Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Massachusetts College of Art and Design
MassArt, May 2009
Established	1873
Type	Public
Endowment	US$ 17 Million[1]
President	Kay Sloan
Academic staff	258[2]
Students	1,863[3]
Undergraduates	1,688[4]
Postgraduates	175[5]
Location	Boston, Massachusetts,  United States
Campus	Urban
Nickname	MassArt
Affiliations	Colleges of the Fenway
Website	www.massart.edu

Massachusetts College of Art and Design (also known as MassArt) is a publicly-funded college of visual and applied art, founded in 1873. It is one of the oldest art schools, the only publicly-funded free-standing art school in the United States, and was the first art college in the United States to grant an artistic degree. The college is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. MassArt is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design and the Colleges of the Fenway, a collegiate consortium in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area.

History

In the 1860s, civic and business leaders whose families had made fortunes in the China Trade, textile manufacture, railroads and retailing, sought to influence the long-term development of Massachusetts. To stimulate learning in technology and fine art, they persuaded the state legislature to found several institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1860) and the Museum of Fine Arts (1870). The third of these, founded in 1873 was the Massachusetts Normal Art School.

Academics

Massachusetts College of Art and Design is ranked among the top art colleges in the country. Businessweek recognized MassArt as one of the top global design schools and US News & World Report ranks MassArt’s MFA Program #1 in Massachusetts. Admission to The Graduate Programs is highly selective, ranking among the top three graduate programs in art and design in the country, as reported by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD).

Massachusetts College of Art and Design offers a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts, a Master of Science in Art Education, a Master of Fine Arts, a Master of Architecture (Track I & Track II - First and Post-professional), and in 2007 received Candidacy Status^{[clarification needed]} for a Master of Architecture. It also offers a number of pre-college (both credit and non-credit) programs for high school students. Students at MassArt have the option of majoring in Fine Arts (2D), Fine Arts (3D), Communication Design, Environmental Design, Media and Performing Arts, and Art Education. Within those majors they can choose to focus on disciplines such as Industrial Design, Art History, Fashion Design, Architectural Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Animation, Painting, Printmaking, Ceramics, Glass, Sculpture, Fibers, Metals, Photography, Film/Video, and in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM). MassArt's curriculum includes a foundation year, which provides compulsory exposure to the basics of 2D and 3D art and design, and requires an elective studio and multiple Critical Studies courses.

Timeline

1869: Fourteen prominent citizens petition the Massachusetts Legislature to provide drawing instruction "to all men, women, and children" 1870: Legislation is enacted to make drawing a required subject in Massachusetts public schools 1873: The Legislation appropriates $7,500 to establish the Massachusetts Normal Art School 1876: Student work exhibited at the U.S. Centennial Exposition is acclaimed by delegations from France, Austria, and Canada 1880: MassArt relocates to the historic Deacon House and begins offering post-graduate education 1886: The new Massachusetts Normal Art School building is constructed at the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets 1901: The first person of color graduates from MassArt 1905: Alumnus and faculty member Albert Munsell develops what has become the world's leading color system 1912: Courses are added in psychology, literature, and education theory 1924: MassArt becomes the first art school in the country to grant a degree, the Bachelor of Science in art education 1929: MassArt is renamed Massachusetts School of Art 1930: Massachusetts School of Art moves to its new building at the corner of Brookline and Longwood Avenues 1940: Faculty Member Cyrus Dallin's sculpture, Paul Revere, is installed in Boston's North End

1950: MassArt grants its first Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in design and fine arts 1957: The first African American is appointed to the faculty: alumnus Calvin Burnett ('42) 1959: MassArt is renamed Massachusetts College of Art 1969: Courses in environmental design are added to the curriculum 1972: The Master of Science degree is awarded in art education 1975: The Master of Fine Arts degree is awarded in two- and three-dimensional fine arts 1981: The Master of Fine Arts degree is awarded in design 1983: MassArt begins to occupy and renovate the eight-building campus at the corner of Huntington and Longwood Avenues 1989: The college opens its first dormitory, christened Walter Smith Hall after MassArt's founding principal 1992: The college completes a $14,700,000 project refurbishing the Huntington Avenue campus 1997: Dr. Katherine H. Sloan, the first woman and tenth president of MassArt, is inaugurated 2000: The Dynamic Media Institute is founded, a Master of Fine Arts program focused on new uses of media in communication design 2002: The Artists' Residence opens, guaranteeing housing for all first-year students 2003: The legislature approves the New Partnership with the Commonwealth, which is a new model for its state funding 2007: The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approves the college's proposal to offer a Master of Architecture 2007: Governor Deval Patrick signs legislation changing the college's official name to Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Campus

MassArt is located in Boston, Massachusetts near the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard Medical School, Wentworth Institute of Technology and Northeastern University. The college is currently headquartered at 621 Huntington Avenue in Boston, and occupies a square block of buildings it has acquired over the last two decades; its principal building was the former campus of Boston State College, acquired after BSC was merged with the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Previously, it held a number of buildings scattered throughout Boston's Fenway-Kenmore and Longwood neighborhoods, with its main campus located on the corner of Brookline and Longwood Avenues. That building was acquired by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the mid-1990s, which gutted and rebuilt the building's interior, but kept the distinctive facade intact. As of spring 2009, the Campus Center (located in the Kennedy building) is seeing major renovations, including a new, two-story glass facade on Longwood Ave.

