The Open House series features multiple virtual events held in March. You are encouraged to watch the recorded sessions to discover more about what MICA has to offer!
Students and Parents asked questions and participated in conversations with MICA faculty and staff. Majors are featured in complimentary pairings, and Campus Life is covered in its own separate sessions. MICA’s innovative First Year Experience hosted its own session to give newly admitted students a preview of what to look forward to in their first two semesters.
Watch below, or get further acquainted with the 2022 Virtual Open House.
Monday, March 6, 2023
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Congratulations on being accepted to MICA’s entering class of 2022! I’m happy that you’ve expressed an interest in General Fine Arts at MICA. Please join me at the virtual Open House session for General Fine Arts on Thursday, March 10th at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). I’m happy that you’ve expressed an interest in GFA at MICA. Here are some of the exciting new developments in our department.
“GFA IS IDEA DRIVEN”
GFA is a major for students who want to explore their creative vision using a variety of media and approaches to artmaking, rather than focusing on a single, specialized field. You will work closely with faculty advisors to select courses from any MICA department that will inform your specific area of artistic inquiry. As a result, you will work with a diverse group of artists pursuing a wide range of interests.
As someone interested in a truly interdisciplinary experience, you will benefit from the facilities at MICA’s Studio Center, a historic industrial building just a short walk from the central campus. Located in Baltimore’s Station North Arts & Entertainment District, it includes independent studio space for upper-division students in Drawing, Painting, and GFA departments. The facility also allows you to rub elbows with MICA’s graduate students and be a part of a strong community of graduate and undergraduate fine artists.
You will receive a range of viewpoints that helps inform the art you create through the visiting artists and critics that visit MICA’s campus. Representing a variety of disciplines, they have included the filmmaker Amy Halpern, who discussed her experience as a female artist in the experimental film scene; MacArthur Award winner Elizabeth King, Hasan Elahi, an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines issues of surveillance, privacy and migration; Shya Woolfalk, Catherine Murphy, Tshabalala Self. We also have two McMillian/Stewart Fellows Shoshanna Weinberger and Hadieh Shafie who enrich our Diversity Initiative.
You also will have access to a wide range of courses, and we’re constantly adding new ones, such as the course “Hands-on Ideation,” where students combine drawing, painting and hand building with digital tools such as laser cutting, 3D printing, digital embroidering and Adobe Creative Suite.
Our graduates go on to work in a variety of mediums and fields, and they are thriving. Checkout these graduates on Instagram abbijacobson, linktr.ee/abbij, amanilewis_brueyhu, loganhicksny, and the GFA department Instagram, mica.generalfinearts. Other alumni pursue graduate study at Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
As you can see, it’s a very exciting time for the GFA department. I’m very pleased that you’ll be joining the MICA community, and I look forward to meeting you and your family during our Open House.
Sincerely,
Rex R. Stevens
Chair, General Fine Arts
Congratulations on being accepted to MICA’s entering class of 2022! I’m happy you’ve expressed an interest in Drawing at MICA. Please join me at the virtual Open House session for Drawing on Thursday, March 10th at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). I’m happy you’ve expressed an interest in Drawing at MICA. Here’s a taste of what’s new and exciting in our department.
“DRAWING RUNS THROUGH ALL MAJORS!”
With a growing interest in drawing as a major, and a continued emphasis on the importance of drawing for students in all majors, we’re expanding our course offerings and studio space. Our seniors benefit from the facilities at MICA’s Studio Center, a historic industrial building just a short walk from the central campus. Located in Baltimore’s Station North Arts & Entertainment District, it includes independent studio space for upper-division students in Drawing, Painting, and GFA. The facility will allow you to rub elbows with MICA’s graduate students and be a part of a strong community of graduate and undergraduate fine artists.
Drawing is fundamental to many disciplines and can be used in a wide range of applications, from painting to printmaking, illustration to animation, and game arts to book arts. And as a drawing major, you can choose from courses that expand the scope of what drawing can be. For example, “Drawing for Thinking and Making” focuses on the uses of drawing in 3D and allows you to explore traditional and computer-aided Rhino app drawing processes for work that often finds its final form in another medium.
