Earn an Art Degree! (or not...)

So often when we're yearning to learn something new, we look to books about the topic or check into taking a course, or the ultra-motivated consider earning a degree. Then our next hurdle is to select a resource or plan that is best for our personal needs. This task can seem daunting. Where can you turn for help?

Naturally, you can ask those who have been down the same path for advice. However, know we each perceive differently and something that bores a friend to tears might keep you hopping with excitement.

Last year, when I began researching PhD programs I might want to enter, I decided to rely upon general marketing information from a university system expert: Princeton review. I joined the e-mail newsletter notification system from Princeton Review Recruiter Service. I've pasted one of their messages below so you can have an idea of what to expect from this resource. I honestly do not know anything about the program listed, nor do I endorse it over any other program. I simply want you to know what might be of interest to you as you move forward in your creative path.

If you like what appears below, sign up for a e-notifications from the Princeton Review and receive similar notifications personalized to your criterion! In the end, the decision on what step you're ready to take next is solely up to you.

Until next time!
- Mel. (p.s. Just three more days until I'm free to follow my creative path full-time! Sure hope you'll join the journey.)

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Maine College of Art (MECA) delivers a demanding and enlivening education in visual art and design within an intimate learning community. Each student learns how to transform aspirations and values into a creative practice that serves as the foundation for a lifelong pursuit of personal and professional goals. Founded in 1882 and fully accredited, MECA offers both the Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees as well as a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Art Education. The College gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, has been hailed as one of the finest art spaces in the Northeast for the exhibition of leading edge contemporary art
Request a brochure from Maine College of Art
MFA Program Overview
The Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts program at Maine College of Art (MECA) is a two-year low-residency program designed for emerging artists. The MFA in Studio Arts is based upon an open interdisciplinary approach that encourages students to think across boundaries and integrate studio practice with conceptual and interdisciplinary theory. With an intimate class size of 30 students, each MFA student pursues an individualized studio curriculum in their chosen area of concentration.
The MFA low-residency program is based around two eight-week summer intensives in Portland, two ten-day winter residencies in Portland and New York, a five-day May intensive in Portland for graduating students, and the 14-week fall and spring semesters in a home studio setting with supervised instruction from non-resident as well as resident faculty. An extensive roster of internationally recognized visiting artists and scholars supports the curriculum.
The summer intensives allow students to work on-site in state-of-the-art studios, (many students have multiple studios), attend seminars, discussions, and lectures by artists, critics, curators, historians, and theorists, participate in individual and group critiques, and help to develop a community through dinners, dialogues planned and unplanned, and various excursions.
Off-site during the non-residency fall and spring semesters, students in their home studios are partnered with a renowned faculty of Non-Resident Studio Instructors (NRSI) for one-on-one meetings that allow for a flexible, individualized, student-centered learning and year-round resident faculty contact.
The program travels to New York City during the winter intensives to visit artists' studios and important cultural sites. Graduating students return to Portland in the spring of the second year to hang their studio thesis exhibition and defend their written and studio theses.
The MECA Community and Campus is located in the center of Portland's Arts District, MECA's campus is comprised of five buildings all located within a four-square-block. The main studio building is a 150,000 square foot renovated department store. Cosmopolitan and comfortable, Portland offers all the advantages of a small city with close proximity to nature and recreation. It has an urban sensibility and energy that draw an eclectic population from artists to entrepreneurs.
The College gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, has been hailed as one of the finest art spaces in the Northeast for the exhibition of leading edge contemporary art.