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Transart MFA & PhD: Call for Applications

International Low-Residency MFA & PhD Studies
Rolling admission until June 1st, 2011

TRANSART INSTITUTE seeks to attract independent, inquisitive and imaginative
artists to fill the remaining spaces on its low-residency MFA program. In a
uniquely international setting, Transart offers an accredited two year
course for working artists, teachers and all professionals in related fields
who are seeking advancement in visual arts and new media. The program
consists of three intensive summer residencies in Europe filled with
lectures, workshops, critiques, seminars, performances and exhibitions and
two shorter winter residencies in New York City. In the four semesters
between residencies, students create an individual course of study realizing
art and research projects with the support of faculty and self-chosen studio
advisors wherever they work and live.

THE MFA PROGRAM is geared towards the development of a sustainable artistic
praxis rather than training in certain media or genres, challenging students
to think conceptually and work creatively in new ways. Current students work
with animation, curating, digital media, film, gaming, graphic design,
installation, painting, performance, photography, robotics, sculpture,
sound, text, video, virtual reality.

PRACTICE-BASED PHD STUDIES will begin this summer. A masters degree in art,
design or realted fields is generally considered a requirement for
acceptance. Transart is particularly keen on encouraging proposals from the
areas of documentary art making, language/image, software studies and
network culture. The proposal should demonstrate systematic study,
independence, critical competence and originality. It should include a
record of the ‘practice’ element and also serve to contextualize the
practice intellectually while clearly demonstrating its contribution to
knowledge. To be added to the PhD newsletter mailing list please contact
cella@transartinstitute.org

SUMMER RESIDENCIES are both milestones and resources, taking place at the
beginning middle and end of the two year program. Residencies open with a
thesis exhibition, performances and a public vernissage. Weeks one and three
consist of studio workshops, week two focuses on cultural studies seminars,
Fridays center on student presentations. In addition, guest lectures, artist
and curator talks and critiques as well as individual meetings with faculty
take place each week in order for students to plan, inform and finalize the
coming year’s project. Further details online.

IN WINTER RESIDENCIES the focus is on presentations, critiques, feedback and
the sharing of resources mid-way through studio and research projects.
Students have the opportunity to experiment with presentation forms order to
explore exhibition, performance and documentation possibilities in
anticipation of the summer thesis exhibition. Guest artist talks, screenings
and practical topical workshops complete the residency. This winter’s
schedule can be found in the calendar.

TRANSART FACULTY comes from a wide range of academic and artistic
backgrounds as well as geographic locations. Current theoretical areas of
expertise include software art, curatorial work, cyberfeminism, African
diaspora, interface technologies, digital arts, continental philosophy,
media, social studies in colonialism, capitalism and tourism, word and image
relationships, and contemporary asian art history. Studio faculty include
international artists working with sound, performance, dance and
choreography, photography, drawing, sculpture, film and video, intervention
and installation art. Details online.

THE MAJORITY OF TRANSART STUDENTS are emerging and mid-career artists and
educators at tertiary institutions. Transart Institute’s residencies are a
meeting place for cultural exchange. Transart students and alumni will
converge for the summer residency from areas as diverse as Italy, Egypt,
Pakistan, Iceland, Croatia, Ethiopia, Canada, Costa Rica, the UK and the US.

For many students the time at Transart is a transformational experience. New
York based artist Virgil Wong found “The community I’ve become a part of
through Transart is already much more immersive than what I’ve developed in
ten years of living and working as an artist in New York City”. Photographer
and performer Angelika Rinnhofer found that “to work independently can pose
a challenge but it also offers freedom and flexibility. Since a large number
of students are accomplished artists and earn a living, Transart’s concept
is ideal to work toward a degree and to expand one’s artistic career in
addition to having a job.” For composer and artist David Dunn “perhaps the
most important aspect of the program, to me personally, has been the
realization of just how constrained my professional life can be. I have no
lack of colleagues or opportunities to present my work but my network of
association tends to reinforce a particular set of intellectual and
aesthetic assumptions that become ‘the’ set of assumptions. Transart
succeeds at prying apart some of those entrenched viewpoints to provide
space for new ideas and concerns. The truly international makeup of the
students and faculty reinforces this.” More details online.

APPLICATION DEADLINE is June 1st, 2011 with rolling admissions (pending
availability of places and/or scholarships). Applications can be submitted
online.

TUITION is $9.760 per semester. Some partial scholarships (typically 10-25%)
are available and will be awarded with acceptance into the program. Transart
Developing Country Scholarships of 50% are given to residents/citizens of
countries on the List of Developing Countries as published by the Australian
Government.

For further information please contact Selina Heaton:
info@transartinstitute.org

Cella, MFA,
Klaus Knoll, PhD
Directors, Transart Institute

www.transartinstitute.org

Phone: (347) 410 9905, Fax: (508) 682 2853

from Franklin Furnace