The mission of Otis College is to prepare diverse students of art and design to enrich our world through their creativity, their skill, and their vision.

At Otis College, we don't sit by and watch. We look at the world and look again. We get inspiration from everywhere. We need to make—and try everything. We work hard and work is our play. We experiment, we fail, and we grow. We use all the tools.

The city is our soul—Los Angeles—where dreams meet discipline. We don't just welcome, support, and include. Diversity defines us.

The mission of Otis College is to prepare diverse students of art and design to enrich our world through their creativity, their skill, and their vision. At Otis College, we don't sit by and watch. We look at the world and look again. We get inspiration from everywhere. We need to make—and try everything. We work hard and work is our play. We experiment, we fail, and we grow. We use all the tools. The city is our soul—Los Angeles—where dreams meet discipline. We don't just welcome, support, and include. Diversity defines us.

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English Language Requirements

Los Angeles, USA

Otis College Of Art And Design

The MFA Fine Arts Program is open, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. We are looking for advanced artists who are engaged and committed to exploring an art practice in its various forms, traditions, and contexts. We emphasize interdisciplinary critical dialogue and lifelong learning within our intimate community. Our Art + Social Practice emphasis is an optional concentration that explores and encourages collaboration and builds skills to work in the social field. You will be simultaneously supported and challenged. In Critique, you will learn to discuss your own and others’ work and attempt to locate it within wider cultural debates. Individual studio meetings with faculty will offer you one-on-one conversations on work in progress, ideas, readings, or plans. In Art History and Theory seminars, you will read, write, discuss, and consider various histories, methodologies, and frames of thought. Professional Practices will prepare you to sustain a lifelong practice. Our Visiting Artist Lecture Series brings distinguished artists, curators, and thinkers into close dialogue with students. Studies culminate in a written thesis and final MFA exhibition. All full-time graduates work in their own individual studios located at the graduate campus in Culver City. Residencies in Paris, Mexico City, and Anderson Ranch in Colorado are exclusively reserved for Otis graduate students and alums. A fellowship with the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena is also available to Otis graduates.

On-Campus

MFA Fine Arts

The MFA Graphic Design Program is a year-long, LA-based student, faculty, and research collective of designers investigating the issues of our day. We blend design exploration, critical inquiry, and applied projects to interrogate and better our world. We partner with organizations to foster deep impact beyond the classroom. Usually, students convene for four consecutive semesters completing all required credits in fourteen months; this accelerated program serves the needs of working professionals and traditional students, alike. During the course of studies, students learn to work across media and platforms through a series of studio projects, visiting workshops, courses in design theory and history, and round table discussions. The coursework engages research, discourse, critical thinking, and iterative process with the goal of discovering many possible design outcomes. In doing so, the program supports students in taking on the challenges and opportunities in contemporary graphic design practice.

MFA Graphic Design Program

MFA Writing at Otis College was founded in 2000 by Paul Vangelisti, and over the next two decades, it emerged as a nationally recognized program with an innovative curriculum, including an emphasis on translation and global literature, the development of a publishing project, Otis Books, and a vibrant biweekly Visiting Writers Series which drew authors to the campus from around the country. The 2020-21 academic year is the last for MFA Writing and the program is not accepting new applications. However, with this chapter ending, a new one begins for creative writing at Otis. Once MFA Writing winds down with its final cohort, its core Faculty will migrate to the Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), where in partnership with the current LAS Faculty and leadership they will help develop a new center for writing focusing on the BFA population. After twenty years, the College takes pride in all that has been accomplished in MFA Writing and looks forward to new conversations across all of the departments and programs about how to weave writing even more intricately into art and design education and practice throughout the College.

Otis College Of Art And Design

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