MACA is a 39-credit program spanning two summers and one academic year. Administered through MICA's nationally recognized Center for Art Education, the MACA program integrates intensive classroom experiences and coursework with extensive field experience. Most fieldwork is conducted in the Baltimore area. Students complete 9 credits in the first summer, 10.5 credits each semester during the academic year, and 9 credits in the final summer.
Grounded in the principles of social justice, the MA in community arts features intensive, ongoing work with children, youth, and adults in community settings.
Students are encouraged to develop their own voice as they simultaneously investigate the relationship of the citizen artist and art to community building. This is accomplished through dialogue with community members, leaders in government and nonprofit organizations, and professional community artists along with the integration of individual production and theory. Real-world experiences are supported by classroom study of community arts theory and practice and work in the studio. These investigations prepare students to develop proposals for and implement their own community arts projects.
During the academic year, students are placed as resident artists with community organizations, where they work with community leaders to conceive, implement, and manage projects and programs that engage children, youth, and adults in meaningful art experiences; design and implement projects and events that support community initiatives; document and assess the effectiveness of their projects in meeting community interests; gain hands-on experience in fundraising and curriculum planning; and determine their uniqueness as public/community artmakers.
The program begins with an introduction to the role the visual arts can play in helping a community articulate its identity and the role community voices can play in inspiring artistic expression. Seminars prepare students to design visual art projects for children and youth that will be implemented through community organizations in a selected Baltimore community. Arts programming will provide grounding for the next level of challenge and opportunity: an 11 month-long residency in a community organization. In the first summer, students examine their appropriate role as artists from outside the community who are seeking to work collaboratively in community settings.
MACA students do not attend classes or work on-site in the community during August. Although students have the option of leaving town for the month, they are expected to complete a significant amount of work during this time.
MICA News
-
Best Graduate Schools Ranking
U.S. News & World Report Ranks MICA's Master of Fine Arts Programs Among Top Four in Nation
Maryland Institute College of Art's (MICA) Master of Fine Arts programs were ranked among the top four in the nation, with those of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Yale University, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, by U.S. News & World Report, in its “Best Graduate Schools” edition released on March 26, 2008. This ranking was based “solely on the results of a peer assessment survey of art school deans [asked to] rate the academic quality of programs,” at 220 colleges and universities, according to the magazine.
Maps & Directions