Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
The Programs
7 mfa Art Criticism and Writing
25 mat Art Education
43 mfa Art Practice
61 mps Art Therapy
81 mps Branding
95 mfa Computer Art
127 ma Critical Theory and the Arts
139 mfa Design
163 mfa Design Criticism
187 mfa Design for Social Innovation
205 mps Digital Photography
225 mps Fashion Photography
239 mfa Fine Arts
261 mfa Illustration as Visual Essay
279 mfa Interaction Design
301 mps Live Action Short Film
315 mfa Photography, Video and
Related Media
345 mfa Products of Design
371 mfa Social Documentary Film
David
lives. And since they are actively involved in their professions,
President Interview
what they’re doing is fresh. There may be some virtue to drawing
from plaster casts, but we have found it’s more useful—to make
Rhodes
another Pragmatic point—to be doing something of the moment.
The content of our programs changes almost annually. No one’s
lecturing from yellowed notes made 30 years ago.”
And it’s not just the content of existing departments that
keeps moving: sva continues to introduce new graduate
programs, responding to emerging interest and demand. “For
example,” President Rhodes begins, “an mfa in Art Practice,
developed by curator and former Whitney director David Ross, is beginning in the summer of 2011.
Its mission is two-fold: The continuous development of art-making through extensive studio work, and
a thorough understanding of contemporary art practice, including critical and curatorial endeavors.”
“In the fall of 2011 we’ll welcome our first class to a one-year mps in Fashion Photography.
Chaired by Jimmy Moffat and Stephen Frailey, the program is designed to immerse students in the
narrative, conceptual and cultural subtext of fashion photography, and provide direct engagement
with the leading figures in fashion and fashion photography in New York City.”
“And in 2012,” he continues, “we will launch our first purely research-based degree, an ma
in Critical Theory and the Arts, developed by philosopher Robert Hullot-Kentor, as well as two new
advanced design degrees: mfa Products of Design, a strategic making-based curriculum considering
purposeful artifacts, systems, and design offerings, chaired by Core77 founder Alan Chochinov, and
mfa Design for Social Innovation, which, as Chair Cheryl Heller says, ‘considers the new challenges
of working at the intersection of business, society and the natural world.’”
Recently, the College has expanded physically as well as in its range of programs. One particularly
striking development is the sva Theatre on West 23rd Street. “This is something we had wanted to do
for a long time,” the president reveals. “To create a cultural center for Midtown South. Pedagogically,
it will allow graduate programs to collaborate on some lectures and multimedia presentations.”
In addition to these and other changes, he recognized the College’s longstanding strengths.
“Illustration has been around for a long time, but (the mfa in Illustration as Visual Essay) is actually
an innovative program that turns the discipline on its head. Half of its graduates have published books
and graphic novels and even produced painting series. That’s not what we expected setting it up, but
that program has stayed out ahead of the field.”
“Ultimately,” President Rhodes concludes, smiling, “we are open to supporting and guiding
whichever paths students choose, so long as their work is smart.”
3
Accreditations
the school of visual arts has been authorized by the New
York State Board of Regents (www.highered.nysed.gov) to confer the
degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts on graduates of four-year programs in
Advertising and Graphic Design; Computer Art, Computer Animation
and Visual Effects; Film, Video and Animation; Fine Arts; Illustration and
Cartooning; Interior Design; Photography; Visual and Critical Studies;
and to confer the degree of Master of Arts on graduates of the one-year
program in Critical Theory and the Arts; and to confer the degree of
Master of Fine Arts on graduates of two-year programs in Art Criticism
and Writing; Computer Art; Design; Design Criticism; Design for Social
Innovation; Fine Arts; Illustration as Visual Essay; Interaction Design;
Photography, Video and Related Media; Products of Design; Social
Documentary Film; and to confer the degree of Master of Fine Arts on
graduates of the three-year program in Art Practice; and to confer the
degree of Master of Professional Studies on graduates of the two-year
program in Art Therapy and the one-year programs in Branding; Digital
Photography; Fashion Photography; Live Action Short Film; and to confer
the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching on graduates of the program in
Art Education and to confer the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching on
graduates of the program in Art Education. Data required by the U.S.
Department of Education on “Gainful Employment” for each of the above
programs may be found on each individual program page at sva.edu.
The
Arts in Interior Design is accredited by the Council for Interior Design
Accreditation (formerly FIDER) (www.accredit-id.org), 146 Monroe
Center nw, Suite 1318, Grand Rapids, mi 49503-2822.
Programs
as such meets the Education Standards of the art therapy profession.
The mfa in Art Criticism and Writing is one of the only graduate writing programs in the country that
focuses specifically on criticism. We honor Walter Benjamin’s desire to “create criticism as a genre,”
unto itself, and that means opening the program to a wide variety of approaches and inquiries. For us,
criticism is an open proposition—a way to ask bigger and better questions.
The practice of criticism involves making finer and finer distinctions among like things, but it is also
a way of asking fundamental questions about art and life. Writing good criticism requires a grounding
in art history and aesthetics, and also a prodigious curiosity and knowledge of contemporary culture.
Critics cannot afford to be specialists, so our curriculum is both finely focused and wide-ranging. In
addition to the foundation seminars Bases of Criticism, three levels of writing practicum, and the thesis
seminar, we offer a broad array of continually changing electives, dealing with everything from the
idealist tradition to artists’ writings. We concentrate on the essay as form, as well as on shorter forms
of review, and learn criticism by doing it. Students’ writing and reviews are published regularly in our
online magazine Degree Critical, and art magazine editors are involved in the program in various
capacities. The thesis that students write at the end of their course of study is intended to be a substantial
work of criticism. We want students to come out of this program and be able to write in the world.
From its inception, this program has also had a special emphasis on the history and current transfor-
mations of the image. We live in an age when images have an inordinate power over us—the power to
influence public opinion, to create and direct desire, to comfort and inflame. The critics of tomorrow must
study images, in all of their manifestations, in order to better understand how we are subject to them.
In addition to our exceptional core faculty, we invite many artists, writers, critics, editors, art his-
torians and philosophers each year to give lectures and meet with our students individually or in small
groups. This will always be a small program, with a good deal of opportunity for one-on-one interaction.
We think it makes sense for a program like this to be situated within a major art college like the School
of Visual Arts, since good things happen when artists and writers get together. It is also obviously a
big advantage to have such a program located in the heart of New York City, amidst the greatest con-
centration of artists and art activity in the world. We will look at a lot of art here, and try to account
for our experience of it in writing. And in all we do, we will be guided by the advice Henry James gave
to writers when he said, “Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.”
MFA
Art Criticism
and Writing
www.sva.edu/grad/artcriticism
department site: artcriticism.sva.edu 7
Catching
Up With
the Critics
Alumni Profile: Christine Licata
and Clay Matlin
On any
can be applied to anything made.”
as much from each other
“Students in the sva program come from a variety of fields,” Strauss observes. “Some have diff
as from the teachers.”
erent kinds of writing backgrounds, others have training in art history, but most have been working
given day...
for some time. They might have been publishing criticism professionally but found themselves looking
for a way to go to the next stage.”
“Our program is unique. It’s a small, seminar- and discussion-based program in which students
learn as much from each other as from the teachers. Students here write every week, in a variety of
formats, and attend workshops with working writers and editors. It’s direct and intense.”
The program incorporates electives that change from year to year. “Virtual Curating has been a
popular course,” Strauss observes. “Students do everything required to make an exhibition short of noon First year students meet in Chelsea to do a round of gallery visits 6pm Students take a break in the departmental library, making use of the
actually mounting it, and that includes writing a catalog. Another elective, The History of Reading, and look at art from newly opened shows. After an informal walking tour kitchen area to grab a quick bite.
is based on the idea that, as literacy is becoming a cult activity, questions are emerging about what read- of half a dozen galleries, students reconvene at a café to have an informal
ing is, how it works, and the influence of technological changes. Artists’ Writings is another interesting discussion about the shows, in preparation for writing reviews. 7pm The department hosts a public lecture by writer and art historian
track, looking at the history of the form, from Kandinsky, Moholy-Nagy and Breton to the present. T.J. Clark at the SVA Theatre on Picasso’s Guernica. After the lecture,
1pm First- and second-year students convene at the home of artist Clark joins our students for a meal and discussion on the talk.
We also had a great series by Jeffrey Kastner that looked at contemporary art history through the lens
Nancy Goldring for an intimate conversation with Leo Steinberg
of the art magazine.”
about works such as Pontormo's Capponi Chapel, that the art historian 9pm Students head downtown to a Cabinet Magazine launch party, to
As is the case with sva in general, the program takes full advantage of its New York base. “There
has written extensively about over decades. mingle with writers and editors including Jeff Kastner, senior editor and
are so many people here that we can draw on.” Strauss enthuses. “Leo Steinberg did a special session
faculty member.
with all of my students that was incredible.” 2pm Chair David Levi Strauss has a studio visit with artist Terry
As to the thesis toward which students work, Strauss explains that “from the beginning, the idea has Winters in preparation for an upcoming piece for the Brooklyn Rail.
been that it should be a work of criticism, but that can include many different approaches.” He pulls out
a stack of examples. “Alyssa Timin wrote one called ‘The Eye of the Storm: Regarding Waiting for Godot 3pm Second-year students meet with Susan Bee for their required thesis
in New Orleans,’ while Sophie Landres wrote a comparison of artists who used language in the Concep- seminar, to discuss research issues in long-form critical writing. Writer
tual art of the ’60s and ’70s with contemporary artists who use it in connection with digital states.” Bonnie Marranca visits the class to talk with students about writing
“Ultimately,” Strauss concludes, “our hope is for people to be able to write real criticism in the real strategies.
world, and the pathways to that are many and complex.”
4pm Chair Levi Strauss meets with a second-year student to discuss a
writing opportunity that has come up for a CUE Art Foundation catalog
for an upcoming show.
David Levi Strauss, chair Michael Brenson Phong Bui Tom Huhn
Writer, critic Critic, scholar Publisher, editor, Brooklyn Rail; visual artist; curator Chair, Art History Department and BFA Visual and Critical Studies
Education: BA, Goddard College; graduate work in the Poetics Education: BA, Rutgers University; MA, PhD, Johns Hopkins Education: BFA, Philadelphia College of Art; Department, School of Visual Arts; coordinator, Honors Program,
Program, New College of California University New York Studio School School of Visual Arts; philosopher; critic
Books include: Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Professional experience includes: Art reporter, art critic, Professional experience includes: Curatorial advisor, Education: BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, PhD,
Politics; Between Dog and Wolf: Essays on Art & Politics; Leon The New York Times; art critic, New York magazine P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Host, “Off the Rail Hour,” Art Boston University
Golub and Nancy Spero: The Fighting Is a Dance, Too; From Head Books include: Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, International Radio. Board member: Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, Books include: Imitation and Society: The Persistence of Mimesis
to Hand: Art and the Manual and the Place of the Visual Artist in America; Acts of Engagement: International Association of Art Critics in the Aesthetics of Burke, Hogarth, and Kant; The Cambridge
Contributing editor: Aperture; The Brooklyn Rail; founding Writings on Art, Criticism, and Institutions, 1993-2002. Co-author, Publications include: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Companion to Adorno; The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and
editor, ACTS: A Journal of New Writing. Other publications include: co-editor, Culture in Action: A Public Art Program of Sculpture New York Sun, Sculpture, Hudson Review, Art in America, New York the Ends of Taste; The Semblance of Subjectivity: Essays in Adorno’s
Artforum, Art in America, The Nation, Art Journal, Cabinet Chicago. Co-editor, Conversations at the Castle: Changing Audiences Observer, The Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, Art Monthly Aesthetic Theory
Awards and honors include: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial and Contemporary Art; Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Australia, Matador, Art & Auction, Brooklyn Rail, Metro, The New Publications include: Oxford Art Journal, British Journal of
Foundation Fellowship; Artspace Grant for New Writing in Art Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Yorker, NY Arts, art.net Aesthetics, New German Critique, Art & Text, Eighteenth-Century
Criticism; Logan Award, Boston University, Infinity Award for Writing Walker, Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne One-person exhibitions include: Leslie Heller Gallery, Wooster Studies, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Art Criticism,
Publications include: Art & Auction; Art Journal; Art in America; Arts Space, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Sideshow Gallery Telos, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Philosophy and
Suzanne Anker Sculpture; Journal of the Clark Art Institute; American Theatre; The Group exhibitions include: Lohin Geduld Gallery; Norte Maar; Social Criticism
Chair, BFA Fine Arts Department, School of Visual Arts; New York Times Magazine; Connaissance des Arts; Association Vaudeville Park; Janet Kurnatowski Gallery; Gallery Satori; Cité du CURATORIAL WORKS INCLUDE: “Ornament and Landscape,”
fine artist; critic Internationale des Critiques d’Art; Washington Post; Joel Shapiro: Livre, Aix-en-Provence, France; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Pierogi Apex Gallery; “Still Missing: Beauty Absent Social Life,” Visual Arts
Education: BA, Brooklyn College; MFA, University of Colorado Sculpture and Drawings 2000; Brooklyn Museum Museum and Westport Arts Center, CT
at Boulder Presentations include: Distinguished Critic’s Lecture, Awards and honors include: Eric Isenburger Annual Prize, Awards include: Getty Scholar; Fulbright Scholar; First Prize,
Publications include: Art Journal; Tema Celeste; Seed; M/E/A/ International Association of Art Critics, New School University; National Academy Museum; American Academy of Arts and Letters; American Society for Aesthetics Essay Contest; New York State
N/I/N/G; Leonardo; Nature Reviews Genetics; Update: New York Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida; Denver Pollock-Krasner Foundation; NURTUREart; Arcadia Fellowship; Council for the Humanities
Academy of Sciences magazine; co-author, The Molecular Gaze: Art Art Museum; Princeton University; Yale University Art Gallery; Hohenberg Award for European Travel, New York Studio School;
in the Genetic Age Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Museum of Modern Art; Charles H. Revson Foundation Vincent Katz
Group Exhibitions include: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Weatherspoon Art Museum; Storm King Art Center; Albright-Knox Writer, curator
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Gallery Munro Galloway Education: BA, University of Chicago; BA, MA, Oxford University
Art Center; J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Awards and honors include: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Visual artist Books include: Pleasure Palaces: The Art and Homes of Hunt Slonem;
Art, Japan Foundation Fellowship; Bogliasco Fellowship; visiting scholar, Getty Education: BA, Brown University; MFA, Bard College Janet Fish: Paintings; Alcuni Telefonini; Judge; Rapid Departures;
Research Institute; Board of Trustees, Fondation Alberto et Annette One-person exhibitions include: Murray Guy; Ohio State Understanding Objects. Editor, Black Mountain College: Experiment in
Susan Bee Giacometti. Commencement speaker: School of the Art Institute of University, Columbus Art. Co-author, co-editor, Kiki Smith: The Venice Story. Contributor,
Editor; writer; fine artist; co-editor, M/E/A/N/I/N/G Online. Chicago; New York Studio School Group exhibitions include: Redux Contemporary Art Center, Cy Twombly: Photographs; Francesco Clemente: New Works
Formerly, editor, special issues, New Observations, Artkrush; Charleston, SC; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Hudson Frank- Publications include: Apollo, Art in America, ARTnews, Art on
co-editor, M/E/A/N/I/N/G: A Journal of Contemporary Art lin Gallery; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg Paper, House & Garden, Parkett, The World of Interiors, Tate Etc.,
Issues and M/E/A/N/I/N/G: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings, Artists’ books include: Drawings After Bacon, Vessel States, Jacket magazine, Bomb, Brooklyn Rail, Esopus, Evergreen Review
Theory, and Criticism The Weeds Curatorial projects include: “Street Dance: the New York
Education: BA, Barnard College; MA, Hunter College Publications include: Artforum, The New Yorker, Time Out Photographs of Rudy Burckhardt,” Museum of the City of New York;
Artist’s books include: Talespin, Bed Hangings, Log Rhythms, New York, Flash Art, Knoxville News Sentinel “Black Mountain College: Una Aventura Americana,” Museo Nacional
A Girl’s Life, Little Orphan Anagram, The Burning Babe and Awards include: Farpath Foundation; Arnold-Watson Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid. Co-curator, “Rudy Burckhardt
Other Poems Fellowship, Paris; Fergus Fellowship, Ohio State University & Friends: New York Artists of the 1950s and 60s,” Grey Art Gallery,
Awards and honors include: New York State Council on the New York University
Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Thyrza Nichols Goodeve Awards and honors include: Rome Prize Fellowship, American
Creative Arts, Yaddo Fellowship Producer, writer. Formerly, research associate, Whitney Museum Academy in Rome; National Translation Award, American Literary
of American Art Translators Association
Education: BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, New York University;
PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz
Books and Anthologies include: How Like a Leaf; Ellen
Gallagher, A Painter in III Acts; Peter Halley; Louise Bourgeois;
The Monster’s Progress: The Art of James Barsness
Publications include: Artforum, Parkett, Art in America,
The Village Voice, Guggenheim magazine
Tel: 212.592.2408
Contact Us
Fax: 212.989.3516
E-mail: artcrit@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/artcriticism
department site: artcriticism.sva.edu
We strongly encourage applicants to submit application materials as early as possible. The chair
is always available to meet with interested candidates to discuss the program and its philosophy.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the Office of
Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
MAT
XX Gain specialized teaching experience through the School of Visual Arts’ innovative
children’s programs within the New York City community
XX Start teaching next fall with our one-year intensive program, or attend part-time
Education The art classroom is a place where children are given the opportunity to explore and develop their per-
sonal dreams and goals, and to think independently. The Master of Arts in Teaching (mat) provides a
hands-on learning environment where student teachers investigate educational issues and techniques,
www.sva.edu/grad/arteducation develop their own educational philosophy and continue creating personal artwork. The program takes
a child-centered approach to art education that emphasizes collaboration and community and address-
es the needs of diverse populations, including those with special needs.
Designed for students who have completed an undergraduate major in studio art, the mat Art
Education program can be completed either as a full-time, one-year intensive or as a two-year, part-time
program, ideal for those who want to continue working while they complete the coursework required
to qualify for the New York State Initial Certification in Visual Art.
Our faculty is comprised of professional artist/teachers who are experts at training artists to apply
their creative skills to teaching art to children in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. The program
provides the foundations and psychology of education as they are applied to diverse elementary
and secondary populations. Seminar courses investigate age-appropriate materials, methods and
educational concepts, which student teachers then apply directly to classroom practice in public school
placements. Courses like Curriculum for Special Populations, that includes faculty-led practica
at a homeless shelter; Museum Studies: Theory and Practice; Technology in Art Education; and
Curriculum: Arts Integrated, provide students with further training in varied approaches to teaching
art. The program culminates with the completion of a teaching portfolio, master’s thesis and an
exhibition of mat student artwork.
Individualized student teaching placements are made at carefully selected public schools through-
out the City. Our students have the opportunity to gain specialized teaching experience through sva’s
innovative children’s programs: Art Program for the Homeless and Art for Kids.
sva offers its students state-of-the-art facilities and studios. In addition, as our campus, the City
provides unparalleled resources—for field trips to museums and galleries and for classes held at the
Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art,
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Rubin Museum of Art. mat students may also audit
two courses from sva’s extensive continuing education offerings.
At sva we believe that to teach art, you should first be an artist who can use the power of art to
open the minds, as well as the eyes, of the young to new experiences and individual fulfillment. One
person—a gifted and caring teacher—can make a difference in a young person’s life. Our program is
for artists who want to become teachers and make that difference.
25
Miller spends most of his time with school groups.
Here he overlooks the Panorama of the City of New
York, a massive miniature of the City. It’s the pride of
the Queens Museum, where he’s an educator.
An Artist
Teaches
Alumni Profile: Tim Miller
The Panorama was built for the 1964 New York
World’s Fair. It was called the world’s largest
scale model at the time. It encompasses 9,335
square feet and includes all 320 square miles
of New York City’s five boroughs.
Sometimes learning from the faculty at SVA inspires students to give back and become teachers
themselves. In the early nineties, Tim Miller left the small town of Snohomish, Washington—where
wintry, bucolic tv shows like Northern Exposure and Twin Peaks were filmed—for sva, with dreams
of becoming a great illustrator, chasing his childhood passion for the comic book industry. Miller
graduated in 1994 from the undergraduate illustration and cartooning program, but his mentors at
sva, including artists Jack Potter and John Ruggeri, turned him on to the fine arts. They sparked
a passion for painting that continues to this day.
In the late nineties, he worked in galleries and other day jobs to support his painting until, yet again,
his mentors turned him on to something new: teaching. Miller entered the Art Education program in
2002, its inaugural year. “It was clear from the start that this was an intensive commitment,” says
Miller, “and that for one year of your life everything else was on hold. In a lot of ways, the fact that you
had to step up to the plate like that benefited me, in that it emboldened me to tackle the fundamental
challenge of teaching.” Miller was especially interested in discovering places to apply his degree outside
the traditional classroom and a class in museum education captured his imagination. “To be honest,
public speaking scared the hell out of me,” he recalls, referencing his current day-to-day life. “But the
program taught me to deal with that and find my footing.” Six months after graduating in 2003, he
began freelancing for New York’s Queens Museum of Art, which eventually led to his staff position as a
school and family educator.
Now 36, Miller teaches a wide variety of programs, in both the museum and after-school programs
for students of all ages. At the Queens Museum, he interacts directly with the kids and the institution’s
unique collection, most notably its prized possession, the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335
square foot architectural model of the Big Apple, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair. He also
works in a program called Queens Teens once a week, where he mentors youth to explore the many
careers in the art world. The program was recognized last year in Washington, D.C., with a Coming Up
Taller Award, which is given by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. “You see
the kids responding, living in what they’re doing and opening up before you,” he says. “I’m privileged to
have an opportunity to witness that.”
Rose Viggiano
bays of windows. The studio was designed to be a flexible art and teaching space that is left
open for lectures and for public events, such as exhibitions of children’s artwork. For
meetings of MAT and Art for Kids classes, a soundproof partition divides the studio into two
Rose Viggiano has been at sva for 30 years and her passion for teaching and enthusiasm and affection classrooms, each with its own materials closet, sink and entryway. Included in the depart-
for sva remain strong. “My background is in sculpture so my schooling was creative… but disorga- ment’s facilities are an ever-expanding library of books and periodicals on art and education
nized. In order to run the department, I had to get my doctorate, but I was happy to do it because I really topics as well as access to a secure Wi-Fi network. A lounge area, kitchenette and storage
love and believe in teaching. And I have a great faculty. They’re superb. I sit in on their classes because shelves for personal items are available for student use. The MAT Art Education Department
I learn so much from their techniques.” is within walking distance of Chelsea art galleries, art supply stores and the Photo District.
“…the program is
Students in Viggiano’s Art Education program are encouraged to keep making their own work, Other SVA facilities are close by including the Writing Resource Center and West Side
about taking artists Gallery, located just across the street.
though she admits this can be a challenge. “They do find it difficult, but they make it work with the
and shaping them into
help of studio classes and electives. And I look at portfolios and suggest what they might need to brush
something else. We
On any
up on. Really, though, the program is about taking artists and shaping them into something else. We
get people who want
get people who want to change careers, to do something more humanitarian. They’re all smart, but
to change careers, to
they may not have had hands-on experience with teaching, so we add a lot of that! It’s a challenge but
do something more
given day...
it’s a lot of fun.”
humanitarian.”
“Students teach a range of ages,” Viggiano explains, “so we include a detailed class in educational
psychology. They have to know what happens at what age, developmentally, which is a big undertaking
in one or two years, but vitally important. Teaching art has a cognitive dimension, a physical dimen-
sion, an emotional dimension…. You come here, you really get your head turned around!”
“We work with theater techniques in the first week or two,” Viggiano continues. “The time when
the students first arrive is very important. We try to get them to bond as a group. It’s not like the fine 8:30am – 2:30pm Students report to student-teaching placement 6 – 9pm The class travels to a homeless shelter for mothers and their
arts department where they’re looking primarily at work; we’re looking at people. And if students don’t sites where they work with cooperating teachers on class assignments, children, located on the Lower East Side, where they meet with Sandra
have the right people skills, they’re not going to make it as teachers. So we make sure to start with a development of lesson plans and classroom management techniques. Edmonds for Curriculum: Special Populations class, where student
dynamic group, then have them work through acting scenarios involving teaching and related situa- teams develop population-appropriate lesson plans and art activities.
tions. That immediately kills any lingering shyness. It isn’t exactly ‘therapeutic’ though, it forces you to Mike Filan and Lynn Seeney, Student Teaching Supervisors, conduct Class assignment example — Shelter students are shown a number of
daily site visits where they assess the progress of MAT student teachers collage portraits done by Eric Carle, Romare Bearden and Henri
question and test your purpose.”
as they lead a classroom lesson. Matisse. They discuss the visual and sensory qualities such as surface,
“Some feel really strongly about having their students develop a curriculum according to an exclusive
color, shape, size, texture and volume. Next they are introduced to the
pedagogical philosophy or emphasis, but I don’t believe in that. I believe that what really needs to be
3:30pm Students report to the MAT department where they study, materials—paper, glue sticks, scissors and a variety of embellishments
encouraged is outreach: How do you connect with your community? That’s why we’ve been doing things
take a break or work on group projects in the lounge and classrooms. such as fabric and buttons—and through a demonstration are shown how
like working with a shelter for homeless mothers and kids. It’s important because it allows students to to begin their own self-portraits. Students receive individualized
work with a population they otherwise might not.” Barbara Salander, faculty member and thesis advisor, conducts instruction by SVA students and overlapping is emphasized. After
“A teacher,” Viggiano concludes, thoughtfully, “is someone who wants to be a student, because he individualized meetings with students to discuss thesis topics and completing the collages, students are given strips of paper and asked to
or she is always in a learning situation. Education is not ‘top-down.’ It’s very reflective and you have to research methods. use them to frame their collage self-portraits. The work is displayed so that
be able to take criticism.” each student can explain one aspect of his or her piece. This reflection
She grins. “It’s a real art!” Mike Filan, faculty member and Student Teaching Supervisor, conducts serves as an assessment of the project in which it is determined that every
individualized meetings with students to review their student teaching student has met the criteria of creating a collage self-portrait.
site work progress.
4 – 6pm Art for Kids After School Portfolio Preparation class for
students in seventh and eighth grades. Class is taught by a master artist/
teacher. Seventh and eighth graders expand their knowledge of art ideas
and techniques while exploring a variety of materials, including charcoal,
pencils, cray-pas, watercolor, ink and acrylic paints.
effective collaboration with school administrators, parents and caregivers, members of the community, and Curriculum for Special Populations 3 Curriculum: Arts Integrated 3
Educational Foundations 3 Materials and Methods: Secondary 2
staff members of relevant agencies and cultural institutions. ¶ Course work relates directly to fieldwork
Materials and Methods: Elementary 2 Museum Studies: Theory and Practice 3
and student teaching through discussion of course development, classroom management and age-appropriate
New York State Teacher Certification 0 New York State Teacher Certification 0
application of educational theory. mat students will complete 100 hours of fieldwork and 40 days of student Exam (NYSTCE) Preparation Exam (NYSTCE) Preparation
teaching in public elementary, middle and high school placements under sva faculty supervision. Students Psychology of Special Populations 3 Special Topics Seminar 2 1
can choose to do additional fieldwork and thesis case studies in the following sva programs: Special Topics Seminar 1 1 Student Teaching in Public Secondary Schools 2
Student Teaching in Public Elementary 2 Technology in Art Education 3
XX Art Program for the Homeless: Students teach art to elementary-age children housed at a shelter for and Middle Schools Thesis: Data Collection and Presentation 1
homeless mothers and children. Thesis: Research and Observation 1
XX Weekend Art for Kids Program: Students provide art instruction to children from kindergarten summer Semester Credits
Advanced Studio Art Museum Studies: Theory and Practice Technology in Art Education Rose Viggiano, chair
This course will offer MAT candidates an opportunity to reconnect This course will examine and explore the theory and practice of The digital revolution has brought about a tidal wave of technical Fine artist, art educator
with their art-making practice and develop works of art. We will dis- museum education. We will focus on how to talk about art with innovation, and produced an essential shift in human perception. This Education: BFA, Philadelphia College of Art; MA, SUNY Albany;
cuss the relationship between teaching art and art-making, and develop elementary- and secondary-school students, including discussion course will explore the wide-ranging communities of thought, action EdD, Columbia University
a theme for an exhibition of students’ work at SVA’s Westside Gallery. of contemporary art from other cultures and genres such as abstract and expression that permeate the Web, as well as some of the issues, One-Person Exhibitions include: SOHO20 Gallery; Museo del
Group and one-on-one critiques, presentations on contemporary artists art. Guest lectures by museum educators and field trips to museums concerns and possibilities they present for educators. During the course Pueblo de Guanajuato, Mexico
and visits to galleries in Chelsea will be included. and galleries are included. of the semester, students will develop multimedia projects that involve Group Exhibitions include: Whitney Museum of American
video, sound and still images as a means of exploring how new tech- Art, Downtown Branch; 80 Washington Square; Port Authority Bus
Curriculum: Arts Integrated NYSTCE Preparation nologies available to students—in particular the smartphone—can Terminal; Henry Street Settlement; Hudson River Museum; Benton
The purpose of this course is to create educators who will be compe- This course prepares students to take the New York State Teacher provide a rich outlet for creative exploration and interface in the glo- Gallery
tent in the numerous new demands that educational reform is making Certification exams. The Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, Content balized world. Awards and honors include: CAPS, New Jersey State Council on
of the learning community. Areas addressed will include: the New Specialty Test in Visual Art and Assessment of Teaching Skills– the Arts, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
York State Education Department’s learning and performance stan- Written, required for New York State art teacher certification, will be Thesis: Compilation and Presentation
dards in social studies, science and English language arts; cross-cultural included. Test-taking strategies will be discussed, and several sample This seminar gives students the opportunity to synthesize and docu- Sandra Edmonds
issues and curriculum; integration of the visual arts with other subject exams will be given. ment their completed research, particularly in AEG-5080, Thesis: Fine artist, fashion/costume designer, art educator
areas; and how to develop the listening, speaking, reading and writing Research and Observation, and AEG-5085, Thesis: Data Collection Education: BA, MA, College of New Rochelle; EdD, Columbia
skills of all students, including English-language learners. Psychology of Special Populations and Presentation. We will meet as a group to discuss progress of thesis University
This course will provide students with the psychological foundations projects. Each student will make a final presentation to the department Exhibitions include: Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia
Curriculum for Special Populations and implications for practice of teaching special needs populations. It chair and faculty. University; ABC No Rio; Lumen Gallery, New Rochelle Library, NY
Understanding the needs of special populations and how disabilities, will address learning, development, motivation, intelligence research honors include: Kappa Delta Pi
home situations and socioeconomic levels affect learning will be and effective instruction with a range of students with special needs Thesis: Data Collection and Presentation
the focus of this course. Students will hold workshops for elementary who require accommodations and modifications in the classroom. Methodologies for conducting action-based research in classroom Michael Filan
school-age children at a shelter that houses displaced mothers and Populations with learning, physical and developmental disabilities, situations and data collection will be introduced in this course, and Painter, printmaker, art educator
their small children. The role of art activities in fostering self-esteem including autism spectrum disorder will be discussed. We will also students will finalize their thesis proposals. Research techniques and Education: BFA, MPS, Pratt Institute
and confidence in children will be explored, with emphasis on group cover the Response to Intervention (RTI), pre-referral strategies, and compilation will provide the necessary background for thesis projects Group Exhibitions include: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,
management, discipline and development of population-appropriate collaborative models of planning and instruction with other teach- to be completed during the summer semester. Sweetbriar; Lehman College Art Gallery; SUNY Fredonia; Food Stamp
lessons. A special education component will focus on individualized ers (including inclusion models). The areas of instructional strategies, Gallery
instruction, legal responsibilities and ethical considerations for formal and informal assessment, assisted technology and classroom Thesis: Research and Observation Collections include: Heinz Corporation
students with disabilities. management as pertaining to the psychological well-being of children Weekly meetings to assist students in the development of the thesis Awards and honors include: Virginia Center Fellowship, Studio
will be stressed. project will be held throughout the semester. Students will conduct lit- in a School Association, Bronx Council on the Arts
Educational Foundations erature searches, prepare a literature review and conduct field research
Art education will be explored through an examination of its cultural, Special Topics Seminar 1 & 2 in SVA’s children’s programs or other placements and develop their Valerie Foster-Adam
social, psychological, environmental and aesthetic foundations. Art and Lectures will provide information on substance abuse for use in ideas for a thesis topic. Art instructor, Poughkeepsie Day School
its teaching will be situated within the contexts of psychosocial, cogni- curricula that promote health and physical fitness to students from Education: BFA, University of North Texas; MA, Brooklyn College;
tive and artistic development of children and adolescents. Research pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. How to identify and report School of Visual Arts
methodologies will also be introduced. suspected child abuse (or maltreatment), the prevention of child
Jerry M. James
Materials and Methods: Elementary
abduction and violence, and instruction in fire and arson will be
included. In the second semester, we will address the use of art to Professional Opportunities Fine artist, Lincoln Center Institute
The methods and materials appropriate for art experiences suitable support student learning in reading and literacy. The MAT Art Education Department offers its students Education: BFA, Old Dominion University; MFA, Yale University;
for pre-kindergarten through middle school will be examined, including EdD, Columbia University
research opportunities as well as experience in the application
problem-solving approaches to various teaching situations, classroom Student Teaching in Public Elementary and Middle SchoolS Exhibitions include: Searles Spicer Gallery, Macy Gallery, National
of educational theory and practice. Teaching sites provide
management and discipline. Based on cumulative, developmental learn- Student teachers will be placed at elementary- and middle-school sites Arts Club
resources for the development of a personal teaching philosophy
ing experiences in the visual arts, students will develop strategies and to observe classes, prepare lesson plans and teach their lessons. After Publications include: Rulers in the Land of Imagination, Art
and the thesis project. These sites have included: SVA’s Art for
procedures for teaching art, including sequential lesson plans that they two weeks of fieldwork, participants will work with an art teacher for and Cognition, Teaching Artists Journal
may use in their student teaching. 20 full days of student teaching. Observation and evaluation by School Kids Programs , a shelter for homeless mothers and children, Awards and honors include: Teachers College Merit Scholarship;
of Visual Arts faculty and cooperating teachers will be given on an and New York City public schools and museums. Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Ely Harwood Schless Memorial
Materials and Methods: Secondary ongoing basis. Fund Prize, Yale University
The objectives and practical methodology involved in teaching art on
the secondary level is the focus of this course. Topics include devel- Student Teaching in Public Secondary Schools
opment and organization of appropriate content and design for a Student teachers will be placed at secondary-school sites to observe
secondary-school curriculum, classroom management and discipline. classes, prepare lesson plans and teach their lessons. After two weeks
Sequential lesson plans for the development of age-appropriate skills of fieldwork, participants will work with an art teacher for 20 full
may be devised and implemented at the student teaching sites. days of student teaching. Observation and evaluation by School
of Visual Arts faculty and cooperating teachers will be given on an
ongoing basis.
Jaime Permuth Lynn Seeney Gary Bates Peter Mason Mary Sullivan
Visual artist, art educator Fine artist; arts administrator; lecturer, Museum of Modern Art. past president, The New York NYC Board of Education artist
Education: BA, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Formerly, executive director, Collaborative Projects, Inc. State Art Teachers Association Wayne Miyamoto Bruce Wands
MPS, School of Visual Arts Education: BA, Tyler School of Art; MA, New York University
One-person exhibitions: Instituto Guatemalteco Americano, One-Person Exhibitions include: Asyl Gallery Michael Bitz artist, art educator chair, MFA Computer Arts,
Guatemala; Palacio Nacional, Guatemala Group Exhibitions include: VIA #7 International Arts Festival, founder, director, Eva Pataki School of Visual Arts
Group exhibitions: Mary Barone Gallery, New York; Centro Cultural Paris; Musée de la Poste, Paris; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Metropolitano, Guatemala; Museum of Modern Art, New York Publications include: The New York Times, New York,
The Comic Book Project art educator, New York State Ejay Weiss
Publications: Forty Cent Tip: Stories of New York City Immigrant Newsday, Art/World John Broughton Board of Education artist
Workers, New American Photography, Los Angeles Times Curatorial works include: “Monumental Vision: Abstraction
Awards: Artist-in-residence, Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Today,” “Gods of the Modern Age: Art and Technology,” Bronx
educator Joyce Raimondo Nancy Wells
Guatemala; Paula Rhodes Award, School of Visual Arts; Texas River Art Center and Gallery Judith Burton author, artist artist
Commission on the Arts Grant
Devin Thornburg
art educator David Sandlin Susan Edmonds Wiggins
Barbara Salander Psychologist; director, childhood education, educational leadership, Dan Cemeron artist director of special education,
Fine artist; thesis director, MAT Art Education Department, Adelphi University
School of Visual Arts Education: BS, cum laude, Tulane University; M.Ed., Harvard
curator, artistic director Lonnie Saunderson Sherman School, CT
Education: BA, Barnard College; MA, EdD, Columbia University University; PhD, New York University Sandra Carey teacher, recruitment manager,
Exhibitions include: Lori Bookstein Fine Arts; Mana Fine Art, Publications include: Pathway to Inclusion: Voices from the Field;
Jersey City; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY; Projects in After Schools: Diverse Learners and School Achievement
communications instructor NYC Department of Education
Peters Gallery, Houston Awards and honors include: U.S. Department of Education, Jennifer Carroll Natalie J. Schifano
Publications include: The Mirror and Adolescent Identity Greentree Foundation, New York City Department of Education, After
Formation: Adolescents’ Reflections on Reproductions of School Corporation, Booth Ferris Foundation
actor art educator
Paintings with Mirrors; Watching Yourself Teach: A Teaching Antonia Demas Graeme Sullivan
and Learning Experience
Awards and honors include: Kappa Delta Pi
founder, Food Studies Institute art educator
Barbara Ellmann
artist
Joan Goodman
art educator
Joel Handorff
Tel: 212.592.2445
Contact Us
artist
Dorothee King Fax: 646.336.7702
architect
Phyllis Kornfeld
E-mail: matarted@sva.edu
artist www.sva.edu/grad/arteducation
Kimberly Lane
elementary art teacher We encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting
application materials.
Rick Lasher
past president, Minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Art Educators of New Jersey Come to our Departmental Information Sessions, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
Tara Maceyak Departmental Information Sessions: October 25, 2011 and November 5, 2011.
curriculum specialist All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
The Art Practice program offers a fully interdisciplinary approach to an mfa degree. Artists in
the program are not defined or separated by medium or discipline. In this post-conceptual, post-studio
era, artists pursue their practice by engaging an idea first, and then developing a plan that may involve
a combination of media, technologies and techniques, some of which are linked to traditional art
media, and some of which find the artist working with technologies and industries not usually associ-
ated with art-making.
We aim to prepare artists to feel secure in their ability to produce works of art using traditional
and nontraditional media in both traditional and nontraditional settings. To accomplish this, we bring
together a carefully selected, small group of mfa candidates who will devote three successive
summers and the two intervening years to a program in which they will engage with artists, designers,
art historians and museum curators, including Vito Acconci, Suzanne Anker, Cory Arcangel, Roger
Black, Maurice Berger, Dara Birnbaum, Kathy Brew, Mel Chin, Liz Diller, Liam Gillick, Susan
Hefuna, Lee Mingwei, James Harithas, Glenn Ligon, Steven Henry Madoff, Douglas Nickel, Martha
Rosler, Tim Rollins, Gary Simmons, Philippe Vergne, Carrie Mae Weems, Lawrence Weiner, Robin
Winters and Terry Winters.
Like the nature of the work we hope to help students produce, this program itself is work in progress,
and will be continuously refined as a function of the experience of all its participants. This is an exciting
time for us, and another example of why SVA is seen as an art college for the 21st century.
MFA
Art
Practice
www.sva.edu/grad/artpractice
43
department site: artpractice.sva.edu
Dara Birnbaum’s
apartment in Soho
is both her home
and studio.
An Artist
at Work
at Home
Faculty Profile: Dara Birnbaum
Some music from Birnbaum’s
home collection. Birnbaum,
most known for her video and
installation art, has collaborated
Imagine having to break the law in order to acquire and manipulate footage from a popular TV with numerous musicians
show. It seems absurd: the idea of having to break the law to, say, slow a scene down, or repeat a throughout her career. She will
be mentoring students in their
scene a few times, or re-assemble scenes in a way that reveals something new or possibly latent in the studio work where they will be
show. But Dara Birnbaum did just this in 1978, with Technology Transformation: Wonder Woman, encouraged to experiment with
in order to execute her idea: which was to pull out the show’s latent gender stereotypes. She had a different art mediums.
degree in painting, but she knew that painting wouldn’t articulate what she wanted as effectively as
going into the source material and changing it. So that’s just what she did, with the help of friends
in the industry, none of whom likely knew they were aiding and abetting Birnbaum in her inspired
production of what many consider to be the original “scratch video.”
An architect by training, Birnbaum has produced many acclaimed art works since she began
working as an artist more than 35 years ago, varying in form from single to multi-channel videos that
re-contextualize pop cultural figures and TV genres, to operatic, un-appropriated installation works.
A crucial thread that connects all her formally and thematically disparate work is her thinking, her
ideas – which makes her a great fit as pilot core member of SVA’s innovative MFA Art Practice program.
Like Birnbaum, the Art Practice program has no prejudice toward any one medium. It’s designed
instead to help artists identify the medium best equipped to realize their ideas, and then to match
them up with state-of-the-art studio facilities where they can work those ideas out.
Birnbaum has frequently worked with video, so she’ll be conducting weekly media seminars, but
her participation in all the changes that have electrified the art world the last 35 years makes her
invaluable also as an instructor who can speak from experience. It’s no surprise that she’s also a fre-
quent international lecturer, collaborator, a former SVA instructor, (Film and Video), and the recent
subject of a major retrospective and beautiful companion monograph titled, Dara Birnbaum:
The Dark Matter of Media Light.
“For me it’s a thought process that, after a while, builds up enough to where I can finally enter a post-
production house, or go into a studio, and work,” Birnbaum says. SVA is pleased, and lucky, to have her
in a program designed to help other artists trace that same exciting but tricky line from idea to artifact.
Birnbaum works both day and night on her
art, while also corresponds with students
as well as various art professionals. For
the summer session of the Art Practice
program students are encouraged to work
on their art some six hours per day.
chair interview
David A. Ross
“SVA is a remarkable institution,” says David A. Ross, “in many ways it represents a nearly perfect
school for the teaching of art, design, and interrelated areas of art education. The College is blessed with
ambitious students, an enthusiastic (and energized) faculty, and an administration that seems to have
figured out what it takes to keep this kind of institution lively and relevant. But what impresses me most
about the College is that it refuses to rest on its laurels, and continues to consider ways in which the
“(The program) will
idea of an art school can be improved—reinvented if necessary.”
function both as a
“Starting last year with the Digital Photography program,” Ross continues, “SVA began exploring the
laboratory for the
ways in which it could use an Internet-based low-residency framework to deliver a highly technical course
exploration of new
On any
in state-of-the-art digital imaging. Now we are taking the next step, with a full MFA program that will
directions in art
make use of both online courses and a series of intensive six-week studio, seminar and workshop sessions.”
practice, as well as
Ross is enthusiastic about the possibilities, “The program welcomes self-motivated students who have
a program that will
given day...
completed undergraduate degrees in any discipline and who have already spent some time out of school
engage students and
exploring their professional options and opportunities. It will function both as a laboratory for the
faculty in an intense
exploration of new directions in art practice, as well as a program that will engage students and faculty
give and take.”
in an intense give and take. A working premise of the program is that students and faculty should, to
the extent possible, work within a non-hierarchical framework in which the blur between teacher and
student becomes increasingly apparent as the program progresses through its three-summer structure.”
“One feature that I feel will be quite useful and valued is our mentor program. Each student will select
one core faculty member as his/her mentor, and over the three summers and two intervening years of 8am Though the morning seminar begins at 9 am, students will meet 7pm Two evenings each week, all students and faculty meet for a group
for coffee before class starts, to compare notes and prepare for the day. critique with a visiting critic or curator. Tonight Dia director Philippe
the program, those relationships should become increasingly important to both student and faculty alike.”
Some will engage in yoga or stretching exercises in neighborhood gyms. Vergne, and artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat join in the discussion.
“I suspect that our students will be artists who may have already found work teaching, or in some
allied creative field, and who now feel ready to re-engage the educational process—albeit with some real-
9am Today’s seminar guest speaker is the artist-designer Vito Acconci 10pm Exhausted but energized, some students go home, some head
world experience in addition to their undergraduate degrees.”
who will talk about his career as a poet, performance artist, sculptor and back to their studios, while some head out into the warm New York City
“We have a fantastic faculty and a group of distinguished guest lecturers and mentors from all
architect/designer. Students will engage in a three-hour give and take summer night.
areas of the visual arts,” continues Ross, “Such notables as the video art pioneer Dara Birnbaum, who with Acconci and with MFA Art Practice chair David A. Ross and seminar
specializes in complex narrative video installations, and Gary Simmons, who produces large-scale leader Gary Simmons.
wall drawings and sculptural installations exploring the profound social and psychological nuances of
American culture. In addition to core seminar faculty, visiting critics, curators and art historians—in- 1pm Studio time begins after the morning seminar. Studio Practice men-
cluding Thomas Crow, Elisabeth Sussman and Robert Pincus-Witten—will share their perspectives and tor Dara Birnbaum will meet one-on-one with students in their individual
experiences with students.” studio space.
FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICISM I & II using new media, including blog writing, video journals, and hybrid David A. Ross Kathy Brew
Understanding prominent theoretical positions within art criticism— forms. The intent of the course is to reach a full understanding of the Chair, MFA Art Practice Department, School of Visual Arts; writer, Producer, video maker, media arts curator
past and present—is the focus of these two online courses. Part I, ways in which maintaining a journal allows for the ongoing self-exam- curator Education: BA, cum laude, Middlebury College
explores theories of the image from cave paintings to advertising, ination of each student’s creative practice supporting the continual Education: BS, Syracuse University Professional experience includes: Co-director, Margaret Mead
film theory to the comic strip, video to the digital image, and cur- refinement and integration of one’s work and life. Professional experience includes: director, San Francisco Film & Video Festival, American Museum of Natural History; direc-
rent debates in animation studies. Students will read classical writ- Museum of Modern Art; director, Whitney Museum of American tor, Thundergulch/Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; senior associ-
ings from philosophy (e.g., Plato), art history (Panofsky, Greenberg, PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP Art; director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; associate direc- ate producer, City Arts, WNET
W.J.T. Mitchell) and film theory (Eisenstein, Bazin), as well as writers As performance has become central to the contemporary definition of tor, chief curator, University Art Museum, Berkeley; deputy director, Video projects include: ID/entity: Portraits in the 21st Century;
such as Apollinaire and Delillo. We will also cover semiotics, feminist sculptural practice, this workshop will help to refine students’ capabili- curator of video art, Long Beach Museum of Art; curator of video art, Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution; Penetration and
theory and institutional critique reading key theorists such as Barthes, ties to plan and execute performance and performance-based instal- Everson Museum of Art Transparency: Morphed; Mixed Messages; Regret to Inform
Benjamin, Baudrillard, and Debord among others. In the second part lation works. Students will explore and master the technical aspects Curatorial projects include : “Tomorrow,” Kumho Museum, Curatorial consultant: “Engaging Characters,” Art Interactive,
of this course, the focus will be upon interdisciplinary concerns, par- of gallery-based (as opposed to theatrical) performance art, and study Artsonje Center, Seoul and Long March Space, Beijing; “Peter Cambridge, MA; Reel New York, WNET; Reframe, Tribeca Film
ticularly the intersection of art and music history, art and the history historic performance works. The history and various theories of per- Campus: A Survey,” Antico Collegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico Institute; Scanners: The New York Video Festival
of science, and the relationship of critical theory to changes in technol- formance and theater will be examined. Students will develop and City; “Lorna Simpson: 31,” Claustro Sor Juana, Mexico City; Publications include: Women, Art, and Technology; Shift;
ogy and evolving concepts of authorship, originality, and ownership. hone performance skills, including planning, production and the per- “Quotidiana,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Castello di Rivoli, Italy; Documentary; Civilization; High Performance; San Francisco Bay
Assigned readings and writings, as well as weekly Web-based group formance itself. The workshop will conclude with the presentation of a “KoreAmericaKorea,” Sonje Museum, Seoul; “Bill Viola: a 25 Year Guardian; San Francisco Focus; Artcoast
discussions are required. performance or performance-based installation work. Survey,” Whitney Museum of American Art, traveling exhibition: Awards and honors include: Emmy Award, CEC ArtsLink
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam;
GRADUATE SEMINAR I & II STUDIO PRACTICE I, II, & III Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; San Francisco Museum of Katrin Eismann
The cognate areas of art and relevant issues that have lead to a blur- The core of the summer sessions is studio practice. Studios are Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago Chair, MPS Digital Photography Department, School
ring of the boundaries between formerly discrete aspects of the art available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Students of Visual Arts; photographer; author
world are examined in these seminars. As the program supports a view are required to spend six hours a day at minimum working in Suzanne Anker Education: BFA, Rochester Institute of Technology; MFA, School of
of contemporary practice that combines a conventional approach to the studio. The objective is to produce original, advanced work Chair, BFA Fine Arts Department, School of Visual Arts; fine artist, Visual Arts
visual art-making, criticism and curatorial work, the series consid- with instruction and support from faculty and under the specific theorist Author: Photoshop Masking & Compositing, Photoshop Restoration
ers the shifts in contemporary society that underlie these profound guidance of an individual mentor, who will offer ongoing Education: BA, Brooklyn College; MFA, University of Colorado, and Retouching. Co-author, The Creative Digital Darkroom, Real
changes. Topics of central concern will include government and com- critical evaluation. While studios are available at all times, reviews Boulder World Digital Photography
mercial censorship, the continuing impact of technological innovation, will take place Monday through Friday, with weekly group critiques One-person exhibitions include : Medizinhistorisches Museum Clients include: Apple Computer, Eastman Kodak, Adobe Systems,
changing social relations as a function of the politics of identity and in the evening. Studio Practice is the central element and primary der Charité, Berlin; Center for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin; Universal Fuji Film, U.S. Navy, Nikon, PMA, PPA, ASMP
ways in which power relationships within the art world have been requirement of the program. As such, it is expected that students will Concepts Unlimited; Greenberg Wilson Gallery; Richard Gray Gallery; Publications include: Photo District News, American Photo,
transformed. Assigned readings form the basis of discussions and will make notable progress in their individual practice. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Popular Photography, Step by Step Graphics
relate to ongoing work in studio production. The second seminar will Group exhibitions include : J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Award: Photoshop Hall of Fame
include focused conversations concerned with the nature of the chang- STUDIO PRACTICE REVIEW I, II, & III Angeles; Basel Art Fair; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Website: www.katrineismann.com
ing world of art and ideas. Working in rich-media (multimedia) par- During the fall and spring semesters, online study sessions will take P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Pera Museum, Istanbul; National
ticipants will generate an extended essay on a topic to be determined place, and students are expected to continue their studio work from Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; Thyrza Nichols Goodeve
during the second summer session. their home location. Students and mentors will remain in contact Kunsthaus Merano, Italy; Museo de Arte Extremeño e Iberoamericano Critic, writer. Formerly, research associate, Whitney Museum of
online. At least one on-site review of work-in-progress during the fall or de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz, Spain American Art
GRADUATE SEMINAR III spring semester will take place. In the second year, students will begin Collections include: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Cleveland Education: BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, New York University;
A continuation of the readings, writings and discussion that formed work on their thesis projects under the supervision of their mentor. Museum of Art, Oakland Art Museum, New York Public Library, The PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz
the intellectual core of years I and II, Seminar III adds a discussion New School, Denver Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum Publications include: How Like A Leaf; The Monster’s Progress:
of the ways in which private and public patronage have affected the STUDIO PRACTICE REVIEW IV: THESIS PREPARATION Publications include: Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash The Art of James Barsness; When Pain Strikes; The American Art
history of art, the current status of the schism between public and During the second spring semester, online study sessions will take Art, The New York Times, Art Journal, Newsweek, The Economist, Book; catalog essays for Tony Oursler Retrospective, Hanover Gallery,
private sculpture, the nature and function of art collecting (both public place, and students will continue their studio work from their home Nature, Tema Celeste, M/E/A/N/I/N/G Germany; “PUPPY,” Guggenheim Magazine
and private), and the ways in which the institutions of art (including location. Students and mentors will remain in contact online. At least Awards and honors include: New York Foundation for the Arts,
schools) function in this blurring art world. Students will begin to one on-site review of work-in-progress during the semester will take Artists Space, Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung
conceptually frame their final thesis projects. Topics will address the place. Students will begin work on their thesis projects under the
differences in conception of artistic practice, including historical devel- supervision of their mentor. Dara Birnbaum
opments and basic philosophical formulations, the rhetoric of contem- Visual artist
porary art practice, and the social and ideological shifts in contributing THESIS Education: B.Arch., Carnegie Mellon University;
to changing ideas of artistic practice. Each student will produce a complete body of new work with guid- BFA, San Francisco Art Institute
ance and support from faculty and under the specific guidance of Represented by : Marian Goodman Gallery
THE JOURNAL: A WRITING WORKSHOP an individual mentor. The thesis exhibition represents the culmination One-person exhibitions include : S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum
Using the skills developed in the first year of study, this workshop of the program, and is a central requirement for the successful comple- voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium; Museum of Modern Art
explores the production of the individual artist’s journal. Students will tion of the degree. Group exhibitions include : Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Museum of
produce a daily journal employing a conventional written form or Malmö, Sweden; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Whitney Museum
of American Art
Contact Us
Tel: 212.592.2781
Fax: 212.493.5405
E-mail: artpractice@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/artpractice
department site: artpractice.sva.edu
We strongly encourage applicants to visit SVA prior to submitting application materials.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact
the Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Artists intuitively understand the inherently beneficial aspects of the creative process. Art therapy is an
innovative profession that provides a valuable contribution to the care of people living with psychologi-
cal and physical challenges. The mission of the mps Art Therapy program at sva is to offer students
this avenue of helping others through creative expression. Students are trained within a humanistic
framework, coupled with the theory and practice of art therapy. The program offers coursework taught
by working professionals, innovative internship opportunities and workshops, lectures and special
projects reflective of current trends within the profession.
The internship requirement is a significant part of the training, giving students the opportunity
to work directly with clients on an ongoing basis, in both individual and group settings. Students are
supervised by registered and licensed art therapists as well as members of the mps Art Therapy faculty,
and begin internships in the first semester of study, ensuring that theory and practice are integrated
from the start. The program’s full-time Internship Coordinator meets individually with students to choose
a placement from a wide array of settings, including treatment centers, schools, hospitals and shelters.
Community outreach via Special Programs & Projects affords students additional opportunities to work
with clients outside of their internship experience.
The diversity and density of New York City’s population make it a unique location for cutting-edge
treatment, technology and technique. The thousands of working professionals, including art therapists,
psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, educators and artists, provide the program a remarkable pool
of talent and experience from which to select faculty, internships and guest lecturers. The mps Art
Therapy program, an educational provider fully approved by the American Art Therapy Association, is
committed to serving the community and to training students to work and thrive within this demanding
profession, as well as aiding alumni in their post-graduation growth. The program looks forward to
seeing the accomplishments of its alumni, and the role they will play in promoting and developing the field
in the years and decades to come.
61
Lesley Achitoff was a decorative
painter for over a decade before
studying Art Therapy at SVA. She
Making a
is photographed at her school in
Manhattan, where she works with
court-involved teenage girls.
Difference
One Student
at a Time
Alumni Profile: Lesley Achitoff
The field of art therapy enables artists to combine art and psychology as a vehicle for healing,
communication, self-expression and personal development. Lesley Achitoff, a 2004 graduate who
changed careers after being a decorative painter for 15 years, is now the only art therapist on staff
at Community Prep High School in Manhattan, a transitional high school for court-involved adoles-
cents. The school was created to help the students raise their grade levels and address the behavior
issues that impede their academic achievement so that they will succeed in diploma-bearing high schools
or ged programs.
Lesley teaches a daily group advisory class with an art therapy focus for girls ages 14 to 18.
Female students make up just 25% of the school’s population. “Art gives these students an opportunity
to express themselves in a non-verbal way,” she explains. “Therapy helps counter their resistance
and builds trust. Art therapy helps them to discover their creativity and raises their self-esteem, which
in turn helps them do better in school.”
Achitoff believes that in this line of work, small victories make all the difference. One student,
who struggles with the effects of trauma, has made significant progress in her schooling and therapy.
“She is leaving the program with patience and focus and even wants to go to college.” Achitoff
emphasizes that she is not trying to change the students but to help them recognize their own strengths
through the art therapy process. But just like any artist, her work is never truly done.
Deborah Farber
of students working with clients in the creative art therapies. The open studio,
as well as two classrooms, are designed and operated based on the humanistic
philosophy that art therapy and art therapy training should be a collaboration
What ideas guided you in creating the mps Art Therapy program at sva? “From the beginning of the mediated by artistic processes and human interactions. It is modeled after
program,” recalls Deborah Farber, “I was interested in community outreach. And I had the idea that an “enabling space,” or sanctuary, in which the connection between creativity and
it should be multidisciplinary. I thought students should hear from different members of treatment teams, healing can be made. This environment, and all that happens within it, reinforces
not only art therapists, but other people in the hierarchy. So we have psychologists who are also artists the notion that by treating clients with respect and dignity and introducing them
teaching as one way to vary the approach, learning style and material. And we look for a totally hetero- to art as a special language for self-expression, the power of the creative process
“Internships are a
geneous mix of students,” Farber stresses, “because in group therapy, that’s the ideal situation.” can be utilized as a form of therapeutic treatment.
key element of the
Why did you add the addictionology track to the curriculum? “We arrived at the twin-track struc-
program. We have
ture of the program by thinking about the usefulness of a substance abuse counseling certification.
over a hundred
On any
I wanted the equivalent of that qualification to be incorporated into the program because I thought it
placements in
would enhance the training’s practicality. And sure enough, we quickly began to find that our gradu-
the New York
ates had a huge advantage when trying to get art therapy jobs in addictions facilities.”
metropolitan area.”
Can your students balance their artistic development with the demands of graduate study? “Stu-
given day...
dents are encouraged to maintain their own art practices.” Farber explains. “We have an open studio
all day on Friday, and we incorporate a lot of art-making into classes, so they’re always using art
materials. Creation is universal, and the creative process is a healing process. Students need to be fluent
in two languages, clinical language and the language of creativity. Whether or not their clients
are ‘talented’ has nothing to do with it.”
How is the internship component structured? “Internships are a key element of the program. We
have over a hundred placements in the New York metropolitan area. When someone is accepted into First-Year Student: Second-Year Student:
the program, they meet with our internship coordinator, who works full-time to set up legal contracts
9 – noon Raquel Stephenson’s Adult Development & Aging class, 9 – noon Students meet with thesis instructors Eileen McGann and
with our affiliates and to assist students in their placement. We work with every type of population such
students discuss “Creativity & Aging” and Rudolf Arnheim’s essay Raquel Stephenson for Thesis Project class and discuss putting finishing
as therapeutic nursery schools, day treatment programs for substance abusers, assisted living programs
“On the Late Style.” touches on their theses as well as upcoming thesis presentations.
for the elderly, and everything in between.”
What are students working toward? “The thesis is a culmination of everything they’ve learned.
noon – 3pm Rebecca DiSunno’s Expressive Therapies class covers noon – 3pm Break. Students catch up on paperwork from internship
They come up with a clinical question, something that involves research and a hypothesis. It’s done
“Film & Photography.” The documentary Born into Brothels is screened. sites; some work on submissions for In Touch, the Art Therapy Depart-
in measurable steps and they discuss their research with instructors as well as with the entire group.” ment’s online newsletter; some attend a planning meeting for an upcoming
How do mps Art Therapy alumni contribute to the field? “I have one student,” Farber enthuses, 3 – 6pm Break. Students conduct research at the Visual Arts Library; Special Project with coordinator Val Sereno; some meet with clients in
“who worked with abused children and wrote her thesis on adolescents with attachment disorders. some catch up on paperwork from their internship sites; some work on the MPS Art Therapy Department’s Counseling Center.
It was recently published in the American Art Therapy Journal. Another student was an animator their watercolor technique for an upcoming Visiting Artist Workshop
who wanted to go into art therapy. He started his own nonprofit and works all over the metropolitan given by watercolorist Judi Betts. 3 – 6pm Community Access Through the Arts class. Students
area, hiring art therapists to work using animation with at-risk adolescents. He’s got all kinds of participate in a collaborative art therapy/museum education project at
grants already, and he’s only been out of the program for two years!” 6 –9pm Supervision Class: students hand in process notes from the Whitney Museum of American Art.
internship sites and conduct case presentations.
6 – 9pm Clinical Topics in Challenged Populations class for students
in the Challenged Populations track, guest lecturer Marcia Cohen-
Liebman discusses Forensic Art Therapy.
Specialization
Addictionology: The addictionology track focuses on both Challenged Populations: The challenged populations track
substance abuse and non-drug addictions. Students will learn about focuses on the uses of art therapy in a variety of settings, including
diagnosis and treatment, and gain a thorough knowledge of the physical, mental and emotional challenges. Counseling methods
physiology of addictions and of how to work with affected families. and the impact of disability on the family are among the subjects
addressed.
Sample Programs
first year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
Deborah Farber, chair Rebecca Di Sunno Robert Abel Grant Renee Obstfeld
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT; clinical nurse specialist Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT
Education: BA, Herbert H. Lehman College; MPS, Pratt Institute; Education: MA, PhD, New York University Education: BA, Long Island University; MPS, Pratt Institute Education: BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, New York University
Substance Abuse Counseling Certificate, Marymount Manhattan College professional experience: Art therapist, East End Hospice; art professional experience: Art therapist, clinical supervisor, PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Art therapist, Robert Mapplethorpe
professional experience: Art therapist, Holliswood Hospital; therapy program coordinator, International Child Art Foundation, Family Service Programs; post-adoption coordinator, HeartShare Residential Treatment Facility
alcoholism psychotherapist, Freedom Institute; activities director, World Children’s Festival Human Services; art therapist, Graham Windham Services to Children Publication: American Journal of Art Therapy
High Point Hospital; activities therapist, Association for the Help of Publications include: American Journal of Art Therapy, East and Families; consultant, New York Urban League: Manhattan Branch
Retarded Children; curator, “Annual Art Therapy Exhibition,” School Hampton Star Family Redirection Program Meagan O’Connell
of Visual Arts exhibitions include: Baca Downtown Theater and Gallery, Long Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT; director, therapeutic services &
publications and presentations include: “Rebuilding Hope Michael Fisher Island University, New York Art Therapy Association, Art in General creative arts therapies, Incarnation Children’s Center
One Block at a Time: Collective Art in New York City,” American Senior psychologist and outpatient program coordinator, Education: BA, Manhattanville College; MA, New York University
Art Therapy Association Annual Conference; “Child Art Therapy,” Comprehensive Addiction Treatment Center, Jacobi Medical Center; Markus J. Kraebber PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Senior child life specialist, Mount Sinai
Montclair Art Museum; panelist, Arts and Humanities Conference, associate director, The Mimesis Institute; private practice Psychiatrist Medical Center; advisory board, Splashes of Hope
School of Visual Arts; “Art Therapy and Literacy with Children,” Education: BA, SUNY Binghamton; MA, Yeshiva University; Education: BA, Harvard University; MD, Jefferson Medical College Presentations include: “The New Psychosocial Morbidity: A
International Reading Conference; Encyclopedia of Disability and PhD, Long Island University; postgraduate training, Eastern Group professional experience: Attending psychiatrist, pediatric con- View from the 21st Century,” Mount Sinai Pediatric Grand Rounds;
Rehabilitation; Ferguson’s Careers in Focus: Art Psychotherapy Society; New York Milton Erickson Society for sultant, New York Presbyterian Hospital; Massachusetts General “Weaving Creative Arts Modalities into Child Life Practice,” Bank
Psychotherapy and Hypnosis Hospital/Chelsea; Eric Lindemann Mental Health Center; Volunteers Street College of Education; “Weaving Creative Arts Processes
Claudia Bader presentations include: “Unconscious at Play: Utilizing the of America, Inc.; ACI, Inc.; Lenox Hill Hospital; Bellevue Hospital Into Child Life Programming,” Child Life of Greater New York
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT; psychoanalyst; executive director, Mimesis Process,” Institute for Expressive Analysis; “Chemical CPEP; research assistant, Diabetes Research Center, University of Professional Development Conference; “Child Art Therapy,”
Institute for Expressive Analysis. Formerly, art therapist, Manhattan Dependency in the Workplace: Establishing a Chemical Dependency Pennsylvania Medical School; corporate finance analyst, Smith Barney New School University
Psychiatric Center Program,” Lenox Hill Hospital publications include: “Blood Pressure Changes, Evaluation
Education: BA, University of California San Diego; MPS, Pratt of Fever,” On Call Psychiatry; “Validation and Utility of a Self- Valerie Sereno
Institute Lisa Furman Report Version of Prime-MD,” Journal of the American Medical Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT; coordinator, special programs and
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT Association; “Effect of the Hypoglycemic drug AZ DF 265 on ATP- projects, MPS Art Therapy Department, School of Visual Arts
Irene Rosner David Education: BFA, Rhode Island School of Design; MA, New York Sensitive Potassium Channels in Rat Pancreatic beta cells,” British Education: BA, Marymount Manhattan College; MA, New
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT University Journal of Pharmacology York University
Education: BA, City College of New York; MA, New York professional experience: Clinical psychotherapist, New York Professional experience: Art therapist, 9/11 School Recovery
University; PhD, Union Institute Foundling Hospital; Danbury Hospital for Children and Adolescent Carol Greiff Lagstein Program, PS 89, PS 124; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center;
professional experience: Board of directors, American Treatment Services; Long Island College Hospital; New York Institute Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT Montessori Manhattan School, St. Luke’s Hospital
Art Therapy Association; director, Therapeutic Arts, Bellevue for Special Education Education: BFA, California College of the Arts; MPS, Pratt Institute; Presentations include: “The Creative Arts Therapies’ Response
Hospital Center presentations include: “When a Scribble Is Not Just a Scribble: MSW, Columbia University to 9/11,” New York University; American Art Therapy Association
publications include: Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Diagnostic Implications of the Content and Process of Art,” Department Professional experience: Private practice; student assistance Conference; Psycho-Oncology Conference, Heidelberg
Therapy Association; American Journal of Art Therapy; Time Out of Psychiatry, Harlem Hospital Center; “Using Art Therapy with counselor, Clarkstown Central School District, NY; co-founder, facili-
New York; Photo District News; New York Newsday Children in Foster Care,” Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies tator, Teen Power Raquel Chapin Stephenson
awards and honors include: Distinguished Service Award, (COFCCA); “A Touching Sight: Art Therapy with Blind Children,” Presentations include: “Creative Genograms,” American Art Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT
Clinician Award, American Art Therapy Association; Honorary Life Annual Conference, American Art Therapy Association Therapy Association Education: BFA, University of Michigan; MA, New York University
Member Award, Distinguished Service Award, New York Art Therapy Publication: The Whole Mind: The Definitive Guide to PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Program coordinator, clinical supervi-
Association Stephanie Gorski Complementary Treatments for Mind, Mood, and Emotion sor, New York University Creative Aging Therapeutic Services; art
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT therapist, St. Luke’s Hospital
Elizabeth DelliCarpini Education: BA, SUNY Geneseo; MPS, Pratt Institute Eileen P. McGann publications include: The Older Learner, Generations
Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT; internship coordinator, MPS professional experience: Clinical coordinator, New York Art therapist, ATR-BC, LCAT
Art Therapy Department, School of Visual Arts Foundling Hospital; social worker, South Brooklyn Prevention Education: BFA, Manhattanville College; MA, New York University
education: BFA College of New Rochelle; MAAT, School of the Program; art therapist, Blueberry Treatment Center; adoption social professional experience: Senior art therapist, Jewish Board of
Art Institute of Chicago worker, New York Spaulding for Children Family and Children’s Services
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Art therapist, Community Prep HS for publications include: Pratt Institute Creative Arts Therapy Review One-person exhibition: Molloy College Art Gallery
court-involved adolescents; Brooklyn Community Counseling Center Award: Sr. Teresa Vincent McCrystal Excellence Award group exhibitions: New York University, Rye Art League,
9/11 Outreach; Catholic Charities homelesss adult employment pro- Manhattanville College, Kean Mason Gallery
gram; child welfare coordinator, Jamal Place residential program publications include: American Journal of Art Therapy, Art
PRESENTATIONS INCLUDE: “Boys: Art & Destruction,” American Art Therapy with Older Adults, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Journal of
Therapy Association; “Working with Young People in Challenging the American Art Therapy Association, Journal of Emotional Abuse,
Situations,” Fund for the City of New York; “Working with Girls in Racism and Racial Identity
the Juvenile Justice System,” Legal Aid Society
Bonnie Allie Lawrence Brown Barbara Fish Scott Green Marilyn LaMonica Shaun McNiff Joan Phillips Daniel Siegel
art therapist physician art therapist, director, Art head of Fine Arts, art therapist, psychoanalyst art therapist, founder, art therapist psychiatrist, executive
Therapy Associates University of Derby Institute for the Arts and director, Mindsight Institute
Corinne Arles Ani Buk Carol Lark Shirley Riley
expressive arts therapist, art therapist Linda Gantt Ellen Horovitz art therapist, psycho- Human Development art therapist Ellen Speert
Free Arts NYC art therapist art therapist therapist, director, The Art Nancy McWilliams art therapist; founder,
Marcia Cohen-Liebman Diane Rode
Brian Austin art therapist Natalia Gomez Joseph Jaworek Therapy Center psychotherapist art therapist, Kravis California Center for
art therapist art therapist art therapist Laura Loumeau-May Rebecca Beers Miller Children’s Hospital at Creative Renewal
Barbara Cooper
Liz Baring art therapist, SuperKids David Gonzalez David Read Johnson art therapist art therapist Mount Sinai Bobbi Stoll
art therapist, psychoanalyst music therapist director, Institute for the Paola Luzzatto Bruce Moon Judith Aron Rubin art therapist
Margaret Hills de Zárate
Arts in Psychotherapy; co- art therapist art therapist art therapist Brian Tepper
Ted E. Becker Jr. art therapist Robin Goodman
director, Post Traumatic art therapist
psychiatrist Ashley Dorr art therapist and clinical Linda Levine Madori Cathy Moon Andree Salom
Stress Center
Chris Belkofer art therapist psychologist; Director of art therapist art therapist art therapist Nicolas Touron
the Bereavement Center Lynn Kapitan sculptor, ceramist
art therapist Gail Elkin-Scott Cathy Malchiodi Thomas Moore Brenda Seckerson
at A Caring Hand, Billy art therapist
Judi Betts art therapist art therapist, Director of the author expressive arts therapist, Annette Vaccaro
Esposito Foundation Gussie Klorer Institute for the Arts and Free Arts NYC art therapist, social worker
watercolorist Mimi Farrelly-Hansen Bereavement Center Larry Norton
art therapist, social worker Health
Elaine Breiger art therapist deputy physician-in-chief Karen Seeley Bessel van der Kolk
Christina Grosso Judith Kuspit Shannon McGinn and director of breast can- psychologist psychiatrist
printmaker Kimberly Faulkner art therapist psychologist, psychoanalyst art therapist; staff attorney, cer programs at Memorial
art therapist Laura Seftel Judy Weiser
Prisoner Reentry Project, Sloan-Kettering Cancer art therapist psychologist, phototherapist
Legal Services of Center
New Jersey Suellen Semekoski Stephanie Wise
Peggy Papp art therapist art therapist
Carole McNamee social worker, Ackerman
marital and family therapist Institute Katherine Shargo Gaelyn Wolf-Bordonaro
art therapist, New Jersey art therapist
Sojung Park Department of Corrections Irvin D. Yalom
Tel: 212.592.2610 art therapist
Contact Us
psychiatrist
Saadia Parvez
Fax: 917.606.0461 art therapist
E-mail: arttherapy@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/arttherapy
department site: arttherapyblog.sva.edu
We strongly encourage applicants to contact our Department to schedule an informational
meeting and receive a tour of our facilities prior to submitting application materials.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact
the Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
The Master of Professional Studies in Branding is a one-year degree program that examines
www.sva.edu/grad/branding the relationship between design and strategy, and the power of design thinking as a way to
department site: branding.sva.edu combine creative skills with the problem-solving and decision-making processes of design and
business. Students graduating from this program will be able to take advantage of new market
opportunities, and to deliver innovative, successful and sustainable project outcomes in the worlds
of design, advertising, marketing and business.
During the year, students develop an understanding of diverse branding strategies, brand
valuation, and brand development life cycle. We’ll explore important themes in behavioral science
and relevant cultural themes as they relate to branding. We’ll investigate marketing challenges
involved in creating and sustaining brands and gain an understanding of and experience with
senior corporate management discourse.
The thesis is a critical part of the mps in Branding that is developed and completed in the summer
semester. Students will develop their thesis, formulating and developing the central idea that will
become their thesis, and will consider appropriate strategies for the research, form, presentation
and distribution of their ideas. The thesis class will provide students the opportunity to meet
as a group and with a faculty member to discuss issues related to the development of their theses,
as well as review portions of each other’s work. Students should emerge from this process with
a significant body of work.
81
Designing
Smartly:
Bringing
30 Years of
Experience
to theFaculty Profile:
Dan Formosa, PhD
Classroom
Smart Design’s studio in NYC. Dan
Formosa is a founding member of Smart
Design, a group based on the idea the
design should be about people, not things.
A wall shows current projects being
worked on. Their clients include the
Guggenheim Museum, MoMA and the
Whitney Museum of American Art.
“I try to give students an overview of every topic that is of the bowl validated the research they built into the design, and
represented by design: biomechanics, physiology, psychology, sta- paved the way for the next Corning product: sunglasses whose de-
tistics, information, and happiness, to name some. I also discuss the sign was, essentially, a crystallization of fresh anthropometric data
differences between design research and market research, because about the face and cognitive psychological data about perception.
the two often get confused – especially by marketing people, who often The sunglasses were a hit, too – doubling the number of consumers
don’t have an exposure to design. But the techniques and the ground satisfied with Corning’s previous line.
rules of design research and market research are quite different.” His designs work because he designs for everyone on the con-
This is mps Branding instructor Dan Formosa’s perspective sumer spectrum—not just the “average consumer”—and so more
today. It’s also been his perspective for the past 30 years. When he people actually respond to them. Smart Design has continued to
was starting out in the late 70s, it was common, he says, for market- grow under Dan’s vision, scoring major hits with the first ibm pc,
ing research to limit a designer’s focus to the appearance of the best-selling kitchen tools for Oxo, syringes that insure safe and
object. But Dan thought a designer’s focus should be on the person, regular use in home users, and SmartGauge, a digital interface
not the object, and that research shouldn’t come from the market- designed for the award-winning Ford hybrid, the Fusion, which tells
place, but from behavioral sciences like ergonomics, biomechanics, drivers when to modify and/or sustain their driving behaviors in
and psychology. order to optimize the car’s performance.
This approach tended to rankle marketers early on in his career. This is maybe where Dan’s value as a thinker and designer (and
He co-founded Smart Design to create products from research that new faculty member at sva) truly lies: he not only makes the rela-
drew subsequent skepticism: A Pyrex bowl with a finger-tab, for tionships between people and objects more personal and functional,
example, that could go from the freezer to the stovetop without he also creates successful commercial products that originate from
cracking. The bowl failed in the marketing studies, but Corning the idea that design can improve people as people improve design.
pushed it through anyway, and it became a best seller. The success We’re excited to have Dan share his vision at sva.
Debbie Millman
of the MPS Branding Department at SVA.
“Human beings have a need to make things and to mark them—we’ve been doing it throughout
our history, marking ourselves as part of something bigger than just the individual,” reflects Debbie
Millman from her office at influential midtown agency Sterling Brands. “Branding is an interesting
discipline in that it involves a slew of other fields,” she continues. “You need to have an expertise in
cultural anthropology, behavioral psychology, and supply chain management as well as in marketing
“I’m hoping that our and design. In the program at SVA, we teach a sort of unified theory of branding, looking at real-life
graduates will be brands, their history, evolution, and sustainability within the business models they embody. We’ll look
able to change our at how and why certain brands stumble and fail—or stumble and recover—and use that knowledge
world, because they
On any
to analyze in depth how brands contribute to the way we live.”
will understand what “Branding has always been about the man behind the curtain,” Millman concedes with a smile.
the tactics are to “This program is about pulling the curtain away and focusing on things that have been, for the most
make that change.” part, either taught in business school or learned on the job. Our approach takes the world as a case
given day...
study. There are other graduate programs that have an aspect of branding to them, but they tend to
couple it with either advertising, strategy, or what’s called ‘design thinking.’ This MPS gives students
the vocabulary they need to participate in the conversation around branding in a much more significant
and meaningful way, by applying an understanding of the language of business to whatever they’re
passionate about. I’m hoping that our graduates will be able to change our world, because they will
understand what the tactics are to make that change.”
Millman is thrilled by the many new opportunities that the program offers. “Everything was built 9am Chair Debbie Millman meets with Steve Ginsberg at M&M Mars 5pm Graduate advisor J’aime Cohen meets with publisher to go over
from scratch,” she says excitedly, “the curriculum, the materials, the space, everything. And it uses to discuss student mentorship program book about the program
progressive technology throughout. We have a podcast space and every lecture is documented on video.
We anticipate having an online program in the future, and a summer workshop. There’ll be a lot going 10am Millman speaks with Ric Grefé at AIGA Headquarters to arrange 7pm Guest lecture with cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken
on! We’re positioning the department like a think-tank, a place where brands can be researched and for students to tour the AIGA Archives
analyzed, built and developed outside the realm of corporate culture and
11am Josh Liberson meets with Malcolm Gladwell to plan his
commercial pressure.”
guest lecture
How will participants gain both practical experience and theoretical insight? “Students work on
building a brand as part of their thesis. And it isn’t a brand in a box that no one sees; it is sustainable in-
12pm Lunch with students at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and
side and outside the classroom. Brands are used to project an image to an audience, and we’re interested
tour of the latest exhibit
in examining the management of that projection.” Millman stresses that branding has political and
ethical as well as commercial power. “Whether we’re talking about brand or anti-brand, Democrat or 3pm Millman’s “Design Matters” podcast taping with Dan Pink
Republican, pro-life or pro-choice, many of the same tools are used. We’re looking at branding as both
a science and an art, and we’ll be able to speak honestly and truthfully about its powers and its perils.”
Branding 88 89 www.sva.edu/grad/branding
The Program The required coursework for this degree program is organized into five progressive
segments: Culture, Behavior, Business, Commerce and Creative. Each discipline works both independently and Course Descriptions
cohesively with the others, but rigorous attention will be paid to each field to determine and define the modern
practice of branding. Degree candidates must successfully complete 36 credits, including all required courses, with
a cumulative grade point average of 3.0. A residency of one academic year is required. ¶ There is a mandatory
Guest Speaker Lecture Series bringing exposure, interaction and inspiration from esteemed practitioners in the
branding and business community. ¶ The summer semester is dedicated to the thesis. The outcome of the Master
of Professional Studies in Branding is a comprehensive conference and exhibit that allows students to show,
display, articulate and defend the premise of their new brand and showcase their work to the design, business Analysis, Insight and Forecasting identification, idea generation, design, testing, launch. The goal is
Cultural change is neither unpredictable nor random. The seeds of to develop and/or create a brand with an existing organization or
and branding communities. Ultimately, the thesis must be reviewed and approved by the thesis committee and the next are buried in the now, in the psyche of the individual and in to as a solo proprietor.
the department chair in order for the student to be eligible for degree conferral. the collective mind called “culture.” In this course, students will learn
to read deeply and carefully the cultural signs that surround them in The Evolution of CPG Brands and Package Design
order to recognize underlying patterns and learn to translate these pat- Consumer brands, and the retail marketplace that supports them,
terns into actionable human and cultural insights, valuable throughout have evolved through several stages in the last 150 years. Each has
Sample Program the lifecycle of any product or brand. We will also explore how to been strongly influenced by culture, events and the changes of the
leverage trend analysis to forecast paradigmatic shifts in human behav- retail markets of which they are a part. The first three stages, from the
ior and culture as well as in the marketplace. Students will complete 1850s through the 1990s, can be described as the era of the retailer,
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
the course with the means to identify and leverage the patterns under- the era of the manufacturer and the era of the brand. The last decade
Business Strategies 3 Analysis, Insight and Forecasting 3 lying the most powerful and beloved cultural artifacts and brands. has seen an evolution of brand activity toward a focus on consumer
Foundation of Visual Branding and Strategy 3 Brand Design Leadership 3 experience and lifestyle. Where does the CPG brand stand today and
The Meaning of Branded Objects 3 The Evolution of CPG Brands and Package Design 3 Brand Design Leadership what is its future? This course will review the historical evolution
Every day, from the moment we wake up to the sound of our iPhone of CPG brand identities though the lens of retail brand identity and
A Unified Theory of Branding 3 Practices in Design and Market Research 3 alarm and drink our first sip of Starbucks, to the second we put down package design. We will review, decade by decade, the relatively brief
Lecture Series I 3 Lecture Series II 3 our Crest and crawl into bed, we interact with brands. Great brands history of CPG brand identities, and the aesthetic and cultural influ-
have been passionately, holistically, reverently and thoughtfully created ences that have shaped their path. While reviewing these historical
and nurtured by managers within corporations with the support of precedents, students will develop an informed judgment on where CPG
SUMMER Semester Credits consumers, researchers, trends experts, designers, engineers, anthro- brand identities are today and where they may be headed.
Creating Brands, Identity and Experiences 6 pologists and strategists, to name a few. But how is design designed?
How does a branded image transform from a business need to a tan- Foundation of Visual Branding and Strategy
gible identity? This course will unravel the pieces of the brand design Beginning with the history and underlying ideas of branding, this
process, and transport you from market-driven need to fully realized course will examine the development of classic brands such as Bass
brand. We will begin with the mechanics of a corporation and a need Ale and Coca-Cola, as well as seminal identity designers and design
as a business defines it, through the scenarios that occur as design studios, including William Morris, Paul Rand, Landor Associates and
managers and brand design firms respond, convince and create a brand Pentagram. We will examine contemporary examples that highlight
identity. We will use actual business examples and work individually the challenges of brand and identity creation in specific contexts: retail
and in teams to create methodologies, develop guidelines, present and experiences; the arts and the nonprofit sector; the branding of loca-
critique design and hone the art and science of creating a point of view tions, politicians and political ideas. A look at the future of brands
worthy of a creative partnership. and identity design will be given. The second half of the course will
explore brand strategy: how an audience perceives a brand and how
Business Strategies that perception might evolve. Students will work on projects that aim
From developing a brand personality to discovering invisible brand to visually address the strategic concerns of several brands. Reducing
assets, this multidisciplinary course is about creating brand value, a visual identity to its most elemental parts and then incorporating
strategy and business literacy. We’ll review core branding disciplines material to create a visual context will be addressed, and students will
such as developing brand positioning, mission statement, brand char- create matrices to determine what audience a brand addresses. We
acter, naming and brand architecture. We’ll take a look at financial will also mine a brand’s history for new opportunities, and conduct
valuation models, as well as creative methods for discovery and ide- SWOT-style analyses that define innovation opportunities and chart a
ation, and why a strong brand strategy is like an organization’s DNA, course for future growth. Guest lectures by contemporary practitioners
serving as a blueprint for strategy and informing other activities such will complement course work.
as leadership, marketing, product development, communication, design
and advertising. Discussions based on case studies and readings will Lecture Series I and II
also use worksheets as a lens, and provide a platform to examine The aim of the lecture series is to bring students in contact with a
forces and dynamics that shape brands from traditional corporate to wide variety of professional perspectives and to introduce them to
entrepreneurial startups. We’ll touch on globalization, technology, experts in the field. Some lecturers will discuss practical aspects of
critical thinking, culture and lifestyle. their critical endeavors and others will focus on intellectual issues.
Topics to be addressed include: practices in market research; mass
Creating Brands, Identities and Experiences vs. class brands; practices in cultural anthropology; why we shop:
The summer semester will be entirely focused on the development marketing, economics and brands; understanding consumer behav-
and creation of a real-world brand. We will continue to investigate ior; nomenclature and visual language development; branding,
the challenges of bringing elegant, innovative and efficient solu- cognition and culture.
tions to market targeted to strong customer needs. The course is
structured around the following innovation process: opportunity
Branding 90 91 www.sva.edu/grad/branding
Faculty Guest Lecturers
The Meaning of Branded Objects Debbie Millman, chair Virginia Postrel Malcolm Gladwell Daniel H. Pink
Brands transform objects into meaning-bearers. This course will President, Design Division, Sterling Brands; radio show host, Author; editor-in-chief, Deep Glamour writer, The New Yorker; entrepreneur; speaker;
explore the collective and individual history of this transformation. Design Matters with Debbie Millman. Formerly, senior vice Education: Princeton University author, The Tipping Point, author, A Whole New Mind,
As we have evolved from hunter-gatherers into robustly cultural president, Interbrand Professional experience includes: Contributing editor, Culture
beings, objects themselves have also evolved: from disposable, purely Education: BA, SUNY Albany & Commerce columnist, The Atlantic; editor, Reason
Blink, Outliers The Adventures of Johnny
functional extensions of the body to deeply personal, even cherished, Clients include: Tropicana; Pepsi; Unilever; Pepperidge Farm; Author: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value DeeDee Gordon Bunko: The Last Career
expressions of an individual’s life. We will examine the history and Campbell’s; Gillette; Nestle; Colgate; Mars, Inc.; Georgia Pacific; Is Remaking Commerce, Culture & Consciousness; The Future and
co-creator, L Report, Look- Guide You’ll Ever Need
insights of individual and social psychology in shaping the context GlaxoSmithKline Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and
for 21st-century perceptions of, and relationships with, the things books include: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer, Progress. Co-author, Glamour: Fashion, Industrial Design, Architecture Look Magazine Cheryl Swanson
that surround us. Concretely, we will investigate the increasingly Essential Principals of Graphic Design Publications include: I.D., The New York Times, Forbes,
Stanley Hainsworth founder, Toniq. Formerly,
sophisticated manner in which brands have gained and integrated Publications include: Speak Up, Step, Creativity, HOW, Graphic D Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Print, New York Post, Slate, Boston
chairman, chief creative senior vice president,
quantitative and qualitative insights into our lives (and our cultural Design USA, The New York Times, Adobe Proxy, Design Globe, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, Wall Street Journal
contexts) to create opportunities for complex, meaning-centered Management Journal, Print Awards and honors include: Phi Beta Kappa; Mencken officer, Tether. Formerly, Wallace Church Associates
relationships between people and things. Students will use their own Award for Commentary, Free Press Association; Katie Award for global creative director, Gong Szeto
experiences as the starting point for this exploration into the lived- Sem Devillart Commentary, Press Club of Dallas; Media Fellow, Hoover Institution,
meaning of individual brands and their collective role in the con- Co-founder, managing partner, Popular Operations Stanford University
Starbucks; global creative entrepreneur; lecturer.
struction of modern personal identity. Education: MA, Domus Academy; Universität Tübingen Website: www.dynamist.com director, Lego; creative Formerly, director of design
Clients have included: Christian Dior, Camper, Daimler, L’Oreal, director, Nike and product design, PEAK6
Practices in Design and Market Research Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Philips Design, BBC Richard Shear Investments; designer,
Brands have historically relied heavily on marketing techniques to help Founding principal, creative director, The Shear Partnership; author, Jonah Lehrer
establish and strengthen their presence. That is changing quickly, as Dan Formosa The Package Unseen editor, Wired; author, How OptionsHouse
instant global communication and various forms of social networking Consultant, product design and design research. Formerly, Education: BFA, Tyler School of Art We Decide, Proust Was a Rob Walker
have replaced the need for consumers to rely on brands for confidence co-founder, Smart Design Professional experience includes: Officer, founding board
in a purchase. In this project-based course, students will learn how to EDUCATION: BFA, MA, PhD, New York University member, AIGA Metro-North Chapter; president, Package Design
Neuroscientist author, Buying In: The
create a research plan, find participants, and integrate research meth- CLIENTS INCLUDE: Johnson & Johnson, OXO Good Grips, XM Council; past president, AIGA Brand Design Association; Grant McCracken Secret Dialogue Between
ods in the context of a specific branding project. Some of the topics Satellite, Hewlett-Packard, SmartGauge Clients include: Ahold, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, IBM, Johnson &
educator, author What We Buy and Who We
explored will be qualitative, quantitative, online and ethnographic books INCLUDE: co-author, Baseball Field Guide Johnson, Pernod Ricard, Procter & Gamble, Duracell, Motorola, Are; writer, The New York
interview techniques, video and photo documentary, immersion, par- COLLECTIONS INCLUDE: Museum of Modern Art Kraft, Estée Lauder
ticipant-aided data gathering, prototype assisted observation, methods Awards and honors include: Gold Medal, San Francisco
Times Magazine; founder,
for organizing data, finding patterns and distilling insights that lead to Tom Guarriello World Spirits Competition; AIGA; CLIO; Graphis; Industrial Murketing
actionable and inspiring design directives. We will also explore the dif- Chief idea officer, principal, TrueTalk, Inc. Formerly, clinician Designers Society of America; Pentawards
ferences between market research and design research, and understand EDUCATION: MA, University of Dayton; PhD, Duquesne University Website: www.shearpartnership.com
the goals and appropriateness of each.
Scott Lerman
A Unified Theory of Branding Chief executive officer, founding partner, Lucid Brands
Leading the definition and evolution of a world-class brand requires Education: MFA, The Cooper Union
more than intellectual rigor and insight. You must unify and lever- Professional experience includes: President, Siegel+Gale; presi-
Contact Us
age the expertise and efforts of an astounding array of people—lead- dent, chief executive officer, Enterprise IG (Americas)
ers, followers, scientists, artists, magicians (consultants), engineers, Clients have included: America’s Second Harvest, The
establishmentarians and revolutionaries. In this course, you will learn Weather Channel, LYCOShop, Click Radio, TreasuryPoint, Kodak, Tel: 212.592.2719
to use powerful frameworks that harmonize and focus the efforts of NationsBank, PNC Bank, Caja España, Bayer, Golden Books, Good
diverse teams as they develop ambitious brand programs. Using real- Housekeeping, Xerox E-mail: branding@sva.edu
world case studies—including Caterpillar, Bank of America, DuPont, Publications include: Design Management Journal, Wall Street
Harley- Davidson and National Semiconductor—we will look inside
the processes that enable organizations to define the future of their
Journal, The New York Times, Identityworks, Revolution
Website: www.lucidbrands.com
www.sva.edu/grad/branding
brands. The course will provide you with a unique perspective of how
research, strategic definition, identity, expression, communications and department site: branding.sva.edu
behavior are shaped into great brands. Come to our Departmental Information Session or contact us directly for more information.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Branding 92 93 www.sva.edu/grad/branding
MFA XX Goal of the program is developing artists who will produce significant creative
Computer Art
work throughout their careers and become leaders in their chosen field
XX Faculty is comprised of internationally renowned artists, curators, critics,
theorists and industry professionals—a who’s who of New York’s art world
XX Recently renovated, state-of-the-art facilities; named one of top ten digital art
www.sva.edu/grad/computerart
schools in the world
department site: mfaca.sva.edu
The mfa Computer Art program continuously redefines itself through creative experimentation and
the discovery of new uses for today’s technology. Our approach is multidisciplinary and each student
pursues a course of study that is individually tailored. The largest graduate department at sva, we
offer more than 40 courses per semester in state-of-the-art facilities, which were completely renovated
in 2007. Creativity and the development of a personal artistic style are the program’s cornerstones.
Our greatest strength is our faculty, a literal who’s who of the New York art world, composed of inter-
nationally renowned artists, curators, critics, theorists and industry professionals.
Recently named one of the “Top Ten Digital Art Schools in the World” by ImagineFX magazine,
the mfa Computer Art program was also ranked fifth in Multimedia/Visual Communication by U.S.
News & World Report in 2007. Graduates of the department are employed by the most prestigious digi-
tal studios: Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rhythm
& Hues, Digital Domain, Blue Sky Studios, mtv and Electronic Arts. Other alumni choose the entre-
preneurship of their own businesses. Those who pursue fine art careers exhibit their work in museums
and galleries, including: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, p.s.1/moma, Whitney Museum of American
Art, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian
American Art Museum and Tate Online.
Students come from around the world to study in our program, and the international representation
provides unique perspectives that offer different cultural approaches to the creative process. First-year
courses in studio, art history, computer systems and programming build the foundation for second-
year thesis work, which is supported through weekly critiques and related advanced areas of study.
The digital art seminar series, software workshops, guest lectures and visiting artist program provide
in-depth exposure to all areas of digital art.
Awards have been bestowed upon our students by major international competitions, including
Student Academy Awards (2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009); Adobe Design Achievement Award (2006);
YouTube Award (2006); Prix Ars Electronica; siggraph Electronic Theater and Art Show;
Webby Awards; isea; and the Leonardo Award for Excellence. Student works have appeared in such
acclaimed film festivals as Cannes, Tribeca and Sundance, and animation film festivals in Annecy,
Ottawa and New York, among dozens of others. The goal of our program is to develop artists who will
produce significant creative work throughout their careers and become leaders in their chosen field.
95
Creative
Career
Change
Alumni Profile:
Myung Lee Myung Lee (MFA ’04), in her cubicle at Charlex,
a major digital design studio in New York.
The company designs and produces commer-
cials and movie trailers. Its services include
3D, effects, graphics, and branding.
The career path of Myung Lee, a graduate of the MFA Computer Art program, is as close to an
American parable as you’re going to get. She was raised in South Korea and traveled frequently due to
her father‘s career as a diplomat. She then attended school in Paris and later Georgetown, hoping to
Lee stands in front follow in her father’s footsteps by studying political science and international relations. But longing
of the job board. She
supervises dozens for something else, she decided against taking the Foreign Service exam and ended up doing paralegal
of digital artists in the work. “I could envision a life in law, but it just wasn’t creative enough,” she recalls.
3D department. Lee had always painted, but never considered something artistic as a viable career. After all, what
would her typically doting Korean parents think? But after taking a continuing education class in 3d
Animation at sva, she was “blown away.” So, after a meeting with department chair Bruce Wands,
and without any formal art training, she applied for the mfa program. “The only thing I knew
about computers was WordPerfect,” she laughingly admits. While mom and pop preferred her to attend
nyu, she chose sva. “nyu didn’t have sufficient 3d teachers that had experience in the field. And
sva’s labs updated their equipment and software every year. Staying up-to-date with the latest technology
was really important to me.”
As a testament to her studies, her collaborative thesis short film, Cold War, was a finalist in the
2004 Student Academy Awards. And her instincts about the faculty were dead on: an alumni con-
nection landed Lee her first job at Nickelodeon, which defined her career.
Fast-forward to today, and Lee is working as a cg supervisor of over 30 artists at Charlex,
a 200-plus-person production house that creates everything from TV commercials to music videos.
While she admits her experience at sva was a challenging one, Lee wouldn’t trade it for anything.
In fact, she gives her alma mater the highest honor. “sva turns out the best students because they
have the most prepared skill set,” she says. “That’s why I recruit from there today.”
And her parents? “They don’t worry anymore.”
Bruce Wands
divided among five classrooms, an AV studio, a high-end HDTV/
surround-sound edit room, two edit rooms attached to a sound recording
booth, a video transfer/edit room and a computer art lab. We also have a
“My first exposure to computer graphics was in 1976,” recalls Bruce Wands. “I was studying televi- Chelsea studio/gallery space and workshop for those focusing on digital
sion and radio at Syracuse University, making my living as a musician, and I took some courses in fine art and installation. Students can sign out laptops, HD cameras, light
the experimental studio which taught computer graphics. We began by programming the university’s kits, tripods, audio recorders, musical instruments, DSLR cameras and a
mainframe to make art, and I could see then that computers were going to be a major force, particu- wide variety of other equipment for their creative work outside the lab.
larly in terms of graphics and networking. That perception redirected my whole career.”
