Cynthia Nourse Thompson, Program Director
cythompson@uarts.edu
215.717.6106

C O N T E N T S

• Description    
• Program Objectives   
• Academic Plan   
• Program Requirements    

Description

The MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking is a highly selective professional graduate program that imparts a tradition of artistic and academic excellence through a distinctive pedagogical lens individually tailored to each student’s interests and experience. Our unparalleled program offers students a profound conceptual and technical experience as presented through an intense, interactive and rigorous studio environment. The breadth and depth of possibilities exploring the art of the book, printmaking, and the narrative are enormous and complex. The program encourages students to cultivate a hybrid methodology among the disciplines of printmaking, papermaking, bookbinding and letterpress printing - exploring text as well as image, the temporal as well as the spatial, the three-dimensional as well as the two-dimensional and the traditional as well as the experimental. Courses in the first year intersect, reflecting the integration of skills and concepts, integral to book arts and printmedia. The second year concentrates on the MFA Thesis Exhibition, under the supervision of an advisory committee. Students frequently choose to use their elective credits for internships in professional laboratories and organizations and are welcome as interns in many prestigious conservation labs.

Program Objectives

Upon successful completion of the program the student and their work will demonstrate:

Creativity/Innovation

• Conceptual and technical development in their work.
• Students are able to situate their work in a contemporary art context, whether they gravitate toward traditional or more interdisciplinary applications (the ability to embrace and integrate the historical to the contemporary)
• The ability to integrate the use of innovative digital technology with traditional techniques 
• An ability to augment language proficiency on both verbal and written levels.
• The ability to identify non-toxic and professional printmaking studio practices
• The ability to institute an understanding of printing methods.

Citizenship/Professionalism

• Students will prepare documentation necessary for being a professional artist.
• Students will research and apply for professional opportunities
• Students will possess an ability to interact and glean artistic maturity from an internationally renowned artist.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to assume various roles of project leadership among peers.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively.

Technique/Craft
The program educates students in professional practice skills in printmaking, papermaking and book arts preparing them to succeed in the contemporary art world.

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of basic book binding techniques
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of traditional and contemporary papermaking techniques
• Students exhibit work demonstrating high levels of craftsmanship in skill and technique- ability to enact work as a multiple and of the highest caliber
• Students will demonstrate an ability to enact an integration between the fine and design arts. 
• Students will have the ability to institute an understanding of digital technology methods.
• Students will have the ability to institute an understanding of typographic canons.
• Students will be capable of controlling the printed image and text within their prints, books and paper pieces

Engagement/Connectivity
Upon successful completion of the program the student and their work will demonstrate knowledge of the historical and contemporary precedence of the discipline in order to more fully realize a contemporary visual voice.    

• Editions in print, paper and book created by students exhibit technical and conceptual intention.
• Students will demonstrate conceptual and technical development in their work
• Students are able to situate their work in a contemporary art context, whether they gravitate toward traditional or more interdisciplinary applications
• Students will demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively, professionally and constructively  in union with artist, faculty, and peers.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct advanced research.

Academic Plan

Academic plans provide a semester by semester suggested course sequence. Plans can be customized through discussions with academic advisors.

• Book Arts and Printmaking Academic Plans   

Program Requirements (60 credits)