Master of Arts

A generative context for advanced inquiry into the ideas, institutions, and discourses of contemporary art.

We challenge students to expand skills of analysis, questioning, and creative problem solving to prepare them for a lifelong commitment to art and ideas. Our scholars are considered artists and they work side by side with MFA candidates—their creative materials are ideas and words.

MA candidates participate in art history and critical theory seminars; research and writing colloquia; and have opportunities for curating, internships, and travel. These crossdisciplinary offerings prepare students to cultivate and execute an individualized course of study that will lead to the final research thesis—a book-length work of creative scholarship.

The MA Collaborative Project provides a forum for students to take their work into the public sphere—and to collaborate professionally with their peers—with an exhibition, symposium, site-responsive project, or any form chosen by the group in conversation with the lead faculty.

The final MA Symposium introduces MA graduates to the Bay Area in a highly celebrated public forum.

San Francisco Art Institute is dedicated to the intrinsic value of art and its vital role in shaping and enriching society and the individual. As a diverse community of working artists and scholars, SFAI provides its students with a rigorous education in the fine arts and preparation for a life in the arts through an immersive studio environment, an integrated liberal arts curriculum, and critical engagement with the world.

Adopted by San Francisco Art Institute Board of Trustees, March 2013.