New Low-Residency ‘Critical Ecological Practices’ MFA Pairs Flexible Learning with Climate Justice

A new, first-of-its-kind Master of Fine Arts (MFA) cohort at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) offers students hands-on, interdisciplinary learning opportunities aimed at addressing urgent ecological issues while building community.

The two-year Low-Residency MFA: Critical Ecological Practices (CEP) cohort explores some of the most pressing questions of our time through collaborative, research-driven art practices.

“This new MFA cohort will bring together artists who are looking to focus their interests with likeminded individuals across different communities.”,” says Randy Lee Cutler, faculty member and associate dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at ECU.

“The degree will engage the climate emergency, climate racism, foodways, biophilia, marine life, walking-as-method and fieldwork through contemporary writing and artwork that is multidisciplinary, thoughtful and expansive. This cohort encourages students to think outside the box in terms of their thesis project and how their research might consider public engagement in innovative ways.”

ECU’s Low Residency MFA options allow students to delve into research and practice through live, online courses in fall and spring with month-long on-campus residencies in the summer. The CEP cohort combines this flexibility with a focus on cultural transformation that challenges human-centric ways of thinking and nurtures connection, kinship and reciprocity with the world beyond human beings.

Alongside programs including the undergraduate Ecological Design Practice Minor, the CEP cohort positions the ECU community at the forefront of practitioners focused on climate justice in creative practice.

“In this time of impending global environmental devastation, more and more visual artists are attuning their material and conceptual practices to engage with issues of climate change and sustainability while addressing their relationship with the natural world and the other-than-human,” says ECU faculty member Mimi Gellman.

“It is exciting to imagine the ways this new group will gather together, within a singular cohort, diverse ecological perspectives and adjacent aesthetic responses to contribute to innovative ways of thinking and making within the realms of ecological concern.”

CEP students will engage in critical reflection and collaborative research from their home communities while accessing remote learning technologies tailored to their needs. During summer residencies, they’ll converge in Vancouver to advance their thesis work, cultivate new connections and access ECU’s world-class facilities.

“As an artist researcher I have worked in art and science collaborations for many years, where fruitful innovations emerge from conversations with diverse knowledge practices,” says Ingrid Koenig, ECU faculty member and associate dean of the Faculty of Art.

“Physicists say the world is not made of things, but of events, of processes. I am thrilled our university will bring together a new cohort of interdisciplinary artists responding to urgent ecological challenges. The CEP cohort creates space for students to assemble a breadth of knowledges and methodologies in response to the state of our planetary systems across a multiplicity of interconnected worlds.”

The extended application deadline for ECU’s MFA programs is Feb. 28. Learn more about deadlines and submissions requirements on ECU’s website.

Visit ECU online to learn more about the Critical Ecological Practices MFA cohort.