Visual Arts & Sound Art MFA applications and open studios

Applications are now being accepted for the MFA Visual Arts and Sound Art Programs at Columbia University School of the Arts. The application deadline for Fall 2024 is January 17, 2024, 11:59pm ET.

The Visual Arts + Sound Art Program offers students many opportunities to increase the depth and complexity of their studio practice and their ability to think critically in the contexts of contemporary art and theory. To that end students have regular studio visits with faculty, guest artists and critics who offer insight into both the form and underlying ideas of students’ work.

Students are also encouraged to explore electives across the university. Writing, Film Studies, Art History, Architecture, Philosophy, and Anthropology are only a few of the programs at Columbia where our students gain knowledge and inspiration that inform their studio practice.

The two-year Visual Arts Program is interdisciplinary, offering an MFA degree in Visual Arts rather than in specific mediums, allowing students to explore new ways of working or to focus on a particular technique including moving image, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and expanded practice. 

The Sound Art Program awards the Visual Arts MFA Degree in association with the Department of Music and the Computer Music Center. Students are also free to work across moving image, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, expanded practice and performance technique while focusing on integrating sound.

Learn more at the upcoming information sessions on Sunday November 12, 2023:

Sound Art: 10am ET, RSVP here
Visual Arts: 11am ET, RSVP here

The School of the Arts will also present MFA Open Studios on Sunday, November 12 from 2–5pm ET featuring the class of 2024. Get a preview of upcoming Visual Arts and Sound Art thesis projects in progress, and meet the artists. Free and open to the public. More details. Location: Prentis Hall, 632 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027.

Participating sound artists: A. M. DeVito, Colm Keady-Tabbal, and Julian Zehnder. Participating visual artists: Candela Bado, Andie Carver, Olivia Drusin, Erica Enriquez, Laurena Finéus, Sasha Fishman, Aristotle Forrester, Krista Gay, Valeria Guillén, Ian Ha, Jing Harren, JOHANNA, Sharon Yaoxi He, Nima Jeizan, Roxana Kadyrova, claudia yeejae kim, Kristian Kragelund, Chuqiao Li (Chloe), Yiwei Lu, Kai Oh, Youngmin Park, Benjamin Salesse, SÉAN, Sofya Shpurova, Steven Stallings Cárdenas, Tk Suh, and Zhiqian Wang.

We encourage you to contact the Admissions Office at soaadmissions [​at​] columbia.edu with any questions. For application requirements and to apply online, visit Visual Arts application requirements and Sound Art application requirements online. For more details on the programs, visit arts.columbia.edu.

About Columbia University School of the Arts
Columbia University School of the Arts awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Writing and the Master of Arts degree in Film and Media Studies; it also offers an interdisciplinary program in Sound Art. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented, visionary, and committed artists from around the world and a faculty comprised of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics, and scholars.

Columbia University School of the Arts recognizes Manhattan as part of the ancestral and traditional homeland of the Lenni-Lenape and Wappinger people. We continue to address issues of exclusion, erasure, and systemic discrimination through ongoing education and a commitment to equitable representation.