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The Master of Fine Art programme is a part of the Piet Zwart Institute, an internationally renowned postgraduate centre dedicated to research in the fields of art and design. Embracing the ethos of Piet Zwart, a pioneering Dutch designer who experimented across media, disciplines, and contexts, the Institute offers intensive specialization within a challenging and interdisciplinary context.

Situated in the heart of Rotterdam, the Piet Zwart Institute has four master courses: Fine Art, Interior Architecture and Retail Design, Media Design and Communication, and Education in Arts. All are English-taught programmes that promote a critical awareness of the complex social and political underpinnings of each discipline. While students and faculty come from across the globe, bringing with them diverse cultural influences, there are also strong connections to the city, its history and constantly changing urban environment.

The Master of Fine Art programme is one of the longest established courses within the Institute. It has a rich legacy of distinguished alumni, public programming, and publishing. Operating from the premise that contemporary art is embedded in a global field of cultural, social, and political practices and discourses, the course sees critical reflection, debate, and action as integral to independent research and practice, and fosters professional development for emerging artists.

The Master of Fine Art course director is Vivian Sky Rehberg, and the tutorial team is comprised of a dedicated group of international artists, writers, curators, and theorists, including core tutors Liesbeth Bik, Bernd Krauss, Hadley+Maxwell, Steve Rushton, Jan Verwoert, and Lisa Robertson. Recent guest tutors include Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Eric Baudelaire, Mariana Castillo Deball, Trevor Paglen, Aleksandra Mir, and Ruti Sela and Maayan Amir.

Students accepted into the Master of Fine Art programme are offered ample studio space and a dynamic artistic milieu where they encounter and interact with an international network of peers and leading professionals from a variety of fields. The course cultivates relationships inside and outside the academy through student and faculty initiatives and via institutional partnerships.

The curriculum is structured to offer considerable time and space for independent research, which is enhanced by individual tutorials, self-organized projects, and group critiques. Studio research and practice are complemented by an annual series of interdisciplinary thematic projects, which vary from year to year, but relate to four defined areas: the material, the contextual, theory, and research.

While valuing the very necessary reflective and at times private space for speculation, public exhibitions, symposia, and publishing are also core activities within the educational framework of the Fine Art programme and the Piet Zwart Institute as a whole. These public moments extend both student and faculty research beyond the confines of academia, offer opportunities to test ideas and practices before a wider audience, and contribute to the visibility of our achievements.

Application Deadline: to allow time for scholarship applications from home countries, the Piet Zwart Institute accepts applications on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. Applications are open from December 1, 2012 until May 1, 2013. Early submission is encouraged. For more information, see www.pzwart.wdka.nl

Renee Turner

Director Piet Zwart Institute

Vivian Sky Rehberg

Course director Master Fine Art