First-year students will conduct research and fieldwork to develop resource archives for their second-year Independent Thesis Projects. Exploring opportunities to partner with arts, education, and civic organizations, they will consider a variety of urban, institutional, and virtual contexts. Using their resource archives, students will begin drafting their Thesis Research Papers, which they will complete by the end of Thesis II. By this semester’s end, each student will present their research findings, and demonstrate how their proposed projects will connect with the identities, interests, and priorities of the communities or institutions in which they are sited.

Part one of a yearlong studio experience where first-year CPMFA students collectively propose an outward-facing exhibition or curatorial project to be implemented by the following semester in Practicum II. Students will explore models of curatorial work and research artists, venues, and community partners as they engage in a cooperative system of decision-making and planning. As part of their proposal work, students will begin to seek out partners, conduct studio visits, develop public programs, and consider their project’s anticipated audiences.

In their second semester of CP Thesis, first-year students will finalize their Thesis Research Papers and be prepared to publish their work. Students will also create detailed proposals for their second-year Independent Thesis Projects, which will include an overview of their argument, audience, and checklist—and detail their strategies for fundraising, budgeting, and marketing. These proposals will be used to reach out to potential venues and partners, in and outside of Baltimore, and to document the evolution of each student’s project throughout their time at MICA.

Continuing the work begun in Practicum I, students will transform their working proposal into a real-world interdisciplinary project launched in partnership with cultural producers, community stakeholders, and neighborhood organizations. The public components of their project will be programmed, presented, and documented throughout the semester. Students will synthesize exhibition-making and audience engagement processes into a cultural output that embraces public narratives and societal concerns.

Students will be introduced to a triad of cultural producers working in interdisciplinary contexts within and across cultures. A series of case studies and special guests will analyze the politics and ethics of intercultural practices and how they can engage, alter perception, and energize communities. The course will examine the tools that cultural producers, organizers, and activists are using to empower and assert new narratives.

An introduction to the interdisciplinary curatorial field, this course provides an overview to the range of strategies that curators employ, both locally and globally, to sustain committed practices centered on community-building, experimentation, and social impact. Workshops and talks with visiting guests expand theoretical inquiry and discourse alongside readings and student-led presentations.

This Seminar course immerses first and second year students in select, salient debates impacting the direction and parameters of contemporary curating today. Seminar topics include curatorial theory, arts writing, public engagement, and institutional ethics, to name a few, and rotate each academic year. Students also generate possibilities ?for ?and ?within ?the practice of curating by collectively organizing short-run exhibitions, publishing projects, and public programs. Periodic field trips across the Northeast cultural corridor give students critical and professional practice contexts to analyze the impact that curating can have on artists, institutions, and audiences.

This special topics course, selected by the second-year cohort, closely examines a specific medium, movement, or cultural phenomenon and its relation to curatorial practice. Workshops and lectures by visiting guests offer critical and theoretical frameworks in conjunction with paired readings and student-led presentations.

This seminar course immerses first and second year students in select, salient debates impacting the direction and parameters of contemporary curating today. Seminar topics include curatorial theory, arts writing, public engagement, and institutional ethics, to name a few, and rotate each academic year. Students also generate possibilities ?for ?and ?within ?the practice of curating by collectively organizing short-run exhibitions, publishing projects, and public programs. Periodic field trips across the Northeast cultural corridor give students critical and professional practice contexts to analyze the impact that curating can have on artists, institutions, and audiences.

In their second year of CP Thesis, students will begin planning and promoting their individual Thesis Projects. Students will continue to develop their budgets and formalize partnerships with artists, stakeholders, and consultants. Throughout the semester, students will share their progress and strategize with visiting Thesis Advisors, individual Mentors, and Graduate Review Committee.

In this course, CP students will launch their individual Thesis Projects, implementing their plans for programming and fulfilling their commitments to community partners. Projects will be evaluated by the program director and Graduate Review Committee for their inclusivity, aesthetic perspectives, and critical rigor. By semester’s end, students will be prepared to submit their Graduate Thesis Portfolios, documenting the entire arc of their project.