Master of Fine Arts
Clockwise from top: Kajill Aujla, Deepali Raiththa, Rosalina Libertad Cerritos.
Change practice. Change perspective. Change perceptions.
When you choose Emily Carr University for your Master of Fine Arts (MFA), you choose material exploration. You choose to put yourself, your career and your people first by choosing the best delivery mode for you.
Embed yourself in the local scene through a concentrated experience with year-round access to the resources you need. Or choose a hybrid delivery model when your creative research happens on campus and in your home community.
Our MFA degree is offered fully on-campus (full-residency) or split between online and on-campus attendance (low-residency). All program pathways include a thesis project.
Our curriculum emphasizes an innovative approach to contemporary art production, with the flexibility to support your established practice and research initiatives. Our programs bridge disciplines and methodologies, offering a challenging and supportive experience that will significantly enhance your artistic practice and encourage critical inquiry.
Choose between two MFA program pathways:
Full-residency
Our two-year full-residency MFA degree offers a concentrated on-campus academic experience, with year-round access to studios, facilities, and research centres. The curriculum integrates coursework, creative research, material exploration and a thesis project. All elements are grounded in a dynamic, critique-based environment that encourages risk-taking and the growth of material processes and critical perspectives.
During the fall and spring terms, students focus on studio practice development and coursework, emphasizing material exploration and theoretical frameworks. In the summer term, they develop an independent thesis project encompassing practical and written components.
Our program also includes research seminars, studio classes, public exhibitions, and visits from renowned artists and curators, enriching students' practice and professional development.
Low-residency
Our two-year, full-time, Low-Residency MFA stream allows students to delve into research and practice in their chosen fine arts or media arts practice, both independently and under faculty mentorship. Students attend online courses that are delivered synchronously during Fall and Spring terms, and a month-long on-campus residency in the Summer term.
Designed to provide the best of both worlds, students leverage remote learning technologies from their home communities and focus on a studio practice during the summer residency, allowing them to deepen their creative research and material exploration in Vancouver in a supportive and creative community of artists.
There are many opportunities for low-residency students to connect with their full-residency peers and the wider ECU community by participating in year-round professional development activities and other programming.
Explore our curriculum.
Want to learn more about the specifics of our MFA program? You can Explore our detailed course descriptions and curriculum pathways.
“The opportunity to be a graduate student at Emily Carr not only helped me realize further my potential as an artist, but it also gave me the best community of friends and peers along the way. Being a part of such a diverse cohort of artists expanded my perspectives of the potential that visual art has and has inspired me in ways beyond words. I am thankful to have been among such wonderful individuals and artists in my cohort and to learn from such wonderful faculty and researchers as well.”
Kajill Auijla, MFA 2021
Stories from Our MFA Community
"As a multidisciplinary artist, being able to try new materials and methods is an essential part of my praxis. I cannot think of a space or time that better allowed for that than at Emily Carr University. With access to a multitude of studios and workshops, I am able to create freely and organically, while being supported by faculty, staff and colleagues who genuinely care for my success."
Our Studios + Facilities
Above: MFA students in their personal studios. Below: MFA candidate prOphecy sun in the Motion Capture Studio.
Graduate programs at Emily Carr University have a strong focus on studio practice with rigorous individual and group critiques that aim to balance the integration of theory, practice, and production.
As a graduate student, you will have your own studio space at your disposal throughout the program, and to shared, dedicated work areas. Graduate students work with Technical Services Coordinators who help with their various studio needs.
A wealth of resources and integrated studios, labs, and workshops housing a wide range of media, analogue and new digital technologies will be available to you. Find detailed descriptions of our shops and studios on our website.