02 Nov 2011

Tranasart Institute: Call for Applications - MFA Creative Practice

TRANSART INSTITUTE seeks independent, inquisitive and imaginative artists for 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 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, choreography, curating, digital media, drawing, film, graphic design, installation, intervention, music, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, software, sound, text art, video and writing. More details online: www.transartinstitute.org/Program_MFA.html

SCHOLARSHIPS of up to 25% (50% for residents and citizens of developing countriesup ) are available and will be awarded with acceptance into the program at the early application deadline.

TRANSART FACULTY comes from a wide range of academic and artistic backgrounds as well as geographic locations. Current theoretical areas of expertise include 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: www.transartinstitute.org/Members.html

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: www.transartinstitute.org/Profiles.html

EARLY APPLICATION DEADLINE is December 1st, 2011. Applications can be submitted online: www.transartinstitute.org/Application_MFA.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION please contact program leader Klaus Knoll: knoll@transart.org