A locus for creative problem solving, with an emphasis on community.

Through an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, the program considers how we engage the material and social worlds of our respective environments—from personal, to political, to planetary. This experience and exploration of embodied place is central, encouraging students’ intricate relationship with their environment both here in the Tahoe Basin and within their home communities.

How does a low-residency program work?

Over the course of 2.5 years, the low-residency format combines intensive ten-day residency periods each winter and summer in beautiful Lake Tahoe with full-time work in the student’s home studio throughout the following semesters. A dynamic group of faculty, renowned visiting artists, professional mentors and peers guide you through the process of developing an active and professional practice.

Using all available channels, students engage, critique and explore unfamiliar ideas and cross-disciplinary questions. Personalized mentorship and extensive studio time help students develop the expressive, professional skills necessary to realize their personal visions.

The low-res MFA-IA program offers an alternative to a traditional MFA program, in both structure and philosophy. While we are a full-time program, we consciously designed the ten-day residencies knowing not everyone can take off for an entire summer or multiple weeks at a time. We know that dedicated, talented, driven artists, and thinkers have children, jobs, or other responsibilities that make it difficult for them to commit to a conventional on-ground MFA program.

The academic and artistic ecosystem is defined by a shared environment, both physical and virtual. The program prioritizes the cultivation of safer spaces for gathering and learning. 

Contact the program coordinator

An art gallery, with textiles on the floor and an artist in the middle of the space. Spectators sit along the edges.

Anza Jarschke
MFA Low Residency Programs Coordinatoror
ajarschke@unr.edu

Apply to the low-residency MFA in interdisciplinary arts 

Our values

Inclusiveness + Representation, Embodied Place, Creative Problem Solving, Interdisciplinary Practice, Cultural Engagement

The low-res MFA-IA program is committed to creating and sustaining an academic environment in which students, faculty, and staff can study and work in an open atmosphere, unhampered by discrimination or harassment of any kind. The MFA-IA program recognizes the power of language and the dignity and respect that should be afforded to all individuals.