You can begin the journey toward becoming a published poet with a MFA in Poetry from Carlow University. You will explore your creativity, refine your voice, collaborate with other students and work with acclaimed and published poets. 

The MFA is a terminal degree for the creative artists and educators, and provides training for increased professional competencies in the specialized areas of Theatre and Dance. The department offers a comprehensive curriculum designed to balance students' practical training with historical and socio-political context to prepare them as creative and scholarly practitioners in the performing arts. Students’ ability to think critically and act globally equips them with the necessary knowledge and skills to enter professional lives as performers, choreographers, technicians, designers, educators, arts administrators, arts advocates, and leaders in the arts. As a result, they emerge from the program with greater global, historical, racial, cultural, gender, and justice literacy in their fields.

The Department of Theatre at Eastern Illinois University provides students with the opportunity to participate in theatre at all levels. Offering a BA in theatre, students choose from among four emphases for upper division study:  performance, musical theatre performance, technology/design, or generalist.  Students at Eastern have opportunities to work in areas of theatre performance, design and technology. The very active production program including 4-5 faculty directed productions, student productions and a variety of tour experiences gives students many opportunities to participate in the program.

The production program is balanced with a rigorous academic regime that provides students with a firm base in theatre studies. Graduates of this program move on to graduate studies, as well as moving directly into the profession or related fields.

The Master of Arts in Band Studies is a 30 semester credit hour degree program delivered through a concentrated summer residency in Texas, paired with on-line course delivery through SHSU Online.  The program includes interaction with prominent conductors, performers, teachers, and clinicians. It focuses on applicable skills for band directors in a summer-only program, combining an intense study of rehearsal techniques, pedagogy and sequential teaching methodology, score analysis and literature for band.

The Department of Theatre and Dance offers a program of graduate study leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree in the following areas of concentration: acting, directing, and design (costume, lighting, and scenic). The MFA is a 62 semester hour program that takes three years and one summer to complete. A professionally oriented, terminal degree, it is designed to be a transition between collegiate training and the professional theatre and related careers. The program integrates the theoretical with the practical by combining technical preparation and intellectual endeavor with intensive application in designing, directing, and performing in theatre productions in the academic year.

The Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts is a two-year residency program with 60 semester credit hours, as required under the guidelinesfrom the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD),the accrediting agency for art institutions of higher learning.

The MFA inInterdisciplinary Visual Arts is unique in that it will require students to examine and integrate the methods, theory, skills and insights from two or more traditional or non-traditional visual arts with non-art coursework. The program is highly flexible to allow students unfettered access to the excellent faculty and resources within the Department of Art and provides the opportunity to connect with diverse faculty outside of the visual arts from the Universityat large. It fosters interdisciplinary activity, balanced integration of media, processes, and exploratory models of thinking and making. Engagement with disciplines and learning resources outside of Art & Design and within the local, national and international community is expected and supported.

The program is designed to cultivate the practice of interdisciplinarity: to promote different perspectives, methods, media and processes to creative problem solving. Drawing from the diverse expertise of an outstanding faculty, students in the MFA program are grounded in interdisciplinary theory and practice. They explore interdisciplinary exchanges that revolve around material study, concepts and critical dialog in a studio-based environment. Students explore and combine a variety of media that cross studio practices working individually and collaboratively with and across a range of traditional, analogue, and digital mediums and experimental formats infused with ideas and collaboration from disciplines outside of the visual arts. The primary goal of this program is to educate Interdisciplinary visual artists who have the potential to contribute to and move forward the dialogue of contemporary art in the 21st century.

Performing arts students at Wilkes enhance their creative abilities through an integrative approach to theatre practice in the context of a liberal arts education.

Our small, repertory company-sized department provides robust, hands-on experience as soon as the first semester on campus. Explore the classics, Broadway-style productions, relevant modern plays, dance concerts and innovative works.

The Master of Arts in Film and Media provides an in-depth curriculum designed to develop skill sets required to succeed in the film, television, and media industries. Students are exposed to the latest technology, taught the most current financial and distribution strategies, and explore a range of storytelling techniques. The program emphasizes experiential learning and focuses on the latest trends and advances in the entertainment industry. All courses balance practice with theory and are taught by successful creators and executives in the film, television, and media world. The program has been specifically designed to keep up with constant advances in technology, ideas, and trends, both practical and aesthetic.

The Department of Art’s M.F.A. curriculum fosters the development of a sustained artistic practice through exploration, experimentation, and intensive studio work and study. Opened in Fall 2019, the UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios provide individual and communal work spaces for M.F.A. Art students with a design that considers the nature of artistic practice today and can evolve to anticipate change.

The Digital Art & Design, M.F.A. – Fine Arts & Technology concentration helps you push the boundaries of your imagination by producing concept-driven, innovative works of art with both new technologies and traditional tools and mediums. Each of your classes explores and integrates cutting-edge technology, with an emphasis on its impact on the art experience. Your classroom projects incorporate the use of 3-D modeling software to create memorable characters and environments; motion capture to drive those characters and bring them to life; and experiential art through the use of VR/AR.

The Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art provides rigorous study for students with a strong direction and focus in art and a high level of technical proficiency. The program provides advanced study and practice in preparation for professional careers in studio art or teaching in higher education. Graduates will be prepared to take their place in the visual arts community and make significant contributions to our visual culture. The program focuses on creative studio work, supplemented by art history and theory, professional and critical writing, graduate studio critiques, professional development, studio electives and/or independent study.

MFA students focus on independently directed studio art practices guided by faculty mentors toward a research project that culminates in their thesis exhibition. Throughout the program work is produced in the Studio I-IV courses and discussed in the four Master Critique courses. These courses are thematically organized and change each semester to cover a range of current and relevant topics in Art and Design. Group critique sessions involving all MFA graduate students are the central feature of the Master Critique courses. Ideas and information gathered in these production and critique courses aid in directing the student toward his/her thesis. Elective courses support the student’s thesis work by developing and supplementing skills and knowledge outside the student’s primary studio art practice.

Students must complete a minimum of 66 credit hours with the approval of the faculty advisor. At least 24 must be at or above the 700-level and at least 12 must be earned for thesis. Motion Picture students must maintain an overall minimum GPA of 3.0 for all courses.

M.F.A. candidates are expected to follow a set sequence of courses during the first two semesters of their studies. Several courses are required during the second year of studies. Candidates are strongly encouraged to explore not only a primary but also a secondary area of specialization in the program and develop a minimum of two creative projects consistent with their areas of primary interest and secondary specialization. A minimum of 6 credit hours in each area of specialization is required. Under faculty committee supervision, students will develop one or two creative projects in the third year of their studies.

All M.F.A. students must demonstrate deeper, critical understanding of motion picture practice in diverse social and cultural contexts.  To this end, students are encouraged to take advantage of available study abroad programs. Students are also encouraged to participate in an internship during the summer of the first year or second year of studies.

By the end of the second year, students must complete a film and television literacy test, based on a list of 150 culturally and historically significant titles complied by the faculty. The list is circulated to each student upon entrance into the program. The test is administered annually in the spring semester. Students are requried to earn 85/100% on the test in order to complete the degree.

This three-year program culminates with a thesis portfolio that demonstrates, not only skillful execution of craft, but strong conceptual development rooted in collaborative work and innovative uses of technology.