A Master of Fine Arts (MFA, M.F.A.) is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree (BFA), although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts. Coursework is primarily of an applied or performing nature with the program often culminating in a major work or performance.
Master of Fine Arts programs have generally required a bachelor's degree prior to admission, but many do not require that the undergraduate major be the same as the MFA field of study. The most important admissions requirement has often been a sample portfolio or a performance audition.
The Master of Fine Arts differs from the Master of Arts in that the MFA, while an academic program, centers around practice in the particular field, whereas programs leading to the MA usually center on the scholarly, academic, or critical study of the field.
In the United States, a Master of Fine Arts is seen as a terminal degree, meaning that it is considered to be the highest degree in its field. In the interest of extending the connection between creative production and continued academic research, however, some universities have established competing Ph.D programs in fields such as creative writing, visual arts, and theater.
Famous quotes containing the words master of, master, fine and/or arts:
“He’s the master of the nightmare. He’s the Gustave Doré of the world of Henry Ford and Co., Inc.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“[Women’s] apparent endorsement of male supremacy is ... a pathetic striving for self- respect, self-justification, and self-pardon. After fifteen hundred years of subjection to men, Western woman finds it almost unbearable to face the fact that she has been hoodwinked and enslaved by her inferiors—that the master is lesser than the slave.”
—Elizabeth Gould Davis (b. 1910)
“Give us that grand word “woman” once again,
And let’s have done with “lady”; one’s a term
Full of fine force, strong, beautiful, and firm,
Fit for the noblest use of tongue or pen;
And one’s a word for lackeys.”
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855–1919)
“Most arts require long study and application; but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)