The MFA Program combines intensive critical dialogue with multicultural sources of spiritual practice and awareness. A unique system of critique based on frankness and candor coupled with mutual respect and support, inspires and challenges MFA students. This process often produces extraordinary advances in the depth impact of students' artwork. Authenticity, maturity and the ability to transcend the boundary between artist, object and viewer are at the heart of the MFA Program. The 90-unit requirement for the MFA degree is normally completed in approximately three years.
Students move through the program at their own pace within guidelines established by the department.
JFKU's art students enjoy the studio facilities at the JFKU Art Annex in Berkeley. In the first year, MFA students explore the inner reaches of human consciousness through intensive experiential coursework. For example, in the Image and Process course students explore issues of identity and culture as well as the formal and philosophical content of students' artwork as a prologue for later critique seminars. Required courses in theory and process enable the deepening of awareness of the individual creative process as well as its social and cultural contexts. Studio electives allow deepening and broadening of formal and technical skills within a context of growth and spirituality.