degree programs in visual arts
at JFK University, San Francisco, California
As artists, we create objects and events that alter and enrich human consciousness. As teachers, we help our students discover their own, most profound sources of creativity and life.
As healers, we use creativity and passion to promote well-being. We help the world by discovering and expressing the sacred within ourselves.
The Department of Arts and Consciousness helps students go farther into the deepest levels of consciousness, and then return to the world of phenomenon and social interaction with new tools for change. This journey between the inner and the outer is the essence of Arts and Consciousness.
A&C promotes dialogue about how art can reestablish itself as a central activity in human existence. Students and faculty discuss artwork not only in formal terms but in terms of transformation and inner awareness. Artists in the outside community and our students come together to create new ways for art to exist.
The Arts and Consciousness Department is a place where change occurs – where we learn to create a new reality and a new culture.
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Explore your personal creative process through innovative arts programs that integrate your search for the deepest personal, social, and spiritual dimensions of art. Our faculty of local and visiting artists and scholars invite you to join our exceptional arts community dedicated to re-visioning the role of the artist in contemporary society.
You will find that the Arts & Consciousness curriculum encompasses studio art, academic investigation, personal growth, arts and healing, and the creation of a new multicultural context for art. The program stresses use of your direct experience as an artist for the creation of objects, events, and activities which facilitate growth and wellness in yourself and others and promote community interaction.
Through our two degree programs, you will have the opportunity to explore art through a variety of forms – performance, ritual, and digital and other media, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and video, just to name a few.
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Arts
The Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts program represents a new voice currently reshaping the art world by combining multiculturalism, personal authenticity and social transformation in 21st century art. It is designed for students who have already achieved a high level of technical and philosophical sophistication and want to enter the world as exhibiting artists.
The program emphasizes the connection between culture, spirituality and personal identity, and challenges students to listen to and trust their own experience of truth and meaning as the basis for culturally significant artwork. To meet this challenge, students form a strong community to support each other in the search for the transcendent meaning in art.
The program concludes with the development of an extensive artist’s statement and a final exhibition or performance of the student’s artwork that meets the department’s standards for artistic excellence.
The Master of Arts in Transformative Arts (MA)
The Master of Arts in Transformative Arts addresses a growing cultural imperative that art must reassume its integral position in the community. The Transformative Arts program develops the artist’s creative work with a focus on healing and personal growth, combining philosophical, academic, personal growth, and creative work. It prepares students to become facilitators of positive change in the world through art and the creative process.
Students in the Master of Arts in Transformative Arts program have diverse artistic practices and levels of experience. Many have backgrounds in visual arts, but some are poets, musicians, dancers, or performance artists. Some have discovered their creative path relatively recently, while others have been practicing their art for many years. These diverse students find common ground through their investigation of the relationship between inner being and outer work. They share a focus toward service to others through artistic expression.
Specific coursework addresses the practical applications of creativity through group and individual work. Electives provide students the opportunity to explore and grow in their area of special interest to discover their own unique way to use art as a healing force. The focus in all courses is not as much on developing the student’s artist talents, but rather on gaining insights about the artistic process that can be applied as transformative teachers and healers.
The Arts & Consciousness Gallery, located in the arts annex, offers a significant exhibition and performance space for Bay-area artists—particularly those working with some aspect of art and spirituality. Exhibitions and gallery lectures by invited artists give students direct contact with the art and artists who are transforming the world. These exhibitions also allow the larger community to participate in the exciting new developments in Arts & Consciousness. Approximately 3,500 people each year visit the A&C Gallery.
The A&C Gallery is also host to a number of student exhibitions throughout the year. MFA students generally finish the program with a solo exhibition in the A&C gallery. Other student exhibitions are held for groups of MA or MFA students whose work explores common areas related to their studies in studio or transformative arts.
Sourced from the JFK University website where you can find more information.
fellowships for contemplative artists
the awakened eye 