The MFA printmaking program hinges around the Grad Projects and Grad Seminar classes. The Projects class is usually a combination of studio time and critical discussions of each student's work and the group as a whole. The Seminar is more outward looking, with a loosely defined goal of helping students understand their relationship to the contemporary art world. Either class might include special projects such as field trips, visiting artists and the like. It's safe to say that the courses are shaped, in part, by the interests of the students, while the faculty function more like facilitators. The result is often a one on one teaching - independent study sort of program, but each group is different and certainly each professor has his/her own way. Students generally take the projects course for a variable credit which allows them a great deal of flexibility as to the other courses they might choose. There are also art history requirements and opportunities to take studio electives in disciplines outside of printmaking. MFAs may take graduate level courses in other departments across Temple University. We have had students take Film, Dance, History, Botany and Philosophy courses while at Tyler. The whole university is a resource for those students who choose to spend their elective class options in that way. During the fall semester every new Tyler MFA graduate student (painters, sculptors, photographers, designers etc) takes the Interdisciplinary seminar, which focuses on guest speakers and provides an opportunity to meet all of the other new grads. Shelley Spector of Spector Projects is currently teaching the course. http://www.artjaw.com/
Philadelphia has a vibrant art scene. artblog is probably the best source for information regarding alternative spaces as well Museum exhibitions:
Temple Rome Option only for Print and Painting MFAs: We have a two person graduate studio adjacent to the print shop in the Villa Caproni, the home of Temple University's Rome Campus. TU Rome enrolls about 220 students, usually about 50 are art students, five of which are MFA students; three painters and two printmakers. At the MFA level the Rome program is for only the most self directed students, perhaps more like a Residency program. The MFA students can apply for only one year, but it can be either the first or the second.
Art Rome blog, posts by Tyler students in the TU Rome Program:
