Program
A LOCUS FOR CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING, FOSTERED BY CRITICAL THINKING, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON COMMUNITY.
SNC’s interdisciplinary approach addresses the challenges and responsibilities faced by contemporary artists in an evolving global environment by focusing on the skill development, experimentation and collaborative dialogue that fosters creative solutions and the practice of art.
FAQ
What happens between residencies?
Between residencies, students return to their home studios to focus on their own studio practice. As a supplement to this, they participate in one-on-one mentorships with an assigned faculty mentor who will help to guide them through this process. Additionally, they will participate in an online seminar with the rest of their peers. This seminar, which varies in topic each semester, will serve to keep them linked to their classmates until they meet again in person.
Is your program accredited?
Yes. Our program is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).
How do students spend their time during the residencies?
How is this program different from other low-residency MFA programs?
The MFA-IA program is specifically geared towards people with active lives outside of school. While we are a full time program, we consciously designed the 10-day residencies with the notion that not everyone can take off for an entire summer, or for multiple weeks at a time. We know that there are dedicated, talented and driven artists and thinkers who have children, or who have jobs, or who have other responsibilities that make it difficult for them to commit to a conventional MFA program. We continue to listen and hone our program to be sensitive to the needs of the contemporary artist today.
Mission:
We distinguish ourselves through our emphasis on “place” as a central operating subject of inquiry. We fold in the concept of “low-residency,” not just as a convenient model, but rather as a principle of moving through today’s world. What can groups of like-minded but locationally distant artists create together? How can we activate the hunger to explore a mode of understanding via location in order fuel multi-tiered inquiries? What Lake Tahoe can host as a specific location, beyond it’s tremendous beauty, is a place-holder for creating a structure for thinking about landscape – both natural and man-made. It does this by showing us what is present as well as what is missing. We hope to embolden students desire for more critical dialogue around our relationship to our surroundings, as well as to the role of the artist in addressing these complexities.
What is the general arc of a student moving through this program?
What is the average age of a student in this program?
The average age of our current students is mid-30’s.
Where do students do their thesis exhibitions?
Students create, produce and install their official thesis exhibition in their home community, with the guidance of their mentors and thesis advisors. During the final (5th) residency on campus, students will design an archive version of that exhibition to display in our galleries. Thesis committees will meet during that final residency to critique projects and complete thesis conversations.