in Art
Juliet Hinely (MFA ‘14) Per Mr. Handy Per Mr. Handy is a site-specific audio-walk and performance installation in the Jam Handy Building, now abandoned but once a prolific movie studio in Detroit’s heyday. Juliet’s research included work with Dance, Urban Planning, and Museum Studies, as well as an audio documentary course at Duke Center for Documentary Studies. 1
M EXPANDING THE
F REACH OF
A CREATIVE WORK
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T H E S TA M P S M FA
Transdisciplinary, Faculty Mentors, Scholarly & Studio-focused
Installation by Collin McRae (MFA ‘12) Photo by Brad Smith 3
Current art practice is alive with synergies. The arena of creative work is expanding —responding to, integrating with, and inquiring into increasingly diverse fields, from Egyptology to theories of dark matter. T H E T W O -Y E A R M FA C U R R I C U L U M A T T H E S T A M P S S C H O O L
is designed to support this momentum, and is ideal for artists with an active engagement with one or more fields of knowledge in addition to art. Graduate students are provided with direct access to the unparalleled range of researchers, collaborators and fields of study available only at a top-tier university. The Stamps MFA integrates creative work with academic research, international study with regional community engagement, and theoretical grounding with skills development, creating a dynamic blend of both scholarly and studio-focused work.
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The power STAMPS FULL -TIME FACULTY
of mentorship OF ARTISTS AND SCHOLARS
and strategic HELP SHAPE THE PROGRAM
career planning
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Throughout the two-year program, Stamps full-time faculty of artists and scholars work closely with students to shape an intellectually-rigorous program of study, individually suited to each candidate’s areas of interests and talents.
Photo by James Rotz
B E C AU S E C L O S E W O R K I N G R E L AT I O N S H I P S
In addition to their creative studies, each
with faculty are a key component of graduate
graduate student participates in a strategic
study at Stamps, applicants are asked to
planning process for post graduation,
identify three Stamps faculty members who
developing an individualized career
they feel would potentially be suitable mentors
trajectory with financial support available
and advisors during their course of study.
for transitional professional opportunities.
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Spacious IN FACULTY / GRADUATE
Individual STUDIO BUILDING
Studios 1919 GREEN RD, ANN ARBOR
Students conduct their creative work in spacious, fully equipped studios in a 33,000 square-foot space that also houses faculty studios, a multi-purpose shop, digital media equipment and large shared working and meeting spaces. A T S T A M P S , G R A D U A T E S T U D E N T S A L S O H AV E
24/7 access to large state-of-the-art metals, fibers, ceramics, sculpture, wood, printmaking, digital media, and digital fabrication studios, as well as a range of resources only available at a top research university, such as audio engineering booths, robotic labs, virtual reality studios, specialized libraries, institutes and collections, botanical gardens, and much more. Photo by James Rotz
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International EACH STUDENT
Travel & CONDUCTS A SELF-DIRECTED
Study INTERNATIONAL PROJECT
Photo by Peter Leix
S TA M P S R E C O G N I Z E S T H AT C R E AT I V E PR AC T IC E
is now global in its scope and impact. With funding support from the School, each student conducts a self-directed international project. Past graduates’ international research has ranged from researching the residual effects of colonialism in South Africa; to conducting sound recordings in Egypt’s museums, tombs and temples; to travel to Prague to participate in a two-month residency at the MeetFactory International Center of Contemporary Art.
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Generous STIPENDS
Financial ASSISTANTSHIPS
Support TUITION WAIVERS
T H E S TA M P S S C HO OL OF F E R S G E N E ROU S
merit-based financial support to all graduate students, from stipends and discretionary funds that offset studio expenses and International travel, to teaching/research assistantships and full tuition waivers. Financial awards are held throughout both years of study and enable focused creative work as well as opportunities to gain experience in teaching and arts management. Photo by James Rotz 10
Stamps STAMPS DISTINGUISHED
Visiting SPEAKER SERIES
Artists During the academic year, students have direct access to a wide array of creative innovators who are part of the Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series and the Witt Visitors Program. Visiting artists and lecturers meet with graduate students for individual studio visits.
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PA S T V I S I T O R S H AV E I N C L U D E D :
Director and Playwright Robert Wilson Brazilian Installation Artist Ernesto Neto Photographer Mary Ellen Mark Composer Philip Glass Interaction Designer Massimo Banzi Multimedia Artist Janine Antoni Fashion Designer Zandra Rhodes Perfumier Sissel Tolaas Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister Sculptor Antony Gormley Dancer and Choreographer Bill T. Jones Video and Photographic Artist Mariko Mori Painter and Collagist Wangechi Mutu Installation Artist Mary Sibande Ernesto Neto, Installation Artist Anthropodino, photo by Senior James Ewing Paola Antonelli, Curator, MOMA
Painter Alexis Rockman Sculptor Nick Cave
Photo by James Rotz
Temple Grandin, Author and Designer
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Faculty MENTORS
Research ROLE MODELS
Interests COLLABORATORS
Are Vast
S T A M P S FA C U LT Y ’ S R E S E A R C H I N T E R E S T S I N C L U D E :
• performative technologies
• women’s criminalization and censorship
• art and commerce
• performing arts and contemporary media
• audio narrative
• the body as screen
• mixed race identity politics
• reproductive technology
• art and early childhood development
• sustainable communities
• african american history, culture and representation
• rapid prototyping technologies
• hybridized narratives and memory
and more...
• displacement, migration and alienation 13
A S A M P L I N G O F FA C U L T Y W O R K
Heidi Kumao
Anne Mondro
Endi Poskovic
David Chung
Robert Platt
Cynthia Pachikara
Phoebe Gloeckner
Janie Paul
Jim Cogswell
Elona Van Gent
Roland Graf
John Marshall
Osman Khan
There’s such a range of expertise among the faculty here. I was able to find faculty who mentored me and helped me define the perfect creative practice linked by sound, history and performance art. Juliet Hinely (MFA ‘14)
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Small School ACCESS TO UNPARALLELED
Big University RESOURCES AND FACILITIES
Amanda Lilleston (MFA ‘13) Animal Amanda spent hours each day in the anatomy lab to research this series of woodblock print collages that investigate what keeps us alive. These fantastical forms are human parts— susceptible to gravity, discomfort, decay, growth, and adaptation.
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Access to…
Collaborate with…
world-class studios
engineers
2 Stamps School galleries
filmmakers
radiology lab
dancers
state of the art digital media labs
climatologists
multi-camera HD video studios
architects
robotics institute
astrophysicists
virtual reality cave
playwrights
3D printers, routers, and scanners
urban planners
physical computing studio
musicians
materials library
art historians
computer and video game archive
public policy makers
nanotechnology institute
journalists
industrial knitting machines
microbiologists
map libraries
nanotechnology researchers
7 axis robotic fabrication system large format printers electronic music studios 24-ft astro-tec dome planetarium 7 U-M museums artificial intelligence lab motion capture facility MRI scanners museum of zoology collections anatomy labs professional audio recording studios botanical gardens entrepreneurship clinic 121 music practice rooms
anthropologists
MFA
curators sound engineers social workers chemists ecologists neuroscientists botanists information architects data analysts cancer researchers egyptologists poets forensic scientists
dance studios
screenwriters
gamelan collection
entrepreneurs
1.7 million plants in the Herbarium marine hydrodynamics lab
and more…
public health experts 3D modeling experts
and more…
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The city has the flavor of Europe, the intellectual horsepower of an Ivy League community and an honest Midwestern spirit that is reflected in hyperactive volunteering and a boundless local food movement as intense as California’s. Michelle Krell Kydd
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The Best ANN ARBOR
College Town WORK GALLERY
Stamps graduate students curate and exhibit in the heart of Ann Arbor at Work Gallery.
