About the Master of Fine Art program, Art Department, The School of the Arts, Haifa University

The program is aimed at artists who wish to develop their artistic practice and to expand their practical and theoretical knowledge of contemporary art and the different forms of artmaking at the beginning of the 21^st century. The goal of the program is to give artists tools for refining and formulating an original, complex, and relevant artistic practice that relates to a local and global artistic agenda.

The program’s vision is to encourage artmaking that intervenes in the worlds in which it operates, and wishes to be culturally and socially meaningful.

The MFA program operates within the School of Arts and even draws its attitude towards innovations in diverse disciplines from the University’s academic space, offering a unique critical and experimental environment for the cultivation of an interdisciplinary artistic practice. The program strives to engender in the artists a commitment to reaching a profound philosophical understanding of their art, and the ability to conceptualize it and place in an historical and contemporary context, without compromising on the individual autonomy of each of them as a unique artist. At the same time, adopting a broad perception of art, the program allows its students to explore the intersections between contemporary art and other disciplines as well as technological innovations, promoting an interdisciplinary artmaking.

The two-year curriculum is based on theoretical and practical workshops with a particular focus on personal guidance and accompaniment of the students by the artists teaching in the Department of Fine Art. It also features personal sessions with guest artists, curators, and theoreticians from Israel and worldwide.

During their studies, the students present solo exhibitions in the gallery located at the Dr. Hecht Arts Center on a regular basis. Each exhibition includes a profound critique session of the artist’s work by the faculty, artists and other curators as well as their peers. The curriculum includes theoretical seminars on contemporary art and a variety of subjects in other fields of knowledge, creation, and thought – cinema, human rights, feminism, history, and more.

Each student in the program has access to his or her own studio at the Dr. Hecht Arts Center on the University campus for two years. The students receive assistance in the creation of a personal work plan. They also have free access to professional workshops including video, sculpture, print, and more. The master’s degree curriculum includes presenting a final project, creating an exhibition, and writing a theoretical research paper on the student’s personal artistic creation, and grants the graduates an MFA degree.

Background

The Master of Fine Arts program was established in 2003, and is the only MFA program in Israel that operates in a university setting. The program was previously directed by leading artists such as Philip Rantzer, Tsibi Geva, Uri Katzenstein, and Yitzhak Golombek. The faculty in the program included Sarah Breitberg Semel, Adi Efal, and Efrat Biberman, among others. The program is headed by Dr. Maayan Amir, while the activity of the program is steered by a steering committee, comprised of artists that accompany the artists enrolled in the program.


                          
        First class  Alumni (2005) (part)            Twelve Alumni  class (2016)