“The program continually
“Computer Art is the largest graduate program at sva,” Wands expands. “The program is multidis-
evolves,” Wands says,
ciplinary, but animation has always been the core of the department. We’ve won six Student Academy
“and there’s virtually no
Awards. There is always a group of students who focus on fine art, and we have studio space to sup-
technology in our lab
On any
port them. The other parts of the program alter according to shifts of emphasis in the art and business
that’s been here for more
worlds. In recent years, for example, there’s been an increasing interest in digital video and motion
than five years.”
graphics. We maintain a diversity of courses because our students’ creativity is stimulated by interacting
given day...
with people working in different areas.”
“The program continually evolves,” Wands says, “and there’s virtually no technology in our lab
that’s been here for more than five years. Our curriculum and equipment choices are based on what
the faculty do in the professional world. My relationships in the industry, tours of studios, discussions
with faculty and visits to trade shows and conferences all help determine how we equip ourselves. We’ve
always been forward-looking in terms of both the curriculum and the technology.”
Are incoming students already technically adept? “Yes, they are,” Wands replies, “but the program 9am Student arrives early in the lab and has access to several computers, noon – 6pm Classes: Video Art and Beyond with Barbara London,
is still very challenging, and students focus more on developing their creativity, rather than just becom- and gets to work in a quiet environment. Video Curator at the Museum of Modern Art; Sound Design with
ing technical wizards. One of the challenges of working in the way we do is to make the technology Edgar Grana; Animation Culture with Trilby Schreiber; Stereoscopic
become almost invisible, so that the end result is more about the content than the way it was produced.” 10am Student returns HD camera, light kit and laptop he or she signed 3D with Gerald Marks; Visual Effects for Video and Motion Graphics
out of the library. with Eric Eiser.
How do students apply what they learn in the program? “Many of those who focus on animation go
on to work for feature film companies like Industrial Light and Magic, DreamWorks, Pixar and Sony
10am – noon Staff arrives. Students ask systems administrators for 6 – 8pm Check out Canon 5D Mark II camera to photograph New York at
Pictures Imageworks. A fair amount stay in New York and work at the commercial production houses.
help with some of their technical issues. Students meet with our advisor night while visiting Chelsea galleries as part of Digital Art Seminars II.
We have students who go on to successful fine art careers. Several graduates are now working at the
Hsiang Chin Moe to discuss their class choices and possible internships Attend free workshop on ZBrush, then go to Greenwich Village to see
American Museum of Natural History, supporting its multimedia environment. We have one or two that
over the summer. The director of operations, Diane Field, checks in newly some live music.
go on to PhD programs each year, plus others that go into teaching. So there are quite a variety of options!” arrived equipment. Students meet with Bruce Wands, chair, to discuss
“The most important part about what students do here is to express their creativity and develop their thesis ideas and progress. Students meet with Bruce Wands,
an individual vision and style as an artist. We don’t focus too much on slotting people into an industry, Diane Field, and Hsiang Chin Moe for monthly Student Representative
because ultimately creativity is the most valuable commodity. One of the things I really try to instill in meeting to discuss how things are going, plan workshops and discuss any
students is that they should pursue their own personal creative work throughout their entire career. That’s software or hardware needs.
something that they’re in control of, something that brings them joy, and something that people in Get together with classmates in the lunchroom to talk about classes,
the industry hold in high regard. They won’t burn out if they continue to create and enjoy what they do.” events and life.
The remainder of the program is individually tailored to each student’s interests through meetings with the Computer Systems I 3 3D for Fine Artists 3
Digital Art Seminar I 0 Contemporary Voices 3
department advisor. The first-year curriculum strengthens and broadens the students’ knowledge of and creative
History of New Media in the 20th and 21st Centuries 3 Digital Art Seminar II 0
approach to digital art in preparation for the thesis year. The second year revolves around the thesis process—the
Programming for Artists I 3 Max/MSP/Jitter I 3
completion of a body of creative work, combined with academic research and an artist’s statement. Critique and Sound Workshop I 3 New Forms in Video 3
the refinement of a personal aesthetic vision are the two most important elements of the second-year curriculum. Video for Computer Artists I 3 Physical Computing I 3
The first- and second-year academic programs are supplemented by workshops, visiting artists, guest lectures and
outreach opportunities. Degree candidates must successfully complete 60 credits, including all required courses,
and maintain a 3.0 grade point average. A matriculation of two academic years is required. In the final semester,
second year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
students complete their thesis project and participate in a public presentation. The project must be reviewed and
Digital Sculpture I 3 Digital Sculpture II 3
approved by the thesis committee and the department chair in order for the student to be eligible for degree
Max/MSP/Jitter II 3 Max/MSP/Jitter III 3
conferral. Although most students earn their degrees in four semesters, some find it necessary or desirable to study Physical Computing II 3 Physical Computing III 3
for five or six semesters before completing the thesis process. Extended study is determined on an individual basis Thesis I 6 Thesis II 6
and important considerations such as course work, visa extension and financial aid must be resolved before Thesis Research and Writing I 0 Thesis Research and Writing II 0
extended study can be approved. Decisions concerning transfer of credit and course exemptions are made by the
committee on graduate admissions. Graduate students are also allowed to audit four undergraduate or continuing
education courses at no charge.
Sample Program: Interactive Media
3D Modeling and Animation 3 Advanced Modeling and Rigging Concepts 3 Multimedia Studio I 3 New Media Theory 3
Computer Systems I 3 Digital Art Seminar II 0 Sound Workshop I 3 Thesis Development 3
Digital Art Seminar I 0 Ecstasy and the Apocalypse 3 Web Programming I 3 Web Programming II 3
3D for Fine Artists Animation Culture Character Animation I & II Digital Compositing
This course will introduce the possibilities, techniques and strategies Why do we love animation? What is it doing for us—or to us? This These courses are designed to deepen students’ understanding and This course will survey a range of aesthetic issues, practical techniques
of incorporating 3D animation and modeling software into a contem- course will explore the impact of animation on our perception and skills in 3D character animation through lectures, critiques, tutorials and software applications used for digital compositing. The role of
porary fine art practice. It is intended for students who are not neces- culture through screenings, discussions and written work. We will and short projects (including team assignments). One of the impor- compositing in feature film and television commercial production will
sarily pursuing 3D animation as a specialization. Maya will serve as discuss how pervasive animated worlds influence people through tant elements of character animation is developing a character that be examined in depth through practical examples. Students will be
the exploratory platform and will be introduced through a series of entertainment, games, advertising, broadcast media, medicine, law and is believable through giving the character a strong personality and assigned short projects that reflect the ideas and techniques discussed
lectures and assignments. The course will also survey the historical and architecture. The use of animation as commentary on topics such as focusing on the character’s (and animator’s) acting performance. In in class and will present their creative work for critique.
contemporary use of 3D computer graphics in fine art. Assigned proj- politics, emotional life and intimacy will be considered. The culture of Character Animation I, students will study model rigging, animation
ects will include both still and time-based imagery. animation itself—as represented by legendary companies, people and techniques, camera angles, texture mapping and other topics central Digital montage
practices of this multifaceted art form—will also be addressed. Guest to the practice of character animation. Character Animation II will The theoretical function of montage will be investigated by examin-
Advanced Interface Design speakers and field trips are included. focus on the critique of student work. Advanced animation techniques ing how digital compositing tools and techniques have impacted the
Strategies for interface design will be explored within a conceptual such as inverse kinematics, model deformation (morphing), lip synch creation and perception of still and temporal imagery. The history
framework of content, usability and visual design. This course will App Culture: The Medium of Mobile Software and facial expressions will be explored. of montage will also be explored through selected theoretical read-
investigate the development of interactive media content and informa- This course is an introduction to designing and programming apps ings that will help students to place their personal practice within the
tion architecture as it applies to user-centered design and the specific for mobile devices, such as the iPhone and iPad. We will examine the Computer Systems I & II broader context of digital art and culture. Work will progress from the
ways of building usable, effective and meaningful interfaces. Concepts iPhone application development process using Cocoa Touch/Objective-C These courses will demystify hardware and software components of creation of still imagery to motion graphics using Adobe Photoshop,
and design strategies that incorporate layout, color, graphics, symbols, within the X-Code IDE, and students should be comfortable with the computing systems in general, and will empower students with practi- After Effects and other software. Class time will be divided between
grids and typography will be the foundation for producing interface fundamentals of programming. Lectures will address writing software cal decision-making skills of a technical nature. Lectures will cover the critical discussions and studio projects.
designs for the Web, mobile devices and kiosks. Students will create code and include a larger discussion on app culture. The steps in devel- user-interface, operating system, CPU technology and bus architecture
content and design interfaces for a variety of media. oping an app are traced from Interface Builder to deployment in the App of the platforms in the MFA Computer Art Lab and other studio Digital Sculpture I & II
Store. Each student will produce an app for the final project. computing environments. We will undertake a comparative study of In these courses, students will learn several methods of virtual to digi-
Advanced Modeling and Rigging Concepts programming languages. Further discussion will include mass storage, tal output. While in the past, high-end fabrication techniques and tech-
Creating animated characters is one of the most challenging aspects Art, Technology and the New York Avant-Garde input/output devices and networking. In addition to lectures, field trips nologies had been far from the artist’s reach, the machines, software
of contemporary filmmaking. In this course, students will learn how Computer technology in this course will be examined in the context will be made to state-of-the-art facilities. and work flows that only industry had access to are now available to
to create 3D characters from design to modeling and setup through of the artistic New York avant-garde. We will delve into discussions of digital artists to plug into and produce their own creations. Weekly
the development of a character pipeline. Considerations in charac- essential Dada and neo-Dada concepts, procedures and artists relevant Contemporary Voices assignments will familiarize students with 3D scanning, 3D printing,
ter design and how to develop a flexible nonlinear work flow will to computer technology (e.g., interactivity, hypermedia, immersion, Guest artists will discuss their work with the class in a forum designed laser and CNC milling and cutting machines, and other techniques.
be covered, as well as issues such as geometry types and topology. virtual reality and other aspects of digital art). Audio art and multi- to help students understand the work of their contemporaries. By The classes will cover all the software programs that are needed to suc-
Rigging topics will include inverse and forward kinematics, expression media will be examined in detail in this context as will the impact of exposing students to a spectrum of computer art-making possibilities, cessfully translate artistic ideas into a file format that the machines will
and binary nodes, joint placement and orientations, and binding and digital technology on the practices of poetry, painting, sculpture and this course inspires creative work and provides an opportunity to meet use to print, cut or machine build the project. This software includes,
deforming skin geometry. architecture. Students will be assigned weekly readings and must com- prospective thesis advisors and professional digital artists. but is not limited to Solidworks, Rhino, Modo, Sketchup, Sculptris,
plete a research assignment. Content will be divided into four major Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Geo Magic, Master Cam, Vcarve
Advanced Video Projects topics that reference the history of the New York avant-garde and its Digital Art Seminars I & II Pro and Cut 3D. The work of well-known artists using these tech-
After mastering the basics of creating, editing and compositing digital relevance to digital culture. These seminars address many aspects of digital art history and theory, nologies will be reviewed, as well as the history of this type of artistic
video image sequences, the issues of refining a directing style and con- including the evolution of digital technologies through an examina- production. After having mastered the basics of digital and mechanical
tent choice become relevant. Students will produce short video projects tion of the key theorists and practicing artists who have defined the methods of making art, students will begin to work on advanced proj-
and/or webcast programs that will be presented for group critique. digital media field. The primary goal is to expose students to the broad ects in the second semester. Class time will include individual, as well
Lecture topics will include directing styles, editing philosophies and range of ideas and forms of expression that the digital arts encompass. as group critique and discussions on the evolving aesthetics of this type
advanced topics. Students will clarify and expand their personal creative niche within of work. Students will be expected to produce several projects during
the context of contemporary art and culture, through research, short the course of the semester, or may use these classes as an adjunct to
written assignments and creative experimentation. This series offers fabricating their thesis project.
a historical and theoretical foundation in the digital arts, along with
establishing a familiarity with contemporary art in New York City
through gallery visits, artist talks and guest lectures.
Cory Arcangel Lauren Cornell Yael Kanarek Jillian Mcdonald Rich Quade Vivian Selbo Victoria Vesna Jody Zellen
new media artist executive director, new media artist; digital video artist, educator supervising animator, network media artist new media artist, researcher networked media and
Benton-C Bainbridge Rhizome; adjunct founder, Upgrade! Asif Mian Pixar Animation Studios Robert Michael Smith Chiake Watanabe installation artist
video artist, musician curator, New Museum John Klima director, visual artist Michael Rees sculptor, digital artist visual music artist Hui Zhu
of Contemporary Art installation artist digital sculptor, animator, director
Tamas Banovich Paul Miller Kenneth Snelson Barry Weiss
curator, owner, Matt Costello Ken Knowlton a.k.a. DJ Spooky programmer sculptor, digital artist, writer sr. vice president, Eric Zimmerman
Postmasters Gallery game writer; consultant; artist, writer, DJ, artist, writer Don Ritter Animation Production, game designer; writer;
author, 7th Guest, 11th Hour Nina Sobell
Molly Barnes computer scientist Mark Napier interactive installation and new media artist Sony Imageworks co-founder, Gamelab
art consultant, author, Greg Dinkins Myung Lee network media artist, performance artist, writer Maciej Wisniewski Lori Zippay
3D photographer; Wolfgang Staehle
curator computer graphics programmer Ben Rubin networked media artist, executive director,
president, NY Stereoscopic executive director,
Howard Beckerman supervisor, Charlex Ben Neil media artist The Thing programmer Electronics Arts Intermix
Society
animator, author Phoebe Legere musician, multimedia artist Lillian Schwartz Michael Wright
Diana Domingues Mark Tribe
Zoe Beloff composer, performer, Bill Nelson artist, writer, research founder, Rhizome.org digital artist, painter
virtual reality artist, painter scholar
stereoscopic projection, educator, researcher entrepreneur, painter,
Camille Utterback
performance and Zachary Leiberman founding partner, Rare
Toni Dove installation artist
installation artist performance, installation Medium, Inc.
virtual reality, installation, and online artist
Jonah Brucker-Cohen and performance artist Barbara Nessim
researcher, networked Golan Levin computer artist, illustrator
media and installation artist Shelley Eshkar artist, educator, researcher
digital artist Carsten Nicolai
Nancy Burson Peter Levin media installation artist, DJ
photographer, writer, Xarene Eskandar producer, sound designer,
author, vE-JA: Art + Brad Paley
inventor, artist president, Splash Studios digital artist, programmer
Technology of Live
John Canemaker Audio Video Patrick Lichty Nina Paley
filmmaker, writer, animator, digital artist, writer, curator, animator, filmmaker
Mary Flanagan Tel: 212.592.2778
Contact Us
animation historian, artist activist, educator
digital artist, writer, Carol Parkinson
Jim Casey researcher, educator Margot Lovejoy executive director, Fax: 212.592.2509
entrepreneur; founding artist, author, educator
partner, Rare Medium, Inc. Adam Frank Harvestworks E-mail: mfaca@sva.edu
installation artist Kristin Lucas Debbie Pashkoff
Shu Lea Cheang
Lucien Harriot
digital, video, performance, art director, www.sva.edu/grad/computerart
multimedia artist, filmmaker intervention, sculpture,
director, principal, installation artist
Rhythm & Hues Studios department site: mfaca.sva.edu
Sarah Cook Mechanism Digital Jonah Peretti
new media curator, Kevin & Jennifer McCoy viral media artist; founder,
We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting application materials.
co-founder of CRUMB Tali Hinkis interactive media, film,
video and new media artist, Buzzfeed; co-founder, Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
(Curatorial Resource for performance and Huffington Post
Upstart Media Bliss), UK co-creator of LoVid installation artists Departmental Information Session: Saturday, November 12, 2011.
Kenneth A. Huff Bill Plympton All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit.
digital artist: print and director, animator To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the Office of
installation Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
and the Arts XX Fourteen students are selected annually by the Committee on Graduate Admissions.
Graduates of the MA in Critical Theory and Arts become ongoing members
of the Serious Times Lecture Series and the program’s intellectual community.
www.sva.edu/grad/cta
department site: cta.sva.edu Critical Theory and the Arts is a closely organized, yearlong study in critical social theory that focuses
on the arts in the broadest sense—inclusive of the visual arts, literature, music, dance, performance
and new media.
The program responds to a need: For thinking about art has never before been so protean, so
broadly inventive and urgently central to the whole of social, philosophical and political reflection.
Every major area of thought now turns considerable attention to art in expectation that art will
provide the key to solving its central questions.
At the same time, in art itself, every aspect of its reality presents dynamic conflicts and puzzles that
demand theoretical reflection. Those directly involved in the arts can no longer imagine that artists
proceed naïvely, mixing passion with thin air. While artists of earlier generations once struggled
to disguise the thinking labor that went into their work, today art theory has become part—often an
explicit part—of all art-making. To an unprecedented degree, developments in art theory can can
and do directly transform art.
What the arts once were, they soon enough will no longer be; in large measure, they have already
been irreversibly transformed. For artists and graduate students from several fields of inquiry, the need
collaboratively to understand what has happened, what is happening and what is at stake is salient.
The ma in Critical Theory and the Arts program thus engages a vital century-long reflection on
the arts through a curriculum modeled on the interdisciplinary framework of the Frankfurt School
of Social Research. Here “interdisciplinary” is not an approach that ignores the boundaries between
disparate fields. Rather, real criticism of the boundaries of knowledge takes its lead from the demands
of the problems in which the interdisciplinary work is integrated.
Key works of critical theory are therefore studied in conjunction with the philosophical,
sociological, political and art historical background that is needed to engage these works meaningfully.
An expert and collaborating core faculty draws on the breadth of thought and research from the
several fields needed for understanding the problems of art where they are tense with the complexity
of our own concerns for contemporary reality and the arts.
The focal points of the program are the Proseminar and the Serious Times Lecture Series. The
Proseminar in 2012–13 on the “Convergence of the Arts in the 21st Century,” broaches critical issues
in society, culture and the arts as an open forum. Students develop and experiment with the material
presented and attend discussions with leading New York City intellectuals and internationally ac-
claimed visiting artists. The Serious Times Lecture Series poses the question, “Why doesn’t the United
States make social progress?” Students engage in presentations and discussions of the most urgent
social problems facing us today. The program is completed in three consecutive semesters that conclude
with the Comprehensive Thesis.
Several teaching assistantships are available. Fall 2012 begins the program’s inaugural year.
127
chair interview
Robert Hullot-Kentor
“Students have an urgency about themselves these days that must be taken seriously.” Robert Hullot-Kentor,
chair of sva’s new ma degree in Critical Theory and the Arts, is emphatic about the program’s timeliness.
“These are serious times, to say the least.” When asked if this is why the program includes the Serious Times
Lectures Series, he nods, “Yes, certainly. And what has so impressed me over the past number of years is how
many very bright, talented and capable students there now are who are more than ready to engage what is go-
“Students have ing on in art today in a way that involves the entire history of art and society and the most important questions
an urgency about we have about our lives. While the value of higher education is being challenged by one part of society, there
themselves these are many students who are very ready to dig in, and feel they need to—when they can find real education.”
days that must be The program, Hullot-Kentor explains, is a yearlong involvement in the study of “the arts in the
On any
taken seriously.” broadest sense, the questions of understanding art and the puzzles in making art today.” He empha-
sizes the range of works that students will study, including materials drawn from “social theory, social
history, aesthetics, and a living art history.” That’s a lot for one year, isn’t it? Hullot-Kentor agrees, “It
given day...
is. And it is exactly enough time to get enough of a grip on the reality of the issues to be able to pursue
them when the year is over—whether as artists, as public intellectuals or as writers.”
Playing devil’s advocate, I ask Hullot-Kentor why art is so central to the course of study he has
mapped out? Hullot-Kentor seems to have a strong sense of humor and finds the question funny, or in
any case, he is smiling, “You know, there is no sense marching around waving a banner for art, ‘Go,
art!’ You can’t root for art. I’m not about to argue for art. At the same time, what is more important to “On any given day…” in the program in Critical Theory and the Arts, some
study than art? It is the most important thing we make, and what most of us want to make. Suzanne students may be working early in the department’s library, preparing for classes.
Langer said it a long time ago, art is how we shape import. We have no other way to do it. Art works
And it is also imaginable that…
ask us to think about the import that they shape. They urge us to think about them in a way that noth-
…at 11 a.m., artists Paul Chan and Jessica Stockholder join a …at 7:30 p.m., that evening, the Serious Times Lecture Series hosts
ing else does. In serious times, they get us to the heart of the matter.”
discussion with Robert Hullot-Kentor’s aesthetics class on the kinds of essayist, Eliot Weinberger—who has been named one of the 100
Hullot-Kentor spent many years in graduate school, starting at the Iowa Writers Workshop, then
problems that contemporary visual artists have in figuring out when a work “most innovative thinkers” in the world. Weinberger leads a discussion
doing graduate work in Clinical Psychology and studying philosophy and literature in Europe before
is complete; when it is “done.” The conversation turns to why this problem on the challenges he faced in writing What I Heard About Iraq,
he finished his doctorate, and he has taught at Boston University, Harvard and Stanford. So he isn’t first emerged so drastically only in 20th century art, and what this has to do recognized as an “International Book of the Year,” by the Times Literary
being immodest in pointing out that he has designed the entire program from top to bottom drawing on with why some artists today insist that one can no longer hope to make a Supplement. The discussion becomes a consideration of the long term
his own lengthy experience in the arts and education. “It’s rare — almost unprecedented — to have the “masterpiece.” The idea that “masterpieces” may now be impossible implications of the 9/11 attack and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—
chance to make something like this out of whole cloth.” What pleases him most in what he’s designed, seems absurd to one group of students, but the other side of the table and the implications for the situation of artists as well. The students try
I wonder? “That the program makes sense as a whole. The parts illuminate each other meaningfully; insists to the contrary. Looking for answers the discussion turns to to talk Eliot Weinberger into coming back to join them all for dinner
they stand in a dynamically tense relationship to each other. Students will realize this right away. There questions of Cézanne’s unfinished canvases, and whether or not they are one evening soon, only to discover that people who actually make
is of course almost an endless amount to learn in the program, but still it isn’t about setting out to learn “masterpieces.” But what about Chan and Stockholder’s work? Are their things spend considerably less time going out to dinner than one might
everything. It is a matter of gaining a capacity for binding insight. The program wants to provide what works complete; would they hope to make “masterpieces”? imagine. Or, perhaps it turns out differently.
students need for thinking that knowingly, capably, strikes flint on stone. And I have brought together an
…at 3:30 p.m., the composer, pianist and distinguished musicologist,
exceptional group of faculty who are mutually aware of how the year fits together and are interested in
Stefan Litwin returns. Earlier in the week he presented a discussion-
collaborating with each other and with the students.”
performance dealing with sections of T. W. Adorno’s Philosophy of New
What haven’t we touched on? “Lots. But one thing special about the program,” he mentions, “is the
Music. This afternoon he meets with students to talk about the idea of
Graduate Associates. These are students who are advanced in—and sometimes finishing—graduate
musical space, and the transformation of musical space in modern music.
programs in philosophy, sociology, music, history, and studio art. They’ve been invited to participate in Students become curious about the ways in which these developments in
the program because they’re really interesting people and deeply involved in their own studies. They’ll music can, or cannot, meaningfully be compared with spatial transforma-
participate in the different seminars, and they will help students get a sense for where their own work tions in the visual arts. Late in the discussion a student wonders out
might go. It’s important that younger people are part of this faculty.” loud—thinking back to the morning discussion—if the problem of finishing
Hullot-Kentor will draw on the program’s New York City context and location by inviting a remarkable work in the visual arts is also a problem in modern music. Litwin, a
group of visiting artists and lecturers, both senior figures in their fields and key younger contributors. composer, talks about the kinds of problems that he must deal with in just
A few final words? “I’ve said it elsewhere, but at the end of the year, students in the program will this regard, and the ways in which this situation has changed in music since
still recognize themselves in the mirror, but much else will have changed.” the first part of the 20th century.
Proseminar I and II The Serious Times Lecture Series I and II Robert Hullot-Kentor Ellen Levy
The current topic of the Proseminar is The Convergence of the Arts in Rather than reducing art to society, or society to art, the program in Chair, Critical Theory and the Arts, Master of Arts degree program, Writer
the 21st Century. Critical Theory and the Arts is organized at every point to maintain a School of Visual Arts; Philosopher Education: BA, magna cum laude, Princeton University;
The convergence of the arts may be the most striking aspect of art mutually illuminating dual focus. Thus, along with the Prosesminar, Education: BA, Marlboro College; MA, Goddard College; PhD, MA, Columbia University; PhD, Vanderbilt University
in the late 20th century and the 21st century. Today, artists, almost the Serious Times Lecture Series emphasizes the program’s other focus University of Massachusetts Author: Criminal Ingenuity: Moore, Cornell, Ashbery, and
as a rule, combine their many talents in hybridizing permutations: on social reality. Participants in the series read the work of a guest, Author: Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor the Struggle Between the Arts. Contributor, Encyclopedia of the
music is combined with sculpture, architecture with performance art, who leads the discussion. W. Adorno; Ice Flow: Essay and Commentary on David Salle; Terra New York School Poets
photography with painting and video with installation. This involves a In 2012, an election year, a fierce preoccupation with who is win- Infirma: The House that Mowry Baden Built Presentations include: John Ashbery in Paris International
complex dynamic. Because at the same time as the arts are converging, ning and who is losing will obscure the shaping, expression and dis- Editor: Current of Music: Elements of a Radio Theory; editor, Conference, Paris; American Literature Association Conference,
radically modern art has been marked by a strong tendency toward cussion of almost all real problems and concerns. The work of our translator, Philosophy of New Music; Aesthetic Theory; Kierkegaard: Boston; Modernist Studies Association conferences in Victoria, BC;
autonomy: just as the realm of art as such has tended to assert its sepa- seminar is, by contrast, to keep our minds on the hard questions by Construction of the Aesthetic Long Beach, CA; Nashville; University of Chicago; University of
ration from the rest of society, so the various arts have tended to assert asking, “Why doesn’t the United States make social progress?” For Awards and honors include: DAAD; Orion Visiting Artist, Wisconsin, Madison
their distinction from one another. In the first semester, we explore while there is no doubt that considerable technical progress is made, University of Victoria; J. Paul Getty Resident Scholar; J. Paul Getty Publications include: Modernism/modernity; Literary Imagination;
this central dynamic of the arts of our own moment, considering how and while there are certainly achievements in social equality—we External Scholar; Mellon Faculty Fellow, Harvard University and Tikkun; New York Review of Books; Raritan; Parkett; Dissent; The
the imperative toward what Clement Greenberg called “self-definition have an African-American president, for instance, and have ended the Boston University Nation; Critical Texts: A Review of Theory and Criticism
with a vengeance” came to take hold, and how the countertendency military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” order—the society itself, as a whole, Awards and honors include: Associate fellow, Robert Penn
toward the mixing of the arts has been shaped and shadowed by the fails to progress. The real problems—why 10 million homes have been Devi Dumbadze Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University; Francis
drive toward artistic autonomy. foreclosed, why the jobless recovery, why this is the nation with the Social philosopher, sociologist LeMoyne Page Creative Writing Award, Princeton University; Morris
The discussions involve all aspects of the year’s studies—in social largest prison population, why the continued degradation of the envi- Education: BA, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University; MA, W. Croll Poetry Prize, Princeton University
theory, social history, aesthetics, and art history—and become the ronment—are going unanswered. What vantages can we find on the Ruhr-University Bochum
focus for our understanding of the current crises in the arts. Contem- question—“Why doesn’t the United States make social progress?”—in Professional experience includes: Visiting scholar, The New Tom Huhn
porary artists and critics are frequent visitors to help us understand the midst of the election year pressures? And how does understanding School for Social Research; scientific assistant, lecturer, Institute Chair, Art History Department and BFA Visual and Critical Studies
what it is that the arts face today in the struggle to make new work. the structure of these problems help us understand the election itself? for Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum; lecturer, scientific Department, School of Visual Arts; coordinator, Honors Program,
Participation in the Serious Times Lecture Series is reserved for stu- editions coordinator, Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, School of Visual Arts; philosopher; critic
dents in the program and invited guests. Graduates of Critical Theory Ilia Chavchavadze State University of Language and Culture Education: AB, Sarah Lawrence; MA, PhD, Boston University
and the Arts remain permanent members of the lecture series and of Books include: Co-author, Towards Organizational Management: Books include: Imitation and Society: The Persistence of Mimesis
the program’s intellectual community. Manual on Management. Co-editor, Critique of Political Philosophy: in the Aesthetics of Burke, Hogarth, and Kant; The Cambridge
Society, Contract, State II; Knowledge and Critique: Contemporary Companion to Adorno; The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and
Social Theory, Social Criticism and the Arts I and II Positions. Translator, Schemezneba da interesi the Ends of Taste; The Semblance of Subjectivity: Essays in Adorno’s
In these courses, the structure of contemporary society is presented and Publications include: Festschrift für Burkhard Mojsisch, Tbilisi; Aesthetic Theory
carefully explicated, drawing on close readings of the seminal texts of Limes: Rivista Italiana di Geopolitica; Netgazeti; Jungle World; Publications include: New German Critique, Art & Text, Oxford
modern social theory and philosophy. Students develop in-depth com- Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft; Matsne: Series in Philosophy Art Journal, British Journal of Aesthetics, Art Criticism, Telos,
prehension of contemporary society and of the traditions of thought and Psychology Eighteenth-Century Studies, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,
that have considered how its antagonistic elements can be explicated Awards and honors include: Open Society Georgia Foundation; Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Philosophy and Social Criticism,
and critically presented. The first semester focuses on the fundamental Munich Grant, Goethe-Institut; DAAD; Freedom Support Exchange Art Book
concepts of the founders of sociology in Émile Durkheim and Georg Program, United States Information Agency Curatorial works include: “Ornament and Landscape,” Apex
Simmel and on what distinguishes modern society from other social Gallery; “Still Missing: Beauty Absent Social Life,” Visual Arts
structures as understood by Max Weber and Karl Marx. The second Museum and Westport Arts Center, CT
semester examines particular aspects of contemporary society in light Group exhibition: Triple Candie
of the principal debates in current social and critical theory. We con- Awards and honors include: Getty Scholar; Fulbright Scholar;
sider the interconnection of economic and political forms, of modern First Prize, American Society for Aesthetics Essay Contest; New York
commerce and the state. And we ask how social relations and indi- State Council for the Humanities
vidual comportment are interrelated. What is the function of culture,
media and the culture industry in contemporary society? Readings
include Freud (selections), Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of
Enlightenment, Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology and
Luhmann’s The Reality of the Mass Media. The overarching question
is how social structure at once makes the arts possible and no less
structures their crises.
Tel: 212.592.2172
Contact Us
Fax: 212.592.2168
E-mail: theoryart@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/cta
department site: cta.sva.edu
Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
As a profession, graphic design weds art and commerce, form and that integrate the best in design and design thinking. The opportu-
content, and aesthetics and function. It began in the late 19th nity to build design skill and confidence through making a unique
century as a service-oriented field with a few visionary practitioners product is in itself a valuable process.
emerging in each generation who set the standards and styles and Students must be fluent in the languages of graphic design and,
established its philosophical underpinnings. For more than a decade particularly, typography, and increasingly more adept in motion and
advances in media have created many new creative opportunities, sound as well. They must be able to explain their ideas verbally
changing the role of graphic designers by forcing them to go beyond and visually, for a good idea is nothing if it cannot be well articulated.
simply framing ideas into content development. Although produc- We do not teach students how to design, but rather how to optimize
tion skills are necessary, graphic designers are increasingly in their abilities to rise to the next professional level. In addition,
demand to contribute original “design thinking” into such fields as we welcome those who have backgrounds in other fields and media.
branding, publishing, editorial, packaging and products. We believe it is important for the designer of the present and future
The floodgates were opened with the advent of the computer; to be thoroughly integrated into many communications platforms,
graphic design has been a component of a larger creative practice ever if only to command the options that are and will be available. Our
since. At this crossroads, designers were given the choice to become students are encouraged to draw inspiration from other visual and
glorified production “artists,” framing and finessing others’ ideas, communication arts that share authorial practices. In this way,
or building upon their expertise, develop concepts integral to the the program has not been restricted to the conventional curriculum.
success of a client’s wares. The mfa Designer as Author program Instead, we embrace a broad set of visual, verbal and textual ap-
was the first in the country to emphasize an entrepreneurial course of proaches as the foundation for student—and professional—activity.
study that raises the level of design expertise and achievement. Our mfa studio is accessible 24 hours a day, and is designed
The quintessential mfa Designer as Author student comes to to simulate an operational design/media firm with spacious work
this unique program with the desire to extend his or her practices stations that allow for individual and collaborative work. Students
beyond conventional graphic design into distinct realms of content also have unlimited access to high-end editing rooms, a conference
creation. For the past decade we have made students into authors, room, a design library (with 2000 current volumes) and a student-
producers and entrepreneurs of their own ideas. We believe that the run exhibition gallery. Students also direct “Crit,” the graduate
danger in having unprecedented access to new and future media is student design blog, and create websites to showcase our annual
that graphic designers could be edged out of the creative process. exhibitions. The program remains connected to the professional
Authorship and entrepreneurship are viable alternatives and this world while being in the academic one.
program is predicated on the increasing need for designers to apply mfa Designer as Author is tailored for students and profession-
their wits and skills as providers throughout all the visual media— als with backgrounds in graphic design, and we encourage those
MFA Design
from print to digital. with environmental, product, Web, interaction design, film and
The concept of design authorship is, first and foremost, rooted in photography backgrounds who are interested in further developing
the independent creation of ideas. Developing concepts and finding their skills in unique and progressive ways.
the best forms to express and package them through design is
Designer as Author key. Our students are form-givers and thus committed to original- Steven Heller and
www.sva.edu/grad/design ity. The outcome of the program is to develop and promote new Lita Talarico, co-chairs
products of value that are responsive to the needs and wants of a
department site: design.sva.edu society in flux and to contribute objects and campaigns of worth
139
The Five Most Students in the Design program at SVA aren’t taught by “those who can’t” types; they’re led by legends. We asked celebrated
Important Things
graphic designer, New York magazine co-founder and sva acting chairman Milton Glaser: What are the five most important things
designers learn in school?
1. While it may not be like studying art history, design has a long 4. Hold your beliefs lightly and remember that belief is usually
You’ll Learn
and illustrious past—from the Vienna Secession to the Private a sign of a closed mind. Examine your assumptions and never stop
Press Movement—that goes back far more than 10 or 20 years. re-examining them.
This will help you build your awareness of the meaning of forms.
About Design
5. Be generous with ideas. They are meant to be given away and
2. You’ll learn both to make things clear and the nature of ambiguity, shared. Ideas are not property—you can reap great benefits when
and that using both can help you communicate. they’re experienced and used by others. In our society, our notion
of the personal ownership of ideas becomes a great hindrance to
Faculty Profile: 3. Style should come out of expressive content, and not as an our sense of a common purpose.
Milton Glaser addition or an outside idea; it isn’t opposed to content, it emerges
from it. It’s not just a layer added on afterwards.
Lita Talarico
While classes are held in two classrooms and one conference room,
the studio is continually abuzz with individual and group activity. Students
have 24 hour access, seven days a week, to all the facilities. And many
“I knew Lita from when we worked together at American Illustration,” explains Steven Heller. use this secure space as their second home.
“But co-chairing the program was kismet; we ran into each other, I asked her whether she was looking
for a new job, she said yes, and we’ve been working closely ever since.” “Everything I’d done in my
career in New York led to this job,” Lita Talarico confirms. “I have taught in design programs and
have worked as a design and architecture consultant, organized conferences, and coordinated architect
selections, all of which equipped me for this role. Ten years on, the program remains exciting and
On any
continues to move forward.”
“No one was doing anything like this program when we started,” Talarico continues. “You have
to wait a few years to see how things really work, and we’ve found by now that graduates have been
given day...
“The program is extremely happy with what they’ve received from the program. A large number of them are working in
very clear and jobs directly related to their studies—even though they’ve also learned to be very independent-minded.”
very structured. “When we began,” Heller recalls, “there was a buzz about something called the ‘designer as author.’
It’s about being a Magazines like Eye were publishing intelligent design writing and Print had a critical column, which
practitioner and I helped found, called ‘Cold Eye.’ So our idea was that if designers were going to be writers, they could
creating something also be auteurs. The program suggests that if designers can write and think academically, then they
of value…” can apply these skills commercially. I wanted an mfa that wasn’t overly theoretical, but which raised In the 24/7 MFA Design studio students arrive early—assuming they
the educational bar and was about entrepreneurial thinking too. We decided that our thesis projects— ever left the night before. Their day starts by working on assignments.
and this is key to the whole enterprise—should result in products that the designer could actually take Today, the first-year students scurry to finish off a Milton Glaser poster
advocating an act or event that will impact their neighbors in the City; the
to market. Students must find an audience for their ideas, determine a need, create a value, and get them
second-year students finish preparation for the next stage of their thesis
out into the world.” “The program is very clear and very structured,” adds Talarico. “It’s about being
by preparing pitch presentations to the thesis consultant faculty.
a practitioner and creating something of value, even if it isn’t aimed at a mass audience.”
“Endemic to everything we do,” Heller explains, “is the play principle, Paul Rand’s idea that designers
Time for reflection and peer review is an important part of their process,
play with form as well as create it, and work both rationally and instinctually. Designers solve puzzles,
yet tackling the deadlines at hand fill their early afternoon hours.
and sometimes they do that by throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks. Graphic design
is an essential rubric too, but we deliberately omitted the word ‘graphic’ because we were aiming at a In the late afternoon, students attend a weekly guest speaker session.
more integrated program. We encourage students to do things that work in motion on screen and in the This week it is Michael Bierut, who hosts the class at his Pentagram office.
three-dimensional world, as well as in print.” Maira Kalman is also giving the first part of her New York Stories class,
Talarico describes one course that demonstrates this unique approach: “New York Stories is a delight- where students create stories about their favorite New York characters.
ful class,” she smiles. “It started in a Greenwich Village nursing home, where each student got to work
on a design project that reflected a patient’s life. Another project involved students packing life stories First-year students return to the studio just in time to polish off their
into suitcases. And one year they baked cakes…. Every time, I just know it’s going to be one of the most assignments, then a three-hour class in which intensive crits are the order
of business. An exhausting but exhilarating day.
interesting experiences that those students will have. There’s always some amazing twist.”
Lecturers
Seminar
Designer, typographer, author, performer Creative director, Funny Garbage; owner, creative director, Proprietor, Open
Education: BFA, Queens College; MFA, Yale University Andy Pratt Design Education: BFA, Rhode Island School of Design owner, president, Buck
Books and plays authored and designed: Crossing the Education: BFA, Rochester Institute of Technology Professional experience: Art director, Colors Magazine; House and The Gallery at
BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America; The Portrait Clients include: Bloomberg, Cartoon Network, CBS, Crayola, senior designer, M&Co.
Series: a quartet of men (Brother Blue, Charlie, Nicky D. from FedEx, Lego, National Geographic Kids, Noggin, Star Trek, Teen Clients include: American Museum of Moving Image, art:
Buck House
L.I.C., Claude); FRENCH FRIES; versations; I mean you know; Nick, PBS Kids, Smithsonian Institution, Turner, Veer, Viacom, 21, Bravo, EarthAction, MTV, The Nation, Nick at Nite, PBS, Stephen Doyle
GRRRHHH: a study of social patterns; TYPE DREAMS; A Tattle Wenner Media, Xerox Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Trio, Wieden + Kennedy
Tale; Denial of the Fittest; The Whole K’Cuffin World; Social Publications include: Becoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Publications include: Creative Review (UK), Critique,
creative director,
Security; the life and times of Eugene Soloman; The Search for IT Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game and Animation Design Communication Arts, Eye (UK), Grafik, HOW, Metropolis, Doyle Partners
and Other Pronouns Awards include: Gold and silver Mark Awards; Emmy Award; I.D., +81 (Japan), Print, STEP Inside Design
Collections include: Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Global Media Award; Webby Award; “Top 50 Websites,” Time; Awards and honors include: American Center for Design,
Louise Fili
Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Walker Art Center, Creativity; Print Regional Design Annual; Interactive Media Award; AIGA, Art Directors Club, Broadcast Designers Association, Type designer and president,
Minneapolis; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Gallery, London; Communicator Award Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers Louise Fili, Ltd.
Jean Brown Archive; Franklin Furnace Archive; Yale Art of the Book Website: www.andypratt.net
Room; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Véronique Vienne Edwin Schlossberg
Sackner Collection Howard W. Reeves Writer; creative director; president, Young Vienne, Inc. president, ESI Design
Awards and honors include: National Endowment for the Arts; Senior vice president, publisher, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Education: École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
New York State Council on the Arts; New York State Foundation Amulet Books Professional experience Includes: Contributing editor,
on the Arts; Ford Foundation; Puffin Foundation; AIGA; Prix Ars Education: BA, Wake Forest University House & Garden; creative director, Cato Gobe; director of busi-
Electronica; Type Directors Club; Rockefeller Foundation; Greenwall Professional experience: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Buena Vista ness development, Yves Saint Laurent Parfums, NY; founding art
Foundation; Furthermore Foundation; NY Book Show Best of the Best Publishing; Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. director, Parenting; founding editorial director, Mode; art direc-
Award; Media That Matters Award Awards for books edited: Caldecott Honor Book; Michael L. tor, Interiors, Image, Self
Printz Honor Book; gold and silver medals, Society of Illustrators; Author: The Art of Doing Nothing; The Art of Imperfection;
Frank Martinez Silver Medal, Parents’ Choice Award; The New York Times Best The Art of Growing Up; The Art of Expecting; Something to
Trademark attorney, The Martinez Group Illustrated; Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Art Directors Club; Be Desired: A Collection of Essays on Design; Chip Kidd, a
Education: BFA, Pratt Institute; JD, Hofstra University Boston Globe/Horn Book Award; AIGA 50 Best Books; ALA Notable Monograph
Professional Experience Includes: Design patent examiner, Books; Reading Magic Award, Parenting magazine National Parenting books edited and co-edited: Fresh Dialogue Three;
United States Patent and Trademark Office; design production direc- Center Seal of Approval Fresh Dialogue Four, New Voices in Graphic Design; Citizen
tor, The Schechter Group, Landor Associates Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility; The Education
Publications include: Regular contributor, I.D., Print Stefan Sagmeister of an Art Director
Graphic designer, founder, Sagmeister Inc. Publications Include: Martha Stewart Living, Town &
Kevin T. O’Callaghan Education: MS, Pratt Institute; MFA, University of Applied Country, House & Garden, InStyle, Mirabella, Redbook, Spa
Chair, 3D design program, BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Arts, Vienna Finder, Metropolis, Graphis, Print, Communication Arts, Eye,
Department, School of Visual Arts; 3D designer and illustrator; princi- Professional Experience: M&Co; creative director, Leo American Photo, AIGA Journal, Etapes Graphiques
pal, O’Callaghan & Co–Art for the Film Industry Burnett Hong Kong; art director, Sagmeister Graphics; designer,
Education: BFA, School of Visual Arts Schauspielhaus Vienna; designer, ETC. magazine, Vienna Ada Whitney
Clients include: MTV Networks, Toyota, Warner Brothers Clients include: Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Co-founder, creative director, Beehive. Formerly, director,
Records, A&E Networks, The History Channel, ABC Pictures Pat Metheny, Muir Cornelius Moore, Parham Santana designer, Broadway Video
Publications: People, US, Graphis, Playboy New York, The New Publications include: Rolling Stone, The New York Times Education: BA, Beloit College
York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times Awards and honors include: More than 200 design awards, Clients include: HBO, Showtime, ABC, ESPN, HGTV, PBS,
Curatorial Work includes: “Skeleton,” Whitney Museum including: The One Show; Art Directors Club; Communication Arts; Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, NBC, Spike, AMC, TNT, Comedy
of American Art; “What Makes Them Tick?” Art Directors Club; D&AD; Grand Prix, Moscow Art Directors Club Hall of Fame Central, Quicksilver, Sundance, Time Warner Cable
“YUGO Next,” traveling exhibition; “The Turn of The Century: Exhibitions include: PS122 Gallery; Executive Gallery;
A Carousel,” traveling exhibition to Grand Central Terminal, Union Jeff Scher A.I.R. Gallery; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo,
Station, Washington, DC, and Union Station, Chicago Experimental filmmaker NY; P.P.O.W. Gallery; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center;
Awards include: Distinguished Artist-Teacher Award, School of education: BA, Bard College; American Film Institute Civilian Warfare
Visual Arts Films include: Whiplash, a film by Warren Sonbert, completed after Publications include: Res, Communication Arts, Shoot,
the filmmaker’s death; Yours; Trigger Happy; Bang Bang; Turkish Millimeter, Film & Video
Traffic; Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Awards include: Gold Award, International Monitor;
exhibitions include: Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Promax; Broadcast Design Association; Print; Art Directors Club;
Guggenheim Museum Communication Arts; Type Directors Club; Creativity
Collections include: Museum of Modern Art, Academy Film
Archives, Pacific Film Archives
Kurt Andersen Hillman Curtis Robbin Gourley Julie Lasky Mark Randall Fred Seibert Jakob Trollback
Studio 360, WNYC, New York Hillman Curtis, New York Farrar Straus Giroux, editor, Change Observer World Studio, New York Frederator, New York Trollback and Company,
Philippe Apeloigh Eames Demetrios New York Tod Lippy David Rees Bonnie Siegler New York
designer, Paris Studio of Charles & Ray Robert Greenberg Esopus, New York cartoonist, New York Number17, New York Erik Van Blokland
Dana Arnett Eames, Los Angeles R/GA, New York George Lois Vivian Rosenthal Esther Smith Letterror, Holland
VSA Partners, Chicago Barbara De Wilde Rodney Alan Greenblat adman, New York Tronic, New York Purgatory Pie Press, Just Van Rossom
Randy Balsmeyer Knopf, New York Rodney World, New York Ellen Lupton Jason Santa Maria New York Letterror, Holland
Big Film, New York William Drenttel Ric Grefe Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Happy Cog, New York Andy Spade James Victore
Jim Biber Winterhouse, AIGA, New York New York Paula Scher Andy Spade Inc., New York Victore Design Works,
Pentagram, New York Falls Village, CT Jessica Helfand Ross MacDonald Pentagram, New York Ethan Trask Brooklyn
Michael Bierut Dorothy Dunn Winterhouse, Brightwork Press, J.J. Sedelmaier Helicopter, New York Khoi Vinh
Pentagram, New York The Glass House, CT Falls Village, CT Newtown, CT J.J. Sedelmair Productions, The New York Times,
Arem Duplessis Drew Hodges Bernard Maisner White Plains, NY New York
Matteo Bologna
Mucca Design, New York The New York Times, SpotCo, New York letterer, New Jersey Eric Zimmerman
New York Jonathan Hoefler Richard McGuire founder, GameLab,
Paul Budnitz New York
KidRobot, New York Alan Dye Hoefler Frere-Jones, illustrator, New York
Apple, Cupertino New York Adam Michaels
Ralph Caplan
writer, New York Stewart Ewen Joe Holtzman Project Projects, New York
Hunter College, New York Nest, New York Debbie Millman
Michael Carabetta
Chronicle Books, San Stephen Farrell Alexander Isley Sterling Brands, New York
Francisco type designer, Chicago Isley Design, CT Susan Mitchell
John Carlin Pablo Ferro Hjalti Karlsson Farrar Straus Giroux,
Funny Garbage, New York Pablo Ferro Productions, Karlsson-Wilker, New York New York
Los Angeles
Tel: 212.592.2600
Contact Us
Matthew Carter Joyce Rutter Kaye Mitch Nash
Tobias Frere-Jones Print magazine, New York BlueQ, Pittsfield, MA
Carter + Cone, Boston
Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Fax: 212.592.2627
Lenny Kaye Christoph Niemann
Sue Coe
artist, New York
New York Patti Smith Group, illustrator, Berlin E-mail: mfadesign@sva.edu
Janet Froelich New York
Robbie Conal Real Simple, New York
Gary Panter www.sva.edu/grad/design
Art Attack, Venice, CA Jeffrey Keyton comics artist, Brooklyn
John Gall MTV, New York Phil Patton
department site: design.sva.edu
Tad Crawford Vintage Books, New York
Allworth Press, New York design critic, New Jersey We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting application materials.
Carin Goldberg Rick Poynor
designer, New York Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
design critic, London
Departmental Information Session: October 1, 2011.