Photo by James Rotz
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#4
Ann Arbor
“Most Creative Cities” T H E D A I LY B E A S T • 2 0 1 2
ANN ARBOR IS
by the
#4
C O N S I S T E N T LY R A N K E D O N E O F
numbers
“25 Smartest College Towns in US” D A I LY B E A S T • 2 0 1 1
A M E R I C A’ S B E S T C O L L E G E T OW N S
#2
“10 Great Cities for Raising Families” K IPLINGER • 2010
#1
“Top Digital Cities” C E N T E R F OR DIG I TA L G OV E R N M E N T • 2 0 1 0
#5
“Top 10 College Towns”
“Happiest Cities in America”
FOR BE S M AG A Z I N E • 2 010
T H E D A I LY B E A S T • 2 0 1 2
#3
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#6
#2
“Best Places for Recent College Grads”
“Most Educated Cities in US”
FOR BES.COM • 2010
A M ER ICA N COM M UNITY SU RV EY • 2010
#6
#7
“Top Art Destinations” midsize cities
“Best Cities in America to Find a Job”
A M E R IC A N ST Y L E M AG A Z I N E • 2 01 1
US NEWS • 201 2
#10
#1
“Greatest Main Street in America”
“Best College Sports Town”
T R AV E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M • 2 0 1 2
FOR BES • 2010
#4
“Most Well-Read Cities in America” A M A ZON.COM • 2011
Ann Arbor and Beyond A N N A R B O R I S C O N S I S T E N T LY R A N K E D
one of America’s best college towns, offering a rich cultural and intellectual life, and a vibrant sense of community.
#2
“75 Best College Towns and Cities”
Students also benefit from the urban energy and collaborative opportunities of a creative corridor extending from Toronto, through Detroit, to Chicago.
A M ER ICA N INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC R E SE A RCH • 2010
#2
#1
“Most E-Literate Cities in America”
“Educational Attainment in Communities with 100,000+ Residents”
T H E AT L A N T IC . C OM • 2 0 1 2
BUSINESS JOU R NA LS “ON N U MBER S” • 2011
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I feel like I’ve gotten a great education. I’m a printmaker, inspired by gay identity and social issues. Through my scholarship at U-M, I can create and explain the art I’ve made in grad school and the work I have been creating for the last twenty years in a more thoughtful and theoretical way. John Gutoskey (MFA ‘14)
John Gutoskey
(MFA ‘14)
Shaman Johnny’s Pop-Up Shop & Gallery LGBTQ studies, women’s studies and art history inform this project, featuring artist and healer “Shaman Johnny.”
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My practice when I applied was largely influenced by future technologies and biological imagery. I knew I needed to make work that was more directly informed by what was going on in the Jessica Joy London (MFA ‘13) Phenomena Each painting is an artifact of chance, conscious decision-making, fixed laws of natural phenomena (evaporation, surface tension, capillary action), and its surrounding environment.
scientific community and to do that I had to immerse myself in a research lab. The University of Michigan is renowned for its scientific research. Jessica Joy London (MFA ‘13)
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Meghan Reynard (MFA ‘12)
Investigating the experiences of daylight, latitude and time, and how the
One Year Daylight: Ann Arbor
daylight phenomenon can be perceived outside of conventional constraints.
Ann Bartges (MFA ‘14) Holding Still Working with the School of Music, Theater and Dance, Holding Still uses video projection and live performance to explore relationships among memory, photography, time, representation and self and image.
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Emilia Javanica
(MFA ‘13)
Red Blob Massacre Maddy Blitz is a young woman with horrendous-looking teeth. Maddy’s nightmares about not fitting in clump together to form a giant RED BLOB that confronts her tormenters. A silent horror film and live performance. 25
Charles Fairbanks (MFA ‘10) Charles is a filmmaker and wrestler whose work focuses on Lucha Libre in Mexico. He fights as the One-Eyed Cat with a camera built into his mask. Recently, Charles was selected by Werner Herzog for the first Rogue Film School. In 2012 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts Film and Video category based on his work while a graduate student at Stamps.
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Parisa Ghaderi (MFA ‘14) Only an Inch Away Using research in American Culture, Social Work and Public Health, Parisa uses video and audio installation, prints and cinemagraphs, to speak about holding onto memories of people when they leave, momentarily or forever.
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Molly Dierks (MFA ‘14) home/Body The sculptures in home/Body deal with the mother-daughter bond, gendered roleplay, and self and body, drawing on personal experiences, memory, and feminist theory.
