Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts

University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus

Immerse in a dynamic, studio-based environment alongside accomplished artists and scholars guiding your focus in Creative Writing, Visual Arts or Interdisciplinary Studies. Our Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program provides students with opportunities to develop sophisticated production skills within a variety of media. Students are encouraged to engage in and investigate creative practice-based research that combines an interdisciplinary approach bridging academic research and fine-arts disciplines, and explore non-traditional community or collaborative creative practices of a body of work and a written research paper in a secondary area of study (or occasionally a creative work in a different field from the primary area)-generally a substantial, scholarly work between 3500-5000 words in length in the student’s secondary, complimentary discipline. The written research paper and the creative and/or curatorial body of work should have substantial linkages in theoretical or topical context. An oral defense of both the artistic and/or curatorial body of work and the written support paper is required.Alternate thesis structure and content, such as the completion of two creative works, may be considered if planned ahead, especially in cases where a student’s work is interdisciplinary in nature.Thesis descriptions of the primary creative disciplines for students in the specialization of Interdisciplinary Studies:Primary Discipline in Creative WritingRequires a full-length work of publishable quality (book-length poetry, fiction or non-fiction manuscript, full-length stage play, or screenplay).Primary Discipline in Visual ArtsRequires an exhibition of a body of work completed during residency in the program. The work presented must be documented.Primary Discipline in PerformanceRequires a publicized event equivalent in scope and profile to a full-length evening performance, with documentation of the creation and development of the work. The performance must be shown in public a minimum of three times over a period of two weeks.Primary Discipline in CurationRequires a curated show demonstrating the student’s abilities to plan, research, develop, administer, implement and document a professional curatorial project.There are three areas of specialization to choose from, Visual Arts, Creative Writing, or Interdisciplinary Studies, which share a colloquium course that helps to develop bonds between differing areas while promoting innovative and interdisciplinary artistic opportunities. All three areas share an MFA Colloquium course that helps to develop bonds between differing areas while promoting innovative and interdisciplinary artistic opportunities.

Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies