School of the Museum of Fine Arts — Local services in Boston

MFA 1999 Ok, better late than never. Like can thing else, the SMFA MFA program is what you make it. You can skate through, or you can challenge yourself, experiment, take advantage of the opportunity to work in any media you please (even if it terrifies you) - and change your life & yourself. I don't mean that you will come out a famous artist, but you will come out a better artist. The fact that you are not required to concentrate in any discipline or media (although of course you can), offers you the freedom the experiment, to discover cross-pollination - how practice in one area can influence another. Don't balk at the acedemic requirements, they're important.

My one complaint - and this may have changed (I hope), is the availability of adequate studio and storage space. The graduate studios - basically ridiculously small cubicles - were located in a building on Mission Hill. Sort of the equivalent of 'Dilbert Goes to Art School'. In the late '90's, affordable off-campus studio space could still be found in the surrounding communities & neighborhoods. I doubt very much this is still the case. Take a campus tour, and keep this in mind. Other than the studio space issue, I couldn't give this program a higher recommendation. It offered me the freedom and support to take risks. I came out a better artist than when I entered the program. I spent my first semester feeling like I was going to throw up, but the rewards were well worth the...

Lacking compassion or respect to minority students. My girlfriend goes to this school and had 2 failed classes for no other reason than administrative negligence and discrimination. First time round, she was diagnosed with anorexia at the time, and shcool health service assured her to prioritize her physical and mental health (which is fair, but turned rather ironic later) and that they would straighten things out with the course instructors. The latter never happened. An instructor claimed he did not have the work my girlfriend already turned in and refused to communicate further. 2 semesters later, another instructor of an animation course failed my girlfriend without giving any warnings ex ante or justification ex poste. I had saw my girlfriend working late into the night creating and modifying projects for this course and she felt she was targeted because the only Asian student in the class. Again, questions were raised but no one had the decency to provide an explanation. I stand by everything I have described in this comment. If you are a minority student, I would caution you...

Student body there is insufferable. No recourse to good professors except for a few. Wasted...