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Artwork by Siyang Chen (MFA ‘13)
Artwork by Erica Buss (MFA ‘11)
Artwork by Katie St. Clair (MFA ‘14)
Artwork by Mia Cinelli (MFA ‘14)
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Artwork by John Kannenberg (MFA ‘12)
Installation by Juliet Hinely (MFA ‘14)
Artwork by Siyang Chen (MFA ‘13)
Artwork by Sara Marie Blakely (MFA ‘11)
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Artwork by Molly Dierks (MFA ‘14)
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Alisha Wessler (MFA ‘13) Often working with hundreds of individual objects in display cases, Alisha Wessler’s work explores the possibilities of sculpture through installation. Following the completion of her MFA in 2013, Alisha interned at the Drawing Center as a project manager. Her work was featured in an exhibition of emerging sculptors at the Meier Gardens & Sculpture Park in 2014. And, recently, she was selected for a 2015 artist-in-residency at Wave Hill in New York City.
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MFA Degree Requirements MFA students complete 15 credits of coursework per semester for a total of 60 credits at the completion of the two-year program.
Summary → 30 CR EDITS – DIR ECTED STU DIO COU R SES Directed studios are the core of the MFA program. Each semester, students engage in at least six credit hours of intense exploration, research, production, and critique of their individual creative work, in close collaboration with their Stamps faculty advisors and peers.
→ 9 CR EDITS – ELECTI V E COU R SES TH E CU R R ICU LU M IS DE SIGN ED TO
Students choose elective courses to meet their
accommodate a range of art practices,
individual MFA curriculum goals: they can pursue
and combines studio-based inquiry with
additional studio courses to emphasize “making”
more scholarly, research-focused work.
and studio practice, or select academic courses to achieve a hybrid “maker/scholar” focus.
→ 1 2 CR EDITS – SEMINA R S Every semester, students participate in graduate seminars, including seminars in “Research Methods” and “Professional Practice” and other topics related to contemporary art practice.
→ 6 C R E D I T S – H I S T O R Y/ T H E O R Y/ C R I T I C I S M MFA students take six credits of History/Theory/ Criticism, choosing courses to support their field of inquiry. These classes may be offered by Stamps School, History of Art, or other units across the University. DIR ECTED STU DIO ELECTIVES
→ 3 C R E DI T S – I N T E R N AT ION A L PR O J E C T MFA students are required to participate in a
SEMINARS HISTORY / TH EORY / CR ITICISM I N T E R N AT ION A L E X PE R I E NC E
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Stamps School-approved international project. The School supports a three- to five-week international experience for all graduate students during the summer between their first and second year.
→ Apply Now For more info about the Stamps MFA go to: stamps.umich.edu/site/mfa L E A R N MOR E A B OU T T H E S TA M P S S C HO OL :
stamps.umich.edu
MFA Program Attributes:
Successful applicants will:
• Opportunity to strengthen linkages between art practice and other fields of inquiry
• Hold a bachelor’s degree
• Access to resources only available at a tier-one research university • Generous funding package (partial to full)
• Have a strong portfolio of creative work and a record of exhibitions • Demonstrate an interest in interdisciplinary inquiry
• Integration of creative work and research
• Have substantive life experience to draw on in charting new directions for creative practice
• Mentorship by faculty from the School and from U-M in fields beyond art
• Identify faculty at Stamps and within the University with whom to work
• Supported international travel and research
• Be prepared for intensive, focused creative inquiry and production
• Individual studios in Faculty/Graduate facility • Direct involvement with visiting artists who come each week as part of the Stamps Visitors Series, and each year as Witt Fellows
F OL L OW US ON: FA C E B O O K
→ facebook.com/umartanddesign
• Strategic, individualized professional development and transition funding
TUMBLR
• Project support including annual stipends and grant opportunities
→ twitter.com/UM _ Stamps
→ umstampsschool.tumblr.com
I N S TAG R A M
→ instagram.com/umstamps
C ON TAC T U S : Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design • 2000 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069 • 734 764 0397 • wwilks@umich.edu
University of Michigan Regents
Nondiscrimination Policy Statement
Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/
Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior
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affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable
Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section
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federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination
504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072
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and affirmative action. The University of Michigan
Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all
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persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race,
University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.
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color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual
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orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability,
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religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment,
educational programs and activities, and admissions.
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For more info about the Stamps MFA go to: stamps.umich.edu/site/mfa L E A R N MOR E A B OU T T H E S TA M P S S C HO OL :
stamps.umich.edu
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