All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the Office of
Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
The mfa in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts is an innovative two-year program that
trains students to research, analyze, and evaluate design and its social and environmental implications.
Students are taught by some of the best design writers and thinkers of our time, including “Studio 360”
host and author Kurt Andersen, moma’s design curator Paola Antonelli, former editor of I.D. maga-
zine Ralph Caplan, Metropolis contributing editor Karrie Jacobs and author and essayist Akiko Busch.
sva’s mfa in Design Criticism—the only one of its kind in the United States—seeks to cultivate
design criticism as a discipline and contribute to public discourse with new writing and thinking that
is imaginative, historically informed and socially accountable. Drawing on the broadest possible defini-
tion of design, the curriculum includes graphic, Web and product design, as well as fashion, urban
planning and networked systems.
It also considers the multiple implications of design beyond the object. In addition to object analysis,
therefore, the program offers methods for the study of designed environments and systems, and the
larger social and political contexts in which they operate.
The course of study couples a theoretical framework with significant opportunities for practical
experience. In addition to their written assignments, students produce tangible documents of their critical
practice, such as podcasts, books, blogs, documentaries, course syllabi, conferences and exhibitions.
In providing the tools for researching, analyzing, evaluating and chronicling all aspects of design, the
program will prepare students for careers as design critics, journalists, editors, curators, educators
and design managers.
The Design Criticism department (or D-Crit for short) has its own newly designed floor in an sva
building in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, well within walking distance of some of the world’s best
design collections, libraries and archives, and also very close to many of New York’s design studios and
publishing houses. Classes meet in the department; weekly field trips and site visits take place at various
locations. Students are designated their own desk space within an open plan workspace whose layout
is modeled after a magazine’s editorial office.
We welcome students from a range of academic backgrounds whose diverse perspectives and
experiences enrich the debate. The program is equally well suited to designers, who want to hone
MFA
their skills in writing and critical thinking, as it is to journalists and writers, who wish to enrich
their understanding of design.
Design criticism is a rapidly growing academic discipline and field of practice. In addition to its
Design Criticism
increasing territory in the national press, new journals, awards programs and conferences have been
initiated, dedicated to fostering the genre. It’s an exciting time to be involved in design criticism;
students in this program are instrumental in shaping its formats, directing its priorities, and negotiating
the ways it is encountered by its many publics.
163
Design Is
Everywhere:
On Location
Students in the D-Crit program learn different
in Times Square
Student Profiles:
methods for evaluating design in the capital Frederico Duarte & Angela Riechers
of American architecture, media and design:
New York City.
The TKTS booth in Times Square has sold more than 47 million
discount theatre tickets since it was first built in 1973. In the late
1990s a competition was held to redesign the booth. The response
was unprecedented in the history of design competitions in New
York City, with 683 entries from 31 countries. The winning entry
came from Australian architects John Choi and Tail Ropiha. The
architecture firm Perkins Eastman ultimately built it.
At SVA, we’re very lucky to have New York City as our campus. Recently we eavesdropped on
two mfa Design Criticism students who were discussing an assignment set by Justin Davidson,
architecture and classical music critic at New York magazine, which took them to Times Square.
Part public space and part architectural statement, the shimmering roof of the recently built tkts
booth in Times Square sits vulnerable to the same fierce criticism as all projects in New York. Two stu-
dents enrolled in the Design Criticism program, Frederico Duarte and Angela Riechers, toured the
area for one of their classes, exploring the continual lightning rod of debate that is the Great White Way.
AR: In class we talked about defining the booth and figuring out what it does for the streetscape.
My observation was that it’s really a stage in itself, where you can observe Times Square as if you were
at the theater or seen as being on stage yourself. I’m one of the people that really liked the booth,
but personally I don’t like Times Square. I don’t like crowds and push, and Times Square is the center
of crowds and push.
FD: I liked it, too. It’s a monumental staircase to nowhere. Climbing it is one of the great things about
it. When you get to the top you see the Coca-Cola sign—it’s your reward for reaching the top. While
it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s a vantage point. In a way, it’s part of the stage and you become part of that.
It’s also a kind of bleacher, so you’re looking out at Time Square, seeing the whole landscape.
AR: I’d never seen Times Square quite like that; here you are in the middle of traffic and you can see
the traffic flowing down past you, the river of yellow taxis and all those people. It’s really beautiful.
Normally you can’t really see it, because you’re always being moved along, you’re part of a human river.
FD: Also fascinating is the fact that the building is inconveniently jammed behind the statue of Father
Duffy, a landmark that couldn’t be moved to accommodate the plan. In a way, this is a symptom of
New York urban design. There’s always someone who wants to keep the status quo. It’s sort of ironic—
here’s this great new building in the City, but it’s a victim of politics.
That reminds me—during election night one of the big gathering places in the City was Times
Square, and someone in class said that they couldn’t remember when that space was last used as it
should be, as a place where people congregate naturally and uncontrolled. However, the stairs were
roped off for corporate use. And it makes you question whether or not this is a truly public space.
In a way, it’s true to Times Square in that it’s yet another urban oddity.
AR: Like it or not, Times Square is a reflection of our culture and what’s important to us, how we get
information, and how corporations want us to get that information. And to try and make it anything
more than that…. I can’t imagine what that would look like. We’ll just have to let it stand there, almost
like a mirror, and ask, “Do you like what you see?”
Design Criticism
MFA Design Criticism students investigate the
structures and infrastructures that define the city
on field trips to sites both time-honored (such as
the Statue of Liberty or Queens Botanical
Gardens) and brand-new, like the Times Square
TKTS booth, One Bryant Park or the High Line.
The MFA Design Criticism Department has its own floor in a
chair interview beautiful building in the Flatiron district of New York City. Students work
Alice Twemlow
in a custom-designed studio environment with personal workstations and
Internet networking, accessible 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
The D-Crit floor is the center for studying and socializing, but regular field
“The discipline of design criticism is at a very exciting stage,” Alice Twemlow observes, “because there trips ensure that the classroom extends far beyond the D-Crit depart-
are a lot of commentators out there, but the field has yet to be molded into a substantial academic ment’s walls. The following represents a day in the life of a D-Crit student.
discipline. At first I thought it was a challenge to start a humanities-based program in the middle of an
art college, but then I realized it was actually a fantastic advantage and I decided to make it practical.
Instead of just discussing the theory of design criticism, we provide the opportunity for students to apply
“The list of faculty is pretty
the critical tools they learn. What we do is really a form of social criticism that uses design as a way
incredible. If you know
in. We’re looking at designed objects, but also at infrastructures, and that’s new territory. There are
the field, you’ll know that
elements of visual culture criticism, art criticism and architecture criticism in other programs out there,
we have the crème de
On any
but no one else has framed the discipline of design criticism as emphatically as we have.”
la crème. And students
“SVA has a tradition of holding classes toward the end of the day in order to capitalize on teachers
will build lasting contacts
who are also working professionals,” Twemlow explains, “and our program is no exception. This means
from that list.”
given day...
we can get people at the top of their game. There’s no fear of ever getting a jaded old professor! I wanted
to do a class on design curation, for example, so we went straight to MoMA and straight to their senior
curator of design…and she’s doing it! The same happened with our radio workshop class; we asked Kurt
Andersen from pri’s “Studio 360.” The list of faculty is pretty incredible. If you know the field, you’ll
know that we have the crème de la crème. And students will build lasting contacts from that list.”
“Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds,” Twemlow says. “Most have worked for a
bit though, and are here to hone their practice and to learn new tools. Right now we have someone who 9am First-year students meet at Glenn Horowitz’s antiquarian book- 2pm Thesis Consultation: Second-year students meet with Andrea
was an editor at Chronicle Books, others from curatorial and editorial backgrounds…. Students have store to pore over his private collection of first editions, manuscripts and Codrington to review their thesis topics and discuss research strategies.
come from industrial design and graphic design undergraduate programs, as well as English literature letters. They are led by their early-rising instructor Steven Heller, who
and philosophy. In fact, we’d like to expand that base further. I can see students of anthropology, teaches a class on how to research and construct narratives about objects 4pm Radio and Podcast Pitch Meeting: First-year students pitch radio
psychology, history or American studies being interested in what we do. Our students feel very invested without resorting to Google. Second-year students take a field trip to story proposals to Kurt Andersen, D-Crit teacher and host of PRI’s
Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, CT, for a private two-hour “Studio 360.” Then they work with Leital Molad and David Krasnow,
in the program and they give us a lot of valuable feedback. And they’re interested in developing extra
tour of the buildings and grounds conducted by Dorothy Dunn, director “Studio 360’s” senior producer and senior editor, to edit and refine their
things, too, like a D-Crit Road Trip for the summer months. They’re really fun!”
of Visitor Experience and Fellowships. ongoing stories.
“The D-Crit diaspora has begun,” Twemlow concludes. “Many alums are writing and editing at
titles such as Etsy, Design Observer, Architizer, Architect’s Newspaper, Metropolis, Icon and for firms
10am First-year students meet at the Museum of Modern Art for 6pm Guest Lecture: Gary Hustwit, independent filmmaker and director
such as Pentagram, OMA in Rotterdam, International Flavors and Fragrances and Sylvia Harris their Exhibition & Collection Curation class, led by Department of of Helvetica and Objectified talks to the students, faculty and visitors
Design; some have given lectures for AIGA NY, Royal College of Art in London, and run a workshop Architecture and Design curator Paola Antonelli. about the power and shortcomings of documentary filmmaking as a criti-
at the Canadian Center for Architecture; others are teaching at universities throughout the country, cal tool. First year students are responsible for introducing Hustwit and
and consulting for the Museum of Art and Design. What unites them is a desire to communicate what’s noon Students break for an informal lunch in the D-Crit kitchen launching the Q+A. A drinks reception with snacks follows the talk, allow-
interesting, important or problematic about design and architecture to as broad an audience as possible.” area, where they are joined by Dutch designer and writer Daniel van ing students the opportunity for informal discussion with the speaker and
der Velden. other influential lecture attendees.
1pm In his class, The Critical Imperative, D-Crit faculty member Ralph 7pm Second-year students join Elaine Louie and architect David
Caplan hosts a discussion with Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Rockwell at Maialino as part of their Restaurant Design Review Workshop.
Reach, on the evolution of his latest venture, Public Bikes.
8pm Students head downtown to the Lower East Side’s Hotel on
Rivington for a Surface magazine party celebrating the launch of a new
issue, in which D-Crit students are featured.
Sample Program
first year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
second year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
Architecture and Urban Design Criticism Cultural Theory Meets Design Exhibition and Collection Curation Researching Design
This course will examine the works of 20th-century architecture and This course will introduce a range of theoretical models that are use- Design curation is a vital and growing area of critical design discourse. The ability to conduct extensive and finely honed research is one of the
design critics, focusing on individuals from the New York City area ful for framing discussions of design. The aim is to identify when a This course provides an overview of how design has been collected and design critic’s richest resources. This course explores the interrelated
and those published in the popular press. Authors to be considered theoretical model is in use in a text or another form of criticism and presented in museum and exhibition contexts to date, and introduces processes of uncovering, collecting and categorizing data. Working
include Montgomery Schuyler and Lewis Mumford, as well as contem- to evaluate its appropriateness, coherence and value. Theories to be some of the alternative approaches currently being practiced. Focusing directly with primary sources such as correspondence, institutional doc-
porary critics such as Robert Campbell, Christopher Hawthorne and discussed include: postmodernism, feminism and gender studies, socio- on the design collections and exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art uments and promotional materials, students will test a range of meth-
Blair Kamin. Several sessions will be devoted to critiques of various logical studies of consumption and taste, Marxism, and semiotics and in New York, students will analyze various curatorial strategies, from odologies derived from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and
forms of urban design: skyscrapers, parks, museums and design exhibi- linguistics. the research phase to the structuring of content through narrative, chro- material culture. Visits to a selection of New York’s most significant
tions, signage and the branding of neighborhoods. Students will write nology or themes, and the final set-up in the gallery space. and intriguing public and private archives, collections and libraries, as
short presentations of the sites critiqued. The Design Book well as online and database research, are included.
This course examines book publishing in the design world and commonly Lecture Series I & II
The Blogging Workshop associated quandaries: What role do books serve in the realm of critical Visiting scholars, journalists and critics will discuss topics of impor- Restaurant Design Review
The Blogging Workshop is a hands-on introduction to the practice of design discourse and how does that role differ from those of magazines, tance, while introducing students to research methods. Some lecturers Students will take field trips to different Manhattan restaurants and
blogging professionally. Students will create a new topical blog for journals and even blogs? For whom are design books published and will discuss practical aspects of their critical endeavors and others will experience each venue. This will be followed by interviews with each
the duration of the semester, structure it editorially and post to it a why? Are books simply the longest form of design criticism or is there focus on intellectual issues. The aim is to bring students in contact restaurant’s interior designers, owners and guests. Students will then
minimum of three times a week. Students will also discuss and apply something about their content that makes them unique? Assignments will with a wide variety of professional perspectives and to introduce them write reviews that discuss the interplay between food quality, atmo-
lessons about writing for online audiences, marketing content, mon- follow the stages of book production, from crafting proposals, research- to experts in the field. sphere, etiquette and service.
etization and data analysis. Regular weekly blog posts will be assessed ing a target audience and assessing a project’s commercial viability,
according to overall quality and traffic. to drafting sample materials. Students will critique each other’s work, Radio and Podcast Workshop Thesis Consultation
debate strategies and complete research to support their findings. Can the subtleties of design be successfully communicated through Working in close consultation with their advisors, students will
The Critical Imperative a non-visual medium? An increasing number of producers, writers develop detailed research plans, identify useful archives and sources,
As society has become more complex and our needs more diverse, Design Criticism Conference Lab and hosts who create radio programs addressing design believe it can. and analyze the results of their research for thesis preparation.
so have the performance criteria for design. The aim of this course In a public conference devoted to design criticism, second-year students This workshop introduces students to the variety of programs cur-
is to equip students to respond critically to design. This entails criti- will present papers based on their theses. We will investigate the rently on air, ranging from focused documentaries and magazine-style Thesis Development
cal thinking, critical looking, critical listening and a critical attitude conference as a critical medium and analyze some historical examples. formats to host and interviewing situations. Students will produce their Choosing a topic and format that is appropriate, innovative and rich
toward any other components of design that affect judgment. In Students will be involved in all aspects of conference planning and, own programs in the form of podcasts. enough to withstand extended inquiry is essential to the success of a
researching guidelines for exercising critical capacities, students will as a group, will determine the theme of the conference and its keynote thesis. This course will assist in the selection of a topic and a thesis
consider such areas as taste, subjectivity, objectivity and “construc- speakers. Reading Design advisor, refinement of the presentation format and the thesis proposal
tive” versus “destructive” criticism. We will study and discuss the Students will investigate popular national media, with a focus on preparation.
writings of William Morris and John Ruskin, as well as modern crit- Design History how design contributes to so many of the events that shape our times.
ics such as Gilbert Seldes, Reyner Banham and Edward Kaufmann, Beginning with an overview of developments arising from the Industrial Newspapers have home and style sections, but the noteworthy design Thesis I: Research and Writing/thesis consultation
Jr. Contemporary critics that include Ada Louise Huxtable, Martin Revolution, this survey course will equip students with a solid back- stories also tend to be found elsewhere: in politics, finance and even Working in close consultation with their thesis advisors, students will
Filler and Jessica Helfand will also be read. In addition, this course ground in the history of design. One goal will be to establish a common sports articles. Readings extend to essays, fiction, nonfiction and develop detailed research plans, identify useful archives and sources,
will examine criticism in other fields such as literature, theater, art and language and enable students to identify major touchstones and reliable poetry—narratives in which design also plays a significant part—rein- and analyze the results of their research. The next stage will be to
music, and the extension of critical analysis to fashion, food, dance, reference points as they formulate an accurate chronology of events. forcing a comprehensive and critical understanding about design that draft, revise and write the thesis, a process that will also be supervised
sports and film, among other aspects of popular culture. Emphasis will be placed on the changing interpretations of what consti- goes far beyond the styling of consumer products. by faculty.
tutes modernism during the period from 1918 to 1968. A series of
Criticism Lab guest lecturers will address various aspects of contemporary design. Reporting Tools Thesis II: applied thesis production
Criticism Lab offers students a forum in which to hone the writer’s This course will begin with the art of the interview, sampling a range Each student will complete and present a final thesis—whether it’s a
voice while being exposed to some of the forms and subject areas typi- of effective interviews in a variety of forms and formats: question and video documentary, a website, an exhibition or an audio tour. This
cal of contemporary design criticism. Weekly assignments, ranging answer, written narrative profiles based on interviews and, most impor- course will assist in choosing the appropriate tools and techniques for
from 250-word statements on new buildings to a 2,500-word essay on tantly, on-camera interviews. Through an examination of both written the creation of a thesis project. Students may work in collaboration
a signage campaign, will be reviewed in groups and individually with and visual sources, this course will analyze the techniques that evoke with graduate students from other departments for the creation of
the instructor. The aim is to develop methods of argumentation, com- the answers an interviewer is seeking, as well as those he or she never their chosen product. The thesis must be reviewed and approved by
fort with the editorial process and familiarity with the range of the art expected to hear. The second half of the course will address investiga- the thesis committee and the department chair.
and the possibilities of the language. The goal is to learn how to wield tive reporting, and explore the tools and inspiration for probing a jour-
language effectively in a variety of circumstances. Special attention will nalistic subject. Students will read writings on design and social change.
be paid to eradicating cliché. The authors of exemplary works will visit the class to discuss their
strategies and experiences in getting the story. Other sessions will be
devoted to research sources and methods, both traditional and new.
Typologies Alice Twemlow, chair Awards and honors include: Special Educators Award, Art Michael Bierut
Philosophers throughout the ages have understood that insights often Design writer. Formerly, program director, AIGA Directors Club; AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement; National Partner, Pentagram, co-founder, Design Observer
derive from analyzing the similarities and differences in categories of EDUCATION: BA, Bristol University; MA, Royal College of Art/Victoria Endowment for the Arts; Hershel Levit Award, Pratt Institute; EDUCATION: BS, summa cum laude, University of Cincinnati
objects. Typologies exist in artworks of Andy Warhol, the photographs & Albert Museum Outstanding Client Award, Graphic Artists Guild; Masters Series BOOKS AUTHORED INCLUDE: Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design;
of Bernd and Hilla Becher and the informational graphics of Edward BOOKS AUTHORED INCLUDE: StyleCity New York; What is Graphic Award, School of Visual Arts co-editor, Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design,
Tufte—all as a means toward a deeper comprehension. In this course, Design For? Essays in: Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on website: www.hellerbooks.com vols. 1 through 5
students will identify an object, a building or a graphic element, and Graphic Design; Barnbrook Bible; ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING; Publications Contributed to include: Design Observer, I.D.
assemble and evaluate its variants. By looking at types of design (cof- Why Not Associates 2 Kurt Andersen Awards and honors include: Art Directors Club Hall of Fame;
fee cup lids, magnetic car ribbons, military unit patches, manhole cov- Publications Contributed to include: Arena; Baseline; Co-creator, host, “Studio 360,” WNYC and PRI; novelist; columnist, Medal of Excellence, AIGA; president emeritus, AIGA NY; Design
ers), students will learn to identify what does and does not change in a Architect’s Newspaper; Communication Arts; Design Issues; Design New York magazine. Formerly, architecture/design critic, cultural Mind Award, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; member,
form in order to come closer to its essence. Observer; Eye; Frieze; Grafik; Graphis; I.D.; Step; New York maga- columnist, Time; co-founder, editor in chief, Spy; editor in chief, Alliance Graphique Internationale
zine; Paper; Print; Typographic; Varoom; Voice: AIGA Journal of New York magazine; staff writer, columnist, The New Yorker;
Urban Curation Design co-founder, Inside.com; creative consultant, Universal Television; Akiko Busch
In this course, students will act as urban curators, and will consult CONFERENCES DIRECTED INCLUDE: “Being Here: Craft and Locality editorial director, Colors Author, design critic. Formerly, contributing editor, Metropolis
writings by innovative urban theorists (such as Henry Adams, John in Graphic Design,” “Voice: AIGA National Design Conference Education: BA, Harvard University EDUCATION: BA, Bennington College
Ruskin, John Berger, Jane Jacobs, Ian Frazier and Colson Whitehead), 2002.” Co-director, “Looking Closer: AIGA Conference on Design Author: Heyday, The Real Thing, Turn of the Century; BOOKS AUTHORED INCLUDE: Nine Ways to Cross a River:
as well as articles from contemporary magazines and websites. History and Criticism” co-author, Loose Lips; Spy: The Funny Years; Tools of Power Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from Here;
However, the heart of the course will be weekly assignments based Publications Contributed to include: The Enlightened Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live; The Uncommon
on scavenger hunts: students will be asked to find the most significant Steven Heller, program co-founder Bracketologist; Laughing Matters; Minus Equals Plus; Mirth of Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the Everyday
building on a randomly chosen New York City street and make a case Co-chair, MFA Design Department, School of Visual Arts; special a Nation; Pleasure; Profile; Public Relations and the Press: The Publications Contributed to include: The New York Times,
for their selection; find an object on the street that indicates this is assistant to the president, School of Visual Arts; editor, Voice: AIGA Troubled Embrace; Spectacle; Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist; Metropolitan Home, Architectural Record, Home, Elle, House
the 21st century and decide what that object says about this moment Online Journal of Graphic Design; contributing editor: Print, Eye, 101 Damnations; Architectural Record; Atlantic Monthly; & Garden, London Financial Times, Traditional Home, Travel +
in time; go to Times Square and find the best piece of design and the Baseline, I.D.; contributing writer: Metropolis, Grafik, Step; Visuals; Metropolis; The New York Times; Rolling Stone; Vanity Fair Leisure, Wallpaper
worst piece of design; visit Crate & Barrel, Muji, and Pearl River, columnist, The New York Times Book Review. Formerly, art director, EXHIBITIONS CURATED INCLUDE: “Faster, Newer, Cheaper, More:
and decide which one best represents the notion of good design and The New York Times Book Review Revolutions of 1848,” Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Ralph Caplan
why. Students will develop an eye for their surroundings and gain Education: New York University, School of Visual Arts AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: George Foster Peabody Award; Contributing editor, Print. Formerly, editor in chief, I.D.
confidence in their own abilities to identify meaning—perhaps even Books authored, co-authored or edited: More than 100 The New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year; EDUCATION: BA, Earlham College; MA, Indiana University
beauty—in a cluttered, chaotic environment. books on graphic design, illustration and political art, including Paul “100 People Who Changed New York,” New York magazine; Author: By Design: Why There Are No Locks on the Bathroom
Rand; Merz to Émigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design Associated Press; Newspaper Guild; honorary doctorate, Rhode Island Doors in the Hotel Louis XIV and Other Object Lessons; Cracking
of the Twentieth Century; Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic School of Design; Visionary in Residence, Art Center in Pasedena the Whip: Essays On Design And Its Side Effects; The Design of
Design, Second Edition; Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Herman Miller; Say Yes!
Digital Age; The Education of a Typographer; Graphic Design Paola Antonelli BOOKs EDITED INCLUDE: Design in America, Making More Than
History; Graphic Style: From Victorian to Postmodern; Typology: Senior curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Sense
Type Design from Victorian to Postmodern; The Education of a Modern Art. Formerly, editor, Abitare; contributing editor, Domus Publications Contributed to include: Graphis, House &
Graphic Designer; Italian Art Deco: Graphic Design Between the Education: Laurea di Dottore, Polytechnico Di Milano Garden, Interior Design, Interiors, The Nation, The New Yorker,
Wars; Faces on the Edge: Type in the Digital Age; French Modern: EXHIBITIONS CURATED INCLUDE: “Design and the Elastic Mind;” Design Quarterly, The New York Times Magazine
Art Deco Graphic Design; Euro Deco: Graphic Design Between the “Achille Castiglioni: Design!;” “Humble Masterpieces;” “Mutant AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Director emeritus, IDCA; writer-
Wars; Cuba Style; The Savage Mirror: The Art of Contemporary Materials in Contemporary Design;” “Thresholds: Contemporary in-residence, Haystack Mountain School of Arts and Crafts; Bronze
Caricature; Texts on Type; Graphic Humor: The Art of Graphic Design from the Netherlands;” “SAFE: Design Takes On Risk;” Apple Award and honorary member, IDSA
Wit; Citizen Designer; Seymour Chwast: The Left-Handed “Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer;” “Workspheres;” Museum of
Designer; Innovators of American Illustration; Art Against War; Modern Art Justin Davidson
The Push Pin Graphic: Twenty Five Years of Design and Illustration; BOOKS AUTHORED INCLUDE: Objects of Design from the Museum of Architecture and classical music critic, New York magazine;
Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Modern Art; SAFE: Design Takes On Risk; Humble Masterpieces: Contributor, “Soundcheck,” WNYC. Formerly, columnist, Newsday.
Conceits; The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Everyday Marvels of Design; Design and the Elastic Mind Education: AB, Harvard University; MA, Columbia University;
Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design Publications Contributed to include: Harper’s Bazaar, DMA, Columbia University
Curatorial works include: “Simplicissimus, Germany’s Most Harvard Design, I.D., Metropolis, Nest, Paper , Seed Publications contributed to include: New York magazine,
Influential Satire Magazine,” Goethe House; “Political Art, Ten Years Awards And Honors include: Design Mind Award, Cooper- Newsday, E-music, The New Yorker, Salon, Slate, Los Angeles
of Graphic Commentary,” AIGA; “Typographic Treasures, The Work Hewitt, National Design Museum; senior fellow, Royal College of Times, Opera News, Icon, Travel + Leisure
of W.A. Dwiggins,” ITC Center Art, London; honorary doctorate, Kingston University Awards and honors include: Pulitzer Prize, Criticism; AASFE
Introductions and forewords: Tibor Kalman; Rebelling Award for A&E Feature; ASCAP Concert Music Award; Deadline
Against Rockwell (Pictures for the American People); Barbara Club Award, Best Feature; ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for writing
Kruger: Graphic Designer; Alex Steinweis; American Advertising on music; ASNE Distinguished Writing Award; Long Island Press Club
of the 30s, 60s, 70s, 80s Awards; Newsday Publisher’s Award
Donald Albrecht Dwight Garner Natalie Jeremijenko Geoff Manaugh Jeff Roth Cynthia Smith Lettie Teague Kazys Varnelis
curator, Museum of the book critic, visual artist and engineer, author, BLDGBLOG researcher, curator of socially wine columnist and staff director, Network
City of New York The New York Times Casey Jones; director, Deborah Marton The New York Times responsible design, writer, The Wall Street Architecture Lab, Columbia
Milton Glaser Design Excellence and the executive director, Design Cooper-Hewitt, National Journal University Graduate School
Jake Barton Zoe Ryan
graphic designer Arts, U.S. General Services Trust for Public Spaces Design Museum Meredith Tenhoor of Architecture, Planning,
founder, Local Projects Neville Bryan Curator of
Administration author and Preservation
Eugenia Bell Jamie Gray Cathleen McGuigan Design, The Art Institute of Gabriel Snyder
owner, Matter Ben Katchor arts editor, Newsweek Chicago editor-in-chief, Gawker Edward Tenner Tucker Viemeister
design editor, Frieze
cartoonist author and historian of industrial designer and lab
Ayse Birsel Peter Hall Abbott Miller Katie Salen Lockhart Steele
Stuart Kestenbaum blog publisher and technology and culture chief, Rockwell Group
co-founder, Birsel + Seck design lecturer writer, curator, partner, writer; faculty, Design and
director, Haystack Mountain Pentagram Technology Program, president, Curbed Jane Thompson Pilar Viladas
Andrew Blauvelt Christopher Hawthorne School of Crafts Parsons School of Design design editor, T: The New
design director, architecture critic, Victoria Milne Valerie Steele editor, designer and urban
Emily King founder and editor-in-chief, planner York Times Style Magazine
Walker Art Center Los Angeles Times director of creative services, James Sanders
author, curator, NYC Department of Design architect, author, Fashion Theory: The Journal Masamichi Udagawa and Lawrence Weschler
Chandler Burr Virginia Heffernan design historian documentary filmmaker of Dress, Body & Culture author
and Construction Sigi Moeslinger
author; perfume critic, columnist and television
critic, The New York Times Linda King Bill Moggridge Mark Schapiro Gay Talese partners, Antenna Design David Womack
The New York Times
lecturer in Design History, director, Cooper-Hewitt, editorial director, Center for author, journalist Valerie Vago Laurer design, technology and
Allan Chochinov Jessica Helfand Theory and Visual Investigative Reporting culture writer
National Design Museum Sam Tanenhaus editor, Phaidon Books
co-founder and editor, Core graphic design writer; Communication, Institute
partner, Winterhouse Studio Stephanie Murg Felicity D. Scott editor, The New York Times Daniel van der Velden Susan Yelavich
77; chair, MFA Products of Art, Design and
co-editor, Mediabistro educator Book Review graphic designer and curator, critic, author
of Design, SVA Scott Henderson Technology, Dublin
UnBeige John Seabrook founding partner,
Elaine Lustig Cohen designer and founder, Pat Kirkham
designer, book dealer Scott Henderson Inc. Chee Pearlman author and staff writer, New Metahaven
design and cultural historian
design consultant, Yorker
Brian Collins Glenn Horowitz Melissa Lafsky conference program
chief creative officer, Collins antiquarian book dealer author, Opinionistas blog director
Glen Cummings Jamer Hunt, designer Mark Lamster Tel: 212.592.2228
Contact Us
Martin C. Pedersen
partner MTWTF Big+Tall Design; author and critic executive editor, Metropolis
Daniel D’Oca associate professor of
Cathy Leff
Fax: 212.243.1019
Transdisciplinary Design, Rick Poynor
Georgeen Theodore
Parsons School of Design director, Wolfsonian-FIU author, design critic E-mail: dcrit@sva.edu
and Tobias Armborst,
Vicki Gold Levi
founders, Interboro Gary Hustwit
photographic researcher
Alissa Quart www.sva.edu/grad/designcriticism
filmmaker, Helvetica, author
Stuart Ewen
Objectified Greg Lindsay department site: dcrit.sva.edu
design historian David Reinfurt
Joanne Dolan Ingersoll author; writer, Fast graphic designer, We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting application materials.
Peter Feld Company
curator, Museum of Art, writer, critic
Web editor, blogger Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
Rhode Island School George Lois Michael Rock
Rob Forbes of Design art director, designer, author All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
graphic designer and
founder,
Julie V. Iovine Paul Lukas founding partner, 2×4, Inc. To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website
Design Within Reach or contact the Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
executive editor, sports uniform critic, ESPN Laurie Rosenwald
Jason Fulford, Architect’s Newspaper Ellen Lupton author; illustrator; founder,
photographer and
writer, curator, graphic Rosenworld Design Studio
co-founder, J&L Books
designer
Design Criticism 184 185 www.sva.edu/grad/designcriticism
XX Social Innovation is one of the most dynamic, expansive forces in the world today –
this program is a learning path for designers who want to play a leading role in it
XX For those who wish to turn their good intentions into positive outcomes and use
design to drive innovation within diverse businesses, communities and cultures
XX Two-year program will prepare students to have successful, fulfilling careers through
immersion in the dynamics of social innovation, and mastery of its tools and skills
Social innovation is one of the most dynamic, expansive and exciting fields of endeavor today. It is the
application of new strategies and models to solving the challenges facing the world, and to strengthen-
ing society. In Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawkins describes its remarkable force in the world as “the largest
movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader or location, and that has gone largely
ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every
city, town and culture, and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s
needs worldwide.”
sva’s two-year graduate program is the first mfa program to help prepare designers to participate
fully in social innovation in all its forms. It will provide students with the design tools, skills and expe-
rience they need to become creative leaders in social innovation—unlocking new worlds of potential
through mastery of design thinking, innovation, social technologies, data visualization and communi-
cation design—at the intersection of business, society and the natural world.
Under the guidance of leaders in social technology, conservation, healthcare, living systems, move-
ment and game design, cognitive science and emergent business models, students in the mfa Design for
Social Innovation Department will work with real clients throughout the program, gaining hands-on
experience with multinational corporations, non-profits and social entrepreneurs around the globe.
The mfa in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts is geared toward designers
looking for meaningful and engaging work through which they can make a significant contribution to
society, as well as for graduates in other disciplines who want to learn to harness the power of design
to create positive change and transformation.
The MFA in Design for Social Innovation curriculum encompasses a broad range of issues includ-
ing conservation, health, food and agriculture, poverty, women’s rights, social justice, fair trade,
education and community revitalization.
Graduates of the program will be prepared to work in design firms and advertising agencies, in
corporations both large and small, in non-profit organizations or as social entrepreneurs. They will
be skilled in the design of concepts, communities, organizational models, communication, information
design, mapping and implementation.
Designing
Democracy
and Justice
Faculty Profiles:
Lee-Sean Huang and
Alessandra Orofino
My Rio: A Movement for and by the People of Rio de Janeiro
Lee-Sean Huang and Alessandra Orofino are the lead designer and strategist on a ground-
breaking program for the city of Rio.
Meu Rio (“My Rio” in Portuguese) is an independent popular movement for and by the
people of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, working to build a more democratic, just and livable city.
The campaigns and tools will help empower all Cariocas to work together to improve the city
they love as they prepare to host the World Cup and Olympics.
Working with local partners to create the identity for the movement, Lee-Sean and Ales-
sandra are developing interactive tools to promote civic participation. The images on this page
illustrate two of the concepts in development.
In the photo opposite, the “Rio Monocle” augmented reality mobile app helps contextual-
ize abstract data and indicators in physical urban space; a user points the app at a local public
school and is able to access data about the ranking, reviews and budget of the institution.
Below, Meu Mapa (“My Map”) is a social map that will help connect residents of Rio to
each other and to the hyperlocal issues that impact their neighborhoods.
On a floor of its own in the heart of Chelsea, our leed-certified
chair interview space is designed to foster deep thinking, collaboration, connection to nature,
Cheryl Heller
technology and diverse perspectives. In lieu of traditional classrooms, we have
an auditorium where we hear from and are heard by the most fascinating and
innovative people in the world, a play room where action and creativity reign,
Cheryl Heller, board chair of the Poptech organization and chair of sva’s new mfa Design for Social a quiet room for study and contemplation, a computer lab wired with the latest
Innovation program, never intended to become an educator, but a far-sighted colleague encouraged her technology, sound booths for podcasting, and a kitchen to crowd around. Stu-
not to dismiss the possibility. “About five years ago,” she recalls, “Richard Wilde, chair of the Graphic dents have access 24/7, and our space is home to visiting innovators—from this
Design and Advertising undergraduate program at sva, who I met when we were both on the board planet and beyond—who come to stir our thinking and open our minds.
of the Art Directors Club, suggested that I should try teaching. I told him it was a ridiculous idea, that
“We are creating this
I didn’t have the time. But I ended up doing it anyway, and I’ve been teaching the undergraduate Design
program to prepare
for Good course ever since.” It was Wilde too who proposed that the time might be right for a graduate
the next design
program in the same field. “It took a lot of refining and thinking through,” says Heller, “partly because
leaders in social
On any
we are creating a new learning path for designers into this field rich with career potential, but there isn’t
innovation, and
a model of an existing program.”
improve the impact
The lack of examples on which to draw seems strange now, given the popularity of the program’s
of social innovation
given day...
focus. “It’s rare to talk to anyone in business or the non-profit world today who doesn’t want to get
through design.”
involved in social innovation,” Heller reports. “They all want to ‘change the world,’ though they have
many different ways of expressing that desire. What we need now, and what we are aiming for with this
program, is to help students learn to use the process and tools of design to turn those good intentions
into positive outcomes. An abundant and sustainable future won’t be realized through the work of any
single silo of experts, country or generation. It will come from the integration of wisdom from all of
them, from game-changing collaboration between them, and from the creativity and discipline that 8am First year students meet bright and early in the morning for one 2:30pm In the afternoon, Francis Cholle, founder of The Human
only social innovation design can bring.” To this end, the mfa is aimed primarily at working design- final rehearsal of their 12:00 presentation to Jeffrey Hollender, the Company, leads a session on play and innovation where students
ers, especially those with a broad outlook. “It’s for those who are interested in more than just self-ex- founder of Seventh Generation and CommonWise. The work includes collaborate on solving real world design problems with a corporate client
pression,” says Heller, “this is for people who are compelled to influence, transform and lead. But we’ll strategy, communication design, and a multimedia campaign for a new who has come to experience first hand the new thinking coming out
also consider designers with related interests—engineering, architecture, science—who understand the green consumer brand that links cooperatively owned businesses of our program.
across the United States. Their work includes a new identity, website,
design’s value as a tool within those fields.”
video campaign and product packaging. 4pm Eric Hersman is in town from Nairobi to tell us about the latest ways
Heller is keen that the program should intersect with sva’s other design initiatives, and that
Ushihidi’s mobile technology and mapping are saving lives and creating
students should project their studies into the world at large. “Throughout the program, students will
9am The computer lab is full, with students finishing a social movement communities around the world.
be engaged by real clients to help them solve the challenges they face. They will be taught to use every
project for the government of Brazil, mentored by instructor Lee-Sean
relevant design process and medium to succeed, from data visualization, movement design, entrepre- Huang, creative director at Purpose. Silence reigns in the quiet room as 7pm That evening during the guest lecture series, Paul Polak tells what he’s
neurship, living systems and game design. There are studio courses in which students will work with always, with study and serious thinking taking place. learned about “Design for the other 90%”, his vision for creating new markets
a widely diverse group of real clients. And there’s a focus too on data visualization, movement design, by putting design to work for the 90% of the world that needs it most.
entrepreneurship, living systems and game design.” The first year will also expose students to the inner- 10am Second year students arrive later, having been there until 3:00 am
workings of corporations, foundations, and not-for-profit organizations, and confront them with issues the night before, and put on a pot of fair trade coffee. They are working
around ethics, leadership and collaboration. “You have to understand how to negotiate companies independently or on a shared thesis with a classmate, mentored by a group
and work with entrepreneurs. My desire is to give designers the potential to have a voice in that context of advisors like Dr. Mary Pearl of the Garrison Institute, Lisa Nugent,
and to have what it takes to create profound change.” Global Creative Director at Johnson & Johnson, or Mark Belinsky,
“My ultimate goal,” she concludes, “is to immerse students in that world the day they start, so they founder of Digital Democracy.
will have accomplished real things by the time they graduate, so that they have both experience and key
relationships. Design isn’t separate from life—neither is social innovation.”
experiences, structures, technology platforms, systems, products, business models, game designer and technologist.
PeaceMaker is a news-based video
strategies, art and culture. It has the potential to be the single integrating force we need game that simulates the Israeli-
to take on the challenges we face—systemically and sustainably. Palestinian conflict. Asi’s games
have been sold in over 60 countries
and seen in over 200 media
appearances worldwide including
ABC World News, BBC World, Fox
News, Al-Jazeera, NPR, The New
York Times, Washington Post,
Time magazine, Business Week
and Wired, among many others.
Mapping and visualization Design Cheryl Heller, chair Asi Burak Julie Engel Manga
To visualize information is one way to understand it, and technology Chair, MFA Design for Social Innovation; founder, Heller Co-president, Games for Change Founder, Leadership Lab; social entrepreneur, Babson College
now makes it possible to illustrate and demonstrate concepts of human Communication Design; vice chair, Board of PopTech Education: BA, cum laude, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design; Education: BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts; MA, PhD,
behavior and science that were previously too abstract to comprehend. Education: BFA, magna cum laude, Ohio Wesleyan University; MS, Carnegie Mellon University Boston College
Students will use crowd sourcing and aggregated data from the blogo- School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Professional experience includes: Co-founder, chief product Professional experience includes: Business network manager,
sphere, as well as other types of social and scientific data, to design Current and former clients include: L’Oreal, Reebok, officer, Impact Games; vice president, marketing and product develop- Curriculum Development and Delivery, Boston College Center for
information that informs, provokes and educates. Techniques of visu- Kodak Professional, Bayer Corporation, BlackRock, Mars, Inc., ment, Axis Mobile; senior art director, Saatchi & Saatchi, Israel; Corporate Citizenship; organization development, consultant, Julie
alization design for a variety of applications, including law, science, Hearst Publishing, Marriott Corporation, Girl Scouts of America, art director, TBWA, Israel Manga & Associates
social networking and conservation will be examined. Hachette Filipacchi, Cemex, Marriott Corporation, Seagrams, Presentations for: TEDxGotham, Sundance Film Festival, Publications include: Talking Trash: The Cultural Politics of
Ford Motor Company, Discovery Networks International, Seventh Skoll World Forum, Nonprofit Technology Network, World Affairs Daytime TV Talk Shows; Off the Couch blog, Skoll Foundation;
Social Innovation Impact Generation, MeadWestvaco, Sappi, Audubon New York, International Councils of America Conference, South by Southwest, Game Integrating Corporate Citizenship: Leading from the Middle;
Students will be briefed by a green start-up business, a corporation, a Development Enterprises, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Developers Conference Integration: Critical Link to Corporate Citizenship; Enduring
social entrepreneur and a non-profit, and will become involved in design- Education, SafeHorizon, Wings World Quest, Cambridge Programme Awards and honors include: News Game Award, John S. and Partnerships: Resilience, Innovation, Success
ing for a real client. The class will collaborate during reviews and discus- for Sustainability Leadership, Joyful Heart Foundation James L. Knight Foundation; Best Transformation Game, Games for
sions, acting as a team to advise one another on individual projects of Professional experience: Chief executive officer, Heller Breene, Change; Israel Advertising Association Lisa Nugent
choice. Work will include research, collaboration on the ground with the Boston; executive creative director, Wells, Rich, Greene; executive cre- Website: www.asiburak.com Global creative director, cross-sector innovation and design,
organization each student has chosen, and the design of a program that ative director, Siegel&Gale. Former board member: AIGA Executive Johnson & Johnson
will further that organization’s cause. Formal presentations will be made Committee, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, Wings Jane Englebardt Education: BFA, California State University, Long Beach; MFA,
to the selected clients at the end of the semester. WorldQuest Principal, founder, Upshot Advisors, LLC; Leadership Council of the California Institute of the Arts
Publications include: The New York Times, Boston Globe, Support Center for Nonprofit Management; Advisory Board of the Professional experience includes: Principal, founder, ReVerb;
Thesis Consultation: Research, Writing, Presentation Business Week, Graphis, Communication Arts, Design Management Bellevue Literary Press (2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) grant originator, Living Profiles for Project HealthDesign
With the help of a team of mentors and advisors, participants will Journal, Adobe Proxy Magazine, Step Inside Design, BSR Magazine, Education: BA, Connecticut College; MBA, New York University; Current and former clients include: Hewlett-Packard, Sony
conduct research to develop a thorough understanding of the context, CRO Magazine, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship professional certificate, Harvard University Electronics, Nike, MTV, IBM, Day Corporation, NetAid, Walker
landscape and challenges of their topic. A compelling presentation Awards and honors include: Matrix Award for Women in Professional experience: Formerly, president, chief executive Art Center
in book form will be created, which brings each vision’s potential to Communication officer, Bideawee; executive director, Hasbro Children’s Foundation; Exhibitions include: Le Mois du Graphisme d’Echirolles, Paris;
life through words, images and graphics. Presentation to the thesis website: Hellercd.com chairman, New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (now Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; Pacific Design
advisory board for approval of the thesis topic is required. “Philanthropy New York”) Center, Los Angeles
Danny Alexander Collections include: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum;
Thesis: Implementation Design specialist, Catapult Design DK Holland Getty Research Institute; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
With the help of thesis advisors, students will complete a thesis and Education: BID, with honors, Pratt Institute Designer, creative director, teacher, strategist, writer Publications include: Knowledge, Technology and Policy; Type
develop it into a form ready to be implemented. Presentation of the thesis Professional experience includes: Consultant, IDEO; Education: Parsons School of Design and The New School Directors Club Annual; Vision (China); Design Week (London); I.D.;
to the full board of advisors is required, and each thesis will be included co-founder, Black and Blue Design; industrial design manager, Professional experience: Formerly, partner, Pushpin Studio; HOW; New Typographics 3: Global Vision; Graphis; Metropolis; Los
on a dedicated website with links to corporate and non-profit partners. Method Products; design researcher, Nest consultant, The Foundation Center, the Arts and Business Council Angeles Times; Fresh Dialogue 2, New Voices in Graphic Design
Awards and honors include: I.D. Annual Design Review; and Echoing Green; collaborator, Fred Friendly, Columbia School Awards and honors include: Chrysler Design Innovation Award;
AmeriStar Packaging Award; fellow, The Feast Conference of Journalism; consultant on ethics for IBM, Universal Studios, Good Site, ARCH’IT; Annual 100 Show, American Center for Design
Website: www.dannyalexander.me Hallmark Cards.
Author: Branding for Nonprofits Alessandra Orofino
Tracy Brandenburg Lead strategist, Purpose
Researcher, writer, anthropologist, semiotician; founder, Innovation Lee-Sean Huang Education: BA, Barnard College
Lab, Wells College Strategist, designer, Purpose; co-founder, producer, Professional experience includes: Junior researcher, Center for
Publications include: In Search of the Invisible World: Uncovering Hepnova Multimedia Health and Social Justice
Mesoamerican Pictorial Writing in Contemporary Oaxaca; Journey to Education: BA, cum laude, Harvard University; MPS, Publication: Beyond One
the Centre of Visual Thought; Rap and the Semiotically Real New York University Awards and honors include: Honorary president, Meu Rio;
Awards and honors include: Semiotic Society of America Professional experience includes: Development, outreach Fundação Estudar Scholar; social resident, Comunicarte
associate, Human Rights Watch; Web, multimedia consultant, Human
Rights Watch; campaigner, Avaaz; co-founder, webmaster, JetWit Despina Papadopoulos
Accounts include: Dove, General Electric, LiveStrong, United Interaction designer; consultant; founder, Studio 5050
Nations Foundation, Global Zero, Conservation International Education: BA, MA, Catholic University of Leuven; MPS,
Publications include: Freedom Vs. Security: The Struggle For New York University
Balance; Gizmondo; PSFK Projects include: Moi, Fabrickit
Website: www.leesean.net Exhibitions include: Victoria & Albert Museum, London;
Design Museum Holon, Israel; Science Center NEMO, Amsterdam;
Postmasters Gallery; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, American
Museum of Natural History; Limn Art Gallery, San Francisco; Liberty
Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Mary Pearl Marty Anderson Ben Flanner Bill McKibben Ivy Ross David C. Baker, founder, ReCourses, Inc.
Conservationist; scientist; chief executive officer, MBA professor, Babson founder, Brooklyn Grange environmentalist; Author, CMO, Gap
Jesse Dylan, founder, FreeForm
The Garrison Institute College, Extended Nuppu Gävert The End of Nature June Sarpong
Education: BS, PhD, Yale University
Enterprise Management Eric Hersman, founder, Ushihidi
Professional experience includes: President, Wildlife Trust. co-founder, Strategic Borjana Mikic founder, WIE Network,
Co-founder, Center for Conservation Medicine, a consortium of Gregor Barnum Consultant, WeVolve Rosemary Bradford Hewlett Women: Inspiration & Jeffrey Hollender, founder, Seventh Generation
Wildlife Trust with Tufts Cummings Veterinary School, Johns
former director of Higher ‘40 Professor, Director, Enterprise Cheryl Kiser, director, Lewis Foundation, executive
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, National Center for Edgar Rodriguez
Wildlife Health, Center for Health and the Global Environment at Consciousness, Seventh González Picker Engineering Kevin Starr Director, Babson Social Innovation Lab
Harvard Medical School, Center for Environmental Research and Generation VP market intelligence, Program, Smith College director, The Mulago
Conservation at Columbia University. Board member: Shine Global; Thomas Lockwood, PhD, editor-in-chief,
Elihu Club; Gomez Foundation for Mill House; Institute for Ecological Mark Belinsky Cemex Corporation Aimee Morgana Foundation past president, DMI, the Design Management Institute
Research, Brazil; advisory board, Belizean Grove. Member, Task co-founder, Digital Erik Hersman founder, The N’Kisi Institute Zenia Tata
Force on Environmental Sustainability, UN Millennium Development Democracy Andre Martin, chief learning officer, Mars, Inc.
