Massachusetts College of Art and Design

History

In the 1860s, civic and business leaders whose families had made fortunes in the China Trade, textile manufacture, railroads and retailing, sought to influence the long-term development of Massachusetts. To stimulate learning in technology and fine art, they persuaded the state legislature to found several institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1860) and the Museum of Fine Arts (1868). The third of these, founded in 1873 was the Massachusetts Normal Art School, intended to support the Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870 by providing drawing teachers for the public schools as well as training professional artists, designers, and architects. During its first decade, the state rented space for the school in several locations including Boston's Pemberton Square, School Street, and the Deacon House mansion on Washington Street. In 1886 the state built the school's first building at the corner of Exeter and Newbury Streets, and then in 1929 moved the school to its second built campus at Longwood and Brookline Avenues. In 1983 MassArt was relocated to the former campus of Boston State College at the corner of Longwood and Huntington Avenues, after the latter school's merger with the University of Massachusetts Boston. Boston has designated Huntington Avenue as the "Avenue of the Arts", in recognition of the location of MassArt, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Symphony Hall, and other educational and cultural institutions along this thoroughfare.

Academics

Massachusetts College of Art and Design is ranked among the top art colleges in the country. Businessweek recognized MassArt as one of the top global design schools, and U.S. News & World Report ranks MassArt’s MFA Program #1 in Massachusetts. Admission to the Graduate Programs is highly selective, ranking among the top three graduate programs in art and design in the country, as reported by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD).

MassArt offers a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, a Master of Science in Art Education, a Master of Fine Arts, a Master of Architecture (Track I & Track II - First and Post-professional), and in 2007 received Candidacy Status for a Master of Architecture. MassArt also offers a number of pre-college (both credit and non-credit) programs for high school students, and continuing education and certificate programs for professional and non-professional artists. In addition, MassArt still fulfills its original mission, with ongoing programs for primary and secondary school teachers of art.

MassArt's undergraduate curriculum includes a Foundation Program for the first year, which provides compulsory exposure to the basics of 2D and 3D art and design. Graduation requirements include an elective studio and multiple Critical Studies courses. Students at MassArt have the option of majoring in Fine Arts (2D), Fine Arts (3D), Communication Design, Environmental Design, Media and Performing Arts, and Art Education. Within those majors they can choose to focus on disciplines such as Industrial Design, Art History, Fashion Design, Architectural Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Animation, Painting, Printmaking, Ceramics, Glass, Sculpture, Fibers, Metals, Photography, Film/Video, and in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM).

According to the College Board website, MassArt's student body racial composition is 72% White, 9% Unknown, 5% Hispanic, 6% Asian, 3% Black, 2% two or more races, and 2% International (non resident alien).

Traditions and celebrations

The "Mass Art Iron Corps" hosts an "Iron Pour" event at MassArt approximately four times a year. The event is centered around a spectacular pouring of white-hot molten iron into molds for sculpture. In the past, this was celebrated by accompanying music, dance, and other performances. However, around 2010, the Boston Fire Department insisted on greatly reducing the number of people present, because of safety concerns. The pours are still claimed to consume around 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) of iron per year.

The 2D Fine Arts department hosts an annual Master Print Series, where MassArt invites a visiting artist to work collaboratively with the students and faculty of the printmaking department to produce professional-level editions for the artist.

Twice each year, before Christmas and at the end of the academic year in May, a large week-long public sale of "MassArt Made" artworks by alumni and current students takes place in the Tower Building. Works included in the sale are selected by a jury panel, and artists receive 60% of the revenue derived, with the remainder going to support MassArt programs. The MassArt Auction, a separate, ticketed event, is held in April, and features major artworks. The general public is invited to both events, as well as a number of receptions celebrating the opening of art exhibitions.

Campus

MassArt is headquartered at 621 Huntington Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, and occupies a trapezoidal block of old and new buildings it has acquired over the last two decades. Most of its academic buildings were the former campus of Boston State College, acquired after BSC was merged with the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

MassArt is located on Huntington Avenue, which has been designated and signed as "The Avenue of the Arts" in Boston. The campus is also adjacent to the Longwood Medical Area, and its immediate neighbors on Longwood Avenue include Harvard Medical School and MCPHS University (formerly Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences). Nearby neighbors along Huntington Avenue include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM), the Museum of Fine Arts, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), and the Wentworth Institute of Technology. Further along "The Avenue of the Arts" are Northeastern University, the Boston University Theatre, Boston Symphony Hall, Horticultural Hall, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

Previously, MassArt had occupied a number of buildings scattered throughout Boston's Fenway-Kenmore and Longwood neighborhoods, with its main campus located on the corner of Brookline and Longwood Avenues. In the mid-1990s, that building was acquired by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which then gutted and rebuilt the building's interior, but kept the distinctive facade intact.

In 2009, the Campus Center (located in the Kennedy building, at the corner of Huntington and Longwood Avenues) saw major renovations, including a new two-story glass facade on Longwood Avenue, food services, and the college bookstore. The lower level includes the ReStore, a student-run freecycling space to accept and redistribute surplus art supplies, materials, tools, equipment, and publications free of charge.

In 2016, the building formerly housing a gymnasium was completely gutted and renovated into a new Design and Media Center, including facilities for the Studio for Interrelated Media program. In addition, the new building provides a spacious formal entrance into the academic campus, and new gallery space. This major project was described on the MassArt website, and included a live construction webcam feed.

