Tony Ferguson on tue 14 oct 08
Both Kelly and Tony, personal desire and current economic times have motivated me to pursue the MFA for developmental reasons. It's time to change my work and explore new areas--maybe functional, maybe sculptural, who knows. Whether or not I stay in clay is altogether another question as I have interests in film making, writing, and digital arts.
This is an often asked question "What MFA program is best?" on this list but as time changes, so do the programs and the people in them. And I have grown to trust after gathering an overview, of what people have to say on this list.
Vince and a few others have given me some good information that I've been chewing on for sometime now, visiting websites, observing work done by the instructors and grad students.
As I am not a traditional student--have taught for community colleges in the class room and online, have a family of 5, etc., although certainly open minded, I am not the young impressionable artist I once was. My plan, should I be accepted into a program, is to treat it like a job.
Can anyone recommended a solid, respectable MFA program with instructors aware of the Art speak crit world yet backed up with solid skills and exemplary, cutting edge work in the functional and non-functional areas? Simply, they can talk the talk and walk the walk with their work speaking primarily for themselves and not being to heady.
I am also interested in the instructors capability to guide me, provide technical expertise when I need it, and overall find instructors whose goal is not to aggrandize themselves, but actively challenge and take their students as far as they can in the time they have with them. I am not looking for hand holding, more expertise and raw focused energy.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and will be added to my research. Feel free to email me directly if you wish. Take care.
Tony Ferguson
Take Care,
Tony Ferguson
Artist...Clay, Web, Photo, Video
...where the sky meets the lake...
http://www.tonyferguson.net
jonathan byler on tue 14 oct 08
My alma mater, University of Wisconsin - Madison (MFA in Sculpture,
2004).
Both professors and students are very smart. Many of the professors,
whether they are teaching fine-art oriented stuff or not come at
least partially from a craft background or otherwise have great
respect for the crafts and people who are masters of their medium.
I'm not sure of the status of ceramics, since Bruce Breckenridge
retired a few years back. There is a program, but I don't know who
is running it.
they also have many graduate assistantships available, both teaching
gigs and shop tech gigs. pay and benefits for TA's and GA's are good
because there is a great Teachers Assistant/Grad Assistant/Research
Assistant Union. The TAA union also works somewhat successfully to
make sure that their members don't get so abused and overworked as at
many other schools. The prof who was in charge of the art dept TA's
(was Gail Simpson, maybe still is) took extra care to be sure that
grads who were teaching (mostly 2-d, 3-d, and intro drawing) had all
the support and resources they needed to get the job done.
Best Printmaking program in the nation, one of the best Metals
programs, great wood/furniture program, Aris Georgiades in sculpture
is excellent, and all of the painting profs are top notch, too. They
have a digital media program these days, but I know nothing about
it. Film classes are available through another dept, but I don't
know if there are hoops to jump through to do that. For the most
part, however, interdisciplinary/interdepartmental work was
encouraged in the Art Dept.
Check it out: http://art.wisc.edu/?folder=home
-jon
jon byler
3-D Building Coordinator
Art Department
Auburn University, AL 36849
On Oct 14, 2008, at 6:50 PM, Tony Ferguson wrote:
> Both Kelly and Tony, personal desire and current economic times
> have motivated me to pursue the MFA for developmental reasons.
> It's time to change my work and explore new areas--maybe
> functional, maybe sculptural, who knows. Whether or not I stay in
> clay is altogether another question as I have interests in film
> making, writing, and digital arts.
>
> This is an often asked question "What MFA program is best?" on
> this list but as time changes, so do the programs and the people in
> them. And I have grown to trust after gathering an overview, of
> what people have to say on this list.
>
> Vince and a few others have given me some good information that
> I've been chewing on for sometime now, visiting websites, observing
> work done by the instructors and grad students.
>
> As I am not a traditional student--have taught for community
> colleges in the class room and online, have a family of 5, etc.,
> although certainly open minded, I am not the young impressionable
> artist I once was. My plan, should I be accepted into a program,
> is to treat it like a job.
>
> Can anyone recommended a solid, respectable MFA program with
> instructors aware of the Art speak crit world yet backed up with
> solid skills and exemplary, cutting edge work in the functional and
> non-functional areas? Simply, they can talk the talk and walk the
> walk with their work speaking primarily for themselves and not
> being to heady.
>
> I am also interested in the instructors capability to guide me,
> provide technical expertise when I need it, and overall find
> instructors whose goal is not to aggrandize themselves, but
> actively challenge and take their students as far as they can in
> the time they have with them. I am not looking for hand holding,
> more expertise and raw focused energy.
>
> Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and will be added
> to my research. Feel free to email me directly if you wish. Take
> care.
>
> Tony Ferguson
>
>
> Take Care,
>
>
>
> Tony Ferguson
> Artist...Clay, Web, Photo, Video
>
> ...where the sky meets the lake...
>
> http://www.tonyferguson.net
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