The first Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in the country to focus exclusively on writing for young readers, the Writing for Children & Young Adults program is a diverse and dynamic community of writers.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art Program is ideal for those with substantial experience in making art and a working knowledge of art history and visual culture, who are seeking contemporary discourse, community, and to elevate their artistic practice through a realistic model of education. The program encourages an interdisciplinary approach to studio practices, helping emerging artists to integrate contemporary cultural theory with the practical concerns of their own media, method, and place in the world. Graduates will demonstrate an investment in an aesthetic and/or conceptual strategy or strategies for art-making; substantive knowledge of visual culture and an understanding of research methodology; and the capacity to make critical judgments about their own artistic practice and other contemporary art in relationship to visual culture and the social context.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design is a terminal degree and affords graduates the necessary credentials to teach at the higher education level. The goal of the program is not only to credential, but also to help students develop advanced design skills, vision, and knowledge. The program allows students to craft visual form, generate insightful content, and foster mindful research across visual and digital media. Graduates of the program will acquire the ability to synthesize form, content and craft; deepen and expand critical ability; build fluency in design discourse and visual culture; and claim agency in the larger context of design and society.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Master of Fine Arts in Film degree represents the advanced study of filmmaking. Students to explore traditional and contemporary film form and professional practice including screenwriting, narrative, documentary, animation, hybrid and transmedia, through a project-based program. Graduates of the program demonstrate a mastery of professional and artistic skills through the creation of a new, rigorously pursued and developed body of work appropriate to the student’s focus in live action filmmaking, animation, and/or screenwriting; make appropriate creative choices, grounded in professional practice, in the application of the language of film; and demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of film history and criticism, and of relevant contemporary works by others.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Writing has many different concentrations based around different types of writing: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and literary translation. Students can choose to focus on a single writing type or study multiple.
The program is ideal for those who want to take an active role in shaping their own education in a model that balances rigorous academic critique with nurturing aesthetic support.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Music Composition is for students with a background in music and compositional skills. Some subjects covered in the program include: jazz, songwriting, electronic music, contemporary composition, and scoring (film, television, game). This course will prepare students to have an established composition practice and a portfolio of personal music recorded by professional musicians and ensembles.
This is a low-residency program that combines online work with short-term residencies in California.
The Masters of Fine Arts in Cartoon Studies Program at the Center for Cartoon Studies incorporates the curriculum of their One-Year Program for the first year, which centers around the fundamentals of cartoon studies including: writing, drawing, graphic design, screen-printing, and computer skills that relate to publishing. In the second year, the program revolves around a yearlong thesis project. The second year may be completed on location or by distance in a low residency online and correspondence program. The program requires a completed bachelor’s degree at the time of enrollment.
One of the top low-residency programs in the country, the Bennington Writing Seminars is a two-year, rigorous exploration of craft. You commit as much to reading as to writing and critical literary analysis. You create bold new works of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, and may work in a dual-genre. You finish with a polished thesis and a critical paper. All this with the expert 1:1 guidance of acclaimed authors who develop a stake in your work. Our alumni, faculty, students, and staff publish work at the highest levels.
Bennington’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Music program invites students of music to develop their artistic vision by pursuing work at an advanced level in either composition or voice. (In exceptional cases, students wishing to pursue postgraduate work in other performance areas may be considered.) In a supportive and demanding environment, MFA candidates, in dialogue with the faculty, design an individual program that puts them in contact with a range of accomplished faculty members over the course of their time here, as well as with disciplines outside of music, with the primary goal of refining and deepening the quality of their work as performers or composers.
The Bennington music faculty accepts one or two graduate students at a time to pursue postgraduate work.
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Public Action is a highly selective graduate degree program, designed to give accomplished artists working as agents of social change the time, space, and focus to conduct research and develop new work.
MFA fellows are expected to have substantial professional experience in socially or civically engaged public art or related areas, well beyond undergraduate studies. We recognize the achievements of artists who have had significant careers and encourage them to apply in order to continue their creative research.