Transportation

The MassArt campus is served by the MBTA Longwood Medical Area stop on the Green Line "E" Branch, at the corner of Huntington and Longwood Avenues (next to the Campus Center). This location is also a stop on the MBTA #39 and CT2 bus routes. Other nearby public transit options are described online.

Parking spaces are extremely scarce near the MassArt campus, especially during the day. A limited number of paid spaces for students and staff are allocated by a formal application process. Visitors may use metered and commercial parking in the area.

Maps

The MassArt academic campus is compact, consisting of a number of interconnected buildings constructed and renovated over a span of several decades. Different floor heights in adjacent buildings are accommodated by a mix of stairs, ramps, and elevators, resulting in a complex internal layout that can disorient visitors.

An official map is available on campus and online, but it has not yet been updated as of 2016 to show the new Design and Media Center building. In 2014, two additional maps were available on campus: a "Campus Tour Map", and a "Campus Galleries" map. The first of these maps showed all the MassArt buildings (including the 3 dormitories) and included detailed directions to the main entrances of buildings which are open to the public. The "Campus Galleries" map showed the locations of 7 main gallery spaces, with detailed instructions on how to reach them.

Academic buildings

The MassArt academic campus is composed of six interconnected buildings: Kennedy, South, Collins, North, East, and Tower. There is also an enclosed courtyard located in the center of the quadrangle formed by South, Collins, North, and East. The academic campus flagship is the 13-story Tower Building, wrapped in a dark glass facade, with prominent entry/lobby spaces along Huntington Ave. The Morton R. Godine Library occupies the top two floors of the Tower Building, and the President's Office is on the 11th floor. There is an auditorium in the low-rise section of the Tower Building.

The new Design and Media Center building serves as the formal main portal into the academic campus, featuring a large, spacious entry lobby that can accommodate very large temporary art installations and exhibits. Contemporary media laboratories, classrooms, meeting spaces, project and installation spaces, and galleries are also located here. There is a permanent graphic timeline history of MassArt and its predecessor schools alongside a long ramp at the side of the entry lobby, highlighting and illustrating the accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students over the years.

Art galleries

There are at least 10 galleries on campus available for student shows, or exhibitions by more-established artists. These galleries include the Arnheim Gallery, Brant Gallery, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Doran Gallery, Godine Family Gallery, President's Gallery, Student Life Gallery, Tower Gallery, and North Crackertorium Gallery (located at the junction of the North and East Buildings). The Pozen Center, an area built specifically to house larger scale events and performances, is located on the ground floor of the North Building. The new Design and Media Center features a cavernous entry lobby space used for large temporary installations, as well as additional smaller gallery spaces.

MassArt’s galleries are always free and open to the public, showing cutting-edge exhibitions in a variety of media. The Bakalar and Paine Galleries comprise the largest free, contemporary art space in New England, showing a variety of temporary exhibitions by professional artists. Over the years, the Exhibitions and Visiting Artists Program has matured into one of the area’s most influential presenters, consistently ranked among the year’s top ten by The Boston Globe.

In addition, artworks in all media are informally displayed throughout the campus, in hallways, stairwells, ramps, outdoor spaces, and classrooms. Students can (and do) install artwork almost anywhere, subject to a safety review.

Residence halls

The campus includes three student residence halls, all located directly across "The Avenue of the Arts" from the MassArt academic campus: "New Residence Hall" (578 Huntington Ave.), Smith Hall (640 Huntington Ave.), and "The Artists’ Residence" (600R Huntington Ave.). All residences feature 24/7 professional security, telephone/cable/data connectivity, and partial or full Meal Plans. Each residence hall has its own live-in Residence Hall Director and trained student Resident Assistants.

Smith Hall houses only first-year students admitted to the Foundation Program at MassArt, in suite-style living spaces of 3 to 5 students. It is a renovated 5-story apartment building located immediately across the street from MassArt's Kennedy building. In addition to student rooms, there are studio workrooms and quiet rooms on each floor.

The Artists' Residence ("The Rez") houses freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate student artists. It is a 9-story structure located across the street from the MassArt Tower Building. The Artists' Residence is the first publicly funded residence hall in the United States designed specifically to house art students, and it includes studio spaces and a spray room on the top floor.

The New Residence Hall (also called the "Tree House") is a colorful 21-story dormitory tower located next to The Artists' Residence. It is a new structure designed by the firm ADD Inc. (Boston) with extensive collaboration from MassArt students, plus two other member colleges of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium. The external appearance of the building was inspired by Gustav Klimt's painting, The Tree of Life.

The Tree House accommodates mostly first-year and sophomore students in suite-style layouts in single, double, and triple bedrooms, with suite-shared bathrooms. The second floor is a Student Health Center, shared by students of MassArt, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and MCPHS University. The third floor is called the "Pajama Floor", and includes a game room / TV Lounge, group study room, laundry room, fitness room, vending area, and a community kitchen.

Other facilities

MassArt students have access to common facilities typically found at many colleges, including a full-scale cafeteria, small café, school store, freecycling store, library, student center, health center, counseling center, auditorium, computer labs, and fitness center. Additional not-so-usual facilities include a working letterpress lab with an archival collection of over 500 wood and metal type fonts, 10 art galleries, studio spaces, spray booth, woodworking shop, digital maker's studio, sound studio, and performance spaces.

The Colleges of the Fenway consortium gives MassArt students additional shared access to facilities of five other nearby schools, including their library, athletics, and theatrical resources. MassArt students (with ID) also have free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Danforth Museum of Art—of which the MFA and ISGM are within a short walking distance from campus.

Notable faculty (past and present)