Goals Project. Former board member, Environmental Enterprises founder, Ushahidi Warren Muir former managing director,
Assistance Fund, Sustainable Travel International, Liz Claiborne/Art Ayse Birsei executive director, Division IDE Warren Muir, executive director, Division on Earth
Noel Hidalgo and Life Studies, National Academies
Ortenberg Foundation co-founder, creative founder, New Amsterdam on Earth and Life Studies, Ville Tikka
Publications include: Discover, Methods and Cases in
Conservation Science, Conservation Medicine, Conservation for
director, Birsei + Seck Ideas National Academies and Nuppu Gävert Milbry Polk, founder, Wings Worldquest
the 21st Century. Associate editor, Ecohealth Brent Bucknam Jo Opot founders, WeVolve. Kevin Starr, director, Mulago Foundation
Awards and honors include: Elected Fellow, American Graham Hill
Association for the Advancement of Science; honorary doctorate,
founder, Hyphae Founder, treehugger.com global vice president Andrew Zolli, executive Director and Curator, PopTech
Marist College Design Labs Business Development,
Jolie Hunt TerraCycle
Marc Rettig
Anne Marie Burgoyne global head of public
Designer, researcher, founder, Fit Associates portfolio director, relations, Thompson Paul Polak
Education: BA, LeTourneau College; New York University Draper Richards Kaplan Reuters founder, IDE; founder,
Clients include: BBC, U.S. Army, Crate & Barrel, Microsoft, Foundation Design for the other 90%
Allstate, Caterpillar, Diamond Partners, Phillips, Texas Instruments Terry Irwin
Author: “The No-Nonsense Guide to Computing Careers,” Ann Christiano head, School of Design, Milbry Polk
Association for Computing Machinery; “Do and Think and Play and The Frank Karel Chair Carnegie Mellon University founder, Wings World
Show and Tell: Artifacts All the Time,” Artifact
in Public Interest Quest; author, Women of
Lina Srivastava Communications at the Emily Jacobi Discovery
Principal, Lina Srivastava Consulting LLC; website author, Strategy University of Florida founder, Digital Democracy
for Social Change Initiatives; social change strategist, Resist Network;
Jason Rzepka
program evaluator, Chez Bushwick’s Capital B initiative Francis Cholle Grace Kim vice president, public affairs,
founder, Grace Kim Tel: 212.592.2205
Contact Us
Education: BS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; JD, New York founder, The Human MTV
University; Hastings Center for Bioethics; Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Company; author, Intuitive Consulting
Georgetown University
Intelligence
Fax: 212.592.2308
Cheryl Kiser
E-mail: dsiinfo@sva.edu
Professional experience: Creator, Transmedia Activism frame-
work; co-creator, Modeling Global Change Framework. Formerly, Pat Dandonoli executive director, The
executive director, Kids with Cameras; past interim executive director,
former president and CEO, Lewis Foundation, Babson
Association of Video and Filmmakers
WaterAid College www.sva.edu/grad/dsi
Frank Dixon JD Lasica department site: dsi.sva.edu
associate partner, Blu Skye founder, SocialBrite
We strongly encourage applicants to visit SVA prior to submitting application materials.
Sustainability Consultants, Andre Martin
advisor on sustainability and Come to our Departmental Information Session on November 5, 2011.
chief learning officer, All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit.
social responsibility Mars, Inc.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
205
Digital photographer Brendan Austin bikes over the bridge from
his Lower East Side Manhattan apartment to his studio in Brooklyn
that he shares with PlayLab, a graphic design firm. “We both work
Going
really well together, bouncing ideas and inspiration off each other
within the different disciplines,” says Austin. “I’m interested in
making my work environment as diverse and open as possible, by
not relying on one perspective from photography.”
Digital
Alumni Profile:
Brendan Austin
Brendan Austin, MPS Digital Photography ’08, has been shooting (Image, upper right, next spread) This is a gas station in east
for nearly ten years as a professional lensman for clients such as Amman taken at early night. Normally I aim to desaturate my im-
saab and magazines like mark and Vice. Once a sworn advocate ages, but in this instance I felt the need to pump things up a bit with
of analog photography, he now sings the praises of digital. During the sky and the lights. It has a great cinematic quality to it. I think
a recent trip to Jordan, he shot these three striking images, and here the color that I was able to achieve digitally gave it a surreal impact.
describes how his training at sva helped him realize them.
(Image, bottom right, next spread) This was taken on the shores
(Image, this page) This was my second time to this country, and this of the Dead Sea at a local beach on a Friday afternoon, away
image was taken on the road to Iraq, where the border is just 60 from typical tourist areas. The people were incredibly friendly,
miles away. It’s a strange little shop, taken at dusk. One of the great including this man selling balloons and cotton candy, considering
things about digital is that with a large format camera, you can that I had a camera in his face and shot him about 30 times,
shoot continuously without stopping. I took about 20 exposures, following him. I slightly increased the saturation of the man’s color-
first while a dust cloud appeared, then after, when a pack of wild ful wares. I wanted the photo to be as subtle as possible.
dogs walked by. I was able to insert a lone animal into an earlier
image that looked the best for this composite. One thing to under-
stand about digital photography is that it’s not just about getting
the perfect shot. The “decisive moment” doesn’t really exist anymore.
Your mind has to adjust to the technical possibilities when shooting.
Now, after graduating, I know what to look out for.
MPS Digital
Photography
Ugiam at ip ea cortisim duisi.
Na facilla facin henibh eriure
magnibh eu feum alis at
autetue tionum at. Esto et
nulputat vulputat. Perit nis
nos augiat autet.
Located in Chelsea and within walking distance of the thriving,
chair interview contemporary art and photography gallery district, the MPS Digital
Katrin Eismann
Photography classroom and photo studio were designed with the
critical image-maker in mind. From the spectrally neutral walls, chromati-
cally optimized illumination, ergonomic tables and chairs, secure Wi-Fi
“The mps in Digital Photography is a unique program,” explains Katrin Eismann, “in that it’s dedicated network, dedicated server, oversized plasma display, to the department’s
to mastering the most current digital photographic practices by studying with leading digital photogra- large format inkjet printers and advanced color management hardware,
phers and technical experts. While developing the curriculum, I had two types of students in mind. First the environment is dedicated to learning, collaborating and growing
was the working photographer who needs to get up to speed on digital techniques to stay competitive, as a professional photographer.
and the second was the photographic educator, who also needs to be current to best do his or her job.
“It’s interesting to see the
But one aspect I didn’t foresee is how diverse our enrolled student body is in terms of age, heritage, and
commercial photographers
the type of photography they do. Presently, we have commercial, fine art, fashion and portrait pho-
learning about fine art
tographers and an award-winning, working photojournalist who traveled to Washington dc to cover
and editorial photography,
On any
President Obama’s inauguration and who traveled to Haiti to cover the aftermath of the earthquake.”
and the fine artists
“The diversity allows each student to learn from the other and to be exposed to ideas and concerns
appreciating the business
they may not have been aware of. It’s interesting to see the commercial photographers learning about
aspect of the commercial
given day...
fine art and editorial photography, and the fine artists appreciating the business aspect of the commer-
photographers’ concerns.”
cial photographer’s concerns. “It’s a small, intense program,” Eismann stresses. “Students take
all the same classes together, and we require that each student has his or her own digital equipment.”
Eismann points out some of the unusual design features of one of the program’s classrooms. “The
walls are spectrally neutral and slightly darker than standard paper white, allowing you to concentrate
on the image more critically. One wall is illuminated for black-and-white prints; the other for color. And
over here,” she smiles, “is the ‘Wall of Confusion.’ There’s a different color temperature bulb in each
socket, allowing you to see a print in both correct and incorrect conditions. And you’ll notice that we 6am For some students, the day begins before dawn with a final check of 7 – 9pm On alternating Wednesday evenings the students and faculty
camera and lighting equipment for an early morning shoot. Other students meet in the MPS Digital Photography Department classroom, for the
only use magnets for displaying work—using tacks on prints damages them. We also have ergonomically-
haven’t gone to sleep as they are adding the final polish to their images in department lecture series that has featured: Henry Wilhelm, Greg
designed tables with easily accessible electrical outlets and two wireless networks and Aeron chairs, all to
preparation for a meeting with their thesis advisors. And each semester, Gorman, Jeff Schewe, Lynn Goldsmith, Douglas Dubler, Mike
insure that the students are comfortable and can concentrate on learning.”
there are always a few students who, after an intensive night of shooting in Yamashita, Brian Smith, David Alan Harvey, Andrew Rodney,
“We also feature a bi-weekly guest lecture series that allows the program to stay up-to-date in a wide
the studio or on New York City streets, sleep well into the late morning! Stephen Johnson, Philip Toladano, and many software engineers who
variety of topics. The speakers have included exhibiting artists, software engineers, lawyers, gallery
present on a wide range of topics including; digital photo-journalism,
professionals, magazine editors and multimedia artists. The heart of the program,” Eismann concludes, 9am A number of students go to work in their photo studios or class- business and legal issues, archival printing, advanced creative techniques,
“is that the students are learning the most current information from world-class instructors, then rooms to teach, while others work freelance as photographic assistants, the future of digital camera technology, and how to have your work seen
applying it to real-world scenarios. Each class is related to improving image quality, whether that is in digital techs, web designers or retouchers. Of course, they all have to work by picture editors and galleries.
a technical, creative, or conceptual manner. We believe that producing a technically perfect image on the weekly assignments from each class.
that’s conceptually vacuous or producing muddy prints of a great idea is a waste of time and materials. 7 – 10pm On Tuesday and Thursdays, class takes place in the MPS
This program combines the technical and the aesthetic, and the students learn the skills to complete 2 – 3pm On Tuesday and Thursdays, students start to gather in the MPS Digital Photography Department classroom with, for example, Ben Gest
a graduate-level thesis project that requires conceptualizing, shooting and producing a coherent Digital Photography classroom to have lunch, catch up on the week’s who discusses developing a coherent body of work and the importance of
body of work for an electronic portfolio, self-published book and large format prints for an exhibition. events and discuss the homework assignments due that day. choosing a Thesis Advisor to serve as a mentor, advisor and critic. Class
also meets in James Porto’s photography studio to learn how to take
In all honesty, I’m an expert in the field and this is the program I would like to be a student in!”
3 – 6pm On Tuesdays and Thursdays, class takes place in the Computer high-quality digital photos for compositing. James Porto emphasizes the
Since our faculty is digitally savvy and our curriculum so current, we rose to the challenge of dedicating
Lab where students meet with Chris Murphy to learn how to accurately importance of planning the lighting, perspective and scale before ever
a full year to porting the classes, curriculum, and excitement that we developed for the full-time residency
calibrate a variety of monitors and build custom printer profiles with the lifting the camera.
classes into the online/summer residency program. This is a unique and challenging program that embraces
department’s X-Rite colorimeters and spectrophotometers. Or take the
high expectations for the faculty and students. We aspire to challenge each student to do better work
Advanced Imaging class, where Carrie Beene reveals the behind-the- 10pm Some students go home, while others go out to discuss the
than they ever imagined so that they leave the program with a completed body of work that functions within scenes secrets used in high-end glamour retouching to perfect a model’s day’s events and debate the issues in contemporary digital photography
their chosen photographic field—be it in an art, editorial, educational or commercial setting. skin for her clients, which include Revlon, Maybelline, and Clinique. over a cold beer.
6 – 7pm Students go for dinner and coffee in one of the many small After midnight Tired but full of new ideas and projects, students, staff,
restaurants or coffee shops within walking distance of the department. and faculty know that the next day will include more work, shooting, print-
ing, assignments, inspiration, discussions and learning.
Sample Programs
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
Large-Format Printing 2
Thesis Production: 7
Electronic Portfolio (2 credits)
The Book (2 credits)
The Exhibit (2 credits)
Professional Communication Essentials (1 credit)
Discuss. Listen. Shuffle.
Students work with Tom Ashe, assistant chair,
as they plan out which images to use in the
Thesis Exhibition.
The online/summer residency version of the mps Digital Photography program has an identically rigorous Advanced Image Processing Studio Management and Practices
Advanced creative and production techniques are the focus of this Being a successful photographer requires more than talent and good
curriculum with many of the same faculty as the in-classroom version. It is ideal for anyone who has a deep
course. In addition to working with the latest raw processing soft- fortune. Photographers need to develop a business plan and a budget
passion for exploring the confluence of photographic aesthetics and digital technology but cannot relocate to ware packages and workflow strategies, we will address working with realistic short- and long-term goals. This course will examine
with HDR (high dynamic range) images, mastering high-resolution studio business practices that include budgeting and financial plan-
New York City for the full eleven months required. The program is conducted online during the fall and spring
files with Smart Objects and learning professional masking and ning; buying, leasing or renting concerns; safe business practices; and
semesters and culminates in an intensive ten-week summer session in New York City, where students will retouching techniques. working with an agent, accountant and tax advisor. The essential
management concerns that are covered in this course will improve
collaborate with in-classroom students and work with faculty and staff to produce their final thesis projects
The Art of Editorial Photography communication with clients, labs, prepress houses, commercial print-
including large format prints and collateral materials for the group exhibition. To be successful in the online This intensive seminar will simulate real-world print and multimedia ing companies and stock agencies.
assignments. Students will develop story ideas, go “on assignment” to
learning environment, it is essential to be disciplined in terms of reading, completing the assignments, and
capture photographs, audio and video assets, and learn how to edit the Thesis Development
participating in the class discussions. For busy professionals, the online/summer residency is offered as either a work for final submission. A body of work for print or online publica- Dedicated to developing the thesis body of work that demonstrates
tion will be completed. Most importantly, students will garner valuable the highest creative and technical standards, this course will concen-
full-time one-year or a part-time two-year program. Just as with the in-classroom courses, the online courses
information about how prominent editors and photographers conceive trate on the written thesis proposal, media research and exploration,
are limited in size and will challenge students to fully apply themselves in creating outstanding contemporary and execute highly sought-after magazine photographic and video rigorous critique and a survey of electronic, book, and exhibit image
assignments. distribution and display options.
images. sva offers housing options for students during the summer residency.
Color Management and Output Thesis Production:
This course tackles the most prominent problem in making a print— Electronic Portfolio, The Book, The Exhibit
accuracy and consistency in reproducing the photographer’s vision. The thesis project is an original body of work created by each stu-
Online, in any given week… In the fall and spring semesters, weekly classes are released every Topics will include: creating files that are color-managed from input dent, which culminates in an examination of the creative challenges
to output, properly sharpened files for a wide selection of media inherent in producing and displaying large-format prints in a public
Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Students have one week to read the lectures, watch the
substrates, working with a variety of color management systems and gallery space. The integrated presentation will focus on editing, pro-
videos, participate in the class discussions and complete all assignments and quizzes. The advantage of being in the equipment, taking advantage of Photoshop soft proofing, and experi- moting and displaying high-quality photographic images suitable for
menting with various papers and output options to achieve predict- professional commercial sale or creative public display. Students will
online/summer residency program is that students set their own schedule within any given week—the challenge is
able and consistent results. begin by exploring the essential skill of grouping, sequencing and
that online students must have the discipline to create and stick with a schedule that encourages the reading and distributing images for effective online and digital video portfolios.
Digital Materials and Processes The course then delves into the fixed presentation of printed books
processing of rigorous graduate-level courses on a weekly basis. Being an online student in not a casual affair—it
This comprehensive survey of the terms, tools and technology of and includes exploration of the interaction of design, image and text
requires tremendous discipline to read, complete the work, and participate in the discussions each week. digital-image processing will address the technical aspects of digi- selection and sequencing.
tal input, color correction and output. Students will learn how to
evaluate and improve image quality, understand and apply critical Thesis Production Skills
technical analysis to workflow components, and delve into current Professional photographers must do more than take pictures—they
hardware and software applications and solutions for the profes- need to understand branding, design essentials, and how to prepare
sional photographer. and present their images for a variety of Web and print output des-
tinations. In this course, students will work with Adobe Illustrator
Large-Format Printing to develop branding materials, Adobe InDesign to create letterhead,
In this course, students will learn to select, prepare and fine-tune business cards and promotional materials, and Adobe Dreamweaver to
their images for large-scale printing. Topics will include: refining dig- design a website with essential contents and links.
ital input; modifying tonal adjustments to match the proofs; appro-
priate sharpening techniques; and understanding proofs in relation to i3: Images, Inspiration, Information I & II
size, substrate and color. Students will work with professional service Consisting of lectures, seminars and portfolio reviews, these courses
providers, wide-format printers and professional RIPs to create large- feature presentations by cutting-edge digital photographers, hardware
format, high-quality color and black-and-white prints. and software developers, and industry experts.
Photo Illustration
From concept to capture and image processing, this course addresses
the creative workflow that commercial and fine art illustrators use to
make compelling photomontages and composites. Students will learn
the essential attributes of a successful composite, including: planning
the image before lifting the camera; lighting and photographing the
image elements and background plates; selecting, color matching and
compositing the elements; and working with an art director and pro-
duction team to create the best image possible.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
At the upper levels of photographic education, fashion photography is too often thought of as unworthy
of serious consideration, superficial and corrupted by style and commerce, despite its imaginative
narrative, cultural relevance, playful subversion, and its profound influence on “fine art” photography
of the past 30 years.
The mps Fashion Photography program is a rigorous one-year intensive program for the technolog-
ically proficient photographer who wants to develop a more creative and original body of work through
an immersion in the narrative, conceptual and cultural subtext of fashion photography, and with direct
engagement with leading figures in fashion and fashion photography in New York City.
The faculty consists of some of the most influential and innovative professionals in fashion pho-
tography, publishing and photographic criticism. Additionally, an advisory board will help shape the
evolution of the program.
The mps Fashion Photography program is premised by the understanding that the genre is a cul-
tural matrix and an engagement with high and low culture that will help to inspire, engage and
cultivate original work. The ideal candidate for the program will be fully versed in the technical tools
and apparatus of photography and possess professional experience in fashion photography, seeking
an immersion in critical thinking, and radical invention in a relevant ideological framework.
The goal of the program is the cultivation of an individual sensibility, informed by history and
shaped by cultural forces that will withstand the pressure for aesthetic and market compromise,
and will profoundly influence and affect the future of the medium.
MPS Fashion
Photography
www.sva.edu/grad/fashionphoto
225
Tracy Doyle’s first job in New York was at
Time Out New York as a photo editor.
Fashion
Ready:
A Photographer
Gets Her
First Break Faculty Profile:
Tracy Doyle
Networking has been key
to Doyle’s success. The
professional faculty at SVA is a
built-in network for any graduate
student in the program. Tracy Doyle saw Annie Leibovitz at an airport once. In Doyle’s words: “I was like, Oh, my God–
that’s Annie Leibovitz. I was ordering tea at Au Bon Pain when I noticed her. I grabbed my suitcase
and followed her. She was walking to my gate, for the flight I was taking to Toronto. I introduced
myself; she took my business card. The weekend I got home I got a call from her agent saying, ‘Tracy,
hi, I heard you met Annie!’
This chance meeting eventually led to Doyle working full time at Leibowitz’s studio. But was it a
“chance meeting?” Or was it a byproduct of Doyle’s resourcefulness?
“The interesting thing about my story is that I am the most unlikely person to be doing this. I mean,
I can milk a cow. I can ride a horse. I grew up in a town of 500 people. We didn’t even have a school.
We had a gas station and a corner store. I had to get bused to the next town just to go to school. But I
believed in myself, and I was persistent.”
Tracy Doyle has been an instructor at SVA for five years. She teaches grad students in the MPS
Fashion Photography program, as well as undergrads. The story of how she made it in the fashion pho-
tography industry is a convincing example of how drive, talent, and networks can combine to produce a
meaningful, rewarding, and durable career in fashion photography.
“I had been going to New York every few months, crashing on my friends’ couches. I’d introduced
myself to directors of photography at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, George Pitts, Jimmy Moffat.... I
kept calling people until someone would see me.”
She landed her first job in the City with Time Out New York as their photo editor. She was given a
staff of five people, all of whom had more editorial experience than she, and certainly knew the City
better. She drove a U-Haul solo 10 hours down from Canada after she got the call. She didn’t know
what subway line to take to the office. She learned. The brief time she spent at Time Out New York
was a crash course that totally primed her for future work with top creative directors like Fabien Baron,
Doug Lloyd, George Pitts, and Steven Klein.
“At Time Out I learned to be flexible and diverse in my capabilities. We had no money, so I acquired a
resourcefulness that I still rely on today, because even with the bigger budgets–those budgets sometimes
get stripped back, and you still need to get the job done. My least favorite saying is ‘That’s not my job.’
If you’re going to work in these kinds of environments, the best thing is to be able to do all the jobs.”
Tracy brings this can-do mentality and rich quotient of editorial experience to SVA, which not only
expands the skill-set of the technically proficient photographer, but also positions the student to exploit
the same professional networks that generate exciting work opportunities and durable careers like
Tracy’s. Let’s face it: if you see Annie Liebovitz at an airport, you certainly want to be ready.
co-chair interview
Stephen Frailey
“Fashion photography is difficult,” admits Stephen Frailey, who, along with Jimmy Moffat, is
co-chair of sva’s new mps in Fashion Photography. “It’s inherently collaborative, and it takes a
lot of maneuvering and intensive organization. I’ve seen a rapid rise in interest in the discipline,
in spite of the fact that it has been marginalized in undergraduate education, and has barely
existed at the graduate level. As an advocate for the medium, I thought there was room for a
I thought there was
complex conversation about fashion photography—and New York City, where so much of the
room for a complex
talent is, seemed like the place to make it happen.”
conversation about
Frailey has an art-world background, and is convinced that fashion photography should
fashion photography—
On any
exhibit the same level of ambition as work intended for gallery or museum display. “Some of the
and New York City,
most advanced, sophisticated and subversive photography right now comes from the fashion
where so much of the
world,” he opines. “The art world has derived a lot from fashion photography without necessar-
talent is, seemed like
given day...
ily acknowledging it: the constructed image, the interest in narrative, self-portraiture, theatri-
the place to make it
cality. Fashion photography toggles between artifice and a form of realism, between fact and
happen.
fiction if you like, and of course it deals with defining the erotic and issues of social class.”
The mps is designed for those who already have a technical command of the photographic
medium but want to further develop an individual vision. Typically, photographers aiming to
work in fashion become assistants to established practitioners and struggle to produce their own
portfolio on the side. But, as Frailey explains, many get stuck at that point, “so we’ve designed a 10am Stephen Frailey, co-chair, has breakfast at Balthazar with 4pm In a full digital lab, students make last minute changes to their
one-year program with classes that take place in the evenings, allowing students to work at the Nick Knight to discuss the live stream of the History of Fashion images before class.
highest level as an assistant while honing their own craft.” Photography sessions to ShowStudio.com.
The program is based around two classes that span the entire year, evening critiques and 5pm Jimmy Moffat, co-chair, is on set with Steven Meisel as he
a Saturday symposium. The latter is conceived of as a catch-all: “If Karl Lagerfeld is in New 11am Students shoot in the digital studio for an assignment given shoots the cover for Vogue Italia.
by Pascal Dangin for his Digital Photography for Fashion Photogra-
York and wants to come and look at students’ work,” says Frailey, “we’ll do that. If students
phers class. 6pm Critique class with Dennis Freedman. Students crowd
want to go to a couture show, or attend a lecture at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan
around large prints hung on the magnetic critique wall and discuss a
Museum of Art, we’ll do that. It’s an opportunity to form a community and take advantage
1pm Alix Browne takes students to Marc Jacobs’ show, followed classmate’s work. Vince Aletti makes a guest appearance to talk
of things as a group.”
by a lively discussion at Art+Commerce. about his upcoming project.
Add to the above courses in the history of the genre, the specificities of using digital photog-
raphy and video, the use of light, the mastery of logistics, and the centrality of narrative and 2pm Location shooting, accessories, at the Morgan Library. 9pm All students attend the opening of the Alexander McQueen
cinema to fashion photography, and you have an intensive year. And, says Frailey, the curricu- retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; continuing the
lum will change and evolve. “One of the great strengths of sva,” he smiles, “is that we can be evening at an after-party at the Standard.
flexible and change quickly to remain relevant, without cumbersome bureaucracy.”
“Ultimately,” he concludes, “I would like this program to have an impact on the genre, and
for graduates to contribute to the larger discourse.”
Stephen Frailey, co-chair Pascal Dangin Vince Aletti Duncan Hannah Collier Schorr
Fine art photographer; editor, Dear Dave; Digital artist; retoucher; founder, Box Studios; publisher, steidldangin critic, The New Yorker fine artist photographer
chair, BFA Photography, SVA Clients include: American Express, Calvin Klein, Grace
Education: BA, Bennington College; San Francisco Art Institute Coddington, Graydon Carter, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Estée Lauder, Fabien Baron Cathy Horyn Laurie Simmons
One-Person Exhibitions Include: Julie Saul Gallery, 303 Gallery Gucci, Steven Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Louis Vuitton, Steven Meisel, creative director critic, The New York Times photographer
Group Exhibitions Include: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Prada, Anna Wintour, Yves Saint Laurent
D.C.; New Museum of Contemporary Art; Harvard University, Publications include: The New Yorker, Time, Jessica Craig-Martin Michael Kazam Ingrid Sischy
Cambridge, MA; International Center of Photography; Artspace, Los The Times (London) photographer creative director, Le Book writer
Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art; Recognition: “Pixel Perfect,” The New Yorker
Castelli Graphics; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; website: www.steidldangin.com Gregory Crewdson Nick Knight Sølve Sundsbø
Boston Art Institute; Jack Tilton Gallery photographer photographer photographer
Publications Include: Afterimage, The New York Times, Emma Reeves
ARTnews, Paris Review, The New Yorker, Artforum, The Village Creative consultant; senior editor, The Journal (www.thejrnl.com). Suzanne Donaldson Glen Luchford Neville Wakefield
Voice, Bald Ego Formerly, managing editor, V Magazine photo editor, Glamour photographer curator, writer
Awards Include: National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Clients include: Levi’s Photo Workshop; Nike; Bidoun; Li, Inc.;
Colony, Aaron Siskind Foundation Sony Productions, Gorgeous Enterprises, Uniqlo Tracy Doyle Ryan McGinley Tim Walker
Photographic director: Dazed & Confused, AnOther, AnOther executive producer, box photographer photographer
Jimmy Moffat, co-chair Man, TAR
Co-founder, Art+Commerce; founder, Art+Commerce Festival Curatorial works include: “David Armstrong: Mad About the Dennis Freedman Glenn O’Brien Anya Zlourova
Current and former clients include: Steven Meisel, Annie Boy,” “South West/Mark Gonzales,” Half Gallery. Co-curator, “Being creative director, Barneys writer, creative director fashion director, Tatler
Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, William Eggleston, Ellen von True,” Journal Gallery
Unwerth, Inez van Lamsweerde, Taryn Simon, Nick Knight, Craig Contributor: SHOWstudio.com, Fantom, NOWNESS Philip Gefter Eva Respini
McDean, Tim Walker Awards include: British Television Advertising Award writer, critic curator,
Awards include: “One of the 100 Most Important People in Museum of Modern Art
Photography,” American Photo Andrew Richardson
Stylist, creative director
Vince Aletti Collaborations include: Steven Meisel, Mario Sorrenti, Patrick
Photography critic, The New Yorker; curator Demarchelier, Terry Richardson, Mario Testino, David Sims
Education: BA, Antioch College Publications include: Vogue (Chinese, Italian, Japanese), Rolling
Professional experience includes: Art editor, The Village Voice Stone, L’Uomo Vogue, POP, Bazaar, Vanity Fair, V Magazine, W
Curatorial projects include: “Flesh Tones: 100 Years of the Campaigns worked on include : Aquascutum, Belstaff, Lacoste,
Nude,” Robert Mann Gallery; “Henry Wolf,” Howard Greenberg Club Monaco, Kenneth Cole, Kenzo, Armani, Hugo Boss
Gallery; co-curator, “Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now,”
Center for Photography at Woodstock; “This is Not a Fashion Carol Squiers
Tel: 212.592.2096
Contact Us
Photograph,” International Center of Photography; “Dress Codes: Writer; editor; curator, International Center of Photography. Formerly,
The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video,” International
Center of Photography
senior editor, American Photo
Co-curator: “Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000,” “Weird Beauty:
Fax: 212.592.2336
Publications include: Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic
Books of the Twentieth Century; The Disco Files 1973-1978; Male
Fashion Photography Now,” “Imagining the Future: The Intersection
of Science, Technology, and Photography,” “ICP Triennial Exhibition
E-mail: mpsfashionphotography@sva.edu
Award: Infinity Award for Writing, International Center of of Photography and Video”
Photography Editor: The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography; www.sva.edu/grad/fashionphoto
Over Exposed: Essays on Contemporary Photography
Alix Browne Author: The Body at Risk: Photography of Disorder, Illness, and Come to our Departmental Information Session or contact us directly for more information.
Deputy style editor, The New York Times Magazine; deputy design Healing. Essays in: Avedon Fashion 1944-2000; Barbara Kruger;
editor, T Design. Formerly, editor-in-chief, V Magazine Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870; Police All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
Education: BA, magna cum laude, Harvard University Pictures: The Photograph as Evidence
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Contributor: French Vogue, Numéro Homme, Mixt(e), ARTnews Publications include: The New York Times, Artforum, Vanity
Editor: Visionaire’s Fashion 2000: Designers at the Turn of the Fair, Aperture, Art in America, Vogue, Parkett, The Village Voice Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Millennium; Visionaire’s Fashion 2001: Designers of the New Avant-Garde; Awards include: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
V Best: Five Years of V Magazine; Jason Schmidt: Artists 2000-2006
239
Acclaimed visual artist and photographer
Shimon Attie stops by the Fine Arts studios
to guest lecture and critique student work as
part of the student-run visiting artist program.
Conducting
the Critique
While innate talent may come from within, a true artist requires training, inspiration
and, sometimes, tough love. At SVA, students’ work is repeatedly taken to task by
working legends. Here recent students in the MFA Fine Arts program share some of
their most memorable critique experiences.
ANDREW BRISCHLER
I took Michelle Lopez for both a writing workshop and studio workshop my first year in the program,
and her unique view of how to get to a place of honesty in your work has been truly invaluable. Before
meeting Michelle, I had never had serious discussions about owning, emotionally, what I put into my
work, but for Michelle, that concept is essentially what’s most important. She treated me like a peer,
pushed me to take chances, and gave me the freedom to make mistakes in the studio. And, as a result,
I’ve come out on the other side without fear or shame.
Cathleen P. Cueto II
There were several instructors that made a deep impact on me and my work during my two years at
sva, but Stephen Maine was one who truly went above and beyond in every capacity. I had him as a
Writing Workshop instructor my first year, enrolled in his Fine Arts Workshop the following semester,
and then I ultimately chose him as my thesis advisor my second year. In class, Stephen was unfailingly
tough and critical, but always constructive. He liked to hold group critiques every week where we’d
meet together in one of our studios and spend 30 or 40 minutes discussing the work without any
“glad-handing or back-patting,” as he expressly forbade in his syllabus on the first day of class. He ex-
pected everyone to sit up straight and actively engage in the analytical conversation, which was just as
much a challenge to the group participants as it was to the students who were presenting their work and
receiving the criticism. As an art critic and an artist himself, Stephen approaches the work from many
different angles. He really digs in and tries to accept the work on its own terms while at the same time
pushing and provoking the artist to express himself or herself in the clearest way they can.
JENNY SANTOS
Ken Landauer’s workshop felt like a forward motion towards seeing and making artwork in a new and
exhilarating way. He challenged me to be more ambitious and take risks in my artwork, to be curious
and get to the heart of a piece, and to work harder when I think I’ve worked hard enough. Ken’s intelli-
gence, candor and enthusiasm for art encouraged, if not demanded, thoughtful and engaging discussion
during individual and group critiques.
STEVEN CHAPMAN
My first year at SVA has been a great experience. I was pleased with the diverse variety of background
and expertise the faculty at SVA has to offer. Being a curator, Amy Smith-Stewart offers a unique and
refreshing perspective on art as well as the art world. Also working with a painter like David Row offers
a great balance of theory and art practice. My critiques have been thoughtful and the advice has been
genuinely helpful. After my first year at SVA I am more than happy with the program and its faculty.
MIRYANA TODOROVA
Johan Grimonprez is perhaps the most informed teacher I have ever worked with. He speaks of the
expansion of the idea of art: from politics to the news, to science experiments, to parallel economies
and conspiracy theories, to the artist as a ‘shaman’ revealing truths. He engages and believes in the in-
terconnectedness of us all and the potential of the artwork to change the world. We affect one another
For the visiting artist program, the students
get together and invite artists, dealers, curators at all times in a way we do not quite understand. One thing is everything and everything is you.
and art critics that they would like to meet.
Most guests who accept the invitation do eight
studio visits to critique individual students on
Wednesday afternoons. That evening the guest
will then lecture the entire class.
The program helps demystify the art world
by giving students an opportunity to see
first-hand how the myriad aspects of the art
world interconnect.
The MFA Fine Arts Department is located in the Chelsea district
chair interview of New York City. Chelsea is the hotbed of the New York art scene and our
David L. Shirey
student studios are just a few blocks from the celebrated galleries of this
part of town. The pluralism of the Chelsea art community is reflected in the
pluralism of the artwork created in our student studios. Our community
“When Silas Rhodes asked me if I’d write a proposal for an mfa Fine Arts program,” David Shirey of artists in the MFA Fine Arts program is not only able to engage and
remembers, “I hadn’t had much experience in the writing of pedagogical principles, so I studied what participate in the Chelsea scene, but the community is also excellently
other programs offered and talked to artists, curators and art historians. What was ironic was that poised to access and participate in the entire art scene in all of New York
many of the artists I was in touch with hadn’t had much formal education; one was Willem de Koon- City. The following represents a day in the life of a MFA Fine Arts student.
ing, who I don’t think went past grade school! Another was Al Held, who told me that the best thing
“…I thought that the
a graduate program could be was a bridge between education and the real world. Something that I
best kind of program
observed was that many of the schools were advocacy programs; they professed a certain ideology. But
would be heterogeneous,
I thought that the best kind of program would be heterogeneous, embracing many different approaches
embracing many
On any
without defining itself as the purveyor of any single one.”
different approaches
“The very early years were precarious,” Shirey admits, “but we expanded and continued to add
without defining itself
resources, faculty and programs as they became necessary to enhance the richness of the program.
as the purveyor of any
given day...
The visiting artist program, for example, became vital. We’ve hosted numerous illustrious people,
single one.”
and it continues to be very productive. In general, heterogeneity is still the key. We try to take care
of the abcs of art, but there’s always the x, the unknown, and we try to allow for that. We try to keep
the program elastic and resilient, so that we can allow for innovation.”
“The program is vocational in a sense that the program is a microcosm of the art world,” Shirey
explains. “A lot of what we do here will be helpful to students’ careers once they leave. That said, a
number of those accepted into the program are already enjoying more than a modicum of fame; they
9 – noon Second-Year Seminar with Dan Cameron in room 605-C, 133
already have gallery representation and continue to have shows and sell work. Others are seeking
West 21st Street. With the entire class, second-year seminars are devoted
to establish those kinds of contacts. And while many of our alumni become teachers, our hope is that
to the contemporary art scene and to the contemporary criticism, ideas
they will also use their experience to establish themselves as fully functioning artists. And I’m happy
and ideologies in art.
to say we’ve achieved a great deal of success in that.”
As is the case with sva in general, students in the mfa Fine Arts program are an international bunch. noon – 1pm Quick lunch with two classmates.
Shirey runs through an exhaustive list, ending by observing, “We are a magnet for students from myriad
countries. I think that one of the great resources of the program is this international community; that’s 1 – 5pm Workshop with Fred Wilson, 133 West 21st Street, Chelsea
just as vital as the workshops with faculty. I think they’re all instruments learning from one another. All Studios on the 9th-floor. Workshops provide studio critique and group in-
together, the faculty and students form a dynamic amalgam of cultural interaction.” struction in the students’ areas of concentration. Structured to refine skills
“Something else I emphasize,” Shirey concludes, “is that the courses are structured, but not so struc- and artistic development, workshops pay as much attention to technical
tured that they’re stifling. This program is the College’s flagship. I’ve been with it since the outset, and mastery as to experimentation and individual imagination.
it’s been very exciting for me to watch it progress, expand and accomplish significant dimensions. It’s been
6 – 8pm Meet thesis advisor, Petah Coyne, at reception party for thesis
extremely rewarding, as well as gratifying, that we’re recognized as a program of primary importance.
show at Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor.
That sounds a bit toplofty. I hear my mother’s words: ‘Self-recommendation is no recommendation!’ ”
253 www.sva.edu/grad/finearts
Faculty
David L. Shirey, chair Collections include: V Tapes, Toronto; Groupe Intervention Petah Coyne Museum of Contemporary Art, CA; Galerie Riis, Oslo; Yvon Lambert
Writer, critic. Formerly, art critic and writer, The New York Times; Video, Montreal; Art Bank, Canadian Council; Fonds Régionales d’Art Sculptor, photographer Gallery; MIT Gallery, Boston
art critic, art editor, Newsweek; contributing editor, ARTnews; Rome Contemporain (FRAC), Clisson, France Education: Art Academy of Cincinnati; Kent State University Screenings/Broadcasts include: San Francisco Film Festival;
correspondent, Newsweek CuratorIAL Works include: “Tensions,” Rotunda Gallery; Represented By: Galerie Lelong Worldexpo, Lisbon; Image Forum Festival, Tokyo; Moderna Museet,
Education: AB, MFA, Princeton University; University of Rome; “Behind the Scene: Photographer’s Devices,” White Columns; “Signals: One-Person Exhibitions include: Galerie Lelong; Lawrence Stockholm; Telluride Film Festival; Whitney Museum of American Art;
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris Art and Invention,” Queensborough Community College Art Gallery; Miller Gallery; Cleveland Contemporary Art Center; Contemporary Tate Modern, London; New York Film Festival; Documenta X, Kassel,
Publications include: Vieri Vagnetti, Centro D. (Florence), The “Positions,” Four Walls Museum, Honolulu; Olin Museum, Lewiston, ME; Butler Gallery, Germany
New York Times, Newsweek, Art in America, ARTnews, Antiques, Awards and honors include: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Kilkenny, Ireland; Tyler Gallery, Philadelphia; Jack Shainman Gallery; Group Exhibitions include: Centre for Contemporary Arts,
Gazette des Beaux-Arts (Paris), Corriere della Sera (Milan), Il Canada Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts Diane Brown Gallery; Brooklyn Museum; Sculpture Center; Santa Fe Glasgow; Documenta X, Kassel, Germany; Palazzo delle Esposizinni,
Messaggero (Rome), Le Monde (Paris), The Wall Street Journal Contemporary Arts Museum; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Corcoran Rome; Artists Space; Pleasure Dome, Toronto; Kanagawa Arts
Awards and honors include: The New York Times Publisher’s Jake Berthot Museum of Art, Washington, DC Foundation, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Baltimore
Award for Outstanding Reporting; Butler Institute of American Painter Group Exhibitions include: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Awards and honors include: Grand Prix de Ville de Geneve,
Art Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Art; Award for Education: New School for Social Research; Pratt Institute DC; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; Moscow Golden Gate Award, DAAD, Edith Russ New Media Grant, Toronto
Outstanding Contributions to American Art Criticism, Butler Institute Represented By: McKee Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Film Society
of American Art; Wean Lectureship, Youngstown State University One-Person Exhibitions include: McKee Gallery; Galleri Gunnar Garden, Washington, DC; Centre International d’Art Contemporain de website: www.zapomatik.com
Olsson, Stockholm; Nielsen Gallery, Boston; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis Montreal; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Whitney Museum of American
Polly Apfelbaum University, Waltham, MA; Cava Gallery, Philadelphia; Storrer Gallery, Art; Museum of Modern Art Ken Landauer
Sculptor, painter, installation artist Zurich; University Art Museum, Berkeley; Galerie de Gestlo, Hamburg; Collections include: Brooklyn Museum; San Diego Museum Fine artist
Education: BFA, Tyler School of Art; SUNY Purchase Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco; Locksley-Shea Gallery, of Contemporary Art; Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center; J.B. Education: MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
Represented By: D’Amelio Terras Minneapolis; Cunningham Ward Gallery; Michael Walls Gallery, Los Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, Clients: Kippy Stroud, Public Art Fund; Socrates Sculpture
One-Person Exhibitions include: D’Amelio Terras; Kiasma, Angeles and San Francisco; Phillips Collection, Washington, DC NC; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Park; Providence Parks Department; Kansas City Municipal Arts
Museum of Contemporary Art NYKY, Helsinki; San Francisco Group Exhibitions include: Victoria Munroe Fine Art; American Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC; Whitney Museum of Commission
Art Institute; Boesky & Callery Fine Arts; Hirschl & Adler Modern; Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; Cork Gallery; Great Wall American Art; Museum of Modern Art One-Person Exhibitions Include: AH Gallery, Los Angeles, CA;
Realismusstudio der NGBK, Künstlerfhaus Am Acker, Berlin; Gallery, Toronto; Japan Arts Gallery, Tokyo; Galerie Denise Cade–Art Awards and honors include: Asian Cultural Council Japan Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; Avenue of the Arts, Downtown
Postmasters Gallery; Neuberger Museum; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Prospect, Inc.; Venice Biennale Fellowship; Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residence, Italy; National Kansas City, MO
Center; Galerie Etienne Ficheroulle, Brussels; Amy Lipton Gallery; Collections include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Australian Endowment for the Arts; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art; Group Exhibitions Include: Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz,
Sue Spaid Fine Art, Los Angeles; Locks Gallery, Philadelphia National Gallery, Canberra; Baltimore Museum of Art; Dallas John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; Pollock- NY; Public Art Fund, New York; Albrecht-Kemper Museum, St.
Group Exhibitions include: Whitney Museum of American Museum of Fine Arts; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; Moderna Krasner Foundation; New York Foundation for the Arts; Art Matters, Joseph, Missouri
Art; Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles; Biennale of Sydney, Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Solomon Inc.; Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities; Joan Mitchell Awards and Honors Include: Emerging Artist Fellowship from
Australia; Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo; Contemporary Arts Museum, R. Guggenheim Museum; St. Louis Art Museum; Museum of Modern Foundation; Sirus Project, Ireland Socrates Sculpture Park; Special Opportunity Stipend, New York
Houston; Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College; Magasin 3 Art; Whitney Museum of American Art Foundation for the Arts and New York Council on the Arts adminis-
Stockholm Konsthall; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY; Biennale Awards and honors include: American Academy and Institute of Kenji Fujita tered by Garrison Art Center
d’art Contemporain de Lyon, France; Corcoran Painting Biennial, Arts and Letters, National Academy of Design, National Endowment Visual artist
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; High Museum of Art, for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Education: BA, Bennington College; MFA, Queens College; Whitney Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt
Atlanta; Museum of Modern Art Fellowship, Elizabeth Foundation Museum Independent Study Program Mixed-media installation artist
Awards and honors include: New York Foundation for the Arts; One-Person Exhibitions include: Luhring Augustine Gallery; Education: School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute. Studied with Jack
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; Yaddo Dan Cameron Schmidt/Markow Gallery 1709, St. Louis; Jean Bernier, Athens; Daniel Smith and Charles Ludlum
Residency; MacDowell Colony Residency; Pollock-Krasner Foundation Curator. Formerly, senior curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles; Cable Gallery One-Person Exhibitions include: Holly Solomon Gallery; Galerie
Grant, Ucross Education: BA, Bennington College Group Exhibitions include: Brooklyn Museum; Luhring Augustine Krief-Raymond, Paris
professional experience: Senior curator, New Museum of Con- Gallery; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; Venice Group Exhibitions include: Whitney Museum of American Art;
Perry Bard temporary Art; contributing editor, Art & Auction, Artforum, Flash Art Biennale; Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany; Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo Midtown Payson; Franklin Furnace; University of California, Berkeley;
Electronic media, public art and installation artist Curatorial Work includes: “Living inside the Grid;” “Carroll Awards and honors include: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Andre Zarre; Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University; Gallery
Education: BA, McGill University; MA, University of Wisconsin, Dunham;” “East Village USA;” “Wim Delvoye: Cloaca;” “Paul National Endowment for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial K, Washington, DC; La Mama La Galleria
Madison; MFA, San Francisco Art Institute McCarthy;” “William Kentridge;” New Museum of Contemporary Foundation Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Installations include: Art Chicago International Art Exhibition;
One-Person Exhibitions include: Florida State University Art; “ev+a2005;” Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland Snug Harbor Cultural Center; University Gallery, University of
Art Museum, Tallahassee; New Image Gallery, Harrisonburg, VA; Exhibition catalogs and Books Include: PLOP: Recent Johan Grimonprez Massachusetts; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; Laumeier Sculpture
Testwall-TZ’art; Public Sculpture at Petrosino Park, NY; Ihara Ludens Projects of the Public Art Fund; Supernova: Art of the 1990s from Video and mixed-media artist Park, St. Louis; Galerie Krief-Raymond, Paris; Ackland Art Museum,
Gallery; Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto; Sculpture Center Gallery; the Logan Collection; Vik Muniz Education: BA, Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent; MFA, School of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Venice Biennale
J. Yahouda Meir Gallery, Montreal; A.R.E. Gallery, San Francisco; Publications include: On Paper, Artforum, Trans, Grand Street, Visual Arts; Whitney Museum Independent Study Program Collections include: Musée d’Art Contemporain, Foundation
Jetwave Gallery, San Francisco; Palm Beach Museum, FL Art & Auction, Frieze, Third Text 26, Flash Art, Avenue, Parkett, Represented By: Deitch Projects; Yvon Lambert Gallery, Edelman, Lausanne; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum
Group Exhibitions include: P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Harper’s Bazaar, Artspace, ARTnews, Art Issues, Contemporanea, Paris/New York Ludwig, Aachen, Germany; Groninger Museum, Netherlands; Museum
Garnet Press, Toronto; Artists Space; Alternative Museum; Musée de Galeries, Shift, New Art Examiner One-Person Exhibitions include: Deitch Projects; Institute of of Modern Art
Nantes, France; São Paolo Bienal; Festival de Blois, France; University Contemporary Art, Boston; Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London; Musée Awards and honors include: CAPS; Executive Committee, Board
of Newport, Wales; Electronic Arts Forum, Bessau, Germany; Reina du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Centro Cultural do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; of Governors, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
Sofia, Madrid; Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany Kunstverein, Munich; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Santa Monica
installation artist, sculptor writer, senior editor, Art In America fine artist
Fax: 212.592.2503 Jules de Balincourt Kalup Linzy Fabienne Stephan
E-mail: mfafinearts@sva.edu painter video and performance artist curator
Erin Donnelly Steve Mumford Herb Tam
www.sva.edu/grad/finearts painter painter curator
We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting Jim Drain Shirin Neshat Fred Tomaselli
application materials. mixed media sculptor photographer, video artist painter
Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour. Nicole Eisenman Dennis Oppenheim Ursula von Rydingsvard
Departmental Information Session: Saturday, November 12, 2011. painter, installation artist mixed media sculptor sculptor
All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit Inka Essenhigh Gabriel Orozco
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the painter sculptor, painter, photographer,
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu. video artist
as Visual Essay other classmates is an essential part of the creative process of the program
XX New York City’s diverse and celebrated professional world provides mentors,
guest lecturers, advisors and faculty
www.sva.edu/grad/illustration
department site: mfaillustration.sva.edu
We believe this program is as unique as it is revolutionary. It redefines how figurative artists see their
work and how that art finds its way into the world of commerce—fine art, illustration and publication.
It begins with developing a personal vision. Vision is not style. Whether the work is tightly rendered,
loose, more or less expressive or Photoshopped, we help you to achieve personal content in your work—
to tell your story as only you can. When your “style” is personal content, the images you make can only
be original.
The program is difficult, demanding and highly selective. At the same time, it is an opportunity to
be with exceptional artists like yourself exchanging ideas and sharing information, as well as simply
hanging out. Each class becomes a community of figurative artists whose interest in storytelling
encompasses all 21st-century media: graphic and illustrated novels, children’s books, comic books,
and painting series for gallery walls. But, when you tap into your personal vision and find your
own stories, the applications for the work flow naturally.
We focus on teaching how to combine words with images, continually refining and re-defining your
personal vision. Our faculty is made up of illustrators, fine artists, computer artists, writers, art histori-
ans and art directors. The contact with faculty is personal, constant and intense. We accept only
20 students per year in the two-year program. It is a classroom-based curriculum, unlike many gradu-
ate programs where students work independently with scheduled faculty oversight. Close interaction
between faculty and student, as well as with other classmates, is an essential part of the creative process
that is our program.
