University of the Arts Helsinki

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Helsinki, Finland

DURATION

2 Years

LANGUAGES

English, Finnish, Swedish

PACE

Full time

STUDY FORMAT

On-Campus

Key Summary

About: The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a highly regarded postgraduate degree designed for artists, writers, and performers. It typically allows students to delve deeply into their artistic disciplines, offering advanced training and the opportunity to develop their portfolios. The program duration is generally two to three years depending on the institution and focus area.

Career Outcomes: Graduates of the MFA can pursue various careers, such as visual artist, creative writer, art educator, or performance director. Other paths include roles in art administration, film and media production, and creative consulting.

Introduction

Why study here?

The student’s aspirations, freedom of choice, and individual guidance are integral to studies in fine arts. Our teachers are distinguished visual artists and experts from Finland and abroad. You will be provided with a workspace and an excellent opportunity to exhibit your art in public, thanks to the Academy’s active exhibition activities.

About the studies

You will acquire skills and knowledge that will enable you to work independently as a visual artist and understand your own work as a part of the context of contemporary art and society, where artists may adopt multi-faceted roles and profiles.

Studies focus on artistic activities and theoretical studies. The Academy of Fine Arts focuses on independent art, giving the students the flexibility to pursue their aspirations when selecting courses and planning their curriculum. Individual guidance and independent artistic work are integral to the studies, but group instruction, workshops, field trips, and different kinds of projects are also important and increase the sense of community within the academy.

Public exhibition of one’s art in exhibitions, public spaces, and other various contexts is an essential part of the studies. Students familiarise themselves with exhibition activities and practices at the Academy of Fine Arts galleries, Exhibition Laboratory, and Project Room, which improves their ability to take part in exhibition productions of various sizes.

The subject areas of the Degree Program in Fine Arts are Sculpture, Painting, Printmaking, and Time and Space Arts. The subject area of Time and Space Arts allows you to specialize in moving images, photography, or site and situation-specific art. Bachelor’s students choose their subject area after being admitted to the university, during their first of year studies. Master’s students choose their subject area upon application to the studies.

Teachers

Our teaching staff is composed of distinguished artists and experts from various fields working in the international art sector. The visiting teaching staff, both from Finland and abroad, hosts thematic workshops and special courses and acts as thesis supervisors, examiners, and experts. You will also be appointed a tutoring teacher who will follow your academic progress.

Curriculum

Sculpture

The subject area of Sculpture investigates the use of three-dimensional space in artistic work. The instruction is based both on hands-on work and on the traditions of sculpture. The studies focus on the command of various approaches in contemporary sculpture, an in-depth understanding of the techniques available, and their utilization in the student’s own artistic practice.

The studies in sculpture also focus on questions related to gallery and museum spaces as well as art in the public sphere. The main emphasis of the studies is on the student’s independent artistic work, which is supervised and supported through discussions, critique sessions, and seminar work. Independent artistic work will promote the student’s self-expression and conceptual thinking and improve their creative problem-solving skills.

Thematic lectures, projects, and workshops organized by artists both in Finland and abroad support joint studies in sculpture, where all the students of the Academy become acquainted with the materials, techniques, and working practices of sculpture.

Painting

The subject area of painting explores the multi-faceted expressions and meanings that are formed in various contexts in the field of painting. The instruction aims at extending the students’ views on what painting could be, what it might mean, and the ways in which it relates and interacts with other forms of expression and fields. In other words, there is no single idea of what constitutes contemporary painting; it is constantly changing and adapting to time and place, societal interpretations, and the theories and cultures of different artistic fields.

Giving room for students’ independent artistic work and strengthening their personal form of expression are priorities, while also making time for reflections on art theory.

Aspects of instruction include analyzing the language(s) of painting, reviewing the materiality and extended field of painting, and comparing the characteristics of painting with other forms of expression. In addition, there is highly specialized instruction in material studies, which focuses on the use of different materials and their impact in the context of the painting and outside of it, as well.

Printmaking

The subject area of printmaking provides the students with comprehensive knowledge of printmaking and its various forms of expression, methods, materials, and theoretical foundations. Students of printmaking use modern equipment throughout their studies, and the instruction pays close attention to the developments in the field of printmaking and changes in society.

Students of printmaking learn to contextualize printed art within the artistic tradition, its re-interpretation, and its relevance as part of contemporary art. The process of making art is conceived both as a stance and a way of thinking which takes into account the duality inherent in printed art: on the one hand, there is the printing process with copying and printing; on the other hand, the visual expression in printmaking can be realized in various ways. Traditionally, marks produced by a matrix have been printed on paper, but in modern printmaking, the result can be something completely different: a spatial assemblage, a film, a three-dimensional work, or a zine (a publication with a limited circulation). Printmaking is grounded in the possibility of conveying a message, which means that the medium used in the artistic process can equally well be a printing press or a digital file.

Studies in printmaking largely consist of independent artistic work. The student is supported by the teaching staff and the student community in the form of studio visits, seminars, and methodological workshops. Collaborative projects are also an important part of the studies. The subject area offers intensive courses on various themes; these courses can include guest lectures by visiting artists, or they can be entirely supervised by a visiting teacher. The goal of teaching is to support the student’s personal vision so that their free expression reigns over the materials and the media, challenging them to search for personal solutions and ways of making art.

Time and space arts

The subject area of time and space arts provides instruction in the site and situation-specific art, moving images, and photography. The teaching focuses on various aspects of artistic work, including the conceptual, pictorial, spatial, and bodily dimensions of art.

The teaching in time and space arts is dialogical in nature, and it consists of seminars, courses, lectures, and studio visits. The student can either focus on a single field within time and space arts or piece together a personalized study plan by selecting different courses from time and space arts and/or other subject areas. The goal of the studies is to improve the student’s perceptive skills and critical thinking and to let them develop their independent artistic practice. The students are encouraged to look for a personal approach to art and to experiment with different ways of expression. Artists working within time and space arts use various media in their art: they can use their own bodies, for example, or the work may consist of a performance. Moving images, photographs, sound art, and digital technologies are also frequently used in time and space arts.

The teaching is based on the conceptualization of art as a process or an event. With a focus on research and experimentation, the instruction given in the subject area helps the students contextualize their artistic practice within the tradition of contemporary art.

Joint studies in fine arts

Joint studies are composed of instruction in joint art studies, writing, art history, art theory and art philosophy, thematic theoretical studies, art exhibition studies, drawing and perception, and the studies in the ‘As an artist in society’ study module. Joint studies also organize the instruction in the autumn term of the first study year in the Introduction to independent artistic activities and the subject areas study module.

The objective of the instruction is to provide the student with the tools for understanding the various fields and working methods in contemporary art and to critically compare the phenomena related to information, research, and art. A command of the history and theory of contemporary art is a prerequisite for being able to examine not only current art trends but also the contemporary world in a broad, independent, and critical manner.

Particular attention will also be paid to written expression and understanding the ways in which the world of art operates, which are both essential skills to professional artists.