Residence Halls

The campus includes two residence halls. Smith Hall houses only freshman and is located immediately across the street from MassArt's Kennedy building. The Artists' Residence (aka "The Rez") houses freshman, upperclassmen, and is located across the street from the Tower Building. It also has two floors reserved for School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston students. The Artists' Residence is the first publicly funded residence hall in the United States designed specifically to house art students, which includes studio spaces and a spray room on the top floor. The college is currently in the planning stages to build an additional residence hall, which is tentatively scheduled to open with the start of the 2012-2013 academic year. The new hall's location will be next to The Artists' Residence, and is being designed by the firm ADD Inc, of Boston.

Buildings

Besides residence halls, MassArt is composed of six interlocking buildings—Kennedy, South, North, East, Collins, and Tower. There is also an enclosed courtyard located in the center of South, North, East, and Collins. The 13 story Tower Building dominates the campus, adorned with a dark glass facade, and prominent entry/lobby spaces along Huntington Ave.

Galleries

There are nine galleries on campus available for student shows or more established exhibitions. These galleries include the Arnheim Gallery, Brant Gallery, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Doran Gallery, President's Gallery, Student Life Gallery, Tower Gallery, and Godine Family Gallery.

MassArt’s galleries are always free and open to the public, showing cutting-edge exhibitions in a variety of media. Over the years, the Exhibitions and Visiting Artists Program has matured into one of the area’s most influential presenters, consistently ranked among the year’s top ten by The Boston Globe.

Facilities

Available to MassArt's student body are common facilities located at many colleges including a full-scale cafeteria, a small café, school store, library, student center, gymnasium, counseling center, auditorium, computer labs, and fitness center. Some of the not-so-usual facilities include a letterpress lab, squash courts, art galleries, studio spaces, and the Pozen Center—an area built specifically to house larger scale events. MassArt students (with ID) also have free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—of which the MFA and ISGM are within walking distance from campus.

Athletics

A coed basketball team, named the Masstadons, was formed at the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year, and is in the process of scheduling games with several other art schools between Boston and New York City. The Masstadons first game took place on November 15 against RISD.

As part of the The Professional Arts Consortium (proarts.org), students can play intercollegiate athletics on the Emerson College teams.

Notable alumni

Ricky Allman (painter) Harris Barron (Founder, Studio for Interrelated Media & ZONE Visual Theater) Ros Barron (Pioneer Video Artist. See: Who's Who ) Chris Beatrice (game designer) Calvin Burnett (artist) Mark Cesark (sculptor) Brian Collins (Design Director) Muriel Cooper (MIT Media lab co-founder) Catherine Costentino (Illustrator) Robert Cumming (Painter) Harold F. Clayton (sculptor) Sam Durant (Installation artist and sculptor) Ben Edlund (creator of The Tick) Ed Emberley (artist and illustrator) Janet Doub Erickson (graphic artist and author) Royal B. Farnum (Former Head of Art Education for Massachusetts) Nancy Haigh (Oscar-winning set designer) David Hilliard (photographer) Neil Jenney (Painter ) Kites (musician) (aka Christopher Forgues, noted comic artist, involved with Fort Thunder) Christian Marclay (artist)

Tony Millionaire (artist, creator of the comic strip Maakies) Albert Munsell (Invented the Munsell Color System) John Edward Phelps (painter) Richard Phillips (painter) Michelle Phan (make-up artist) Jack Pierson (photographer) Walter Piston (composer) Satoshi Kitazawa (photographer) Paper Rad (art collective) John Raimondi (sculptor) Sonya Rapoport (conceptual/digital artist and multimedia artist) Boardman Robinson (artist) Alexander Ross (painter) Edmund Charles Tarbell (took night classes) Daniel Warner (artist) William Wegman (photographer) N. C. Wyeth (illustrator) Charles Barkley (animator) Nigel Poor (photographer)

Notable faculty (past and present)

• Muriel Cooper (graphic designer, futurist)
• Cyrus Dallin (sculptor)
• Frank Gohlke (photographer)
• Noel Ignatiev (history professor)
• Chaz Maviyane-Davies^[6][7][8] (graphic designer, filmmaker)
• Laura McPhee (photographer)
• Abelardo Morell (photographer)
• Nicholas Nixon (photographer)

See also

• Professional Arts Consortium
• Colleges of the Fenway
• Studio for Interrelated Media

References

1. ^ Massart.edu (6-30-2010)
2. ^ Massart.edu (6-30-2010)
3. ^ Massart.edu (6-30-2010)
4. ^ Massart.edu (6-30-2010)
5. ^ Massart.edu (6-30-2010)
6. ^ Campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com
7. ^ Nieman.harvard.edu
8. ^ Aiga.org

External links

• Official website
• Dynamic Media Institute website