Each student has a personal workspace with 24-hour access, seven days a week. In addition to
required classes, graduate students can audit classes from the various diverse offerings in our undergrad-
uate college, including film, animation, fine arts and humanities. Guest speakers from the outstanding
New York professional arts community are regularly scheduled. Being in New York City, the op-
portunities for access to working artists, gallery shows, museum exhibitions and internships are not
inconsequential to laying a foundation for a life as an artist. In the second year, students are encouraged
to choose their thesis advisors according to their interests. Our advisors, past and present, are as diverse
as they are celebrated in their fields. Yuko Shimizu, Steve Brodner, Gary Panter, Maira Kalman, Sam
Weber, Stephen Savage, Paul Buckley, Guy Billout and Pat Cummings are among them.
The process involved in developing a truly personal vision is risky. It demands you be open to think-
ing in new ways, reassess your drawing and painting skills, put your creativity on the line and free your
imagination. We offer you the chance to compete using your own vision.
261
Illustration student Joanna Neborsky
works on her thesis in her studio
space, situated on a floor she shares
with 40 other MFA candidates.
The studios of the MFA Illustration
department are located on the 12th
floor of 136 West 21st Street.
The Story
Continues…
A New Illustrator
Is Born
Student Profile:
Joanna Neborsky
The path to becoming an artist is rarely a straight one. But for sva. “I was scared that my portfolio was too thin, too incidental,”
Joanna Neborsky, Illustration as Visual Essay ’09, the journey was she recalls. “I worried they’d think, ‘Is she honestly including this
positively twisted. A native of San Diego, this young talent is the placemat, this birthday invitation, this squiggle?’ But in some ways,
only one in her department without any previous formal arts train- illustration is not a departure. It’s about reading; it’s about storytell-
ing. After graduating from Yale with a ba in English, she tried ing. I could take the deadpan, big-nosed characters I had been drawing
everything from teaching English in France to being a park ranger unconsciously on napkins and Post-It notes my entire life and give
before joining the Rockwell Group as a research assistant, helping them context on a page. And even better, I could call it a career.”
to write and edit a monograph for the renowned design firm. For her thesis, Neborsky turned to Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three
But it wasn’t until freelancing in T-shirt design—for a Christian Lines, a lost classic that appealed to the francophone Yalie with a
environmentalist company, no less—that she fell in love with the creative bent. To illustrate Fénéon’s short, clever tales of death and
process of matching images to words. And after attending a sympo- near-death in 1906 France—they originally appeared as anonymous
sium where the legendary Maira Kalman described herself as newspaper listings—she collaged forty gruesome spreads for an
an illustrator-author, it clicked: that was the perfect career for 80-page book. Macabre, eccentric and even comical, the project is
Neborsky to explore both her literary instincts and artistic passion. helping Neborsky realize her potential, with none other than Kalman
With only a few rough sketches to show, she nervously applied to herself serving as her advisor. “I came to sva with a hazy sense
of what I wanted to do,” she explains. “The program has supplied a
map to my future career. Now it’s up to me to make it happen.”
Marshall Arisman
24-hour access, 7 days per week. The studio becomes the community
center for the program. The following is a typical day for first- and second-
year students.
“All children make drawings about themselves and the forces that surround them,” remarks Marshall
Arisman. “They tell stories with images. But that generally stops around age twelve, when most people
stop taking art classes—not because they’re bad storytellers but because they don’t draw accurately.
Those who have technical ability persist because they’re getting support, and can go all the way through
art school on that basis. The trouble is, if you’re a figurative artist, your skills improve while your capacity
“(The students) are
to discuss the world around you hardly grows. The Illustration as Visual Essay program aims to redis-
radically diverse in their
cover our reasons for starting to draw in the first place.”
aesthetics but all of
How do students work together? Arisman stresses both diversity and closeness. “They have differ-
them are interested in
On any
ent backgrounds,” he observes, “but they form a community. The program’s stylistic range is huge,
storytelling.”
but there are no arguments about its destination.” The faculty exhibits a similar combination of varied
interests and common purpose. “They are radically diverse in their aesthetics,” he remarks, “but all
given day...
of them are interested in storytelling.”
What are some standout courses? “Experimental Drawing is one,” Arisman offers. “It’s a drawing-
on-location class based on the importance of memory. If you have to draw things as they move, you
make better use of recall. The class goes everywhere from Gleason’s Gym to Yankee Stadium.”
“The History of Drawing course deals with an ironic situation: Illustrators tell stories, but very
few have their own vision. The course frames critical commentaries around this phenomenon. It asks,
for example, whether when you write your own story and add images, you’re really illustrating (since
you’ve already ‘illustrated’ the story in words). And the questions only get more interesting as artists 8:30am Arrive at studio for 9 am meeting with curators for the upcoming
book show that features graduate work.
make images between or over words.”
In sourcing guest lecturers, the program makes use of its metropolitan location and students’ indi-
10am Required class critique with Marshall Arisman. Guest art
vidual preferences. “In the second year,” Arisman explains, “each student chooses their ‘dream mentor.’
director, Brian Rea from the Op-Ed page at The New York Times
So if, for instance, someone has in mind to produce a series of paintings of his grandmother’s shoes, and
critiques sketches for an article.
Eric Fischl is his favorite painter—and if Eric is willing to do it—the pair will work one-on-one. It’s the
kind of experience you can’t get anywhere else.” noon Break: eat in studio kitchen.
What do thesis projects typically consist of? “Our only requirement,” Arisman replies, “is a mini-
mum of 12 interconnected images produced with a stated goal, such as ‘I want to make a children’s 1pm Required class critique with Carl Titolo. In class workshop
book and get it published.’ Every project is a story in itself—and most of them are success stories.” developing postcards with words and images for publication.
“We had a student four years ago, Viktor Deaks,” he chuckles, “a construction worker from Con-
necticut, who had a theory of evolution that took three hours to explain. We couldn’t figure out if he 4pm Second-year students meet with their thesis advisors.
was insane or a genius. He was drawing at the Museum of Natural History one day and got talking
to the head of their Imaging Center, explained his theory, and got hired! He didn’t even have a science 5pm Second-year thesis critique class with David Sandlin.
Guest artist Gary Panter reviews work.
background. But as Muriel Rukeyser wrote, ‘the universe is made up of stories, not of atoms.’”
Sample Programs
first year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
second year
FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
Wall of Fame
The display case features a
small selection of the several
hundred published books by
MFA Illustration alumni.
Gallery; Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago; Fay Gould Gallery, Atlanta; Clients include: Nickelodeon, Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, Guy Billout Viktor Koen John Parks Ward Sutton
Arts Club of Chicago Miramax, CNN Interactive, Lego, Adobe, Phish, Warner Bros., Turner illustrator illustrator, designer painter cartoonist
Publications include: The New York Times, ARTnews, Classic Movies, National Geographic
Newsweek, Art in America, Bomb Nicholas Blechman Judith Linhares Brian Pinkney Jillian Tamaki
honors include: MacDowell Colony Fellowship David Sandlin designer/art director painter children’s book illustrator illustrator
Printmaker, cartoonist, painter
Carol Fabricatore Education: BA, University of Alabama Tomek Bogacki Ruth Martin Jerry Pinkney Anton Van Dalen
Fine artist, illustrator One-Person Exhibitions include: Printed Matter; Life Cafe; children’s book illustrator painter children’s book illustrator painter
Education: BFA, Parsons School of Design; MFA, School of Visual White Columns; McIntosh/Panich Gallery, Atlanta; Carl Hammer
Arts Gallery, Chicago; Un Regard Moderne, Paris; Sai Gallery, Tokyo Steve Brodner Marvin Mattleson Lauren Redniss Ricccardo Vecchio
Clients include: Franklin Library; Ballantine Books; Avon Books; Publications include: Raw, Snake Eyes, The New Yorker. illustrator painter illustrator illustrator
The New York Times; Little, Brown and Company; Lyons & Burford Reviews include: Artforum, Art in America, The Village Voice, The
Publishers; Union Bank of Switzerland; American Health Foundation; New York Times, Print Collectors Newsletter Paul Buckley Keith Mayerson Edel Rodriguez Voltaire
Dow Jones & Company; Cline, Davis, Mann Awards and honors include: New York Foundation for the creative director, painter illustrator animator
Publications include: The New York Times, The Wall Street Arts, Swann Award for Excellence in Cartooning, Nexus Press, Penguin Putnam David Mazzucchelli Stephen Savage Bruce Waldman
Journal, UCLA Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Redbook, New P.M. Foundation
Woman, Seventeen, Business Week, South Beach Pat Cummings cartoonist illustrator printmaker, illustrator
Awards and honors include: Communication Arts Illustration Carl Nicholas Titolo children’s book illustrator
Annual, American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Graphic Design Painter Peter McCarty Gae Savannah Sam Weber
USA–DESI Award Education: School of Visual Arts Peter de Seve children’s book illustrator painter illustrator
One-Person Exhibitions include: Galerie Sumers, Moravian illustrator John Nickle Yuko Shimizu Philamona Williamson
Mirko Ilic College, Terry Dintenfass, Karen Lennox Gallery
Graphic designer; illustrator; owner, Mirko Ilic Corp. Formerly, art Group Exhibitions include: Butler Institute of American Art, Diane Dillon children’s book illustrator illustrator painter
director, Time (international edition); art director, The New York Youngstown, OH; Minnesota Museum of Art; Martin Sumers children’s book illustrator Gary Panter Peter Sis
Times Op-Ed page; partner, Oko & Mano, Inc. Graphics; Snug Harbor Cultural Center; Delaware Art Museum;
Education: School of Applied Arts, Zagreb Mulvane Art Center, Topeka; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Leo Dillon cartoonist children’s book illustrator
Awards and honors include: Society of Illustrators; Art Directors Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch; Rosemont children’s book illustrator
Club; Society of Publication Designers; I.D.; Society of Newspaper College; Visual Arts Museum; Columbus Museum of Art, OH
Designers; vice president, New York chapter, AIGA Collections include: Cranbrook Institute; Arkansas Art Center; Teresa Fasolino
Detroit Institute of the Arts; Mulvane Art Center, Topeka illustrator
Viktor Koen Awards and honors include: Richard and Hinda Rosenthal
Illustrator, designer Foundation Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters; Gladys Donato Giancarlo
Education: BFA, Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design; MFA, School Emerson Cook Prize, National Academy of Design illustrator
of Visual Arts
Tel: 212.592.2210
Contact Us
One-Person Exhibitions include: Fraser Gallery, Washington, Michele Zackheim Judith Glantzman
DC; Astrolavos Gallery, Athens; Slovak National Museum, Bratislava;
Photography Center of Athens; LeVall Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia;
Writer, artist
Education: BA, College of Santa Fe
painter Fax: 212.366.1675
Eirmos Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece; International Month of Books: Violette’s Embrace; Einstein’s Daughter: The Search for Yumi Heo E-mail: mfaillustration@sva.edu
Photography, Fillipoupolis, Bulgaria; Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Lieserl; Mary Cole children’s book illustrator
Angeles; Viridian Artists, Inc.; SGazi Exhibition Complex, Athens;
www.sva.edu/grad/illustration
Publications include: Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times,
Paratiritis Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece; The Chapel Gallery; Mary BN.com, Insider Mario Hugo
Anthony Galleries One-Person Exhibitions include: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa illustrator
Clients inCLude: Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Chicago Fe; Bryn Mawr College, PA; Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley CA; department site: mfaillustration.sva.edu
Tribune, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Penguin, Random Arlene LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe; Scottsdale Center for the Arts, AZ; Francis Jetter
We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting
House, Money, Fortune, Forbes Bronfman Museum, Montreal; Art Museum of South Texas printmaker, illustrator
Awards and honors include: First Prize, Digital Hall of Fame, Collections include: National Museum of Women in the Arts, application materials.
Stockholm; EVGE First Prize Award, Athens; First Prize, Viridian Washington, DC; Albuquerque Museum; Grey Art Gallery, New Maira Kalman
Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
Gallery Eleventh National Juried Exhibition; Society of Publication York University; New York Public Library; Astor, Lennox and Tilden illustrator
Designers; International Digital Art Awards, Melbourne; Kounio/ Foundations; The Armenian Patriarch, Jerusalem; Hebrew Union
Departmental Information Session: Saturday, October 22, 2011.
Hasselblad Award; New York Festivals Award; Award for Excellence, College Skirball Museum, Los Angeles
All times and locations will be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
American Design magazine Awards and honors include: National League of American
Pen Women, National Endowment for the Arts, Xerox Foundation, To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Matthew B. Richmond Western States Arts Federation, Santa Fe Council for the Arts, AIGA,
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Principal and senior designer, The Chopping Block, Inc. Art Directors Club
Education: BFA, The Cooper Union
The mfa in Interaction Design is as much about invention as it is about the everyday. It requires
students to be intimately attentive to human behavior and to think more holistically about the products
and services they create. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life,
and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and society so designers can make a
difference. The definition of “difference” is something only students know–a personal exploration
only they can do–and the program is designed to support that exploration over two years.
The program is collaborative. In a studio environment, students explore prototyping a range of
experiences that cross visual, conceptual and technical boundaries. Grouped in trans-disciplinary teams,
students work both in the studio and in the field to create inventive solutions to real-world problems.
The program is people-focused. We focus on teaching how people relate to one another through the
products and technology we explore. Together with open lectures in the studio and joint experiments
with the New York City community, the mfa Interaction Design program becomes a model and center
point for interaction design in the City. Program faculty comprises the profession’s most exciting
designers who culminate their professional days by teaching graduate courses in the evenings.
The program is practice-based. The mfa in Interaction Design is a professionally focused program
aimed at training graduates to become practicing designers, entrepreneurs and contributors intending
to make a difference. Upon graduation, students are prepared to take risks, invent new forms with
business and academia, participate in strategic decision-making involved with the creation of interac-
tive products and services, and are equipped with tools and methods to make smart choices no matter
where they find themselves.
The program is your story. The courses are highly demanding, highly selective, and highly reward-
ing. It will ask students to have a vision, and to make choices to align with that vision. Students
study concepts central to interaction design, including design research, human-computer interaction,
interface design, graphic design, information architecture and ubiquitous computing. Each class
becomes a community and each choice a commitment with a story to build upon.
The program seeks to cultivate interaction design as a discipline and further its visibility as a
community of practice. We offer you the chance to participate.
MFA Interaction
Design
www.sva.edu/grad/interactiondesign
department site: interactiondesign.sva.edu
279
An interaction designer’s bookshelf is
crammed with all kinds of books. Katie likes
to read a bit of everything; interaction design
A Day
theory and practice, fiction or books exploring
the subject matter she’s currently working
on. She adds, “This way, it’s easy to find
inspiration in my work.”
in the
Life
Student Profile:
Katie Koch
Liz Danzico
needs of interaction designers in mind. Students work individually or
collaboratively in a loft-like space where they have a personal studio
area for their two-year residency in the program. Student access to
“We have a unique opportunity to craft a program that prepares students to anticipate trends, not the department day and night, seven days per week, a secure Wi-Fi
just react to them, so they can learn how to humanize the tools, technology and resources around network, collaborative areas and walls designed for sketching all ensure
us,” recalls Liz Danzico. “Steven Heller, co-founder of the program, approached me after seeing that the department is a central point of collaboration. Special projects
a gap both in hiring professionals and in the curricula at the graduate level. Students will come away spill outside the department onto the sidewalks and streets of New York
from this program prepared to solve the problems of today, but more importantly, of tomorrow.” City, stretching students’ definition of interaction design beyond the
“…many employers had
The fundamentals of the field are multi-disciplinary. “Because people have been designing interactions standard thinking.
been having difficulties
since well before the last century, the field gets associated with many other areas. While the more contempo-
finding people with
rary discipline has its roots in industrial design, cognitive psychology and interface design, people tend
appropriate skills. This
On any
to associate it with Web design, mobile design, and application design—fields that depend on technology.
new curriculum
Interaction design doesn’t have to rely on technology, although technology very often plays a role. What
attempts to fill that gap.”
is inherent, however, is collaboration, as we’re not just concerned with human-to-computer interactions,
given day...
but the entire product development process and its relationship to one-on-one interactions.”
Danzico notes how many potential students have contacted the department directly. Traditional meth-
ods of communication are being used alongside of less conventional social networks. The lecture series
has also facilitated a community of students and encouraged a different format of communication with
the department. She considers the ideal mix of students for the incoming class: “I’d like the 15 students
to come from 15 different backgrounds. They should all come together around a human-centered design
philosophy with a concern for how their work affects or might be affected by people.” 9am Preparation: Small teams meet at frog design for faculty office 5pm Break: Students break for an informal dinner in the kitchen before
The program’s space was designed with these particular emphases in mind. “Students have their hours with Robert Fabricant, Clay Wiedemann, Josh Musick, and the evening lecture, and are joined by faculty member Ian Curry, senior
own studio space for their two-year residency,” Danzico says, “and while spaces can be made private, Jeff Hoefs , who lead the course “Prototyping the User Experience.” interaction designer at Local Projects, for a discussion on material and
there are substantive collaborative areas for group work. Collaborative areas spill over into the class- interactions.
rooms, into the hallways, into the sidewalks of the City itself. It’s a place intended for critical thinking 10am Exploration: Matt Jones and Jack Schulze, principals at BERG
in London, begin Day Three of a five -day intensive workshop they are 6pm Reflection: Guest lecturer Tina Roth Eisenberg — founder of
and study, but equally intended for sketching, exploration and play.”
leading, “Hopeful Monsters.” The pair meets with small groups throughout swissmiss.com, the CreativeMornings series, and the entrepreneurial
the studio on progress on concepts and prototypes to be presented at the product TeuxDeux — gives a presentation to all MFA Interaction Design
end of the week. students (and members of the community who’ve RSVPed) on how blogs
can become multi-faceted business models and the importance of side
noon Preparation: First- and second-year students who had attended projects. Following the talk, students have the opportunity to pose ques-
MEET-IXD, the department’s non-traditional job fair, the week before, tions to Tina and get to know other attendees. Presentations are recorded
follow-up with prospective summer internship and job opportunities. and posted online post-event so viewers in any location can benefit.
1pm Break: The planning committee for the end-of-year thesis festival 9pm Exposition: Once classes end for the day, some students settle
meet over an informal lunch to review the invited speakers and communi- down to their assignment from “Information Visualization” faculty
cation strategy in place for the end-of year event. member, Nicholas Felton, which they’ll present on the following week.
Others work on their final presentations for their “Design in Public Spaces”
2pm Expression: First-year students meet with Zach Klein to consider course with Jill Nussbaum who gave them a real brief from her work at
entrepreneurship in relationship to design in his course, “Entrepreneurial R/GA. Students will present to a client from NYC & Company, the City of
Design.” How might new ideas move forward? New York’s official marketing, tourism, and partnership organization.
Nate Bolt Professor, Savannah College of Art and Design; Visiting Assistant
President, Bolt | Peters Professor, The Georgia Institute of Technology
Education: BA, University of California, San Diego Publications include: Interactions, Core77.com, Best Practice:
Professional experience includes: Director of user experience, The Pros on Adobe Flash by Doug Easterly; Flash 8 Bible by Snow
Clear Ink Dowd and Rob Reinhardt, The AIGA Journal, Good Housekeeping
Clients include: Sony, Electronic Arts, Citibank, Volkswagen, Magazine, E/Town: The Home Electronics Guide
Zynga, Twitter, Autodesk, Bank of America, Greenpeace, Levi’s, website: www.smartdesignworldwide.com
Oracle, Adaptive Path, Hewlett-Packard, Washington Post, Razorfish,
Harvard Business Review, Deloitte, Intel, Pandora, Rdio, Best Buy, Robert Fabricant
HBO, Warner Music Group Vice president, creative, frog design
Presentations include: “Remote Research,” UX London, Paris; Education: BA, Yale University; MPS, New York University
“Stop Listening to Your Customers,” South by Southwest Interactive; Professional Experience: Director, Research & Development,
“Remote Usability Testing,” User Interface Engineering Virtual Organic; @radicalmedia; Microsoft Research; Edwin Schlossberg
Seminar; “Remote Design Research,” Interaction Design Association, Incorporated; Time New Media; NYU Center for Advanced
New York City Usability Professionals’ Association; keynote speaker, Technology; Fund for Modern Courts; Chermayeff & Geismar
User Research Friday; “The Future of Library User Experience,” Urban Clients include: Barnes & Noble, BBC, Blockbuster, Bombardier,
Libraries Council; “When UX Research is Evil,” Interaction Design Cox Communications, General Electric, Comcast, Humana, Limited
Association, San Francisco Brands, Logitech Harmony, IPC, MTV, McKinsey & Co., Nuance
Publications include: Remote Research, A List Apart, Boxes and Communications, Nissan, Qualcomm, Showtime, SprintNextel,
Arrows, VentureBeat, UX Booth Thomson Financial, TV Guide, Virgin Mobile
Website: www.boltpeters.com Publications include: I.D., Wired, the Wall Street Journal
website: www.frogdesign.com
Jennifer Bove
Principal, Kicker Studios Christopher Fahey
Education: BA, College of William & Mary; MA, Interaction Design User experience strategist; founding partner, Behavior LLC
Institute Ivrea Education: BFA, The Cooper Union
Professional experience: Vice president, user experience, HUGE; Professional Experience: Lead information architect, IA depart-
Vice president, user experience, Schematic; senior interaction designer, ment manager, Rare Medium Inc.; lead game designer, Wanderlust
Fjord Design; project manager, America Online; content strategist, Scient Interactive and Music Pen
Clients include: Nokia, ABC, CondeNet, Reuters, Yahoo!, BBC, Clients include: HBO, Business Week, Smithsonian Institution,
Vibe, Spin, American Express Publishing, Prada, Gucci McGraw-Hill, JPMorgan Chase, National Geographic Channel,
Exhibitions include: Bu.net, Turin; Salone del Mobile, Milan; AARP, AIGA, The Onion, CNN, XM Satellite Radio, America
Fabbrica Europa, Florence; Next 2004, Copenhagen; Victoria & Online, Microsoft
Albert Museum, London Awards include: I.D. Interactive Design Distinction; Webby
website: www.kickerstudio.com Award; Rhizome.org Net Art Commission; featured in the Whitney
Museum Artport
Ian Curry Publications include: The New York Times, New York magazine,
Senior interaction designer, Local Projects UK Design Council Magazine, Communication Arts
Education: BA, The Colorado College; MPS, New York University websites: www.behaviordesign.com, www.graphpaper.com
Professional experience: Design analyst, frog design
Clients include: NYC&Co., National September 11 Memorial Robert Faludi
Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Microsoft, BBC, Hewlett Director of user experience, Tendril, device and strategy consultant,
Packard, IPC, MTV, Eyebeam, The United Nations GroundedPower, Inc.
Awards include: Communication Arts, Design Distinction; Education: BA, Oberlin College; MA, New York University;
I.D.Magazine Annual Design Review 2009; Tisch School of the MPS, New York University
Arts Scholarship Professional Experience: Assistant adjunct professor of
website: www.localprojects.net, www.heavy-meta.com Communications, Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU
Clients include: Match.com, Salon, Magnetic North, Gap, Visa,
Carla Diana Lonely Planet and American Eagle Outfitters
Senior interaction design, Smart Design website: www.faludi.com
Education: BE, The Cooper Union; MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Professional Experience: Senior Design Technologist, frog
design; Creative Director, Planetii; Art Director, Sarkissian-Mason;
Head of the Tech Lab at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute;
Laureen Barber Frank Chimero Dave Gray Phil Kline Jay Parkinson, MD Molly Wright Steenson Charlie Todd
co-owner, Blue Hill and graphic designer, founder, chairman, composer, public co-founder, interactive designer, founder, Improv Everywhere
Blue Hill at Stone Barns Teacher, Writer XPLANE sound artist The Future Well design researcher Jeff Veen
Jen Bekman Brendan Dawes Adam Greenfield Jason Kottke Steve Portigal Yancey Stricker founder and ceo, Typekit
founder/Curator, Jen creative director, author, The City Is Here blogger, designer, principal, Portigal co-founder, Kickstarter Adrian Westaway
Bekman Gallery + 20x200 magneticNorth For You To Use kottke.org Consulting Scott Stroud co-founder, director,
Scott Berkun Elisabeth M. De Morentin Dan Grossman Michael Lebowitz Doug Powell senior analyst/information Vitamins Design
author, public speaker Illinois Institute of project leader, founder, Big Spaceship designer and business architect, NPR.org Chris Woebken
Doug Bowman Technology, Institute Project H Design NYC Jun Lee strategist, SchwartzPowell Rob Tannen independent designer
creative director, Twitter of Design Sylvia Harris partner, ReD Associates Dan Provost director of research, Dave Wright
Nick Bilton Armando Diaz information design strategist Gene Liebel designer, Glif Bresslergroup senior product designer,
design integration editor instructor, Magnet Theater Steven Heller partner, executive director, Marc Rettig Scott Thomas NPR.org
and user interface specialist, Tina Roth Eisenberg author, co-chair, MFA research and user experi- principal, Fit Associates design director, Soo-in Yang
The New York Times and designer, Swissmiss Designer as Author pro- ence, HUGE Mig Reyes Obama for America founder and principal,
The Times Research Studios gram, School of Visual Alexis Lloyd interactive designer, Clive Thompson The Living
& Development Lab Laura Forlano Arts; co-founder, MFA creative technologist, Threadless contributing writer, The
Tom Bodkin Kauffman Fellow in Law, Design Criticism and MFA The New York Times and New York Times Magazine;
Interaction Design pro- Michael Rock
design director, Information Society Project The Times Research founding partner and columnist, Wired
The New York Times at Yale Law grams, School of Visual Arts & Development Lab creator direct, 2x4 Ville Tikka
Nate Bolt Jason Fried Scott Heiferman Dan Mall senior future specialist,
ceo, co-founder, Meetup Louis Rosenfeld
president, Bolt | Peters founder, 37signals interactive art director, founder, Rosenfeld Media Nokia
Dan Brown Chenda Fruchter Jeff Hoefs Big Spaceship
interaction designer, Dan Saffer
founder and principal, assistant commissioner, Graham Marshall founder and principal,
EightShapes director of content Smart Design innovation & design, Kicker Studio
& agency relations, Robert Hoekman, Jr. Motorola Inc.
Contact Us
Andy Budd Yosi Sergant
Department of Information founder, Miskeeto
founding partner, Clearleft
Technology and
Einar Sneve REDU Tel: 212.592.2703
Allegra Burnette Gary Hustwit Martinussen
creative director, Digital
Telecommunication, director, Helvetica, designer, research Jason Severs E-mail: interactiondesign@sva.edu
New York City Objectified principal designer,
Media, The Museum of Scott McCloud
Modern Art Clara Gaggero Matt Jacobs comic book artist
frog design www.sva.edu/grad/interactiondesign
co-founder and creative
Don Carli director, Vitamins Design
product manager, Six Apart Peter Merholz
Tom Shannon department site: interactiondesign.sva.edu
fine artist
senior research fellow, The Masashi Kawamura president, Adaptive Path We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting
Institute for Sustainable Nick Gallo copywriter, art director Ryan Singer
Craig Mod application materials.
Communication graphics editor, The Onion lead designer and product
Sunmee Kim writer, designer, publisher manager, 37signals Come to our Departmental Information Session, or contact us directly to schedule a tour.
Tim Carmody Tom Gerhardt innovation and design,
designer, Glif Matt Mullenweg Andrew Sloat Departmental Information Session: November 12, 2011.
writer, Wired.com Motorola Inc. founder, Automattic, Inc graphic designer, All times and locations to be announced online: www.sva.edu/grad/visit
Cindy Chastain Kim Goodwin Sophie Kleber
vice president, design; Callie Neylan videomaker To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact
creative director, experi- experience lead, HUGE senior product designer,
ence architecture, Rapp general manager, the Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Cooper Design NPR.org
The short film dates back to 1910, when theaters screened short subject films before feature
length movies. In fact, the form was so well received that many studios had outlets that
exclusively toiled with these one-reel films. But, by the 1930s, with the advent of the double
feature and the rising popularity of a new media—television—the production of short films
ceased to be a viable commercial operation for studios.
Today, short films are almost exclusively independent endeavors. The widespread use of
digital media and editing equipment has made the genre an economical and accessible way
for filmmakers to articulate and experiment with ideas that might otherwise be deemed too
challenging or untenable. In fact, many established and successful directors, including George
Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, first began by making short films. Indeed, the
mps Live Action Short Film program at the School of Visual Arts recognizes the importance
of the short film as a vehicle for the emerging filmmaker. We view the medium as integral to the
existence of an evolving, stimulating and relevant film industry.
This 10 -month program spotlights the student’s personal journey and creation of an
independent short film, from pre- to postproduction. Working directly with some of the most
pertinent and noteworthy industry players, including writers, casting agents, directors, assistant
directors and editors, students cultivate original ideas for inventive films that communicate a
narrative in an aesthetically interesting and innovative manner. Under the direction of highly
trained professionals, whose role is to both guide and challenge their students, students are
given opportunities for hands-on experience in every aspect of short filmmaking: from
the conception of an idea, to the creation of a shooting script, to casting, budgeting, directing,
filming, editing and marketing the final product. The program ultimately culminates in a
competitive, thesis-based short film festival hosted by SVA.
The MPS Live Action Short Film program celebrates the truly independent art of filmmaking,
honoring filmmakers, instructing them about the history of short film and outfitting them with
the creative, technical and critical tools needed to impart their artistic visions.
Live Action
Short Film
www.sva.edu/grad/shortfilm
department site: mpsfilm.sva.edu
301
Industry
Insider:
Teaching
Screenwriting
to Future
Peers Faculty Profile:
Rachel Leventhal
Bob Giraldi
worked, state-of-the-art editing suites, a sound design room, two
classrooms (one for lectures and one for seminar-style discussion
classes), and extensive equipment and film library, and a communal work-
“I became an art director after I graduated many, many years ago. I became a director of commercial
space and kitchen. Students have 24-hour access to the space and are
films many, many years ago. I was in at the beginning of the music video craze as a director many, many
encouraged to consider it their home away from home. Below is a typical
years ago. I was asked to teach at sva by Silas Rhodes many, many years ago. And I’ve continued with day in the life of an MPS Live Action Short Film student.
all of those things ever since,” recalls Bob Giraldi at his Murray Street studio. “Then about ten years
ago I told Silas that I wouldn’t mind teaching a short film course to advertising students. This had noth-
“I think New York is the ing to do with selling, nothing to do with music video or experimental film, nothing to do with anima-
most interesting place tion or documentary; it was going to be about crafting a narrative that would involve casting, directing,
in the world to make an editing, finishing, and getting a film ready for a festival.”
independent short film.”
On any
That class, designed for undergraduates, was a success from the get-go, so it was entirely logical
that the director would suggest the possibility of an mps program along similar lines—especially as
no such course existed elsewhere. “I’m interviewing candidates now,” Giraldi relates, “and I’ve found
some really interesting young people just thirsting to make short films. The form is enjoying a renais-
given day...
sance and I’ve had applications from all over the world. So I’m going to have a class of about twenty,
two-thirds of which will be made up of people from outside the u.s. That’s exciting for me because
they’ll pour their experience into films in other languages.” He grins in anticipation. “So it’s turning
out so far to be a pretty brilliant experience for me already.”
How will a typical student work within the program? “Filmmaking is a collaborative art,” explains
Giraldi. “You need a cameraperson, an editor, actors, locations. As a writer and director you’re ‘king
of the ship,’ as James Cameron likes to call himself, but you still need help. And that’s exciting too. 7am Crew call on location at Riverside Park. Cast and crew drink 2pm Continue shooting hotel scenes.
You meet new people, people that pinpoint your mistakes, question your vision, argue with you… and coffee and eat bagels as they set up and gather at their first location.
that’s a great way to learn. There’s no competition. The film business is all about relationships, and They receive instructions from their assistant director who met 3:30pm Wrap for the day.
this program gets students the best people to work with—they’re authentic, the real deal. I ask students with the student director the previous day.
to direct, produce, and co-edit their films, but they’ll have a cameraperson to shoot it. It’s exactly as 4:30pm Return Sony EX3 HD camera kit; Review
it is professionally.” 7:30am Shooting begins. Guest lecturer, Peter Repplier, footage in one of the editing suites.
and Chris Walters, the director of photography, consult with the
“I think New York is the most interesting place in the world to make an independent short film,”
student director about a shot. 5:30pm Grab a coffee in the student lounge area with
Giraldi concludes. “I think you get the edgiest and most interesting locations and actors here.
fellow students before class.
And making a short film here is the kind of project that can change your life—not only theoretically
10am Wrap and travel to second location, Hotel Stanford.
and emotionally, but literally. Doors will open and careers will be made. At the end of the year, I’ll
6–9pm Project Class with department chair Bob Giraldi in the seminar
concentrate on getting these films into the right festivals and the right markets, and into the hands
10:30am Set up equipment at Hotel Stanford while crew and room. Discuss day’s shooting with Bob and plan for tomorrow.
of the right people.” cast get instructions from the AD; begin shooting.
“People say that filmmaking isn’t how it used to be, and they’re right. It’s better now than it’s ever been!”
1pm Lunch of sandwiches prepared by the student
director the night before.
Bob Giraldi, chair Patrick Burns, Jr. Francesco Portinari Sofia Sondervan
President, film director, GIRALDI MEDIA; principal, partner, Editor, director Film/video editor Film producer
CatatoniaGiraldi Education: BS, Boston University Film/video projects include: Small Potatoes, JUNK, Stripes, Education: BFA, summa cum laude, New York University
Education: BFA, Pratt Institute Editing projects include: Honey Trap, Sound Class, Keepin’ Memorie, Ballaro, Anno Zero, Four Miles Away, The King, Bemused. Professional experience includes: Founder, Sony Music Film;
Commercial spots include: Ad Council; Pepsi-Cola (featuring Time, Boso Zoku, Attack of The Little Green Mints. Director, Television projects include: Dreaming Miami, Millionaire Meltdown head of East Coast production, Content Film
Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie); Miller Lite campaigns (featuring editor: Memory Documents, Conversations with Rotella, Paths, (pilot), PSA films for UNICEF Film projects include: Bringing Up Bobby; Feel the Noise; Party
Rodney Dangerfield, Billy Martin, John Madden, Bob Ueker); Freedom Suitman Invades Hong Kong Award: Audience Award, Corto International Film Festival Monster; The Hebrew Hammer; Cadillac Records; Rick; The King;
Center Campaign Clients include: Discovery Channel, Amnesty International, Time Website: http://web.me.com/fportinari East of Havana; The Cooler; Thank You for Smoking; Joe Strummer:
Productions include: Second Guessing Grandma, Honey Trap, Warner, Nike, Land Rover, Food Network, MTV The Future is Unwritten
The Routine, Dinner Rush Awards and honors include: Gold Award, Promax; silver and Amresh Sinha
Music videos include: Writer, director, “Beat It,” Michael Jackson; bronze CLIO; International ANDY Award; silver and bronze, ADDY; Filmmaker
Alessandro Tanaka
“Say, Say, Say,” Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney; “Just the Two of Cannes Advertising Festival, AICP Education: BA, Patna University; MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Screenwriter
Us,” Will Smith; “Love is a Battlefield,” Pat Benatar; “Hello,” Lionel MA, SUNY Buffalo; PhD, York University
Education: BA, Vassar College; MFA, Columbia University
Richie; “Loaded,” Ricky Martin; “Don’t Drive Drunk,” Stevie Wonder Michelle Groskopf Director: Convict & the Trial, Quit India Movement
Screenplays include: The Sitter, Walorsky
Collections include: Museum of Modern Art, Baseball Hall of Fame Founder, senior producer, Mythical Creatures Publications include: Connecticut Review; Spectacular Optical; Awards and honors include: Best Short Film, Columbia
Awards and honors include: Art Directors Club Hall of Fame; Gold Education: BFA, with honors, School of Visual Arts The Making of Modern Bihar; Patriot; Lost in the Archives; German University Film Festival
Lion, Cannes Film Festival; Grand Award, gold and silver medals, New Projects include: The Big Gunz; Bust Web segments on Chloe Culture and Society; The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and
York Festival; Gold Award, AICP; Gold ADDY; CLIO; ANDY; People’s Sevigny, Tracey Ullman; Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project; Electric Cultural Studies; In Practice: Adorno, Critical Theory and Cultural
Choice Award; Rolling Stone; Billboard Music Video Award; Hershel Independence, VBS.TV; Kiefer Sutherland (A&E); co-curator, pro- Studies; Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film; Film-Philosophy;
Levit Award, Pratt Institute; MTV Video Music Award; “One of 101 ducer, “Imperfect As They Are,” New Museum of Contemporary Art Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique; Scope; Transformations
Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising,” Advertising Age; Media Project
Shine Award; Who’s Who in America; International Who’s Who of Susi Korda
Professionals; Audience Award for Best Short Film, Sarasota Film Festival; Director, editor, writer
Palm Springs International Festival of Films; Audience Award, Fresno Reel Education: BFA, City College of New York
Pride; Jury Award, Chicago Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Best LGBT Short Directing and writing projects include: Mazel; Disturbing the
Film, Cleveland International Film Festival; Golden Remi Award, World Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler; For the Love of D-g; One
Fest Houston; Best Drama, LA International Short Film Festival of Us; Vienna is Different: 50 Years After the Anschluss
Editing projects include: The Forest for the Trees, Swimmers,
Cinderella of the Cape Flats
Awards include: 1999 Berlin Film Festival; Silver Plaque, 1989
Chicago Film Festival; 1990 Sundance Film Festival; Artist Fellowship,
New York Foundation for the Arts; Fulbright Scholar; Documentary
Fund Award, National Foundation for Jewish Culture; Jerome
Foundation Grant
Tel: 212.592.2705
Contact Us
Rachel Leventhal
Screenwriter, author, producer, designer. Formerly, senior producer,
Fax: 212.627.2195
Viacom New Media
Education: BA, Cornell University; MPS, New York University
E-mail: mpsfilm@sva.edu
Author: The Freedom Town Mystery; The North Wind is Forever
Screenplays include: Faux Baby, Valley of the Fauxs; Dragons of www.sva.edu/grad/shortfilm
department site: mpsfilm.sva.edu
Amagansett; Rock Star’s Daughter
Projects include: New York International Children’s Film Festival
& GKIDS, Inc; Armani A/X, Pepsi
Come to our Departmental Information Session or contact us directly for more information.
www.sva.edu/grad/photovideo
All that the lens and screen arts encompass are the subject of the mfa Photography, Video and Related
department site: mfaphoto.sva.edu Media Department. As a fine arts program for over 24 years, we have produced remarkable graduates
who have flourished as exhibiting artists, journalists, commercial and documenting artists, curators,
scholars and teachers. Noted as a top-tier program in U.S. News & World Report, our educational goals
attract fine art students with diverse backgrounds from all corners of the world.
The camera is a universal matrix for documenting, exploring and interpreting the ever-changing
21st century. From the traditional practices of photography and the moving image to the virtual realm
of the circuit, we offer students the opportunity to pursue their specific interests with intense critique.
Whether in experimental, narrative or documentary video, installation and conceptual art, tableau
or real-world-witness photography, the department’s celebrated faculty actively engages students in
contemporary and responsible creative initiatives. An expansive curriculum is personally tailored
to allow each student the appropriate understanding of technology, history, criticism, and professional
practices for a competitive society. Foremost we want to challenge students to define their work
by bearing witness, giving testament and observing the creative and social concerns of our times.
We provide the critical thinking and rigor necessary for students to expand their ideas and make notable
contributions to the larger visual culture.
Our uniqueness is marked by the fact that we have led in the education of digital imagery since the
inception of the program in 1988. Always looking to the future we push our students to challenge
the old aesthetics and rethink their own assumptions to engage an enlightened audience. History, critical
and theoretical discourse are all a part of the mix. Graduate students are allowed to choose from a
number of tracks that best suit their previous experience and future goals. For example, we offer a three-
year program for exceptional non-fine-arts baccalaureates that want to change course and engage the
lens and screen arts.
New York City is the hub of a creative network that expands the world. Our program draws on
all the energies and opportunities that this City offers as a resource. We enlist some of the world’s great-
est talents as members of our faculty and as advisors, mentors and lecturers. The network of the City
is also the network for creative and professional supports for our students upon graduation and as they
aspire in their pursuits.
315
From
Thesis to
Published
PageAlumni Profile:
Thomas Holton
Photographer Thomas Holton (MFA ‘05) received acclaim for his
“Lams of Ludlow Street” project. Here, Holton is perched on the
rooftop of an apartment building on Ludlow Street in New York’s
Chinatown, where the Lams reside. It’s an angle he used frequently
over the span of several years.
For emerging artistic talents, the connections they make in school are vital.
Case in point: Thomas Holton, a Manhattan native, worked as a photography
assistant for years before he discovered the Photography, Video and Related Media
program at sva. “I didn’t even know you could get an mfa in photography,” he
jokes. Since graduating in 2005, he’s now represented by the local Sasha Wolf Gallery
in Tribeca and has been widely published.
I still consider Charles Traub, the department chair, my mentor. He got me to focus
on what I was doing, and why I was doing it. We met last week, just so I could pick
his brain about what it takes to get a book published. He’s a wonderful person to
bounce ideas off of. I can also show him my new work; it’s invaluable to have someone
who can give me feedback. In that respect, he’s helpful both professionally and
creatively. It’s positive but honest criticism.
My thesis project, “The Lams of Ludlow Street,” which documents the crowded
apartments of Chinatown residents, was published in Aperture magazine. Yolanda
Cuomo, an art director there, had taught my book design class. We made a handmade
book of our work for the thesis show. She invited the editor of the magazine to see
the work, and that’s how I got noticed. So only two months after graduating, I got the
call that they wanted to publish it. I was flabbergasted.
Looking back, what was the most important thing you learned while
in the program?
Keep making work. I always try to remember why at age 15 I first picked up a camera
and started shooting in the first place. To me, you have to be true to the work and not
worry about critical reaction. I believe that good work will eventually be seen.
Charles H. Traub
York. Lectures, fellow students, exhibitions, faculty, and the “scene” itself
are all a part of your education and New York’s energy is your stimulus.
The MFA Photography, Video & Related Media Department is one of the
“The primary focus of this department is the lens,” says Charles Traub, chair, “–no pun intended– lens-arts’ world hubs, and all of its traffic is your classroom.
and what can be said with it. The camera is a great portal to all that is happening in diverse cultures
around the world. Everything that we once knew about witness has now changed, as we can look
anywhere and everywhere individually and collectively. The students of the lens and screen arts must
now, more than ever, be educated to understand, manage and create unique forms for which imagery
can be organized, understood, experienced and distributed. It is an issue of new ideas that engage the
audience in new delights and new discoveries.
“As art-making changes, the artists must be supported in their exploration of all platforms that
On any
the still and moving image embraces. That said I am hard-pressed to tell anyone how to make art, nor
to tell you that anything an artist says is art–is truly art! I am not being glib. I am merely relating
“What we expect is that
that history, perspective and longevity will define meaning of the creative work to future audiences.
each graduate candidate
given day...
Remarkable things come from all realms of creative practice–whether commercial or personal
reaches for the highest level
exploration, appropriation, installation or witness itself. Thus,” Traub explains, “the responsibility
of his or her own potential
of educating a fine artist is to expose them to all histories, practices and aesthetics that have defined
to express themselves in
great imagery to date. Artists learn from the past in order to project themselves into the future. And
some defining way.”
they must learn about what is possible with the camera, whether still or moving.
“This department is comprised of a remarkably loyal and world-class community of faculty,
practitioners and mentors who frankly delight in the discoveries and growth of their students. We are 10am Charles Traub meets with Adam Bell, student advisor, to discuss 6 – 9pm Robert Bowen’s Digital Design Class, tonight’s session
artists who come from all over the world and engage talents of similar makeup. We do not clone our thesis advisors: Tina Barney, Elisabeth Biondi, Elinor Carucci, James working with 3D imaging.
students nor do we expect them to act and make as we do. No two graduates create work alike. That’s Casebere, Nancy Davenport, Mark Dion, Patty Chang, Susan Bright
remarkable!” says Traub. “What we expect is that each graduate candidate reaches for the highest level and Kate Gilmore. 7:30 – 9pm Visiting lecturer, Maria Antonella Pelizzari talks about her
of his or her own potential to express themselves in some defining way.” new book, Photography and Italy.
10am – 1pm Chris Callis: Laws of Light. Class discussion and
demonstration about topics of his upcoming book about lighting history. 8pm Charles Traub has dinner with Tom Huhn, undergraduate chair,
Suzanne Anker, Chair, BFA Fine Arts: Photography and the Visual regarding the future lecture by the writer Geoff Dyer.
Arts after 1960.
Ongoing through the day Thesis students submit final drafts of thesis
noon Randy West, director of operations, meets with Bruce Silverstein proposal to Thesis Forms instructor, Marvin Heiferman and Mark
to discuss future lectures about professional opportunities for graduating Stafford; Lynn Shelton, alumna, submits film, Humday, to Sundance
students. Charles Traub has a lunch meeting with David van der Leer, Film Festival; Brian Palmer, alumnus, submits documentary film,
curator at the Guggenheim, regarding our collaboration with them on the Full Disclosure, to Sundance Film Festival; Elizabeth Biondi dis-
project “Stillspotting.” cusses possible internship at The New Yorker magazine; historian
Celia Grönberg from Sweden confirms plans to visit the department
1:30 – 3pm Visiting Artist Lecture: Sze Tsung Leong. as a Fulbright scholar; Bill Armstrong and David Levinthal inquired
about teaching in the department.
3 – 6pm Penelope Umbrico: First-Year Critique. Charles Traub
visits the class to see new student work. Students plan to attend alumna
Debbie Grossman’s new exhibition at the Julie Saul Gallery.
6pm Sarah Silver meets with students for instruction with large-
format digital back. Chris Callis offers an additional workshop in
Lightroom for students.
gsal Program
Summer Residency Lens and Screen Arts: New Technologies: Professional photographers, filmmakers FALL Semester Credits SPRING Semester Credits
and artists develop their creative visions with new camera technology in this intensive, four-week engagement. GSAL Master Critique I 3 Aesthetic History of Photography* 3
Because of advances in still and moving imagery, professionals no longer work solely in the traditional divisions of Modern Art Through Pop I* 3 GSAL Master Critique II 3
the camera arts. High-definition, video-capable dslr cameras have transformed still photography and enabled Social History of Photography* 3 Modern Art Through Pop II* 3
Studio: Introduction to Digital Imaging I 3 Studio: Introduction to Digital Imaging II 3
image-makers to create professional-quality movies. The photographer is now a filmmaker, and a steep learning
Studio Photography I* 3 Studio: Introduction to Video 3
curve must be addressed in order to equip the creative image-maker with a new set of skills. While still and moving
imagery may be produced with the same set of tools, each requires very different approaches and practices. The still * Course offered through the Undergraduate Division
photography practitioner must understand the language of the moving image, and vice versa. This summer residency
will engage participants in daily activity in the practice of a new form of lens arts. ¶ Initial sessions will alternate
practical studio lab and on-location production, followed by postproduction, including file management, editing,
and current modes of exhibition and distribution. Critiques of works-in-progress will be held throughout, as well
as screenings of films that complement coursework. Faculty members include department chair Charles Traub and
Grahame Weinbren, Michelle Leftheris and Robert Bowen. Guest lecturers include Alan Berliner, Jennifer Blessing,
Chris Callis, Anthony Forma, Roger Phenix, Bob Richman, Shelly Silver and Amy Taubin.
Contemporary Issues: The Concept of Style Contemporary Issues: Photography and Criticism and Theory: Critical Reading GSAL Master Critique I & II
Can the content of a work of art be articulated in different styles? Film —a Practical Relationship The format of this course combines reading and classroom discussions This group critique provides a stimulus for creative exchange and a
Why style rather than non-style? How does style apply to the immedi- The integral and increasingly fluid relationship between the photo- aimed at providing critical perspectives on the issues that inform the forum for students to focus their individual growth and activities dur-
ate culture of pluralism? This course will examine works that range graph and the moving image in contemporary arts practice will be practice of contemporary art and photography. Readings will include ing the GSAL year. Guided by prominent figures in the visual arts,
from deep social/political concerns to the most personal and poetic explored in this course. Special attention will be paid to the critical texts by artists, writers and theorists of the past three decades that the structure and content of meetings is determined largely by student
meditation of imagery through the study of artists who include Shirin and historical discourses that have shaped cinematic and photographic bear upon the practice of students’ art-making today. Students will be needs.
