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TypePublic
Established1873
PresidentKay Sloan
Students1571
Location
Boston, Massachusetts
,
Massachusetts
,
USA
CampusUrban
Websitewww.massart.edu
MassArt, August 2005

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 a 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 also a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), a consortium of 39 leading art schools in the United States.

Among the nation’s 39 independent schools of art and design, MassArt is the third most selective in undergraduate admissions and second most selective in graduate admissions, ranking among the ten most competitive colleges in Massachusetts, both public and private.[1] In 2006 was named one of the Top Global Design Schools by BusinessWeek magazine.[2]

MassArt offers a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts, a Master of Science in Art Education, a Master of Fine Arts, and in 2007 received Candidacy Status 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 (academic) courses.

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.

Campus

MassArt is located in Boston, Massachusetts near the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard Medical School 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. 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.

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 considering new residential arrangements.

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.

Galleries

There are numerous 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.

Notable Alumni

Notable Faculty (Past and Present)

Facts and trivia

  • MassArt is the only publicly funded, free-standing art school in the United States.
  • Part of the New England Board of Higher Education whose goal is to promote greater educational opportunities and services for the residents of New England.
  • Once each semester MassArt holds a school sale (the Spring and Winter Sale) selling work from current students and alumni, with a portion of the sales going to student scholarships and most going directly to the artists.
  • Each Spring, for two weeks, there is an All School Show where each department puts their work on display in the various galleries as a way to celebrate and display what has been made in the past school year.
  • Accessible by The T on the Green Line "E" Branch—Longwood stop and by the #39 Bus which stops in front of the Kennedy building.
  • MassArt shares common areas of the campus with neighboring school Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences including the cafeteria, school store, and fitness center.
  • All the academic buildings are interlocked making it possible to travel from one end of campus to the next without stepping outside.
  • The photography department houses a 20" X 24" Polaroid camera—one of the few available in the United States.
  • In the Fall of 2006, in conjunction with Colleges of the Fenway, a new meal-card/student ID deemed The Fenway Card was put into place allowing students to buy food/supplies from stores in the surrounding area with "Fenway Cash'" that is placed on the account like a debit card.
  • The campus houses many unique recurring events (past and present) including Iron Pours, the Punk Rock Flea Market, The SIM Big Show, and the first New England Shrieks! Horror Film Festival
  • MassArt has funded several student publications, including Don't Shoot! It's Only Comics, FORTY-3 and The Rag.
  • In the most recent statewide teacher competency tests, the scores of graduating MassArt art teachers placed the college among the top five out of 57 Massachusetts colleges and universities that prepare teachers.
  • In 2006 was named one of the Top Global Design Schools by BusinessWeek magazine.
  • MassArt has been recognized by The Washington Post as a superior value among the top six public colleges – nationwide – with the highest graduation rates. The joint accreditation team of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges hailed MassArt as “an exciting national model in art education.”
  • MassArt trained the founding presidents of Philadelphia College of Art (1880); Rhode Island School of Design (1877) and Cleveland Institute of Art (1890). Another early alumnus, Albert Munsell (1881), developed the scientific system of color description and measurement still used today.

References

  1. ^ "The President's Report, MassArt" (PDF). 2002. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "D-Schools: The Global List". 2006-10-9. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

See also

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