The Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of Windsor provides graduate students with the opportunity to explore studio production within an interdisciplinary context. The two-year, studio-centered program is geared towards creative exploration, innovative experimentation and the development of a sustainable artistic practice. MFA graduate seminars provide a solid critical and theoretical framework that enables graduate students to independently develop artistic research and studio production that is further supported by a range of dynamic faculty, visiting artists, curators and critics.
The School of Visual Arts has one of the longest running MFA programs in Canada, founded in 1979. University of Windsor MFA graduates have gone on to establish significant careers as visual artists, educators, curators and arts professionals who have made important contributions to art in Canada and elsewhere. Three of our recent graduates were nominated for the prestigious Sobey prize. Over the years our faculty have been dedicated to building a uniquely intensive studio program that stresses individual attention and the development of professional practice in contemporary visual art. To this end the School of Visual Arts is well equipped to facilitate work in a wide range of media, both traditional and emerging, as well as practices that push the established framework of contemporary practice.
Our MFA program tends to attract a select group of students who wish to pursue studio work that dissolves the boundaries of conventional areas of specialization. We encourage strong working relationships between graduate students and our faculty who have established national and international reputations at the forefront of their respective fields, exhibiting regularly in Canada and abroad. Currently SVA faculty members are working on a range of externally funded projects that explore the intersection of art and biotechnology, ecology, architecture and urban culture.
Application Deadline:
Applications for the 2011-2012 academic year are due February 1st, 2012. For more information on application procedures and requirements, see the Admission section.
Further information can be obtained by contacting Prof. Sigi Torinus, Graduate Program Coordinator, at (519)253-3000 ×2829 or art@uwindsor.ca.
Program News
selected events
Upcoming defences:
Meghan Krauss - autotopia
SoVA Projects Gallery / University of Windsor (LeBel)
Wednesday, April 11 @ 3:00 pm
Sarah Chomko - Eat Me
check out daily updated exhibition
MacKenzie Hall Cultural Centre (3277 Sandwich St. Windsor, ON)
Friday, April 13 @ 11:00 am
Riaz Mehmood - …in progress…
SoVA Projects Gallery / University of Windsor (LeBel)
Wednesday, April 18 @ 10:00 am
Laura Shintani - Compression Decompression
MacKenzie Hall Cultural Centre (3277 Sandwich St. Windsor, ON)
Wednesday, April 25 @ 10:00 am
Amanda White - Frugivore
SoVA Projects Gallery / University of Windsor (LeBel)
Thursday, April 26 (time TBA)
The SoVA Projects Gallery in the School of Visual Arts, University of Windsor
** is located in the LeBel building (SW corner of Huron Church and College Ave. open M-F 9-4 pm)
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How to Interpret Abstract Art * a free workshop at the Art Gallery of Windsor led by SoVA University of Windsor Graduate students * Friday, January 27th, 2012 @ 7 PM
MFA students Amanda White, Bruce Thompson, Lydia Burggraaf, Meghan Krauss and Riaz Mehmood
“Building up from short exercises in a classroom setting to activities that directly engage with the work in the gallery setting, we will attempt to apply a variety of conventional skills to the somewhat daunting concepts behind colour field painting,” says Krauss. “We will demonstrate that everyone is capable of understanding abstract art using his or her own intuition and existing knowledge.”
Participants are encouraged to wear their favourite colour and come prepared to engage physically, emotionally and mentally in a number of group activities.
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School of Visual Arts MFA graduate Dax Morrison shows *Everything Between You and I * @ Convenience Gallery, Toronto, ON: opens January 23, 2012
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SoVA’s Victor Romao’s SOUTHWESTERN GOTHIC opens @ARTCITE this Friday, JAN 13 - artist in attendence (received his MFA at the School of Visual Arts / University of Windsor)
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In 2011/12, the school welcomes a series of visiting artists in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Windsor who will do studio visits with our graduate students: The Alone + Together Speaker Series:
Jan. 13 DYLAN MINER, “History, Memory and Collaboration” Friday evening @ 7:00 pm in the Betty Wilkinson Room at the AGW
Jan. 21 discussion with KARN WILKEN, LUANNE MARTINEAU, JOHN KISSICK @ 12 noon at the AGW
Jan. 26 CATIE NEWALL, “New and Recent Work” Thursday evening @ 7:00 pm in room 115 (SoVA)
Feb. 9 discussion with LISE BEAUDRY, REENA KATZ, GINA BADGER moderated by SARAH BEVERIDGE Thursday evening @ 7:00 PM in the Betty Wilkinson Room at the AGW
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MFA candidate Meghan Krauss shows in latest issue of Prefix Photo magazine and at the Saskatoon Public Library (on view from the 15th to the 29th of Dec., 2011).
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School of Visual Arts MFA candidate Owen Eric Wood’s short film included in WIFF (Windsor International Film Festival) * Wed. Nov. 9th @ 7pm * Capitol Theatre (Windsor, ON)
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MFA Thesis Exhibtions: April 9 - May 21, 2011
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As founding members of the Noiseborder Ensemble, Sigi Torinus, Dr. Brent Lee and Dr. Nicholas Papador are working on a Canada Foundation for Innovation funded project, the Noiseborder Multimedia Performance Laboratory (NMPL) at the University of Windsor, as well as the SSHRC-funded INTEGRATING SOUND AND IMAGE IN MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE research / creation project which includes two graduate research assistantships. This is a wonderful opportunity for graduate students to both participate in and receive funding within an exciting project!
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Amin Rheman, White Wash, April 9 - 16, SoVA Projects Gallery
- Art + Economies/Make it Work: Creativity in the Great Recession: exhibition opening and panel discussion Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Co-curated by Amanda White (MFA Candidate) and Mike Marcon.
- Recent graduate, Victor Romao has been selected to participate in the Drawing Center’s “Viewing Program”, a registry of emerging artists.
2010:
- Melanie Colisimo particiaptes in Nocturne 2011 in Halifax: http://melaniecolosimo.com/
- Amin Rheman opens solo exhibition, Loha Toar-Loha Khoar (May 2010) at the V.M. Art Gallery in Karachi, Pakistan
- Sigi Torinus, Associate Professor in Digital Media opened a travelling exhibtion, Browsing Beauty, a collaboration with German artist, Andrea Sunder-Plassman at the Chatham Art Gallery. The exhibition also traveled to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa) and the WKP Kennedy Gallery later on this year. The website details the various permutations of this collaboration as it has taken place over the last twelve years: www.browsingbeauty.com
- Dr. Jennifer Willet, Assistant Professor, has been awarded a major three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Grant to set up INCUBATOR: Hybrid Laboratory at the intersection of Art, Science, and Ecology
2009
- MFA candiate Immony Men’s traveling exhibition, Effections: We Need to Talk opened at Gallery Connexion in Fredricton, NB last spring and has since traveled to Videographe in Montreal where it will run until November 29, 2009.
- MFA candidates Justin Langlois and Victor Romao were represented in Nine Miles South of Eight Mile, the Art Gallery of Windsor’s 2009 Windsor Biennial which ran from April 17 - June 30, 2009.
