low-residency master of fine arts

The Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program is ideally suited for artists who wish to develop and refine their work, without sacrificing a professional career or other commitment in order to pursue academic study.

The program allows students to earn a 60-credit MFA degree over a period of either three or four years through a combination of intensive eight-week summer sessions and independent studio practice in their home communities.

The program draws on the same pedagogic and philosophical principles of the full-time MFA program, but enables students to access the rigors of the program within a flexible course of study. Students work with faculty from SFAI during the summer sessions, and then continue their work independently—with the guidance of an artist from their home community—during the fall and spring semesters. The summer sessions combine critiques, coursework in art history and critical studies, individualized tutorials with faculty, the Graduate Lecture Series, and other offerings of the Summer Institute to create a balanced studio and research-based curriculum. Along with a Summer Review, a Winter Review in San Francisco each January provides students with an additional opportunity to discuss and critique their work with faculty and colleagues in the program.

The culmination of the Low-Residency MFA program is participation with full-time MFA students in the MFA Graduate Exhibition—an exhibition that annually generates critical attention and scholarship, and that is renowned throughout the Bay Area for its innovative, cutting-edge creative output.