Program Info
• Introduction
The MVS is a 2 year, full-time professional program featuring study in two distinct but related fields – Studio Art and Curatorial Studies. MVS Studio and Curatorial Studies students share core seminars in the theory and history of contemporary visual art in both years of study, but otherwise pursue their separate fields through focused studio/practicum sessions under the supervision of MVS studio and curatorial studies faculty respectively. In the curatorial studies field, students also work with professional curators and critics, as well as faculty from disciplines related to their course of study (see below). Students in both fields take a number of electives in other graduate units of the University and complete an internship placement aimed to further the participant's research and forge connections to outside institutions.
The MVS students will be a group of artists and curators whose work will advance knowledge within visual culture and strengthen the connections between the visual arts and other fields of study at the University and beyond. The MVS offers participants a unique opportunity to rigorously investigate the interdisciplinary components inherent in contemporary art and curatorial practice, as well as in critical writing, art theory, art history and related areas requiring a high degree of visual literacy.
The MVS produces graduates well equipped to meet the numerous overlapping skills currently demanded within professional studio art or curatorial practice, as well as critical writing, and theoretical discourse.
This program is especially suited to the city of Toronto, which offers a rich and varied cultural environment along with the potential for specific links with the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Power Plant, MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art) and the professional and artist-run alternative gallery systems and art-centred publications. Indeed, this program's location in Toronto provides an intellectual and artistic context for advanced study unequalled in Canada. Located in the culturally diverse city of Toronto, the MVS will be of interest to participants with backgrounds in humanities and social science disciplines: Studio Art,Visual Studies, Art History, Museum Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Anthropology, Architecture, Comparative Literature, Cinema Studies, Environmental Studies, Diaspora and Transnational Studies, and Drama.
• MVS Visiting Artists and Scholars
The MVS Visiting Artists and Scholars program insures contact with the latest developments in contemporary art and critical practice, inviting Canadian and international visitors to conduct individual and group critiques with MVS participants. The bi-weekly non-credit MVS Proseminar brings artists, curators, writers, architects and scholars from other research areas at the University into a lively discussion of current works-in-progress with all the MVS students.
• Internship
Between the first and second year of the MVS program, all students complete an Internship placement that complements their research in either studio OR curatorial practice. Placements can be within institutions and organizations or can be directed towards work with individual arts professionals and can be located in Toronto or in other Canadian or international locations.
MVS Studio
The MVS Studio experience evolves within a rich environment structured around new approaches to visual art production, art theory, critical writing and professional practice. The MVS Studio faculty is comprised entirely of visual artists, with significant on-going exhibition careers. MVS Studio students pursue a highly focused investigation within studio practice along with research into contemporary theories exploring the visual and spatial relationships within art and cultural production.
The MVS Studio is concerned with the increasingly complex modes of visual expression through combinations of text, image, movement, sound and dynamic new electronic media. Accordingly, the participants will examine contemporary art practice and theory through core courses that will give them ample opportunity to develop skills in a variety of projects and media.
Multi-disciplinary and Interdisciplinary
The MVS Studio encourages both a multi-disciplinary and an interdisciplinary studio practice for our students. A multi-disciplinary art practice is one that incorporates a variety of media in its conception and production, crossing, combining or hybridizing art disciplines in its expression. This includes a variety of new and traditional media - video, installation, print technologies, photography, performance, painting and digital technologies – and produces a professional practice unique to contemporary art. As well, we expect MVS participants to benefit from the extensive resources available to them in other graduate programs at the University, including those in History of Art, Museum Studies, History, English, Drama, Comparative Literature, and Computer Science, thus offering a rich environment for interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
While all studio/practicum panels are chaired by MVS faculty, MVS Studio students are encouraged to invite University of Toronto graduate faculty from other departments to join their panels, expanding the possibilities for interdisciplinary exchange, research and production.
Graduating Exhibition and Qualifying Paper: MVS Studio
Throughout the final year of the MVS program, participants in the Studio field develop and produce a body of work that forms the basis for the graduating exhibition, scheduled for early April of the graduating year. Studio participants will benefit from working with a professional curator throughout the last term of their studies; the curator advises on installation and produces curatorial essays on each participant's work which are then printed in the catalogue for the exhibition.
Final critiques and oral defense of the qualifying paper are conducted on-site in the exhibition with the participants' full panel of advisors. The qualifying paper (12-15 pages) will demonstrate the theoretical basis for the artworks produced during the MVS, detailing the research undertaken and discussing the relevance of the participant's chosen media. The qualifying paper will include a full bibliography.
MVS Curatorial Studies
The MVS Curatorial Studies Program experience evolves within a rich environment structured around historical and contemporary approaches to curatorial practices, in conjunction with developments in the visual art, theory, and critical writing. In particular, MVS Curatorial Studies student will be focusing on the presentational challenges arising from complex modes of visual expression -- from object to installation, from text and image combination, temporal as well as audio and new electronic media – within the increasingly dominant forces of the culture industry.
Guided by MVS Curatorial Studies faculty, which comprises the Director of Curatorial Studies and MVS Visual Studies faculty, as well as scholars in diverse disciplines and professionals in the field, program participants will examine the history and practical skills of exhibition-making in conjunction with studies of the developments of contemporary art and theory through core and electives courses. The course of study is designed to offer students ample opportunity for the in-depth development of the subject and contents of the Graduating Exhibition, its full realization for public presentation, and the Qualifying Paper in the form of a Catalogue Essay. The Graduating Exhibition will take place within one of several, nationally and internationally renowned University of Toronto galleries of contemporary art (Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House, Blackwood Gallery at UTM, or Doris McCarthy Gallery at UTSC) but may also be developed in offsite locations, including museums and galleries within the region.
Interdisciplinarity
The MVS Curatorial Studies Program explores the multi-faceted approaches of contemporary curatorial undertakings in an interdisciplinary and international context. The aim of the program is to develop the intellectual and practical capacities for creating meaning through established and new formats of exhibition making, underscored by a wide variety of disciplines critical to the understanding of contemporary art and its presentation. We expect MVS participants to benefit from the extensive resources available to them in other graduate programs at the University, including those in History of Art, Museum Studies, History, English, Architecture, Women and Gender Studies, Diaspora and Transnational Studies, Semiotics, and Comparative Literature, thus offering a rich environment for interdisciplinary research.
While all Curatorial Studies panels are chaired by MVS faculty, MVS Curatorial Studies students are encouraged to invite University of Toronto graduate faculty from other departments as well as independent scholars and professionals to join their panels, expanding the possibilities for interdisciplinary exchange, research, and development of an intellectual and professional network.
Graduating Exhibition and Qualifying Paper: Curatorial Studies
Throughout the final year of the MVS program, each participant in the Curatorial Studies field will plan and implement an exhibition and produce a catalogue essay and published brochure discussing the framework and selection of works included in the exhibition. Throughout the final year of their studies, students will receive guidance and input from their advisory panels comprised of faculty, professional curators, and/or independent scholars. The panel will assess content, theoretical and critical framing of the exhibition, and provides feedback on the curatorial essays of each participant's Graduating Exhibition.
Final critiques and oral defense of the exhibition and qualifying paper are conducted on-site in the exhibition with the participants' full panel of advisors. The qualifying paper (15-20 pages) will demonstrate the theoretical basis for the exhibition and the relevance of chosen artworks within that context. The qualifying paper will include a full bibliography.