Neshat, Shoja Azari, George Gittoes, Jonas Mekas, Alfredo Jaar, Susan practice and tradition. One stream of discussion will focus around the required to develop a framework from these readings that is relevant
Meiselas and Robert Bergman. In addition, artists, critics and curators differences and similarities between pertinent construction and produc- to their own objectives. Discussion will be based on interdisciplinary Historical Perspectives: History of the Book
will be invited to discuss the wider functions of art. tion issues in duration and non-duration based media: for example, study, screenings and exhibitions. The photobook has played a central, if neglected, role in the history of
image composition, the significance of editing and the treatment of photography. Artists have known that their use of photographs to tell
Contemporary Issues: The Future of Documentary time. The relevancy of these issues to each student’s work and artistic Criticism and Theory: Global Issues and Strategies a story implied the need for some narrative device, and the photobook
Journalism, photography and the documentary image have been trans- practice will also be addressed. The course is designed to examine changing currents in a world under- has long served that role. From early artist books and lavish 19th-
formed, as disciplines and as industries, by the technological revolution stood as complex, variant and global, with no specific path or set of century albums to mass-produced trade editions and self-published
in the capture, combination and dissemination of image, sound and Contemporary Issues: Right Here, Right Now standards for the creation of images. We will identify themes, issues books, photobooks allow images and photographs to be experienced
text. Twentieth-century labels and identities—“artist,” “journalist,” This course offers a forum to research and debate some of the press- and artists from global and comparative perspectives. The issues may widely and intimately—shaping the medium, and influencing fellow
“documentarian,” “expert”—have been shredded, as have the institu- ing issues that affect contemporary photographers. Each week, we will derive from art, art history and sources such as cultural and commer- photographers and artists, in profound ways. We are now in the midst
tions we once relied upon to help shape our culture. Through lectures, concentrate on a question or a theme that is crucial to contemporary cial practices, geopolitics, topical events and current intellectual trends. of a series of radical changes to the idea of the book as “dead-tree”
guest presentations, readings and hands-on projects, students will practitioners, such as: contemporary print aesthetics; the new color: The purpose is to explore contemporary issues, images, contexts and publishing is being transformed by the online revolution. Through
examine various forms of nonfiction visual storytelling, both moving the return of black-and-white; where has editorial gone?; the power of challenges in relation to image-making in any media. Readings will be attention to specific books, publishers and online projects, this course
and still. We will also attempt to identify the fundamentals of ethical the edit; slowed down photography: roles of nostalgia in a digital era. discussed for context, and to broaden personal orientations and strate- will examine the history of the photobook from the earliest efforts to
and persuasive real-world storytelling practice in a range of traditional Through lectures and readings, we will connect contemporary photog- gies. Students will help select topics and direct reading sessions, and new innovative avenues of self-publishing, print- on-demand and the
disciplines—documentary and journalism, fine art, anthropology, raphy with historical precedents, and through discussions explore these will produce a paper (print, hypertext, or image essay) that explores a advent of the photobook in a paperless society. In addition to lectures,
science, law—and then devise alternative models using 21st-century connections to each student’s photographic practice. theme relevant to their own interests and uses strategies different from guest presentations and discussions, the course will also include field
technology. their previous orientation to image production. trips to publishers, artists’ studios and special collections.
Contemporary Issues: Video Culture
Contemporary Issues: The lens and visual arts— Students will be immersed in the modalities of video practice that have Criticism and Theory: Technology of Ideas HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: issues in the moving image—
1980 to present shaped currents in our contemporary cultures. Video’s dominant role The history of technology is often presented as a progressive scheme a history of hybrids
In a media-driven society, what becomes a legend most? How do social in documentary and public dialogue, its antecedents in film histories, inside an historical framework—the idea of technology as something “Cinema is truth 24 frames per second,” remarked Jean-Luc Godard,
factors, cultural institutions and consensus, as well as redefinitions of and its emergence as an art/installation and multimedia performance that just keeps improving. This idea surfaces even in dystopic visions begging the question of whether truth is an attribute of fiction or docu-
the functions of photography, video and the other visual arts, drive the medium will be addressed. Drawing on screenings of video works and of the future, which project a society ruined by a dominant technology mentary. Throughout his career, Godard has blurred the presumed
interpretation and representation of images? This course will focus on on artists’ writings, we will examine the many issues surrounding con- that is more advanced than ours. Our thoughts about technology mask boundaries between so-called “fiction,” documentary, ethnographic,
the visual arts from 1980 to the present, explicating the integration of temporary video-making. Questions to be raised include: Why make the extent to which technology itself drives these ideas. This course pornographic and avant-garde films. His work will be central to this
photography into the “mainstream” of painting and sculpture. Arranged video? What is at stake in a particular video? Why make it this way? will explore how we are subject to technology not so much physically course, as will the films of Andy Warhol. We’ll also look at work
as an investigation into contemporary issues, the pursuit of “aesthetic” Where is it intended to be shown? Where will it in fact be shown? (the slave of the machine, the prisoner in the Panopticon), as meta- by Chris Marker, Orson Welles, Haroun Farocki, Alan Clarke, Nick
identity will topically examine the changing status and means of image- What are the expectations of the audience and what then is the strat- physically, in the way we internalize and enact its ideas. Broomfield, Jonas Mekas, Yvonne Rainer, Alain Resnais, Guy Debord,
making. Concepts to be explored are historical determinism, commodity egy of the maker? Werner Herzog, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Chantel Akerman, Robert Frank
culture, the blurring of boundaries, representations of memory, the clash Criticism and Theory: TIME IMAGE PERCEPTION and Craig Baldwin. We will devote several weeks to contemporary
of cultures, the new grotesque, the culture of the copy, public spectacle Criticism and Theory: Contemporary Criticism The “photographic” is not a category exclusive to photography; moving-image works that deal with issues of diaspora and statelessness.
and private myth. The course’s intention is to demarcate the roles of Designed to examine both general and specific areas of critical dis- rather, it is a condition that appears in several genres and practices
the artist in the “real world” and the ways in which artistic practice is course, we will begin with the distinctions among commonly used that involve imagery that embraces painting, film, video, photogra- Historical Perspectives: THE LENS AND VISUAL ARTS,
relevant to understanding the human condition. terms such as “history,” “analysis,” “theory,” “criticism” and “critical phy and more recently “new” forms of digital media. Above all, it 1950 TO 1980
theory” in broad, but grounded, terms. The course will also delineate is connected to a visual field where actions include cutting, framing, The focus of this class is to map a history of contemporary art via
Contemporary Issues: Moving Image Colloquia the concepts of modernism and postmodernism by tracing the develop- stopping and expanding movement. This course will examine contem- issues in lens-based media. Photography has been central to the practice
This course will consist of professional presentations and workshops in ment of specific methodologies such as formalism, Marxism, semiotics, porary and historic works along with theoretical writings concerned and theory of art since the 1960s; video since the 1970s. We will track
topics that relate to the theory, development, production, postproduc- literary theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, deconstruction, with the aesthetic, social and psychological aspects of the “photo- some of the myriad ways that reproductive imagery and media have
tion and distribution of video. Visiting professionals will be an integral feminism and psychoanalysis. There will be a focus on understanding graphic,” both still and moving. been incorporated into contemporary art since 1950, as well as the
component of the course. the issues as an interrelated history of ideas. discourse around photographic reproduction that has been integral to
postmodernism and poststructuralist theory. Artists whose work will be
discussed include Robert Frank, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol,
Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Larry Clark, Ed Ruscha, Robert
Smithson, Mel Bochner, Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, Martha Rosler,
Hans Haacke, Adrian Piper, Christian Boltanski, Bernd and Hilla
Becher, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys and Mary Kelly, among others.
Charles H. Traub, Chair Publications include: Sites Unseen: Shimon Attie—European Jennifer Blessing Phong Bui
Principal, Charles H. Traub Photography; co-founder, here is new Projects; The Writing on the Wall: Projections in Berlin’s Jewish Curator of Photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Publisher, editor, Brooklyn Rail; visual artist; curator
york; consulting photographic editor. Formerly, director, Light Gallery Quarter; Shimon Attie: Photographs and Installations; The History Education: BA, with honors, Brown University; Education: BFA, Philadelphia College of Art; New York Studio
Education: BA, University of Illinois; MS, Illinois Institute of of Another: Shimon Attie MA, New York University School
Technology; University of Louisville Awards and honors include: National Endowment for the Arts; Curatorial works include: “Family Pictures: Contemporary Professional experience includes: Curatorial advisor,
represented by: Gitterman Gallery, New York Prix de Rome; Pollock-Krasner Foundation; Ministry of Culture, Photographs and Videos from the Collection of the Guggenheim P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Host, “Off the Rail Hour,” Art
One-Person Exhibitions include: Gitterman Gallery; Blue Berlin; New York Foundation for the Arts Museum,” “Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl International Radio. Board member: Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation,
Sky Gallery; Light Gallery; Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery; Van Straaten Collection,” “Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in International Association of Art Critics
Gallery; Art Directors Guild of New York; Visual Studies Workshop, Jan Avgikos Photography,” “Marina Abramovic: Seven Easy Pieces,” Solomon Publications include: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
Rochester, NY; Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography; Alan Art critic, historian, curator R. Guggenheim Museum New York Sun, Sculpture, Hudson Review, Art in America, New York
Frumkin Gallery; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Camera Education: BA, Georgia State University; MA, Columbia University Published essays in: Allegorie II: Video; Robert Mapple Observer, The Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, Art Monthly
Work; Art Institute of Chicago; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY Publications include: Flash Art; Parkett; Tate Etc.; thorpe and the Classical Tradition; Performance Research; Gina Australia, Matador, Art & Auction, Brooklyn Rail, Metro, The New
Books include: Education of the Photographer, In the Still Life, Contemporanea; Texte zur Kunst; contributing editor, Artforum. Pane; Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture; Parkett; Yorker, NY Arts, art.net
In the Realm of the Circuit, An Angler’s Album, Beach, The New Essays in: Still Water: Photographs by Roni Horn; Guggenheim Veronica’s Revenge: Contemporary Perspectives on Photography/ One-person exhibitions include: Leslie Heller Gallery, Wooster
Vision. Co-author, On the Edge: New York Waterfront; Italy Museum Bilbao Collection The Lambert Photography Collection; Premises: Invested Spaces in Arts Space, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Sideshow Gallery
Observed Awards and honors include : Frank Jewett Mather Award, Visual Arts, Architecture, and Design from France, 1958—1998; Group exhibitions include: Lohin Geduld Gallery; Norte Maar;
Publications include: Connoisseur, Fortune, U.S. News & World College Art Association; Mellon Fellow, Columbia University Art of This Century; The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943—1968; Vaudeville Park; Janet Kurnatowski Gallery; Gallery Satori; Cité du
Report, Newsweek, Aperture, Afterimage, Popular Photography, Modernism, Gender, and Culture; Art/Fashion Livre, Aix-en-Provence, France; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Pierogi
American Photographer, The New Yorker Kiki Bauer Awards include: National Endowment for the Arts, International 2000; Brooklyn Museum
Awards and honors include: New York State Council on the Graphic designer; owner, Kiki Bauer Design Association of Art Critics Awards and honors include: Eric Isenburger Annual Prize,
Arts; Hendricks Foundation Award; Illinois Art Council; Manda Professional experience includes : Senior designer, art director, National Academy Museum; American Academy of Arts and Letters;
Grant; Olympic Arts Organization Committee; Cornell Capa powerHouse Books Robert Bowen Pollock-Krasner Foundation; NURTUREart; Arcadia Fellowship;
Award, International Center of Photography; Brendan Gill Award; Book design for : A Body; Grim Street; True Color; Casa Susanna; Fine artist; designer; principal, Robert Bowen Studio Hohenberg Award for European Travel, New York Studio School;
Distinguished Service Award, Children’s Aid Society; Municipal Arts A Time Before Crack; Darling; Wayne F. Miller: Photographs 1942- Education: BA, St. Lawrence University; MFA, Pratt Institute Charles H. Revson Foundation
Society 1958; Flying Pictures; The Day After Tomorrow: Images of our Earth Clients include: Adobe, Disney, Kodak, Canon, AT&T, American
website: www.charlestraub.com in Crisis; Hot and Cold: The Works of Richard Hell; New York’s Express, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Bacardi, Panasonic, Sony Chris Callis
Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News; Time Publications include: Cabinet, Afterimage, San Francisco Photographer
Suzanne Anker Frames: City Pictures; Aging in America: The Years Ahead; Warhol/ Camerawork Quarterly Education: BFA, Art Center College of Design
Chair, BFA Fine Arts Department, School of Visual Arts; fine artist; critic Makos in Context; Walker’s Way: My Years with Walker Evans Exhibitions include: MF Adams Gallery, Haim Chanin Fine Arts, Clients include: Hewlett-Packard, IBM, BMW, Smirnoff, Honda,
Education: BA, Brooklyn College; MFA, University of Colorado, Clients include: Pond Press; Duoda Centre for Research on Women, SIGGRAPH, Vanderbilt University, Fordam University, 55 Mercer, Kodak, Polaroid
Boulder University of Barcelona; New York Photo Festival; Gitterman Gallery Collective for Living Cinema, Boston Museum of Science Publications include: The New Yorker, The New York Times
Publications include: Art Journal; Tema Celeste; Seed; M/E/A/ Awards and honors include : Best Photo Book of the Year, Photo Collections include: Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum Magazine, Esquire, Rolling Stone
N/I/N/G; Leonardo; Nature Reviews Genetics; Update: New York District News; photo-eye; The Village Voice; Art Directors Club; of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Sackner Archive of Concrete and Awards and honors include: Best of Show, ICON Awards; Gold
Academy of Sciences magazine; co-author, The Molecular Gaze: Art Golden Light Awards Visual Poetry Award, Society of Publication Designers
in the Genetic Age Website: www.kikibauer.com Awards and honors include: Best Computer Graphics, Best
Group Exhibitions include: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Digital Photography, Best in Show, Kodak VIP Image Search; Gold Elinor Carucci
DC; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Adam Bell Award, Special Effects, Advertising Photographers of America; Gold Photographer
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, Japan Photographer; academic advisor, MFA Photography, Video and Award, International Film and Television Institute Education: BFA, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Related Media Department, School of Visual Arts website: www.bowenstudio.com Represented by: Art 2 Commerce, Edwynn Houk Gallery
Shimon Attie Education: BA, with honors, Oberlin College; MFA, with honors, One-Person Exhibitions include: Fifty One Fine Art
Fine artist School of Visual Arts Ed Bowes Photography, Antwerp; Photographers’ Gallery, London; Gagosian
Education: BA, University of California, Berkeley; MFA, San Group exhibitions include: Berrie Center for the Arts, Ramapo Video producer, director, writer Gallery, London; Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt; Edwynn Houk Gallery
Francisco State University; MA, Antioch University College, Mahwah, NJ; Griffin Museum of Photography, MA; Education: LeMoyne College GROUP Exhibitions include: Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Brooklyn
One-Person Exhibitions include: Institute of Contemporary Germantown Academy Arts Center, Fort Washington, PA; Wallspace; Film and Video Works include: Producer, Fatachee. Producer, Museum; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Art, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Jack SVA Gallery; Laune Galerie, Tokyo; Galeria di Fendi, Milan; director, writer, Picture-Book; Spitting Glass; How to Fly; Better, Publications include: The New Yorker, Photo District News,
Shainman Gallery; Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of PhotoEspaña, Madrid; Xposeptember, Stockholm Stronger; Romance. Director of photography, Split Britches, Two The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, W, Details
Design, Providence; Cleveland Museum of Art; Numark Gallery, Clients include: HBO, ThinkFilms, Journeyman Pictures, Samuel Moon July, Everglade City, Born in Flames. Writer, Nets; Oh, No, Awards and honors include: Ruttenberg Award, Buhl
Washington, DC; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco Goldwyn Films Paula; Headlands; Angles Foundation; Friends of Photography; John Simon Guggenheim
Collections include: Museum of Modern Art; High Museum of Publications include: The Education of a Photographer; PEEK; Awards and honors include: New York State Council on the Memorial Foundation Fellowship; Infinity Award, International Center
Art, Atlanta; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; International Print; The New York Times; New York magazine; Esquire; Me Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, New of Photography; Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
Center of Photography; Center for Creative Photography; Museum of Magazine. Essays in: Words Without Pictures; Foam; Lay Flat 02: York Foundation for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Art Matters website: www.elinorcarucci.com
Modern Art, Berlin; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Meta; Ahorn Magazine Inc.; Distinguished Artist-Teacher Award, School of Visual Arts
Award: Paula Rhodes Memorial Award, School of Visual Arts website: www.edbowes.org
Website: www.adambbell.com
Brian Palmer Publications include: How to Look At Outsider Art; Professional experience includes: Consultant, Symposia Awards and Honors include: New York Foundation of the Arts;
Journalist, documentary filmmaker Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Project; publisher, Penguin Putnam, USA; director of special sales, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award, School of Visual Arts
Education: BA, Brown University; MFA, School of Visual Arts Old Processes; Jonathan Lerman: The Drawings of an Artist New York, HarperCollins Publishers
Professional experience includes: Correspondent, CNN; with Autism; The New York Times; Art in America; Aperture; Publications include: Being Human: The Technological Grahame Weinbren
Beijing Bureau Chief, U.S. News & World Report Metropolis; Surface; Raw Vision; Paper Extensions of the Body; W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography Filmmaker; interactive cinema producer; film and video editor; princi-
Publications include: Mother Jones, PixelPress, Huffington Post, Awards include: Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, University pal, Typhoon Sky Inc.; editor, Millennium Film Journal
Newsweek International, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, of Michigan and Merton College Steel Stillman Education: BA, University College, London; PhD, SUNY Buffalo
U.S. News & World Report, The Village Voice, The New York Times Visual artist; writer; contributing editor, Art in America group Exhibitions include: Whitney Museum of American Art;
Essays and photographs in: Best African American Essays 2009; Inside David A. Ross Education: BFA, School of Visual Arts Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
the L.A. Riots: What Really Happened and Why It Will Happen Writer; art dealer; curator; president, director, Albion New York; One-person exhibitions include : Envoy Enterprises; Mandarin Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; Museum of Contemporary
Again; China: Fifty Years Inside The People’s Republic; The Education founder, chairman, Curatorial Committee, Artist Pension Trust. Gallery, Los Angeles; Momenta Art; Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam; Art, Los Angeles; The Kitchen; Zecher Sollern, Dortmund, Germany;
of a Photographer Formerly, director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Dinter Fine Art NTT/ICC, Tokyo
Awards and honors include: Media Fellow, Hoover Institution, Museum of American Art; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Group exhibitions include : Brooklyn Museum; Carnegie Interactive cinema installations include: Frames, The Erl
Stanford University; Ford Foundation Education: BS, Syracuse University Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Lesley Heller Workspace; Museum of King, Tunnel, March, Sonata
Website: www.bxpnyc.com Curatorial projects include: “Peter Campus: A Survey,” Antico Contemporary Art, Chicago; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Awards and honors include: Massachusetts Council on the Arts
Collegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City; co-curator, “Tomorrow,” Washington, DC; The Painting Center; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Humanities, Arts Council of Great Britain, New York Foundation
Mary M. Patierno Kumho Museum of Art, ArtSonje Center, Seoul; Long March Space, White Columns; John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State
Filmmaker; videomaker; editor; co-founder, Dyke TV. Formerly, cura- Beijing; “Lorna Simpson: 31,” Claustro Sor Juana, Mexico City; Publications include: CUT (Germany), Worth, artnet, Council on the Arts
tor, W.O.W. Women’s Film and Video Festival “Quotidiana,” Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy; Armchair/Shotgun. website: www.grahameweinbren.net
Education: BA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst “Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Artists’ books include : There, Staring
Films include: The Most Unknowable Thing, which received best Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Stedelijk Museum; San Francisco Website: www.steelstillman.com Randy West
documentary award at the following: Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago; Museum für Fine artist; director of operations, MFA Photography, Video and
Film Festival; Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Washington DC Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt Amy Taubin Related Media Department, School of Visual Arts
Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Filmmaker, curator, film and television critic. Formerly, curator of Education: BFA, Ball State University; MFA, California Institute
Silver Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival Collier Schorr video and film, The Kitchen; film critic, columnist, The Village Voice of the Arts
U.S. editor, Frieze EDUCATION: BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, New York University One-person exhibitions include: Bruce Silverstein Gallery;
Gus Powell EDUCATION: BFA, School of Visual Arts Publications include: Taxi Driver, BFI Film Classics book Yancey Richardson Gallery; Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles; Houston
Editorial photographer, fine artist One-Person Exhibitions include: 303 Gallery; Galerie series; contributing editor, Film Comment, Sight and Sound; con- Center for Photography; Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco
Education: BA, Oberlin College Drantmann, Brussels; Villa Romana, Florence; Standard Graphik, tributor, Artforum, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Group exhibitions include: Queens Museum of Art; Architecture
Professional experience includes: Photo editor, The New Cologne; Modern Art, Inc., London Millennium Film Journal, LA Weekly and Design Museum, Los Angeles; Paul Robeson Center for the
Yorker (fiction section); photo editor, researcher, Time-Life, Tricycle, Group Exhibitions include: Center for Contemporary Art, Projects include: Producer, T.N.T., The Kitchen Screen, Spitting Arts, Princeton, NJ; International Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg;
Joe; photo assistant for, Hiro, Nitin Vadukul, Joel Meyerowitz Glasgow; Spiral/Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo; Renaissance Society at the Glass; film, In the Bag Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ; International Center for
Group exhibitions include : FotoGrafia International Festival, University of Chicago; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Otis College of Awards and honors include: New York State Council on Photography; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Rome; Foam, Amsterdam; TH Inside, Copenhagen; Museum of the Art and Design, Los Angeles; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; Museum the Arts; Exceptional Achievement in Film Criticism, Cinemarati Publications include: The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction
City of New York; Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta; Studio Bee, Tokyo; of Contemporary Art, Denver Award; CAPS; Distinguished Art Historian-Teacher Award, in Photography; The Education of a Photographer; Concrete
French Trotters Gallery, Paris; Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery; Alice Austen Publications include: Harper’s Bazaar, Metropolis, Artforum, School of Visual Arts Photography; The New York Times; Los Angeles Times
House; McMullen Museum, Boston College; Jen Bekman Gallery; Purple Fashion, Out, Frieze, Interview, Monopol. Catalogs Awards include: Brooks Project, Venice Collaborative, CA; Aaron
Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago for: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Parkett Penelope Umbrico Siskind Fellowship; Hedda Sterne Residency
Clients include: Spin, Fortune, The New Yorker, Worth, Life, New Fine artist website: www.randywest.net
York magazine, Foam, Newsweek Amresh Sinha EDUCATION: MFA, School of Visual Arts
Book: The Company of Strangers. Filmmaker One-Person Exhibitions include: Montgomery Museum of Bonnie Yochelson
Publications include: Paper Placemats; Bystander: A History of Education: BA, Patna University; MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Fine Art, AL; Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston; International Center of Consulting curator for photography, New-York Historical Society.
Street Photography; Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs; MA, SUNY Buffalo; PhD, York University Photography; Julie Saul Gallery Formerly, curator, Prints and Photographs, Museum of the City of
Print; DoubleTake; American Photography Director: Convict & the Trial, Quit India Movement GROUP Exhibitions include: Museum of Modern Art; Santa New York; assistant curator, Department of Prints and Drawings,
Collections include: Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Publications include: Connecticut Review; Spectacular Optical; Barbara Museum of Art, CA; Denver Art Museum; Numark Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Arts, Houston The Making of Modern Bihar; Patriot; Lost in the Archives; German Washington, DC; Ansel Adams Center for Photography, San Francisco; Education: BA, Swarthmore College; MA, PhD, New York University
Awards and honors include : Photo District News; Cultural Culture and Society; The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles; Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT; Publications include: Berenice Abbott: Changing New York,
Specialist Grant, U.S. Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Studies; In Practice: Adorno, Critical Theory and Cultural Art in General; Creative Time: Art in the Anchorage, NY; Spaces The Complete WPA Project; Pictorialism Into Modernism: The
Website: www.guspowell.com Studies; Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film; Film-Philosophy; Gallery, Chicago; Wallspace; Dazibao, Montreal; Space Force, Tokyo; Clarence H. White School of Photography; From New York to
Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique; Scope; Transformations Memphis College of Art Hollywood: The Photography of Karl Struss
Lyle Rexer Publications include: The Village Voice, The New York Times, curatorial work includes: New York Historical Society,
Writer; critic; consultant; contributing editor, Art on Paper Mark Stafford Washington Post, Art in America, Boston Globe Museum of the City of New York, Paine Webber Art Gallery
Education: BA, MA, Columbia University Director, Marsilio Publishers; publisher Collections include: Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Awards and honors include: Andrew Mellon Fellowship, The
Education: MA, University of Edinburgh Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, Rhizome Art Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Prints and Drawings;
Base, Tampa Museum of Art National Endowment for the Humanities
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photographers MoMA Andres Serrano curator, writer, educator Krzysztof Wodiczko
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Design has transformed the world. Now the world is demanding the transformation of designers. What
we consider the “products of design” must go beyond the mass-produced object to include artifacts and
expressions that are purposeful, sustainable and systems-aware. The products of design can manifest
themselves in many forms—from sets of instructions to object-mediated social interventions, from
diy projects to limited edition runs, from manufacture-on-demand to mass-manufactured, and from
speculative objects to design art. Whatever their expression, designed objects should emerge from a
combination of intent and context, celebrating life in addition to solving problems.
The Products of Design program at sva is itself a “product of design”: It responds to the current
explosion of creative investigation around making, meaning and the role of objects in our culture. It
acknowledges the radical shifts taking place in the classic profession of industrial design itself: progres-
sive changes in the processes of product design—from specialized ethnographic research to strategic
business consulting. We see new urgencies in the need to reconcile the material, energy, environmental
and cultural consequences of design inherent in the imperatives of production and consumption.
We see a wonderful expansion in the participants of design—from anthropologists and behavioral
psychologists to materials experts and systems specialists. And finally, we see great interest from
both the mainstream as well as business press around the power of design—to fix problems, to create
value, to reinvent businesses, and to address vital social and environmental challenges.
The program’s mission and curriculum are direct responses to these changes, forging ways to live
up to design’s potential as a constructive force in an ever-changing world. The department welcomes
students who are passionate about this potential, and puts them in the heart of one of the world’s
epicenters of thought leadership, cross-pollinating ideas with creative specialists in New York’s vast
ecosystem of creative enterprise.
Design is well recognized as is a collaborative endeavor now, and it is designers who are uniquely
equipped to provide the connective tissue that can make great things happen. Designers translate between
stakeholders. They reframe problems and reveal opportunities. They make the invisible visible and catalyze
change through a combination of research, innovation and storytelling, and just a little bit of magic.
The mfa program in Products of Design prepares exceptional practitioners for the shifting terrain
MFA
of design. Graduates will emerge with the skills and fluency to become leaders who create consequence
through design—equipped with the confidence, experience and network to fill senior positions at top
design firms and progressive organizations, to create ingenious enterprises of their own and to become
Products of Design
lifelong advocates for the power of design.
www.sva.edu/productsofdesign
department site: productsofdesign.sva.edu
345
The Integrated
Designer:
Combining
Information
and Inspiration Faculty Profile:
Ingrid Fetell
Allan Chochinov
campus location has been selected to maximize exposure and collaboration—including weekend charettes—with
SVA graduate students from related programs, such as Designer as Author, Interaction Design, Branding, Design
Criticism and Design for Social Innovation, and a larger interdisciplinary student body of vital and curious learners.
“Industrial design is a bizarre profession,” admits Allan Chochinov, a smile revealing that this doesn’t Immediately adjacent and “through the red door” of the Products of Design Department is the new state-of-the-art
bother him in the slightest. “It’s unlicensed,” he continues, “and it can even be an asset to not know what Visible Futures Lab, where students experiment, build, prototype, 3D print, solder up, and otherwise realize their
you’re talking about! Why would someone hire you to design, say, a new lawnmower if you’d never design investigations. A gallery provides space to display finished and in-process work, and expert staff is available
designed a lawnmower before? Well, because you’d be best placed to bring a fresh look to it.” Chochinov to advise and inspire.
began his own life as a design professional working on tools of a rather more precise nature, from
“I’m a critic of design,
hypodermic needles to surgical instruments, before moving on to other projects and eventually to
but I’m also its biggest
writing and teaching. “Design education is a real passion of mine,” he says. “I’m a critic of design, but
cheerleader. I really
I’m also its biggest cheerleader. I really believe in its power.”
believe in its power.”
On any
As long-time partner and editor-in-chief of design website Core77, Chochinov is also one of the
best-connected individuals in the field, a standing reflected in the diversity of contributors to the new
mfa Products of Design program. “At sva,” he says, “I’ve tried to create a balance between skill-
given day...
building and education, in part through an amazingly eclectic faculty that includes numerous renegades
and rule-breakers.” Chochinov’s online work has also kept him up-to-date with current debates in the
profession, one that he perceives as being in a state of flux. “Design is changing radically right now,”
he elaborates. “Some of the changes are taking place in the context of process—through things
like business design—others through the status of its participants. Many people who aren’t ‘qualified’
designers are now using the field’s methodologies and languages. And there’s a really interesting overlap
between diy, craft, art and design.”
8am First-year students take an early field trip to the Etsy Headquarters 2pm The first-years are off to Material ConneXion, one of the world’s
But the biggest change of all, argues Chochinov, is in design’s output—the products of design.
in Brooklyn to talk about craft, design and community. Jill Singer and premier materials specialists (and only a few blocks away from SVA!) to
“They’ve exploded to encompass everything from sets of instructions to social interventions,” he says,
Monica Khemsurov of Sight Unseen facilitate the visit and then it’s off to present their first set of home assignments for faculty member Andrew
“from hacking and ‘modding’ to short-run manufacturing and speculative objects. Unfortunately, the nearby Junior’s for their world-famous cheesecake. (Not a usual breakfast, Dent. All of the Material Futures classes take place in MC’s vast library
way we make things now is fundamentally unsustainable, so that has to change too. Everyone likes admittedly, but not to be missed either.) of advanced and sustainable materials.
artifacts, but if we accounted for the true cost of the stuff we like—extraction, manufacture, transport,
material, labor and energy—we’d be horrified. The new program is a safe environment for students to 9am Half of the second-years gather with Bill Moggridge, faculty-at- 5:30pm Logistics discussion around the upcoming Biomimicry
help determine the next stuff, and to do it in a way that’s optimistic, joyful and immersive. Our world large and Director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to Weekend Workshop with Janine Benyus and her team. (The upcoming
has critical problems in terms of health, poverty, gender inequality and the collapse of natural systems, review the progress they’ve been making in integrating their thesis topics spring semester’s 3 day / 72-hour workshop with Emily Pilloton and
but designers are well placed to address these issues by acting as connective tissue, negotiating between with the broader world of design. The other half meet with faculty-at-large Matt Miller of Project H promises to be a huge success.)
the various stakeholders.” William Drenttel of Winterhouse, who helps them brainstorm opportuni-
“Ezio Manzini argues that you can’t give people the same and less, you have to give them different and ties around social impact and sustainable practices. 6:30pm Faculty member Emilie Baltz brings in molecular gastrono-
mist Mihir Desai to talk shop with the food co-op, a dinner collaborative
better,” Chochinov concludes, “and I think he’s right. Simply decreasing our consumption of the same
11am After a provocative discussion around the “future of making,” the of several Products of Design students who provide meals for each other
things isn’t going to get us out of the mess we’re in. We need to create systems, services and artifacts that
first-years head back to work on their projects for the Making Studio class once a week.
are sustainable yet gratifying. It’s hard to get rid of things, so we need to recontextualize them. And it
taught by Becky Stern, associate editor of Make Magazine. Some work
all starts with human behavior.”
at their own studio workstations, others move to the Visible Futures Lab, 7:30pm Lecture by Aimee Mullins, athlete, model and advocate.
a state-of-the-art making and experimental space, adjacent to the studio. Aimee will discuss the state of prosthetics design and the limiting role of
Arduino circuit boards, hybridized craft objects, and “smart softgoods” economics in the domain. In two weeks, Valerie Casey, founder of the
emerge from soldering irons and sewing machines. Designers Accord will be in town to run an evening workshop on
In the Lab’s Rapid Prototyping Room, 3D models are being digitally sustainability and business viability, and students can discuss their
printed as accessories for Antenna Design’s Interaction/Intervention questions around funding and sustainable models.
class—a five-week immersion into creating design for social spaces taught
by Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa. 9pm Following Aimee’s talk and reception hour, several students take
her out to a nearby café and invite her to help them pitch an industry-
12pm Lunchtime microclass on intellectual property. Necessitated by the sponsored project around access and body image. Perhaps advisor
surge of Kickstarter-based design projects and Instructables tutorials, Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Faire, could be in the mix. They’ll
Katy Frankel, lawyer and alum of Creative Commons conducts a schedule a call for tomorrow.
crash-course session. (Katy later posts her notes on the department wiki.)
Allan Chochinov, chair Curator: “Simplicissimus, Germany’s Most Influential Satire Publications include: So Good, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Brian Chui
Partner, Core77 Magazine,” Goethe House; “Political Art, Ten Years of Graphic The New York Times Magazine, Create, Apicius, Traditional Designer
Education: BA, University of Toronto; MID, Pratt Institute Commentary,” AIGA; “L’Assiette au Beurre,” French Institute; Home, Jack. New York Restaurants, Time Out New York, Oxford Education: BID, Pratt Institute
Professional experience: Editor-in-chief, Core77.com, Coroflot. “Typographic Treasures, The Work of W.A. Dwiggins,” ITC Center University Press, Wired, American Theatre, London Financial Times Professional experience: Industrial designer,
com, DesignDirectory.com; design consultant, Herman Miller, Olive Awards include: Special Educators Award, Art Directors Club; One-person exhibitions include : Florian Papp, Inc. Smart Design New York
1:1, Crunch Fitness, Pentagram; designer, Tanaka Kapec Design AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement; National Endowment for the Group exhibitions include: 3rd Ward; Max Lang; Israeli Design Publications include: The New York Times, designboom
Group; designer, Louis Nelson Associates. Board member: Designers Arts; Society of Illustrators; Outstanding Client Award, Graphic Artist Center; Angel Orensanz Foundation, Inc.; Salone Satellite One-person exhibitions include : NYCoo Gallery, ChopsticksNY,
Accord, Design Ignites Change, DesigNYC Guild; Richard Gangel Award for Art Direction; Hershel Levit Award, Awards and honors include: Central Park Conservancy Food Cut&Paste International Design Tournament
Clients include: Autodesk, Adobe, Alias, I.D., Print, HOW, PSFK, Pratt Institute; Masters Series Award, School of Visual Arts Service Design; GreensCart; American Design Club Group exhibitions include : International Contemporary
Design Observer, Industrial Designers Society of America, AIGA, website: www.emiliebaltz.com Furniture Fair; Motorola Club 903, Hong Kong; Cooper-Hewitt
Interaction Design Association, Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Marc Alt National Design Museum: ICFF; Brooklyn Design
DuPont, Nidecker, Autism Speaks, GE Plastics, Dessault Systems, Founder, publisher, Open Source Cities Ayse Birsel Patents: USD583,602S; USD583,616S; USD582,195S;
Karim Rashid Studio, Metropolis, Art Directors Club, Scholastic, Education: New York University Founder, co-principal, Birsel + Seck USD582,196S; USD589,291S; USD537,004S; USD529,404S
BMW North America/MINI USA, Lippincott, Neenah Paper, Green Professional experience: Founder, publisher, Open Source Cities; Education: BID, Middle Eastern Technical University, Class Awards and honors include: GOOD Design Award; Industrial
Electronics Council, Consumer Electronics Association of America, executive director, Green Parking Council; president, Marc Alt + Valedictorian; MID, Pratt Institute Designers Society of America Merit Award
OgilvyEarth Partners; co-chair, founder, partner, Greener Gadgets Conference; co- Professional experience: Founder, principal, Olive 1:1; founder,
Publications include: Core77; The New York Times; The New York founder, co-chairman, AIGA Center for Sustainable Design; Advisory principal, Birsel Design Ltd. Michael Chung
Times Magazine; Design Observer; Design Revolution; Voice: AIGA Board, Designers Accord, Opportunity Green, Design Ignites Change Clients include: Herman Miller, Knoll, Hewlett-Packard, Designer, photographer, filmmaker
Journal of Design; Print; Wired; TreeHugger; Adobe Inspire; Design Clients include: BMW North America/MINI USA, Lippincott, OfficeMax, Target, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Museum of Education: BS, San Jose State University
Glut; See magazine; Before & After series; Design Disasters: Great Neenah Paper, Green Electronics Council, Consumer Electronics Modern Art, Renault, Toto, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor, Hasbro, Professional experience: Content guide, project lead, IDEO
Designers, Fabulous Failure, and Lessons Learned; I Love Design Association of America, OgilvyEarth International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., HBF, Acme, Merati Clients include: Johnson & Johnson, Chase, Eileen Fisher, Intel,
Awards and honors include: I.D., Communication Arts, Publications include: Open Source Cities One-person exhibitions include : Resolve Office System Launch, HP, Zyliss, Handspring, Motorola, Samsung
Art Directors Club, The One Club Awards and honors include: Art Directors Club Herman Miller Showroom; NeoCon Publications include: I Miss My Pencil, Photography Served,
Patents: D 338,002; D 324,721; 5,069,782; 5,016,303; 5,400,572; website: www.marcalt.com Group exhibitions include : Moroso M’Afrique; Museum of clickblog.it, photodonuts.com, dabomba.net
5,588,745 Modern Art; Design Trust for Public Space; New York Autoshow; Awards and honors include: Industrial Designers Society of
websites: www.core77.com, www.coroflot.com, Paola Antonelli P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Café; International Contemporary America, I.D., iF Award, Red Dot, INDEX, One Life International
www.designdirectory.com Senior curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Furniture Fair; Milan Furniture Fair; Pratt Institute Photos Project
Museum of Modern Art Publications include: Huffington Post, I.D., Metropolis, website: http://cinematic-reality.com
Steven Heller, program co-founder Education: Laurea di Dottore, Polytechnico Di Milano Interiors, Intramuros
Co-chair, MFA Design Department, School of Visual Arts; special Professional experience: Editor, Abitare; contributing editor, Collections include: Museum of Modern Art; Cooper-Hewitt, Andrew H. Dent
assistant to the president, School of Visual Arts; co-founder, MFA Domus; Harvard Graduate School of Design, visiting professor National Design Museum Vice president, Library and Materials Research, Material ConneXion
Design Criticism Department, School of Visual Arts; editor, Voice: Exhibitions curated include : “Talk to Me,” “Design and the Awards and honors include: Gold Award, IDEA; Gold Award, Education: PhD, Cambridge University
AIGA Online Journal of Graphic Design; contributing editor, Print, Elastic Mind,” “Humble Masterpieces,” “Achille Castiglioni: Design!,” I.D.; Athena Award, Rhode Island School of Design; Best of Show, Professional experience: Rolls Royce PLC; Postdoctoral
Eye, I.D., Baseline; contributing writer, Metropolis, Grafik, Step, “Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands,” “Safe: Design Best of Category Awards, NeoCon; Young Designer Award, Brooklyn research at Cambridge University and at the Center for Thermal Spray
Visuals; columnist, The New York Times Book Review. Formerly, art Takes on Risk,” “Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design,” “Projects Museum; Fulbright Scholar Research, SUNY Stony Brook (research projects include work for the
director, The New York Times Book Review 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer,” “Workspheres,” Museum of Modern Art website: www.birselplusseck.com United States Navy, DARPA, NASA, British Ministry of Defence)
Education: New York University Books include: Objects of Design from the Museum of Modern Clients include: Adidas, BMW, Proctor & Gamble, Whirlpool
Books authored or co-authored: More than 100 books on Art; SAFE: Design Takes On Risk; Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Scott Chapps Publications include: Ultra Materials: How Materials
graphic design, illustration and political art, including The Design Marvels of Design; Design and the Elastic Mind Co-founder, creative director, ChappsMalina Inc. Innovation is Changing the World; Material ConneXion: The
Entrepreneur; Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian Publications include: Harper’s Bazaar, Harvard Design, I.D., Education: BA, high honors, Ravensbourne College of Design and Global Resource of New and Innovative Materials for Architects,
State; Art Direction Explained, At Last!; Design Disasters: Great Metropolis, Nest, Paper, Seed Communication Artists and Designers; bi-weekly “Material Innovation” column for
Designers, Fabulous Failure, and Lessons Learned; Paul Rand; Awards and honors include: Design Mind Award, Cooper- Professional experience: Lead product designer, Arnell Group BusinessWeek
Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design; The Swastika: A Hewitt, National Design Museum; senior fellow, Royal College of Art, Clients include: Panasonic, Samsung, Electrolux, Johnson & website: www.materialconnexion.com
Symbol Beyond Redemption?; The Education of a Graphic Designer; London; honorary doctorate, Kingston University Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, Home Depot, Help Remedies Inc.
Faces on the Edge: Type in the Digital Age; German Modern: Art Publications include: New Design, Simply Packaging, Wallpaper,
Deco Graphic Design; French Modern: Art Deco Graphic Design; Emilie Baltz The New York Times, Monitor, Innovation, IDSA Yearbook of
Graphic Wit: The Art of Humor in Design; Art Against War; The Art Creative director, BALTZ WORKS Industrial Design Excellence, Becoming a Product Designer: A
of Contemporary Caricature; Seymour Chwast: The Left Handed Education: BA, Film Studies, Vassar College; MID, Pratt Institute Guide to Careers in Design
Designer; Innovators of American Illustration; The Graphic Design Professional experience: Manager, visual brand strategy, Awards and honors include: RSA, Industrial Designers Society
Reader; Design Humor; Cuba Style; Citizen Designer; Graphic Style; Aruliden; art director, L Design of America /IDEA, Red Dot, iF Award, MDEA, The Dieline Award,
Typology; The Education of an Art Director; Euro Deco: Graphic Clients include: Limoges Porcelain; Museum of Sex; Marc Ecko GOOD Design, I.D.
Design Between the Wars; Merz to Emigre: Avant-Garde Magazine Enterprises; Umami Food & Art Festival; Central Park Conservancy; Patents: D612268, D611846, D611845, D601353, D600569,
Design of the 20th Century; Becoming a Graphic Designer The Battery Conservancy; Wired; GOOD; Design Workshops at D599216, D598300, D505206, D501558, D492248
Boisbuchet, Vitra Design Museum; Ark Restaurants Corporation; website: www.chappsmalina.com
Picnick; Joovy; Aventino Restaurant
Bill Moggridge Amy Whitaker Deborah Adler Anthony Dunne Field Trips Workshops
Director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Author, creative strategist Deborah Adler Design Dunne + Raby Commonwealth Mariana Amatullo
Education: Central School of Design Education: BA, magna cum laude, Williams College; MBA, Yale
Professional experience: Co-founder, IDEO University; MFA, Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London Yves Behar Robert Fabricant Etsy co-founder/vice president,
Clients include: From Apple to Zyliss Professional experience includes: Project manager, Jenny fuseproject frog design Designmatters
Publications include: Designing Interactions, Designing Media Holzer Studio; special projects coordinator, Solomon R. Guggenheim MakerBot
Awards and honors include: RID (Royal Designer for Industry) Museum; sales and marketing associate, Museum of Modern Art; busi- Janine Benyus Steven Heller Matthew Miller
Lifetime Achievement Award; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Award; ness strategy associate, Tate Modern Biomimicry Institute Program co-founder, RedHook Design District project architect,
Prince Philip Designers Prize Clients include: Locus Analytics; Alamos; Crosstown Arts, Memphis
Tim Brown Author Uhuru Project H Design
websites: http://www.cooperhewitt.org, www.designing-media.com, Presentations include: “What Would Leonardo Do? Visual
www.designinginteractions.com Thinking, Creativity, and Imagination in the Workplace and Everyday IDEO Aimee Mullins Emily Pilloton
Life,” IBM, Armonk, NY; “Business School for Artists: Tools for Social
Valerie Casey Athlete, Model, Advocate Founder, executive director,
John Thackara Practice,” Queens College. Presentations of “Museum Legs” include:
Director, Doors of Perception Authors@Google Program, Mountain View, CA; Warhol Museum, The Designers Accord Fiona Raby Project H Design
Education: BA, with honors, University of Kent; Diploma, Centre for Pittsburgh; Birmingham Museum of Art; Seattle Museum of Art.
Stephen Burks Dunne + Raby
Journalism Studies, Cardiff Books include: Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art;
Professional experience: Director, Netherlands Design Institute; Business School for Artists Readymade Projects Stefan Sagmeister
steering committee, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea; program direc- Publications include: Commercial Appeal, The New York Times
Matali Crasset Sagmeister Inc.
tor, Designs of the Time (DOTT 07); commissione, Cité du Design; Awards and honors include: Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center;
managing director, Design Analysis International (London & Tokyo); Association for Cultural Advancement Through Visual Art; Fine Art Matali Crasset Production Steve Portigal
director of research, Royal College of Art; senior editor, New South Project Grant, Slade School of Fine Art; Olin Fellow in Economics,
Dale Doherty Portigal Consulting
Wales University Press; editor, Design, London; modern culture edi- Yale University
tor, Harper’s Bazaar; design correspondent: The Guardian, The Website: www.museumlegs.com MAKE / Maker Faire Scott Wilson
Spectator; correspondent, contributor, The Late Show (BBC) MNML
Clients include: Hong Kong Design Task Force; Design and
Innovation Research Centre (DIEC); European Union; fellow of The
Young Foundation; UK Parliament Standing Commission on Design;
Asahi Shimbun; European Commission; Schipol Airport; Japan Air
Lines; Architectural Association
Publications include: Clean Growth: From Mindless
Development to Design Mindfulness; wouldn’t it be great if...Designs
of The Time Manual; In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World;
The New Geographies of Learning; Winners! How Europe’s Most
Successful Companies Use Design To Innovate; Lost In Space: A
Traveler’s Tale; Leading Edge; Image and Object: Nouveau Design
de Londres; Design After Modernism; New British Design
Exhibitions include: Saint Étienne International Design Biennale,
Tel: 212.592.2118
France; Dott 07 festival, England; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;
Contact Us
Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Axis Gallery, Tokyo
websites: www.thackara.com, www.doorsofperception.com
E-mail: productsofdesign@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/productsofdesign
department site: productsofdesign.sva.edu
Come to our Departmental Information Session or contact us directly for more information.
Documentary Film XX Trains students to find innovative ways to examine and communicate the core
experiences and events that define us
XX Open to qualified students at any level—no filmmaking background required
www.sva.edu/grad/socialdocumentaryfilm XX A tailored curriculum designed for students to attain artistic and technical
department site: mfasocdoc.sva.edu fluency in documentary filmmaking
“Documania”—that’s how The New York Times recently referred to the stunning proliferation of docu-
mentary film made possible by the signature technologies of our time. In short, it has never been easier
to make a documentary. But producing a film that stands out is another story, another challenge altogeth-
er. As more and more non-fiction films crowd the marketplace—competing for limited resources
and audience share—true fluency with the form increasingly confers a vital edge, an crucial advantage
that makes one film rise above the rest.
Our mfa program in Social Documentary fosters filmmaking that is skillful and sure—not just tech-
nologically, but artistically, socially, and critically as well. With every shot composed, cut made, and
interview question asked, our students learn to make the motivated creative decisions that result in im-
pactful films, ones with the power to truly shift our consciousness and change the way we see our world.
Located in the heart of Manhattan, we are part of the most active, productive documentary film
community in the world. Students work directly with inventive, accomplished nonfiction storytellers
and visual journalists—as faculty, mentors and collaborators. Over the course of the two-year pro-
gram, as “SocDoc” students learn the fundamentals of nonfiction filmmaking in a supportive, inclusive
environment, they are also introduced to the wider industry through internships, film festivals, guest
lectures, closed screenings and a host of other networking events in the City.
When it comes to making their own films, however, our students are in no way confined to New York.
In the past two years, students in the mfa program have produced films in China, Indonesia, Guatemala,
Nigeria and Vietnam. And regardless of their geographic coordinates, they have been able to rely on the
department for equipment and solid advice, both practical and artistic.
