PROGRAM > THE PhD IN VISUAL ARTS
Deadline for applications is January 15
The PhD in Visual Arts is premised on scholarship that is practice-based. It offers a program of study in which innovative research is materialized and disseminated in the form of art works. Research in this context is focused on visual arts, as well as specific research questions that are defined by the candidates. To graduate with a PhD, students must complete course work and an individualized exhibition-based comprehensive examination. They must defend a dissertation that presents their research in the form of a significant solo exhibition, accompanied by a Dissertation Research Support Paper related to the exhibition. The PhD in Visual Arts is a four-year advanced degree that will prepare mature researchers with the highest qualifications to teach studio practice and theoretical courses, supervise graduate students within a university context, and have significant professional careers as artists.
The primary objective of the PhD in Visual Arts is to provide opportunity for advanced independent research that is integrated within the development of original studio practice, in all visual arts media. The PhD is a degree that leads to both development as a professional artist and higher qualifications for university teaching positions. Participants in the program will develop new methodologies for reconciling the two sometimes conflicting forces of scholarly depth and art world professionalism.
These objectives are achieved through a combination of course work in the Visual Arts department and in the university at large, and two exhibitions of original work accompanied by contextualizing papers. Students must demonstrate maturity in research as recognized by the academic sector as well as by their peers in the art community. Throughout the program, students will examine and define what is meant by the recently emerged term “artist/researcher. Supervisory committees in the program will include artists, scholars and art world professionals so as to foster the best intellectual environment for meeting the program’s objectives.
Admissions Requirement
We will require a Master of Fine Arts with a minimum B average for application to this program, or an MA with studio concentration, as well as presentation of a portfolio of works and a qualifying research paper (MFA thesis paper or comparable peer-reviewed article). Selection committees to adjudicate the submissions will be composed of graduate faculty and an outside professional.
The PhD in Visual Arts is a program of professionalization for advancing artists who already have a significant body of work. This term is not tied to the age or the existing exhibition record of the artists who apply. Rather, it refers to their level of interest in and commitment to the development of research methods for exploring questions related to their practice. We are treating the visual arts as a broad field of study and practice that has various specializations within it. Students in the PhD program will identify the specializations most pertinent to their work.
Proficiency in written and spoken English is required.
Program Description
A. Structure of the Program:
The full-time PhD program in Studio Arts is four years in duration. Students are required to take a total of 3.5 graduate courses: a combined PhD / MFA Graduate Seminar during their first two semester (6 credits Pass/Fail); The Visual Arts Summer Institute during their third semester (6 credits); and 1.5 graduate courses during the first six semesters from any program in the university including other graduate programs in the Faculty of Fine Arts (9 credits). In addition to the courses, the program will require: an Oral Comprehensive Exam during the fifth semester, a Dissertation Proposal submitted no later than the end of sixth semester and a final Dissertation Exhibition and written paper completed preferably by the eleventh semester but required by the fourteenth semester or the Spring of the fifth year enrolled in the Program.
To enable each student to assume the program of work from the time of his/her entry , a pro-tem supervisor will be determined in relation to the research interests as well as the media focus that are expressed in the candidate’s application. The pro-tem supervisory will guide the student in forming the supervisory committee. Each student will be required to choose a three person Graduate Committee by the end of the first semester. This Committee will consist of two faculty from the Department of Visual Arts and one faculty from the University whose expertise is in the area of the candidate’s theoretical/critical research area. A fourth person from the art world community, i.e. a curator, artist, or critic will be selected and added to the committee for the final two years of the program. During the first two years of the program, candidates will be guaranteed full Teaching Assistantships. PhD candidates will be offered a studio for the first two years and then will be given a work space with continued access to all studio facilities until the completion of their dissertation exhibition. In the other two years, candidates will be required to maintain studios off campus, in professionally situated environments in order to participate as active members of the community at large, developing their research independent of the safety net of the University studio. In addition, candidates will have full access to all studio facilities (e.g. sculpture, print, photo, grad loft) during their time in the PhD program.
A key facet of our proposed program is the annual Visual Arts Summer Institute, which will take place in collaboration with the Visual Arts Department, University of Western Ontario. It will be centred on a 2 week residency with prominent international artists and theorists. The Institute will comprise course credit for students as well as drawing on the Toronto and London art communities for public lectures and studio visits by the distinguished guests. In this way, the PhD in Visual Arts program will act as an incubator for originality and a catalyst for the interplay between professional research and the innovative activities between professionals. It will form a network of professional relationships between Canadian and international researchers operating within and beyond the fine arts university communities.
The Oral Comprehensive Exam consists of a self-curated survey exhibition of the candidate’s previous work and a 20 page statement that positions the work in relation to contemporary theoretical considerations and art practices. The exam will take place at the exhibition venue. Questions will relate both to the candidate’s work / statement and those of a more general nature arising from the Summer Institute. It is expected that this examination will enable the student to reflect on the nature of their past work and to formulate the direction of their upcoming work that will be detailed in their Dissertation Proposal.
The Dissertation Proposal is approximately fifteen pages in length as well as a bibliography. It outlines the nature of the proposed studio work; the theoretical /critical areas that inform it through a survey and precis of the pertinent texts; it describes how these ideas integrate with the studio work and proposes a series of research questions that will be examined in the final thesis. It will also confirm the venue for the upcoming Dissertation Exhibition.
The final Dissertation is comprised of a Dissertation Exhibition at a recognized professional venue and a minimum 100 page Dissertation Research Support Paper. Accompanying the exhibition will be a small catalogue and curatorial statement. Included in the examining committee will be an external examiner who will be a recognized professional in an area relevant to the candidate’s research.