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The Frank Mohr International Masters (FMI Masters) at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen has three Master of Fine Arts programmes: MFA Painting, MFA Interactive Media & Environments (IME) and MFA Scenography.

MFA PaintingIn the MFA Painting programme, you work on your own initiative, towards making strong images. You conduct practical, reflective and critical research into new possibilities for painting in a digital age.

MFA Interactive Media & EnvironmentsAs a media artist in the MFA IME programme, you make interactive work. You do practical, reflective and critical research into the use and the applications of upcoming technologies in artistic practice and in society.

MFA ScenographyIn the MFA Scenography programme, you give visual and representational form to spatial environments. You do practical, reflective and critical research into the theatrical context of artistic practice.

The Master of Fine Arts programmes are full-time courses. The programme of 120 credits is spread over two academic years. During these two years, you have a studio of your own or your own working space in a shared working area.

Making, Thinking and Sharing In the MFA programmes, you reflect on your own work and on that of others, in part by participating in roundtable discussions and seminars. In the first year of study, you make a start on the development of your own artistic theory. At the same time, in the course on Artistic Practice in Research, for all the MFA programmes, you formulate your research proposal. You then follow courses at the University of Groningen (RUG) based on your own proposal.

In the second year, in the Research & Development course, you work together with graduate students in Art History and Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Groningen, on research into the interface between media art, the performing arts and the sciences.

During both the studio and the theory programmes, you are guided in your production and your thinking by studio tutors, theory tutors and visiting lecturers. During this last academic year, for example, lecturers and tutors included Ronald Ophuis, Berend Strik, Wilma Sütö, Denise Green, Henk Danner, Mark Warning, the Belgian theatrical troupe CREW, the English collective Blast Theory, and the Dutch collective PIPS:lab.

All of this has the objective of producing strong images based on an individual artistic theory in which you identify your ideas about working methods, means of collecting, combining and transforming meaningful material, and about art and being an artist in general. This is the reason why the programme is structured according to a few major factors, notably the trinity of making, thinking and sharing. Here, it is about reinforcing your artistic mentality and the development of your own artistic system. This system is the totality of artistic objectives and the means and methods that you follow. It forms a personal, associative and continually developing system.

Artistic Research Artistic research within the MFA programmes is therefore to a large degree at the service of art with research. This investigation starts out from and relates to your own discipline: painting, media art or scenography. Art with research also means that, through reflection and comparative investigation, you gain insight into your own working method. You clarify the interests and sources of inspiration that lie at the foundation of your artistic production, your artistic objectives and your theoretical starting points. You develop a vision of your relationship to your audience and the kind of practice in art that you intend to achieve.

You also have the possibility of expanding your research arena by working on both artistic and scientific research in combination with other (art) disciplines, or in other words: art itself as research. In this form of artistic research, you investigate a well-formulated question or problem in and through the artwork itself. This is about the position that you take with your work, in art, in the world and in life.

Art and Society Knowledge CentreOne example of art as research in the 2013-2014 academic year is the possibility of taking part in the Energize festival, organized by the Pop Culture, Innovation and Sustainability lectureship of the Art and Society Knowledge Centre. It is concerned with sustainability, visual art and design, technology and lifestyle. The festival is with and about people who take their fates into their own hands, take action themselves and no longer want to be dependent on the established system.

Another example is the collaboration with the Image in Context lectureship. This lectureship maintains intercultural dialogue. In addition to a student exchange organized by the programme with Hunter College in New York, for example, and the study trip to New York, this year there will be a workshop and participation in the exhibition for MFA Painting candidates at the 6th International Student Triennial. The lectureship stimulates you to make use of cultural differences in order to better understand your own position.

EligibilityThe Frank Mohr International Masters are for those who have completed their bachelor’s degree and are capable of conducting artistic research independently and in a broad context, as well as artists who have already been working as professionals for some time. Applications will be accepted until July 7, 2013. For more information, see www.hanze.nl/home/International/Schools/FMI+Masters/

Robin Punt

Head of Bachelor Fine Arts & Masters Fine Arts

Translated by Mari Shields