Dedicated to instilling the apparatus and ethics of the professional documentarian, our program is
open to qualified students from varying backgrounds—some have prior filmmaking experience, others
do not. Ultimately, we are looking for passionate, insightful individuals who are eager to learn how best
to share the stories they have a compulsion to tell.
No matter the subject matter or style—be it personal, political, comical, revolutionary—social docu-
mentary films increase our awareness of ourselves and the world we inhabit. They are a window into
who we are. As such, they have a unique ability to engage, illuminate and inspire. At sva, we are commit-
ted to realizing that potential.
371
Connect,
Sasha, David and Bao in the
SocDoc’s beautiful 47-seat HD
theater. The theater is exclusively
for the SocDoc department and is
Collaborate,
used for classes, the weekly Process
& Style guest lecture series and
for student screenings. With 24/7
access to the facilities—the SocDoc
Construct
department quickly becomes a
second home to students.
Student Profile:
Sasha Friedlander, David Osit,
and Bao Nguyen
Graduating students Sasha Friedlander, David Osit, and Bao Nguyen took different routes to
sva’s mfa program in Social Documentary Film, but have ended up as enthusiastic collaborators and
firm friends. For Friedlander, it was an undergraduate class in ethnographic film that sparked her interest
in the form: “After that,” she recalls, “I did some small projects on my own and worked in Indonesia for a
while. Then once I decided on further study, I visited sva and it was a done deal.” Nguyen arrived having
worked as a photographer and political activist: “I settled on documentary film because it seemed like a
perfect marriage between my love for images and my passion for social issues. So this program seemed
perfect.” Osit also saw filmmaking as one way to further an existing interest: “After finishing an under-
graduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies, I joined FilmAid International to work with refugee popula-
tions in Africa, and made my first documentary there.”
While filmmaking experience isn’t a prerequisite for the program, the trio emphasizes the benefit of
arriving with a workable idea. Friedlander describes her pet project: “When I was in Indonesia, I’d visited
a volcano in East Java, mainly because it was such a beautiful location. But when I got there I discovered
that it was also the site of an extremely labor-intensive sulfur mine. When I decided to apply to sva,
I knew I wanted to go back there and make a film. It seemed far-fetched, but I launched a Kickstarter
campaign and managed to raise the money.” She smiles at Osit and Nguyen. “But it would still have been
impossible without the help that these two gave me.”
Close and varied collaboration is key to the program’s immediate success. “I don’t think I could have
done anything without support from others in the program,” says Osit. “Just having someone around to
look at your cut every day is phenomenal. You don’t get that if you’re out in the world trying to construct
your own education. You don’t have access to the same community.” The status of course instructors
as active professionals is vital too. “They’re preparing us for the things they deal with every day of their
filmmaking careers,” Osit continues. “They’re all grappling with their own access issues, their own rough
cuts, their own edits as they’re teaching us about those things. So when they learn how to solve a problem,
we learn how to solve it too. We became our professors’ colleagues, not just their students.”
Ultimately, the program presents graduates with a range of career paths. “We’re not pressured into
any particular role,” says Osit. “I discovered that I like doing sound, and that there’s a demand for it.
Bao came here with a love of cinematography and he’s pursued that. And Sasha likes bossing people
around!” He laughs. “And editing, of course, she’s a fantastic editor.” The challenge of the program and
the discipline is, he concludes, to make films that say something about the world we live in. “Movies are
for entertainment, but the best ones leave you with something significant. Documentary is great for that.”
Nguyen, grinning, chips in: “You can’t make this stuff up!”
Maro Chermayeff
Manhattan. The focal point of the department is the state of the art theater
in the center of the space. Additionally there are five editing suites, two
classrooms, an equipment, film and text library, department office and
When Maro Chermayeff talks about how exciting it was to build sva’s powerhouse mfa Social community work space. The following illustrates a day in the life of a MFA
Documentary program, she almost sounds like the coach who got to assemble the first Olympic Dream Social Documentary film student.
Team squad. Actually, that is exactly what she sounds like: “There really hasn’t been a documentary
program in New York of this caliber, so it was really fun to put it together. It’s an amazing program and
it’s here in New York, so you have the ability to have all these top people in the field come here, like
“It’s an amazing
Alex Gibney is going to bring over Client 9, and Marshall Curry is coming. Alan Curtis is coming.
program and it’s
Sam Pollard. We have really incredible faculty and guests, and our own theater to screen student work.
here in New York,
There are only 22 spots, so the relationship between teachers and students is tight. It’s a cohesive think
so you have the
On any
tank, a collaborative work environment—and everyone is making his or her own film. It’s like taking
ability to have all
two years off to think and work and focus on film. And it just works really well.”
these top people in
This program teaches the art form of documentary filmmaking. You can apply with no experience.
the field come here.”
given day...
Entering classes feature mixed ages and experience ranges. The program’s focus is on character-driven
storytelling as a way of exploring resonant, universal subjects. You can learn every technical aspect
of making a documentary. And when you leave, you’re also professionally prepared for lucrative work
in non-fiction- and reality-tv.
Chermayeff has worked with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage as an undergrad, and today
co-runs nyc-based production company Show of Force, which creates documentaries and event
television series for major networks like hbo and pbs. She just wrapped Mann v. Ford, a film about
9am Timothy Doyle, department assistant updates the events calendar 1pm Students have their editing class with editor Ann Collins. Today
the Ramapough Indians in upper Ringwood, New Jersey, who sued Ford Motor Co. for poisoning
for the department with all of the latest lectures, SVA events and New York the lecture covers montage and how it can be used effectively within
their land with toxic sludge from their Mahwah plant. The film, which took five years to finish, follows
film industry gatherings. nonfiction films.
their lawsuit in a dramatic story about poverty and corporate greed.
Maro and the Show of Force team are currently finishing the feature documentary Marina 10am Three to five students arrive for the camera and sound lab held 2pm Maro Chermayeff has a phone conference with guest lecturer
Abramovic: The Artist is Present (hbo) and Maro’s next project is in production, Half the Sky (cpb/ in the conference classroom. The lab is run by our video production Jamie Redford about creating an ongoing alliance and potential
pbs/itvs) is a series based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The manager Joe Neal and will provide students who need additional projects with the SocDoc Department and the Redford Center.
series will premiere as a special presentation on Independent Lens in Fall 2012. This social issue docu- technical assistance with hands-on lessons with the camera, sound
mentary project is a cornerstone of the recently announced itvs Women and Girls Lead campaign and and lighting equipment. 3pm Students attend their directing course in the theater classroom.
aims to illuminate a number of critical human rights issues that face women all over the globe. The Directing I course is taught by award-winning documentarian
“Film isn’t made for an audience of one,” Maro says, as her studio partner Jeff Dupre and filmmaker 10:30am Niki Bhattacharya, director of operations, meets with faculty Deborah Dickson and will cover interviewing skills.
Sam Pollard laugh in the next room. “You may be watching it alone in your living room, but still, millions member Thom Powers to discuss Stranger Than Fiction documentary
series at IFC and the involvement of SocDoc department and students. 4pm Maro Chermayeff has a meeting with faculty member, producer
of people are watching it. That is the goal of film. Film is light, it’s in a room; you’re having an experience.
and editor Sam Pollard and director Spike Lee about the possibility of
You want to translate your ideas in a way that draws in the audience and creates that experience.”
11am Maro Chermayeff, department chair, meets with Sheila Nevins, them hosting a screening of Spike Lee’s and Pollards’ film, 4 Little Girls,
president of Documentary and Family Programming for HBO and in the new SVA Theatre.
Cinemax, to discuss the film that Maro is presently directing for HBO
and the possibility of Sheila and Maro screening the work-in-progress 6pm Students, as well as staff and some faculty, attend the weekly
during a Process and Style event. In the meeting, Maro and Sheila Process and Style lecture series in the auditorium classroom.
also discuss possible opportunities for collaboration between SocDoc This week Alex Gibney will be screening his latest film and will stay
students and HBO Documentary. afterwards to discuss.
noon Students enjoy lunch at the large tables near the kitchenette; Ongoing MFA Students submit thesis proposals and pitch their thesis
they chat about their upcoming shoots and projects. Tack walls assist films to the advisors for approval; an ongoing relationship with top
students with jotting down project ideas as they discuss. festivals (Sundance) and markets are solidified (Sunnyside of the
Doc and Latin Side of the Doc, both under the directorship of guest
lecturer Yves Janneau); students submit projects to various festivals.
Thesis: Editing Visionary Journalism: Introduction Maro Chermayeff, chair Ann Collins
On average, in documentary films there is a ratio of 10 hours of foot- The field of social documentary is as much about journalism as it Partner, co-president, Show of Force Film editor
age shot for every minute in the final film. This course will address is about filmmaking; therefore, it is paramount that the journalistic EDUCATION: BA, University of Colorado, Boulder EDUCATION: BFA, New York University
the challenge of managing the sheer bulk of media that will have been process be comprehensively examined. From finding and research- PROJECTS INCLUDE: Executive producer, co-creator, director, Carrier; FILM AND TELEVISION PROJECTS INCLUDE: The Heart of the Matter,
amassed for the thesis film. While shooting may continue throughout ing a story to writing a treatment and a shooting script, learning and producer, director, writer, Julliard, Role Reversal; producer, director, Belly Talkers, The Charcoal People, Sound and Fury, Porgy and
much of this period, students will be required to block out the basic adhering to established journalistic ethics is of primary importance. Frontier House, The Kindness of Strangers, Nashville, Crossing the Bess: An American Voice, Frontline: Merchants of Cool.
sequence from what has already been filmed, and hew the narrative This course will engender a full understanding of the ethical standards Line; producer, Another Day in Paradise, Brain Fingerprinting SCREENINGS INCLUDE: Sundance Film Festival, Human Rights
together into a rough cut. The goal is to bring projects into readiness inherent in print and broadcast journalism, and non-fiction writing as AUTHOR: Julliard Watch Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival,
for fine-tuning and finishing in the spring semester. they relate to social documentary. Working within these strictures, we AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Ciné Golden Eagle; Sundance Film San Francisco Film Festival.
will approach how to successfully tell a story—from origin of concept Festival; Chicago Film Festival; Buenos Aires Film Festival; Emmy AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Freedom of Expression Award
Thesis: Editing lab to finished project. Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Golden Spire Award San Francisco
This course will encompass all of the finishing touches for the thesis Film Festival.
film projects, including opening titles, closing credits, sound editing Visionary Journalism: Script, Text and Treatment I & II Axel Baumann
and mixing, visual effects, color correction and film scoring. A pro- Building upon the journalistic industry standards examined in Director of photography Maryann De Leo
fessional editor, under whose guidance students will strengthen their Visionary Journalism: Introduction, these courses take students into education: BA, Union College Producer, director, writer
editorial acumen while completing their thesis films, will supervise the the practical experience of creating the written body of work for their FILM PROJECTS INCLUDE: Leftovers, Is That All There Is, Creation, education: BA, SUNY Old Westbury
editing lab. thesis films. Topics will include the creation of a nonfiction project Sunday Morning FILM PROJECTS INCLUDE: White Horse, Chernobyl Heart,
proposal, a written proposal for funding or professional interest in the TELEVISION PROJECTS INCLUDE: CSI, Cold Case, Hudson’s Law, TELEVISION PROJECTS INCLUDE: Too Hot Not to Handle; Terror at
Thesis: Producing film and a project treatment that outlines the work. Each student will The Last 24 hours of Marilyn Monroe, Hugh P. Newton Show Home: Domestic Violence in America; High on Crack Street: Lost
In this course, students will don the mantle of a film producer—coor- also complete an initial thesis script, which can be an in-depth descrip- DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS INCLUDE: Liberia: An Uncivil War; Lives in Lowell. HBO: One Year in a Life of Crime; A Cinderella
dinating production schedules and book shoots, and navigating the tion of the film as it is envisioned or of material already shot, or a Carrier; Songs Under A Big Sky; Super Casino; Sick Humor; Future Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back; Six Months to Live: Alternative
often turbulent waters of location permits, budgets, expense reconcili- judicious balance of the two. Archival research for documentary film Life; Peter Gabriel/ US Tour; Iconoclast; Mystery Diagnosis; The Medicine and the Fight for Life; Rape: Cries from the Heartland;
ation, crew management, postproduction and film distribution. The and licensing will be addressed Ballad of Greenwich Village; Plato’s Retreat; Racing Dreams Bellevue: Inside Out (for “America Undercover”)
final result will be broadcast-quality documentary thesis films. AWARDS AND HONORS: Emmy Award SCREENINGS INCLUDE: The American Museum of the Moving
Image, Museum of Modern Art, The General Assembly (UN),
Thesis Review and Presentation Joshua Bennett Tokyo Video Festival
During their final semester, students will present their thesis projects Producer AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Academy Award (Best
to a team of faculty advisors for review, advice and critique, and will Education: BA, with honors, Wesleyan University Documentary, Short Subject), Emmy Awards, Alfred I. du Pont
introduce their documentaries to the film community at large. Students Film and television projects include: Circus, Nimrod Nation, Award-Columbia University Award, CableACE Award, Bronze Award
will research, target and submit their thesis to a required number of Carrier, Exiled!, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Seacom, Mann V Ford, (Tokyo Video Festival)
film festivals both domestic and abroad. Generation Earth
Clients include: HBO, MTV, Discovery, A&E, Sundance Channel Deborah Dickson
Thesis: The Pitch Award: George Foster Peabody Award Producer, director
Getting an idea off the ground and maintaining the momentum is EDUCATION: MFA, New York University
often one of the most difficult facets of a production, even for talented Peter Chelkowski PROJECTS INCLUDE: Producer, director: Ruthie and Connie: Every
filmmakers. Yet without the proverbial green light, the most prescient Director, cinematographer Room in the House; producer, director, editor: Frances Steloff:
ideas atrophy by the wayside. Course sessions are designed to address EDUCATION: BA, New York University Memoirs of a Bookseller; director: The Education of Gore Vidal,
one of the most important skills in the filmmaking process—the pitch. FILM PROJECTS INCLUDE: Carnival Roots, Karma Calling, Last The Art of Influence; editor: Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy Of Cotton;
Using their own project ideas, students will articulate their vision Wish, 2% Fact, Half Pint, Upside Down, Hosay Trinidad, Tien Shan Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse; story editor: Going Upriver: The
clearly and concisely and deliver this vision to a panel of film industry Expedition Long War of John Kerry
professionals. Students will answer questions and address comments TELEVISION PROJECTS INCLUDE: De La Culture en Amerique for FILM FESTIVAL SCREENINGS INCLUDE: Munich, Toronto, Miami
posed by the panel. The course objectives are to build confidence in ARTE (French Television) International, Berlin, New York, Venice
the presentation of ideas and master a professional pitch. SCREENINGS INCLUDE: Taos Talking Pictures, American Film AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Gold Hugo; Grand Prize,
Institute, Silverdocs Film Festival, Whitney Biennial, Kunsthalle Amsterdam Film Festival; Best Cinematography, Sundance Film
(Zurich), Ludwig (Cologne) Festival; Best Documentary, Seattle International and Nashville festi-
AWARDS INCLUDE: American Center artist-in-resident Award vals; Emmy Award; Columbia DuPont Award; George Foster Peabody
Award; ACE
Tel: 212.592.2919
Contact Us
Fax: 212.627.2526
E-mail: mfasocdoc@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/socialdocumentaryfilm
department site: mfasocdoc.sva.edu
We strongly encourage applicants to visit our department prior to submitting application materials.
To register for a departmental information session, please visit our website or contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at: gradadmissions@sva.edu.
Tuition Graduate Departmental Fees Miscellaneous fees Design Criticism: Students enrolled in Design Criticism must supply
Art Education (one-year program) Art Criticism and Writing $250 per semester Late registration fee $100 their own Macintosh computer (G4 or better). The computers will be
$16,540 per semester, fall and spring semesters Art Education $250 per semester Late payment after the tuition due date $200 networked through the College in the Design, Design Criticism and
(12 to 15 credits per semester) Art Practice Returned check fee, plus applicable Interaction Design studios. Printers, scanners and all Adobe software
$6,630 summer semester (6 credits) (summer semester only) $500 per summer semester late charges $20 are available in the studio.
Art Therapy $250 per semester Late course adjustment fee $100
Art Education (two-year program) Branding $325 per semester Replacement of lost student Design for Social Innovation: Students enrolled in Design for Social
$1,105 per credit, fall and spring semesters Computer Art $1,200 per semester identification cards $20 Innovation must have their own Macintosh laptop, Intel recom-
(up to 11 credits per semester) Critical Theory and the Arts $250 (estimate) per semester mended. The computers will be networked through the college.
$6,630 summer semester (6 credits) Design $400 per semester Estimated Supplies Printers, scanners and software will be provided in the computer lab,
Design Criticism $250 per semester Art Criticism and Writing $500 but we suggest that students bring their own Adobe software if pos-
Art Criticism and Writing; Art Therapy; Computer Art; Design Design for Social Innovation $400 (estimate) per semester Art Education $1,000 sible
Criticism; Fashion Photography; Fine Arts; Illustration as Visual Essay; Fashion Photography $1,200 per semester Art Practice $1,000
Live Action Short Film; Photography, Video and Related Media Illustration as Visual Essay $500 per semester Art Therapy $1,000 Digital Photography: Students enrolled in Digital Photography must
$16,540 per semester (12 to 15 credits per semester, with the Interaction Design $400 per semester Branding $1,000 own or have access to a desktop workstation with current versions of
exception of Art Criticism and Writing and Design Live Action Short Film $1,000 per semester Computer Art $1,000 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop (preferably Extended),
Criticism majors, who may take up to 16 credits per semester at Photography, Video and Design $5,000 250 GB external hard drive, 13” inkjet printer and professional digital
the base tuition rate) Related Media $1,200 per semester Design Criticism $1,500 camera with off-camera flash. Online students should have access to
Products of Design $550 (estimate) per semester Design for Social Innovation $4,500 studio lighting equipment with three heads and a total of 500 watt/
Art Practice Digital Photography $4,000 seconds.
$1,105 per credit, fall and spring semesters (7.5 credits per semester) Note: Digital Photography, Fine Arts and Social Documentary Film Fashion Photography $4,000
$13,260 per summer semester (12 credits per semester) have no departmental fees. Fine Arts $2,700 Fashion Photography: It is recommended that students enrolled in
Illustration as Visual Essay $2,500 the MPS Fashion Photography program own their own Macintosh
Branding Per-Credit Charge Interaction Design $6,000 computer with the following software programs: Adobe Photoshop,
$17,670 per fall and spring semesters (12 to 15 credits per semester) Students registered for less than 12 credits or more than 15 credits per Live Action Short Film $1,000 InDesign, Dreamweaver and Illustrator. Students must also have an
$7,080 summer semester (6 credits) semester for Graduate Division courses (16 credits for Art Criticism Photography, Video external hard drive no smaller than 250 GB.
and Writing, and Design Criticism majors) will be billed at the rate of and Related Media $4,000
Critical Theory and the Arts $1,105 (estimated) per credit ($1,180 for Branding, Design, Design Products of Design $6,500 Interaction Design: Students enrolled in Interaction Design must supply
$1,105 per credit (estimate) per semester: fall, spring and summer for Social Innovation (estimated), Interaction Design and Products of Social Documentary Film $4,000 their own Macintosh computer (Intel recommended). The computers
(12 credits per semester) Design (estimated); $1,350 for Social Documentary Film). Tuition for will be networked through the College in the studio. Printers, scanners,
more than 15 credits (16 credits for Art Criticism and Writing, and Art Practice: Students enrolled in Art Practice must have access to and Adobe software are available in the studio; however, we recom-
Design, Interaction Design Design Criticism majors) is fully refundable during the drop/add period. a computer operating on either Windows 7 or later, or Mac OS X mend that students using their own laptops bring their own Adobe
$17,670 per semester (12 to 15 credits per semester) After the drop/add periods, refunds for extra credit tuition charges will or later. Supplies and associated expenses will depend on the media software.
be prorated based on the institutional refund policy. employed. Basic studio and lab fees may range between $1,000 and
Design for Social Innovation, Products of Design Note: Graduate students may audit one undergraduate or one continu- $2,000 per summer semester. Other supply-related costs will be deter- Live Action Short Film: Students enrolled in Live Action Short Film
$17,670 per semester (12 to 15 credits per semester) (estimated) ing education course each semester that they are enrolled as matriculated mined on an individual basis. must have a MacBook Pro laptop equipped with Final Draft and Apple
and full-time students. Courses must be audited during a two-year Final Cut Pro, and an external hard drive of 1TB.
Digital Photography period and cannot exceed four courses in total. All applicable course fees Branding: Students enrolled in Branding must have access to their own
$13,260 per semester, fall and spring semesters will be charged. Courses open to auditing are subject to availability. computer, printer, scanner and software. Wireless will be available Photography, Video and Related Media: It is recommended that stu-
(12 credits per semester) within the Branding Studio and students may bring a laptop to class if dents enrolled in Photography, Video and Related Media own or have
$9,945 summer semester (9 credits) Enrollment fee need be. Additionally, there is a computer studio located on the main access to a Macintosh computer (G5 or better) equipped with cur-
Once an offer of admission has been extended, applicants must sub- campus which provides Macintosh computers, scanners and printers. rent imaging software including Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
Social Documentary Film mit a $1,000 nonrefundable enrollment fee to the Office of Graduate Students must have an external hard drive with at least 500 GB.
$20,200 per semester (12 to 15 credits per semester) Admissions in order to secure a space in their intended program of study. Design: Students enrolled in Design must supply their own Macintosh
Enrollment fees will be processed only as space remains available in each computer, OS X 10.5 with a 2GHz or greater processor (Intel). The Products of Design: Students must supply their own computer (laptop
Note: Tuition includes registration, student activities, technology department; $500 of this fee will be applied to the first-year tuition. computers will be networked through the College. Printers and scan- preferred). These computers will be networked through the College
fees; student, accident insurance, locker rental, library and ners are available in the studio. All Adobe software will be provided to in the studio with printers, scanners, and other peripherals available.
buildings and grounds fees. health insurance fee each student. See department website for more details.
$770 per semester (waivable)
Students are automatically enrolled in SVA-sponsored accident and Social Documentary Film: Students enrolled in Social Documentary
sickness insurance and billed the Health Insurance Fee. Students who Film must have a 17” MacBook Pro laptop, with express card reader,
want to remove this charge must have sufficient insurance coverage equipped with Apple Final Cut Pro, a small portable 320GB 7299
and waive the fee online before the applicable deadline. For more RPM hard drive for editing from a laptop, and an external hard drive
information about the insurance, including waiving the fee, go to of 1TB for footage backup.
www.sva.edu/aetna.
The primary function of the Office of Financial Aid is to coordinate Types of Financial Aid Important Information About Federal Student Loans SVA Scholarships and Assistantships
the many sources of aid to meet as much of the student’s financial Additional Sources of Aid for New York State Residents Federally mandated entrance interviews are required for all students After acceptance, scholarships are awarded to qualified new students
need as funding permits. Financial aid packages may consist of grants, Aid, in the form of grants and scholarships, is awarded yearly through receiving a Federal Perkins loan, a Federal Stafford loan or a Graduate to some graduate degree programs. Students may apply for assistant-
scholarships, loans and/or work-study awards. All of these sources of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, Albany, PLUS loan for the first time at SVA. The student must attend an ships once they have entered the program. These awards are based
aid supplement financial resources and assist students in meeting edu- NY 12255, includes Vietnam and Gulf War Veteran Tuition Awards, entrance interview before any loan proceeds may be received. The upon individual merit and past performance and vary by department.
cational costs. The financial aid staff assists students and their families Child of Deceased Correction Officers Awards, Memorial Scholarships entrance interview is an information session explaining the student’s
with the financial aid application and award process, coordinating a for Families of Deceased Police Officers and Firefighters, and Child of rights and responsibilities regarding these loan programs. Group Private Loans
personalized aid plan of grants, scholarships, loans and/or work-study. Deceased or Disabled Veteran awards. Individuals with disabilities may entrance interviews will be conducted during orientation and through- Private loans are available to students through various private agen-
The Office of Financial Aid is open Monday through Thursday, contact the Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals out the academic year. All students must sign a promissory note for cies and/or lenders. SVA recommends that students review borrowing
9:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm; it is located with Disabilities (VESID), NYS Education Department, Albany, NY each year they are receiving a Federal Perkins loan and the first year options through the federal loan programs first, then evaluate the
at 209 East 23rd Street, room 107. Telephone: 212.592.2030; fax 12234. Funds are provided for tuition, fees, etc., as well as for note tak- they are receiving a Federal Stafford loan. Students who indicated on private loan options.
212.592.2029; e-mail: fa@sva.edu. ers and interpreters in the instance of a blind or deaf student. Eligibility their FAFSA that they are interested in student loans will receive a
is determined by VESID. Aid programs for the visually impaired are master promissory note in the mail.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES available through the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Other Disclosures
SVA participates in all forms of federal financial aid and requires Department of Social Services, Albany, NY 12243. State Aid to Federal Work-Study Program Return of Title IV Federal Student Aid Policy
only one form, the 2012–13 Free Application for Federal Student Aid Native Americans may be obtained by contacting the Native American Available to full- and part-time graduate students. Students who are Federal regulations determine the formula for calculating the amount
(FAFSA). The FAFSA should be filed as soon after January 1, 2012 as Education Unit, NYS Education Department, Albany, NY 12234. awarded federal work-study earn salaries at an hourly rate until their of federal aid you may retain when you interrupt your studies.
possible. SVA’s Title IV school code is 007468 (step 6 of the FAFSA). award allocation is exhausted. Currently, graduate students earn Students who withdraw from all classes prior to completing more than
Students may complete the FAFSA online at www.fafsa.ed.gov Federal Self-Help Loans and Work-Study $10 per hour. Federal work-study provides both on- and off-campus 60 percent of an enrollment term will have their eligibility for federal
(remember to electronically sign your application or print, sign and Federal Perkins Loans employment opportunities. Positions are available on a first-come, aid recalculated based on the percentage of the term completed, which
submit the certification page by mail). Available to full- and part-time graduate students. The SVA financial aid first-served basis. shall be calculated based on the number of days completed by the total
committee determines eligibility and loan amounts based on the student’s number of days in the semester.
Note: Only United States citizens and legal permanent residents are financial need and the funding available from the federal government. Important Information About Federal Work-Study The total number of calendar days in a semester excludes scheduled
eligible for federal and state need-based aid. Federally mandated entrance interviews are required for all students breaks of five days or more. Unearned federal aid (the amount that
Federal Stafford Loans (FSL) participating in Federal Work-Study. The student must attend an must be returned to the appropriate program) will be returned in
DETERMINATION OF FINANCIAL AID ELIGIBILITY Available to full- and part-time graduate students. The SVA financial entrance interview and follow up with placement activities. The inter- the following order: Federal Stafford Loans (unsubsidized, then subsi-
Within two weeks of submitting the FAFSA, financial aid applicants aid committee determines eligibility and loan amounts based on the view is an information session explaining student rights and respon- dized), Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Graduate PLUS Loans, Federal
will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) from the federal processor. student’s financial need. The criteria used to determine loan amounts sibilities regarding this program. Group interviews will be conducted Undergraduate PLUS Loans, Federal Pell Grants, and Federal SEOG.
The SAR will report the information from the original application and include financial need and full- or part-time status. during orientation and throughout the academic year.
the resultant Expected Family Contribution (EFC). EFC is determined There are two types of Federal Stafford Loans: subsidized and Note: Students who withdraw are responsible for any balance owed
by the federal government based on family resources and is the mini- unsubsidized. The federal government pays the interest that accrues on SVA Matching Outside Scholarship to the School of Visual Arts as a result of the repayment of federal
mum amount a student’s family is expected to contribute toward his or the subsidized loan while the student is in school. Graduate students Available to full- and part-time graduate students. SVA will match aid funds. If funds are released to the student because of a credit
her education. who are not eligible for a subsidized FSL (based on their financial 25% of any outside scholarship that a student obtains. The total balance on the student’s account, the student may be required to
Financial aid eligibility is based on financial need. This need is calculated need) will be eligible for an unsubsidized FSL. The unsubsidized FSL combined amount of the SVA Matching Scholarship may not exceed repay federal funds.
by subtracting the EFC from the estimated cost of education (also referred requires that the student pay the interest on the loan, which accrues $2,500 for each award year. Students must submit a copy of their out-
to as the student budget). The student budget comprises the yearly cost for throughout the time the student is enrolled in school. Repayment of side scholarship award letter to the Office of Financial Aid for the SVA Satisfactory Academic Progress
tuition and fees, as well as estimates for home maintenance/living expenses, both the subsidized and the unsubsidized FSL begins six months after Matching Scholarship to be awarded and renewed each year. Federal regulations also require SVA to establish a Satisfactory
personal expenses, transportation, books and supplies. the student graduates, withdraws or falls below half-time status. Academic Progress (SAP) policy for students receiving financial aid.
Further, SVA must notify students of the SAP policy and monitor the
Federal Graduate PLUS Loans (GradPLUS) Alternative Financial Options progress of all students receiving financial aid to ensure compliance
A need-based loan opportunity available to graduate or professional Organizational and Corporate Scholarships with the standards. The federal and state standards are available in the
students who do not have an adverse credit history. Graduate students The School of Visual Arts is pleased to direct graduate applicants to Financial Aid Office. It is the responsibility of all students to familiar-
may borrow up to their cost of attendance minus other estimated information about outside scholarship opportunities on the SVA ize themselves with these standards. Failure to meet the satisfactory
financial assistance. website at www.sva.edu. Applicants can access the following scholar- academic progress standards may jeopardize financial aid eligibility.
Students must reapply for the GradPLUS Loan and complete the ship search sites from the financial aid links:
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year. They
must have applied for the annual loan maximum eligibility under the www.fastweb.com
Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loan Program before www.collegenet.com/mach25
applying for a GradPLUS loan. Federally mandated entrance interviews www.collegeboard.com
are required for all students receiving a Federal Graduate PLUS loan. www.finaid.org
Repayment of the GradPLUS loan begins on the final disbursement of www.collegeanswer.com
the loan. Students should complete a GradPLUS Loan Pre-screen form www.brokescholar.com
and submit it by fax to the Office of Financial Aid. The Direct Loan
Servicing Center will notify the student of the credit decision. If the
decision is favorable, the loan will be considered pre-approved and
the Office of Financial Aid will be notified.
Financial Aid 396 397 www.sva.edu
Admission to
the Programs
Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree, or its
equivalent, from an accredited college or university.
Application Requirements Transcripts or SCHOOL RECORDS FROM FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS Letters of Recommendation Interviews
Receipt of the following materials by the Office of Graduate Applicants who have academic documents from institutions outside XX Applicants must submit three letters of recommendation from Departments will contact applicants to schedule in-person or phone
Admissions constitutes a completed application. Please refer to the of the U.S. are required to provide original, attested, or certified instructors or practicing professionals. interviews.
Departmental Requirements section that follows for information on true copies of academic records for all institutions attended beginning X X These letters should be submitted along with all other
individual departmental requirements. with the first year of college. These records should be in the original supplementary application materials. Personal interviews are required for applicants to the following
language issued. X X Recommenders should indicate the applicant’s full name and departments:
Note: Applicants may submit only one active graduate or undergrad- department of interest in the beginning of the letter as well as on X X MFA Art Criticism and Writing
uate program application for admission per academic year. Entry to The School of Visual Arts recommends that international post-sec- the outside of the envelope. Each envelope must be sealed and X X MAT Art Education
the graduate programs takes place in the fall semester only (summer ondary (university level) records be evaluated by one of the following signed by the recommender in order to be considered official. X X MFA Art Practice
only for MFA Art Practice). approved external evaluation agencies: X X The School of Visual Arts does not provide letter of X X MPS Art Therapy
recommendation forms. X X MPS Branding
Application and Fee American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers X X MA Critical Theory and the Arts
All graduate applicants are required to complete the online application (AACRAO) Note: Online submission of letters of recommendation is X X MFA Design Criticism
form and submit the $80 application fee. The application form can be Phone: 202.296.3359 currently under development. For more information, please X X MFA Interaction Design
found through our website at www.sva.edu/apply website: http://www.aacrao.org/international/foreignEdCred.cfm visit www.sva.edu/grad/applicationrequirements. X X MFA Products of Design
Prospective students living outside New York City may request to
Portfolio Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE) English Proficiency waive the in-person interview. In such instances, a telephone or
Please refer to the Portfolio & Departmental Requirements on pages Phone: 414.289.3400 All applicants whose primary language is not English must demon- video (Skype for MFA Art Practice) interview is required.
401–405 for further details. website: http://www.ece.org strate proficiency in written and spoken English. Applicants must sub-
mit one of the following: The following departments may choose to schedule an interview after
Permanent Resident World Education Services (WES) X X Official score report showing a minimum score of 79 (100 for all required application materials have been reviewed:
If you are a permanent resident, you must submit a photocopy of your Phone: 212.966.6311 MFA Art Practice and MA Critical Theory and the Arts) on the X X MFA Design
Permanent Resident Card. website: http://www.wes.org/application Internet-based version (TOEFL ibt) or 213 (250 for MFA Art X X MFA Design for Social Innovation
Practice and MA Critical Theory and the Arts) on the computer- X X MPS Fashion Photography
Official Transcripts XX All transcripts must be converted into U.S. educational equivalencies. based version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language X X MPS Live Action Short Film
Applicants must submit one official transcript from each college or XX Only course-by-course evaluations will be accepted. (TOEFL cbt). For more information on taking the TOEFL, call X X MFA Social Documentary Film
university attended, whether or not it reflects enrollment in a degree XX Request that the School of Visual Arts is listed as the recipient 609.771.7100 or visit www.toefl.com.
program, and all transcripts for credits transferred to degree-granting of the evaluation. X X Official score report showing a minimum score of 6.5 (8.0 for Personal interviews are available but not required for the following
institutions. Transcripts should be sent in their original envelopes (with XX Credit evaluation can take six to eight weeks; please plan accordingly. MFA Art Practice and MA Critical Theory and the Arts) on the department:
the seal unbroken and the registrar’s signature intact to remain offi- XX All original academic records must be submitted in addition International English Language Testing System (IELTS). IELTS is X X MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program
cial) with all other application materials. Individuals who have made a to the evaluation. Note: If the original academic record(s) is not jointly managed by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
name change since attending a college or university should make cer- in English, applicants must also submit an official translation (Cambridge ESOL), British Council and IDP Education Australia: Interviews are not available for the following programs:
tain that the transcript indicates the current name as it appears on the of these documents. IELTS Australia. For information on taking the IELTS, call XX MFA Computer Art
application for admission. XX All documents become the property of the School of Visual Arts 626.564.2954 or visit www.ielts.org. X X MPS Digital Photography
and will not be returned. X X Official score report showing a minimum score of 6 in all X X MPS Digital Photography Online/Summer Residency
categories (9 in all categories for MFA Art Practice and MA X X MFA Fine Arts
For more information about approved transcript evaluation agencies, Critical Theory and the Arts) of the English proficiency exam X X MFA Photography, Video and Related Media
please visit our website at: www.sva.edu/transcriptevaluations from the American Language Institute. For more information
on this test, call 212.998.7040. All applicants are encouraged to visit their prospective department and
Statement of Purpose X X Use CEEB Code 2835 for test score submission to SVA. should refer to the Departmental Visit section on page 407.
A written statement (250–500 words) of the applicant’s intent and rea-
son for pursuing graduate study may be submitted online or via mail. SVA will consider waiving the English proficiency exam requirement
for students who have earned a degree at a regionally accredited U.S.
Résumé college or university. Students seeking this waiver must submit a writ-
Applicants must submit a résumé, which should include professional ten request with their application materials.
experience as well as related activities such as research, awards and
exhibitions. The résumé may be submitted online or via mail. Note: The committee on graduate admissions will determine if
further proof of English language proficiency is required.
Immunization Requirements October 25, 2011 MFA Art Practice MFA Design Criticism MPS Live Action Short Film
After the enrollment fee is paid, applicants will receive a SVA Student MAT Art Education (also November 5, 2011) Tel: 212.592.2781 Tel: 212.592.2228 Tel: 212.592.2705
Health Form. New York State law requires that all students read infor- Fax: 212.592.2116 Fax: 212.243.1019 E-mail: mpsfilm@sva.edu
mation about meningococcal disease (meningitis) and submit a signed October 29, 2011 E-mail: artpractice@sva.edu E-mail: dcrit@sva.edu www.sva.edu/grad/shortfilm
form indicating that either they have had the vaccine or do not wish to MFA Art Practice www.sva.edu/grad/artpractice www.sva.edu/grad/designcriticism http://mpsfilm.sva.edu
have the vaccine. State law also requires that students born after 1957 http://artpractice.sva.edu http://dcrit.sva.edu
must have their health care provider complete the SVA Student Health November 5, 2011 MFA Photography,
Form for proof of immunity to measles, mumps and rubella. The SVA MAT Art Education (also October 25, 2011) MAT Art Education MFA Design for Social Innovation Video and Related Media
Student Health Form must be completed and submitted prior to register- MPS Art Therapy Tel: 212.592.2445 Tel: 212.592.2205 Tel: 212.592.2360
ing for classes. Students who do not submit a completed SVA Student MPS Branding Fax: 646.336.7702 Fax: 212.592.2308 Fax: 212.592.2366
Health Form will not be permitted to register for or to attend classes. MFA Design for Social Innovation E-mail: matarted@sva.edu E-mail: dsiinfo@sva.edu E-mail: mfaphoto@sva.edu
This form can be found online at www.sva.edu/healthform. MPS Digital Photography (on campus program) www.sva.edu/grad/arteducation www.sva.edu/grad/innovation www.sva.edu/grad/photovideo
In the event of an outbreak of measles, mumps or rubella at the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media http://dsi.sva.edu http://mfaphoto.schoolofvisualarts.edu
College, the commissioner of health may order officials at the School MFA Social Documentary Film MPS Art Therapy
of Visual Arts to exclude from attendance all students who lack immu- Tel: 212.592.2610 MPS Digital Photography; MFA Products of Design
nizations owing to medical or religious exemptions. November 12, 2011 Fax: 917.606.0461 MPS Digital Photography Tel: 212.592.2118
MFA Computer Art E-mail: arttherapy@sva.edu Online/Summer Residency E-mail: productsofdesign@sva.edu
GRADUATION VERIFICATION MFA Fine Arts www.sva.edu/grad/arttherapy Tel: 212.592.2170 www.sva.edu/productsofdesign
Students who will be completing undergraduate studies during the MFA Interaction Design Fax: 212.691.2687 http://productsofdesign.sva.edu
2011-12 academic year must confirm their bachelor’s degree by hav- MPS Branding E-mail: mpsphoto@sva.edu
ing an official, final transcript forwarded to the Office of Graduate November 14, 2011 Tel: 212.592.2744 www.sva.edu/grad/digitalphotography MFA Social Documentary Film
Admissions prior to the start of classes. Students are not officially MPS Digital Photography Online/Summer Residency (online session) Fax: 212.592.2116 http://svaonlinedigitalphoto.wordpress.com Tel: 212.592.2919
permitted to matriculate in any of SVA’s masters programs until their E-mail: branding@sva.edu Fax: 212.627.2528
bachelor’s degree is confirmed. For MA Critical Theory and the Arts, MFA Design Criticism, MPS Fashion www.sva.edu/grad/branding MPS Fashion Photography E-mail: mfasocdoc@sva.edu
Photography, MPS Live Action Short Film and MFA Products of Design, http://branding.sva.edu Tel: 212.592.2096 www.sva.edu/grad/socialdocumentaryfilm
please visit their websites for updates. Fax: 212.592.2336 http://mfasocdoc.sva.edu
MFA Computer Art E-mail: mpsfashionphoto@sva.edu
Tel: 212.592.2778 www.sva.edu/grad/fashionphoto
Fax: 212.592.2509
E-mail: mfaca@sva.edu MFA Fine Arts
www.sva.edu/grad/computerart Tel: 212.592.2500
http://mfaca.sva.edu Fax: 212.592.2503
E-mail: mfafinearts@sva.edu
MA Critical Theory and the Arts www.sva.edu/grad/finearts
Tel: 212.592.2098 http://mfafineart.sva.edu
Fax: 212.592.2564
E-mail: theoryarts@sva.edu MFA Illustration as Visual Essay
www.sva.edu/grad/cta Tel: 212.592.2210
http://cta.sva.edu Fax: 212.366.1675
E-mail: mfaillustration@sva.edu
www.sva.edu/grad/illustration
http://mfaillustration.sva.edu
Board of Directors Office of the President Studio and Academic Departments Film, Video and Animation
Milton Glaser, acting chairman Ralph Appelbaum, special assistant to the president Reeves Lehmann, chair
Janet A. Knox John Dye, director of internal audit and control Undergraduate Salvatore Petrosino, director of operations
Michelle Musler Steven Heller, special assistant to the president Advertising and Graphic Design Karla Fisher, assistant to the chair
Joseph F. Patterson Jacqueline “Pif” Hoffner, executive assistant Richard Wilde, chair Mark Ramos, academic advisor, film and video
Anthony P. Rhodes Alberta Irene Kreh, special consultant to the president Kevin O’Callaghan, chair, 3D design Elvera Vilson, academic advisor, film and video
David Rhodes Nicole Marcelino, receptionist Carolyn Hinkson-Jenkins, curriculum coordinator Jennifer Joost, film librarian
Walter Rivera David Rhodes, president Sasha Agarwal, academic advisor Michael DelVecchio, film production manager
Eileen Hedy Schultz Alida Beck LaRocca, academic advisor Luis Negron, repair manager, film and video
Yolanda Powell, academic advisor Michael Westbrook, manager, digital technologies
Office of the Executive Vice President Kristine Wilson, academic advisor Shirli Michalevicz, systems support specialist
Office of the Chairman Anthony P. Rhodes, executive vice president Adria Ingegneri, assistant to the chair, 3D design Tien-Li Wu, senior systems support specialist
Milton Glaser, acting chairman Michelle Mercurio, assistant to the executive vice president Ingrid Li, systems coordinator Michael Capone, systems administrator Final Cut Pro
Carla Tscherny, executive assistant to the acting chairman Toni-Ann Agay, administrative assistant Benita Raphan, projects coordinator Mark Minnig, assistant manager, animation
Ori Kleiner, motion graphics coordinator Sean Ruch, production office evening supervisor
Visual Arts Museum Shaun Killman, studio manager, 3D design Kris Lindenmuth, production office assistant
Francis Di Tommaso, director Arlyn Lebron, assistant to the chair Angel Beltre, film repair assistant
Richard Brooks, assistant director Paula Paylor, receptionist Jane Miller, reservations coordinator
Jessica Hale, administrative manager Gabriela Ilijeska, front window coordinator
Eric Lendl, exhibitions coordinator Art History Zachary Hall, production office evening assistant
Tyson Skross, exhibitions coordinator Tom Huhn, chair John Roemer, production office day technician
Maria Dubon, office coordinator Holly Warren, assistant to the chair
Fine Arts
Visual Arts Press, Ltd. Computer Art, Computer Animation Suzanne Anker, chair
Anthony P. Rhodes, creative director and Visual Effects Jeanne Siegel, chair emeritus
Dee Ito, writer John McIntosh, chair Gary Sherman, assistant to the chair
Michael J. Walsh, art director Kate Schaffer, director of operations Dora Riomayor, academic advisor
Brian E. Smith, associate art director Imara Moore, assistant to the chair Gunars Prande, director of operations, printmaking
Jennifer Liang, assistant director Mahtab Aslani, academic advisor Erik Guzman, sculpture center manager
Abimbola Famuyiwa, senior multimedia/Web designer Jimmy Calhoun, curriculum coordinator Dominick Rapone, printshop manager
Patrick Tobin, senior designer Richard Hagen, senior systems administrator Luis Rodrigo Navarro, systems administrator, sculpture center
Eric Corriel, multimedia designer Darryl Wright, senior systems administrator Joseph Tekippe, systems administrator, digital lab
Sheilah Ledwidge, associate editor Raphael Ribot, systems administrator Sung Jin Choi, senior technical advisor
Thomas Swan III, DV systems administrator Daniel Wapner, sculpture center evening supervisor
Damon Dixon, desktop support specialist Keri Lorenson, studio manger
Sebastian Ebarb, night manager Joseph Pastor, sculpture center weekend manager
Alexandra Bequez, day manager Amanda Turner Pohan, digital lab assistant
Darren Santa Maria, night manager Anne Clark, administrative assistant
Sarah Schuerhoff, secretary
Humanities and Sciences
Maryhelen Hendricks, co-chair
Robert Milgrom, co-chair
Laurie Johenning, assistant to the co-chairs
Neil Friedland, coordinator, writing services
Helene Rubinstein, coordinator, English as a
Second Language program
Louis Phillips, editor, Words
Susan Kim, administrative assistant
William Fuentes, lab coordinator, writing resource center
Meredith Fernandez, office coordinator, writing resource center
ELEVENTH AVE.
MADISON SQ GARDEN/ W 33 ST. E 33 ST.
TWELFTH AVE.
Radio Station, WSVA, 7th floor Computer Art (MFA), 10th floor PENN STATION
W 32 ST. E 32 ST.
Student Lounge, 7th floor Coordinator of Academic Advisement,
BR
209 East 23 Street
OA
W 31 ST. E 31 ST.
LEXINGTON AVE.
Admissions, 1st floor 7th floor
MADISON AVE.
DW
SEVENTH AVE.
Advertising and Graphic Design (BFA), 23 Lexington Avenue Critical Theory and the Arts (MA), 6th floor W 30 ST. E 30 ST.
EIGHTH AVE.
AY
SIXTH AVE.
FIFTH AVE.
PARK AVE.
2nd floor George Washington Residence Environmental Health and Safety, W 29 ST. E 29 ST.
SECOND AVE.
TENTH AVE.
Continuing Education, 1st floor Health Services, mezzanine 12th floor W 28 ST. E 28 ST.
NINTH AVE.
THIRD AVE.
FIRST AVE.
Digital Imaging Center, 5th floor International Student Office, mezzanine Fine Arts (MFA), 8th, 9th floors W 27 ST. E 27 ST.
16
Executive Vice President, 1st floor International Students Program, mezzanine Institutional Research, 6th floor SHUTTLE BUS ROUTE W 26 ST. E 26 ST.
Facilities Management, lower level Residence Life, mezzanine Interior Design (BFA), 11th floor W 25 ST. MADISON E 25 ST.
Film, Video and Animation (BFA), Student Affairs, mezzanine Model Registrar, 1st floor SQ PARK
W 24 ST. 9 1, 2 E 24 ST.
5th floor Technical Support Services, solarium south Printmaking Studios, 5th floor 14
W 23 ST. 3 E 23 ST.
Financial Aid, 1st floor Provost, 5th floor
Illustration and Cartooning (BFA), 17 Gramercy Park South Student Lounge, lower level 11 W 22 ST. GRAMERCY PARK 4, 5
12, 13 W 21 ST. 6 E 21 ST.
2nd floor Gramercy Women’s Residence Visual and Critical Studies (BFA), 5th floor
Mail Processing Center, lower level Westside Gallery, 1st floor W 20 ST. 10 E 20 ST.
Management Information Technologies, 132 West 21 Street Writing Resource Center, lower level W 19 ST. E 19 ST.
LAFAYETTE ST.
E 5 ST.
Office of the Chairman of the Board, Design for Social Innovation (MFA), 4th floor 101 East 10 Street 5 310 East 22 Street WASHINGTON SQUARE
E 4 ST.
6th floor Development, 2nd floor Tenth Street Residence
B OW
Visual Arts Press, Ltd., 3rd floor External Relations, 6th floor 6 214 East 21 Street E 3 ST.
ERY
Illustration as Visual Essay (MFA), 12th floor 101 Ludlow Street E 2 ST.
7 101 East 10 Street
380 Second Avenue Social Documentary Film (MFA), 1st floor Ludlow Residence E 1 ST.
ST.
Animation Studios (BFA), 5th floor 8 101 Ludlow Street .
HOUSTON ST
.
ALLEN ST
LUDLOW
Audiovisual Equipment, 8th floor
Finance, 8th floor 9 23 Lexington Avenue
Human Resources, 8th floor 10 17 Gramercy Park South
Humanities and Sciences, 8th floor 8 URG
WILLIAMSB
Library, 2nd floor 11 133/141 West 21 Street BRIDGE
ST.
D ELANCEY
Resource Management, 8th floor
12 136 West 21 Street