You will receive a range of viewpoints that help inform the art you create through the artists and critics that visit MICA’s campus. Representing a variety of disciplines, they have included the internationally acclaimed artist; filmmaker Amy Halpern, who discussed her experience as a female artist in the experimental film scene; MacArthur Award winner Elizabeth King, Zoe Charlton and Robert Nava, Kenyatte Hinkle, Tschabalala Self. We also have two McMillian /Stewart Fellows, Shoshanna Weinberber and Hadie Shafie to enrich our Diversity Initiative.
As a drawing major, you can take advantage of off-campus opportunities that will expand your worldview and impact your studio practice. Students have studied and worked in locations in Europe, Asia, and in New York City through the AICAD New York Studio Program and MICA’s Summer Intensive program in Italy. Professional experience can be gained through internships, and our majors have interned at the Herman Maril Foundation in Baltimore; as an assistant for Chad Tyler, an exhibit designer for the National Aquarium; and for Flat Vernacular, a Brooklyn-based wallpaper company.
As you can see, MICA’s emphasis on drawing prepares you for careers in a variety of fields, and our alumni are thriving. Check out these recent graduates on Instagram: haley_manchon, erinfostel, mica.drawing, linktr.ee/mica. MICA graduates have shown in solo and group shows around the country – in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and New York; while others are game designers and medical illustrators, product designers and filmmakers.
Welcome, I’m very happy you’ll be joining the MICA community, and I look forward to meeting you soon.
Sincerely,
Rex R. Stevens
Chair, Drawing & General Fine Arts departments
Monday, March 20, 2023
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Congratulations on being accepted to MICA’s entering class of 2022! I’m happy you’ve expressed an interest in sculpture at MICA. Please join me at the virtual Open House session for Interdisciplinary Sculpture on Tuesday, March 8th at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). I’m happy you’ve expressed an interest in sculpture at MICA. I’d like to share with you a bit more about our department.
As an interdisciplinary sculpture major, you will learn from nationally and internationally recognized faculty with diverse backgrounds representing a breadth of technical and conceptual practice. This wealth of experience offers you a multifaceted approach to sculpture and the historical, theoretical and contemporary role of the artist. We celebrate the richness of all that sculpture is and can be, and we are linked by our common goal of rigorously balancing conceptual development with material and methodological inquiry. Our curriculum is structured so that every course—from introduction classes to upper-level electives—is geared to reflect this balance.
The department provides a holistic approach to sculpture that builds on the traditional while simultaneously engaging in emerging technologies and practices, exploring possibilities of art in societal and urban contexts, and finding relationships of a sculptural practice within the greater complexities of our global future. In courses such as Urban Resilience, Grow the Future, and Baltimore Urban Farming, you can create works that address urban issues of livability, race relations, education, sustainability, poverty, and more. Our Intro courses are designed to establish a strong proficiency in digital fabrication, woodworking, metal working, casting, robotics, and video. Further, you can combine your ideas with intermediate and advanced techniques in elective courses such as Repetition, the Copy and the Clone, Concrete Culture: The City as Text or Unravel the Code.
During your undergraduate studies, you can pursue opportunities for professional experience. Our students land impressive international internships with funding at Embajada gallery in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that provides an artistic platform for international political dialogue, catalyzed by ideas and aesthetic language; at Laberinto Projects El Salvador in Central America, and with internationally recognized artist, Cecile B Evans in the UK. Students become studio assistants for artists such as Matthew Barney, Joseph Kosuth and Tara Donovan. You may work for prestigious art institutions such as The Contemporary Museum, The Smithsonian, and MOMA. And each summer, our students compete in the global BioDesign Challenge in NYC.
Our young alumni have pursued graduate degrees at MIT, Columbia, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale, VCU, RISD, Princeton and UCLA. The interdisciplinary nature of our curriculum is reflected in the variety of their programs in visual art, architecture, electronic design, environmental science and emerging technologies. Alumni have established significant gallery practices winning numerous awards for their work, while others have become entrepreneurs establishing their own businesses that utilize their background in sculpture.
Perhaps of greatest importance is the absolute commitment we have to you -- to expose you to the extensive breadth that a sculptural practice is and can be. We are dedicated to working with you to help you find your own focus, to develop your unique vision and style, and to support you to discover the greatest possibility of your practice.
Welcome to the MICA community. We look forward to meeting you at Open House.
Sincerely,
Sarah Doherty
Chair, Interdisciplinary Sculpture
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Monday, March 27, 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
