Experiential Learning Opportunities

The fall lecture series features renowned artists, critics and curators. Students have the opportunity to sign up for  individual studio visits with speakers.

Past visitors have included Ryan Trecartin, Catherine Opie, Lyle Ashton Harris, Karen Finley, Douglas Crimp, The Yes Men, Xu Bing, Maurizio Cattelan, Claire Pentecost, Mel Chin, Stan Douglas, Trevor Paglan, William Pope L., Michelle Grabner and Jens Hoffman

Coalesce Center for Biological Arts is a hybrid studio laboratory facility for artists and designers. It is dedicated to enabling hands-on creative engagement with tools and technologies from the life sciences.

Emerging Practices is an area of study focusing on the interdisciplinary space between emerging technologies and the arts. MFA students may explore the technical, tactical, cultural and communicative potential of emerging technologies such as interactive media, electronic installation, robotics, biotechnology and algorithmic image synthesis.

Humanities Institute provides a forum for cross disciplinary scholarship through faculty and student research fellowships, lectures, conferences and publications.

Beijing Graduate Exchange Program was a cross-cultural collaborative program which offered graduate students residencies with the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Due to diplomatic reasons, this program is currently inactive.

The Department of Art has a Project Space gallery, which is frequently used by MFA students to experiment with installations, curation, and performance, on a short term basis. This gallery can be reserved by MFA students, undergraduate students, and course instructors, and reservation information can be found here.

The Department of Art strives to offer an annual ARTBus trip, to a U.S. city within a day's drive of Buffalo, where Art students can experience world-class art museums. Past ARTBus trips have visited New York City, and Washington D.C. These trips usually take place in October, and for a nominal fee, students receive charter bus fair, and admittance to multiple museums. The travel is chaperoned by the Department, but while in the destination city, students are responsible for navigating between museums on their own schedule (recommended sequence and timing provided), and getting back to the bus in time to return to Buffalo. The ARTBus trips utilize a cost-efficient time model of leaving on a Thursday night (sleep on bus), spending all day Friday in the destination city, and returning Saturday morning (after more sleep on bus).

For information on any future ARTBus trips, workshops, exhibition receptions, or other unique event opportunities in the Department, see our Event Calendar.

MFA Students are encouraged to visit and interact with folks of the local art community, at a number of galleries and museums in the region. Part of the MFA program requirement is for an MFA Candidate to forge a relationship with a local gallery, in order to have their MFA Thesis exhibition hosted at one such place (linked list not exhaustive of thesis location options).