Graduate Overview

Reduced Application Fee Deadline: December 1
Application Deadline: January 10

The Low-Residency MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is designed for the 21st-century artist. It’s ideal for the graduate student whose work and life demands both a rigorous engagement with an artistic community as well as flexibility, fluidity, and a self-directed approach. Upon completion of the Low-Residency program, students will:

• Earn a Master of Fine Art (MFA) degree, which is a terminal degree—the highest level of education achievable in a specific field of study (often necessary for teaching at the college level);
• Build familiarity and fluency in the theoretical, conceptual, and interdisciplinary discourses that shape contemporary art practice;
• Become part of an international network of arts professionals and lifelong community of thinkers and makers.

As a graduate degree program that brings together artists of all disciplines, LRMFA’s curriculum is scaffolded through the concept of “poetics,” from the Greek poiema, meaning “a made thing.” What unites us in the Low-Residency MFA is that we are all exploring what it means to make things: conceptually, materially, and relationally. Poetics is a transdisciplinary framework that brings us together around, and provides shared language for, this inquiry.

The Low-Residency MFA program is for students who are looking for rigorous academic and artistic engagement while maintaining the flexibility of a self-directed schedule. A rotating core of SAIC faculty delivers on-campus and online instruction. This includes individual and group critiques, one-on-one studio advising, art history and theory seminars, and professional practices courses. 

Over the course of the seven-semester, 60-credit MFA program, students complete three consecutive six-week summer sessions in person in Chicago. These are structured around weekly seminars, studio visits with faculty and visiting artists, and a wide range of readings on art-making, distribution, and interpretation methods. The summer intensives also include a series of specialized professional practice courses. 

These intensive summer residencies introduce students to resources necessary for off-campus semesters. They expose students to studios and galleries in the Chicago art community, and aid in the development of networks needed for a successful transition into professional practice. In the spring and fall semesters between summer residencies, students work remotely from their home studios and participate in rigorous online courses and advising.

Each year, students will focus on a distinct area of study. The first-year curriculum focuses on mobilizing the senses and constructing objects to explore the capture and destabilization of the viewer’s attention. Second-year students examine the connection between sensation and the creative process. Students spend their last year exploring the history of perception, including the relationships between objects and their viewers.

Learn more about the Low-Residency MFA program's courses and curriculum.

The uniquely flexible format of the Low-Residency program requires that we think deeply about community—both while we are on campus during the summers, and off-campus during the academic year. Please see the LRMFA Community Agreements and Principles for an in-depth view of this ongoing work. 

In-person attendance is mandatory for the entire six-week residency period as well as orientation.

June 12: New student orientation
June 15: Classes begin
June 19: Juneteenth, no classes
July 4: Holiday, no classes
July 24: Classes end, Open Studios
July 26: Graduation

As a culmination to the Low-Res MFA program, students exhibit their work in the MFA Thesis Exhibition, which takes place during the final summer residency and is open to the public. Check out examples of student work from our 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition.

The Visiting Artists & Scholars lecture series is a hallmark of the Low-Residency program. It brings world-renowned artists and scholars from all disciplines to Chicago during the Low-Res MFA six-week summer residency period. Invited speakers deliver a public lecture open to the entire SAIC and Chicago community and the general public. In addition to artist talks, speakers hold studio visits and participate in a colloquium exclusively for Low-Res MFA students.

Learn more about the Visiting Artists & Scholars lecture series lineup and past lectures.

Special note for international students admitted to the Low-Residency MFA program on F-1/J-1 visas: While the Low-Residency MFA program offers classes year-round, students on F-1/J-1 visas are only permitted to study at SAIC in-person during the summer residency session. This is per the federal regulations under which SAIC is permitted to host F-1/J-1 international students in this program as set forth by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).

Low-Res MFA Admissions Information

Curriculum & Courses

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