Curriculum & Courses

• Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of five years to complete the coursework and submit a final, approved thesis. This includes time off for leaves-of-absence.
• Transfer credits: A minimum of 45 credit hours must be completed at SAIC. Although the general overall graduate credit transfer policy allows students to request 15 credits, due to the nature of the LRMFA curriculum, the department can only approve a maximum of 6 transfer credits to satisfy the elective requirement. Transfer credits are possible at the discretion of the Director. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.
• Full-time status minimum requirement: 9 credit hours during summer semesters, 6 credit hours during the fall and spring semesters, and, if enrolled, 3 credit hours during the winter semester.
• Attendance is mandatory for the entire six-week summer residency period as well as orientation.

Graduate Studio Seminar (GSS) is your studio-based course over the six-week summer residency. It is taught by an experienced core SAIC Low-Res faculty member. Students are expected to arrive on campus with completed or in-process works and be prepared to make and re-make new works throughout the summer. In GSS, you will meet individually and in small groups with your core faculty, who will lead critique and assign readings that concentrate on problems concerning methods of artmaking, distribution, and interpretation. Graduating students will use summer critique sessions to gain constructive feedback on the final stages of studio and written productions for presentation.

Year 2 Reviews provide an evaluative milestone midway through the program, and consist of critical responses to second-year students from a panel of faculty and peers. These reviews are an opportunity for students to be involved in evaluative discussions with multiple voices directed toward their work, enhancing and challenging the conversations they’ve experienced with the faculty, mentors, and peers they have already worked closely with. These critical discussions are designed to prepare students for their thesis year and to provide reciprocal feedback to faculty in understanding our students’ overall progression.

The Visiting Artists & Scholars lecture series brings world-renowned artists and scholars from all disciplines to Chicago during the Low-Res MFA six-week summer residency period. Speakers deliver a public lecture open to the entire SAIC and Chicago community and hold studio visits with Low-Res MFA students. Each Visiting Artist & Scholar lecturer will also participate in a colloquium exclusively for Low-Res MFA students and faculty, where you can engage in an in-depth discussion of the ideas and concepts presented in the lecture.

Throughout the program, you will be introduced to critical texts and theoretical positions in contemporary praxis through interdisciplinary seminar courses. Designed for both in-person and online learning, these art, theory, and criticism courses articulate the conceptual focus of the program through faculty’s diverse areas of expertise. During the summer residencies, you will take Art History/Theory: Attention and Art History/Theory: Perception, which reinforce the thematic framework of poetics. You will also take the art history survey course required for all SAIC MFA students, Graduate Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art (ARTHI 5002), in the second summer, which makes active use of the Art Institute of Chicago museum as a site of learning. During the fall and spring, you will take Art Ideas and Writing Art, which are offered as multiple thematically-driven sections, which will deepen your understanding of how an art practice can synthesize thinking, writing, and making, preparing you for your thesis work. Additional Special Topics seminars are offered every year as elective courses.

For the Low-Res MFA, a series of specialized professional practice courses will be offered throughout the three years. During the first summer, you will be introduced to on-campus and online resources that will prepare you for active participation in the artistic and scholarly life of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the second summer, student-initiated interviews, site visits, conversations, and tours of cultural partner organizations in Chicago will increase your exposure to other arts-related professional contexts. In your final year, you will be supported in developing the networks, tools, resources, and contacts needed to continue transitioning from a graduate program to your desired professional contexts.

During your off-campus semesters, you will be expected to engage in independent work and research from your home studio or mobile platforms. Core SAIC Low-Res MFA faculty will support your continued development of ideas and approaches initiated during summer Graduate Studio Seminars through Graduate Projects advising. Graduate Projects advising consists of one-on-one online studio visits with an advising faculty member. We encourage you to work with different faculty each semester to gain a broad range of perspectives on your practice.

As a graduation requirement of the Low-Res MFA program, all students must publicly exhibit/perform their final thesis project and submit for review a written accompaniment to a community of faculty and peers at SAIC. In the final two semesters, you will enroll in courses focused on the production of advanced work and writing to be exhibited and published. In Thesis Composition, which takes place during the second online spring semester, you will develop and workshop the written component of the MFA thesis—which can take academic or expressive forms. Your MFA Thesis Exhibition will take place during the final summer residency, and will be open to the public. During the final summer residency, you will explore ways of speaking about and presenting your practice.

As part of their 60 credit MFA degree, students will choose 6 elective credits. Elective credits can be taken in all semesters, time permitting, and with consent of the Director.

The elective credits can be customized based on the student's needs. These credits can be satisfied in a number of ways:

• SAIC study trips (during SAIC winter and summer interim, time permitting)
• Online elective courses offered by SAIC Low-Res faculty
• On-campus graduate courses offered in other SAIC departments during the academic year (with approval of faculty)
• On-campus graduate courses offered during the winter or summer interim (time permitting)

All LRMFA students must take the required Art History credits within the Low-Residency MFA Program. Students may also elect to take additional Art History courses and/or additional sections of Graduate Projects as part of the Elective credits.

Interested in learning more about how you can apply?

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242, or gradmiss@saic.edu.