
Rigorous yet flexible
Throughout the seven-semester MFA program, a rotating group of core SAIC faculty provides both on-campus and online instruction. Students attend three consecutive six-week summer sessions in person in Chicago, which include weekly seminars, colloquia, and studio visits with faculty and visiting artists. During the fall and spring semesters between these summer residencies, students work remotely from their home studios, participating in asynchronous online courses and oneon-one advising. The degree culminates in a written thesis and a public exhibition.
Conceptually-driven
As a program that brings together artists of all disciplines, the Low-Res MFA curriculum is focused through the lens of “poetics,” from the Greek poiema, meaning “a made thing.” What unites us in the Low-Res MFA is that we are all exploring what it means to make things: conceptually, materially, and relationally. Poetics is a transdisciplinary framework that brings us together around, and provides shared language for, this inquiry.
Summer sessions
Students attend three summer sessions structured around weekly seminars and studio visits with faculty and visiting artists, a wide range of readings on artmaking, distribution, and interpretation methods, and a series of specialized professional practice courses. Successive summers introduce students to resources necessary for off-campus semesters, studios and galleries in Chicago, and the development of networks and resources needed for a successful transition into professional practice.
For more information on the program and application requirements, please visit:
saic.edu/lowres
Visiting artists and scholars
A hallmark of the Low-Res program, the Visiting Artists & Scholars lecture series brings world-renowned artists and scholars to Chicago during the six-week summer residency. Speakers give a public lecture, followed by studio visits and a colloquium exclusively for Low-Res MFA students. Recent guests include Emily Apter, Wafaa Bilal, Elaine Byrne, Jennifer Doyle, Kimberly Drew, Xandra Ibarra, Jamillah James, Michael Rakowitz, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Guadalupe Rosales, Meredith Talusan, Carmelita Tropicana & Ela Troyano, Hamza Walker, and more.
Faculty
GIOVANNI ALOI
IRINA BUCAN
JULIETTA CHEUNG
TYLER S. COBURN
ASSAF EVRON
D. DENENGE DUYST-AKPEM
TERRI KAPSALIS
KELLY KACZYNSKI
JENNIFER LEE
JUDD MORRISSEY
NATHANAËL
JOHN NEFF
DUSHKO PETROVICH
DANIEL RICARDO QUILES
ANDREA RAY
PAMELA SNEED
ALIZA SHVARTS
ASHA IMAN VEAL
For complete faculty listing visit: saic.edu/lowres
Curriculum Requirements
Attendance at Visiting Artists & Scholars Lecture Series and Participation in Colloquium
Participation in Graduate Exhibition or equivalent public presentation of thesis Total Credit Hours
Application Process
Submit:
› Online application
› Official college transcripts
› Statement of purpose
› Letters of recommendation
› ePortfolio
› Résumé
Application Deadline: January 10
Successful applicants will be contacted for an interview beginning in February.
Year 1
Graduate Studio Seminar
Art History/Theory: Attention Professional Practices: Digital Interfaces
Year 2
Graduate Studio Seminar
Art History/Theory: Graduate Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art
Professional Practices: Cultural Liaisons
Graduate Projects
Art History/Theory: Art Ideas
Graduate Projects
Art History/Theory: Writing Art
Completion of Elective Credits
Graduate Projects
Art History/Theory: Special Topics
Graduate Projects Thesis Composition
Completion of Elective Credits
Year 3
Graduate Studio Seminar
Art History/Theory: Perception
Thesis: Public Presentation
Professional Practices: Expanded Networks
Graduate Admissions
36 South Wabash Avenue, suite 1201 Chicago, IL 60603
Phone 312.629.6100 / 800.232.7242
gradmiss@saic.edu
For application requirements, visit saic.edu/lowres