There’s something special about finding a graduate program dedicated to experimental interdisciplinary visual arts on the West Coast in an academic landscape where institutions are hard pressed to maintain an exclusive focus on these important studio practices or advocate for them within institutional shifts—as evidenced by the tumultuous journey of mergers like Mills College with Northeastern University[1]and San Francisco Art Institute (where I attended graduate school) with University of San Francisco.[2] Sierra Nevada University is slated to Merge with University of Nevada, Reno on July 1,[3] which will then house the MFA-IA program that strives to maintain its artist-led resolve even within the structures of accreditation and shifting departmental expectations involved in such mergers. So how has the program managed thus far to create this special space for experimentation within its low-residency program pedagogy, and how is it continuing to do so? Assistant Director Anza Jarschke shares: Read More
Karen Krolak (’18) has forged an interdisciplinary practice rooted not only by her primary medium of dance, but through the community she builds with others by making work that addresses grief and trauma, building awareness of these feelings that oft aren’t celebrated. While the complexities of these emotions stem from her own experience through her work they take on new form—like choreography, a publishing project, and the occasional knitting pattern—to allow others to connect to themselves, to find space to find validation and modes of expression alongside the artist. That mutual exchange is at the heart of Krolak’s work, which is often collaborative, and extends into her roles as a mentor, board member of organizations, and founder of a dance space that lifts up the work of others.
Like many private colleges and universities, SNU has traditionally relied on tuition to support most of its operations. Because maintaining the necessary enrollment levels is a vulnerable long-term business model, the SNU Board of Trustees determined that SNU ‘s financial future was no longer sustainable based on this model. The board needed to make major strategic changes, both to serve the needs of current and future students and to preserve the Incline Village campus for higher education. Read More
New Mexico-based artist and researcher Nina Elder joined the faculty of Sierra Nevada University’s MFA-IA program this January just in time to teach at her first residency. While New Mexico is in her roots, Elder’s projects take her all over the United States connecting with people, place, and environment.
The MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (MFA-IA) at Sierra Nevada University is thrilled to hold the Winter 2022 residency in-person along the stunning shores of North Lake Tahoe, taking place January 3-12, 2022.
We welcome a new faculty member, Nina Elder, to teach a section of Focused Studio Practice. Focused Studio Practice is a special topics studio course designed to take advantage of a particular vision and expertise of the teaching Visiting Artist or Scholar, who expands our sense of community from the Tahoe Basin outward.
![Low-Residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts [MFA-IA]](https://interdisciplinaryarts.org/files/2020/12/mfaia.png)