Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program has developed two innovative concentrations for artists, performers, and culture-keepers.
The Indigenous and Decolonial Art Concentration, offered on our Port Townsend, WA campus, is one of the first academic initiatives in the United States to emphasize the arts in the decolonization process, bringing together Indigenous, settler, and forcibly displaced artists.
The Performance Creation Concentration, offered on our Plainfield, VT campus, blurs the lines between authored, collaborative, and interpretive models of performance and scholarship.
Both concentrations are part of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program, which engages artists from a variety of practices, including visual arts, dance, music, theater, performance art, social practice, design, digital media, and the literary arts, to study in a rigorous interdisciplinary context.
“To the extent that the arts are an important measure of our society’s values, truth, and justice, then these concentrations speak a progressive truth to power. As we free ourselves in expression, we accept the responsibility to free the artistic voice of others, especially those most oppressed. These concentrations and this program further the cultivation of the best within us and among us, as art is wont to do,” said Steve James, Interim Academic Dean and Chief Academic Officer.
This model, and these two new concentrations, may be ideal for working artists, practitioners with a strong artistic community already, as well as creators looking for a broader, interdisciplinary peer group.
“These new concentrations are designed to make the most of Goddard’s low-residency model, allowing students to stay rooted in their own home communities while pursuing a terminal degree. The beauty of the low-residency model is that students can study and make new friendships, without being displaced. They can return home after the short residencies, to deepen and expand their cultural practices, staying connected with their kin and their heart-lands,” said JuPong Lin, MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program Director.
Goddard’s pioneering low-residency model allows students to study on one of our campuses, but live anywhere. They attend eight-day residencies and then return home for 16 weeks of independent work in close collaboration with faculty advisors.
The MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts is now enrolling students. For more information, visit the Performance Creation Concentration or the Indigenous and Decolonial Art webpages. Or, call 1-800-906-8312 or email admissions@goddard.edu.
