The overall aim of the Master of Arts in Fine Arts HSLU program is to develop the ability to apply or transfer professional competencies in art to spheres of everyday life, to art museum pedagogical and artistic outreach endeavors, and to teaching visual arts up to the secondary level (in Switzerland, so-called Matura schools). The core of the MFA is to develop an engaged and informed practice in working with images, space, social situations, and the creation of public realms for participation and debate not only through image-based media, but also as art production under the conditions of the post-digital age.
In the course of the MFA program, students will become able through their projects and activities – which are supported to be precise in terms of the artistic and intermediatorial intentions and with a high degree of competence in communication and engagement – to respond to the circumstances of society today and to intervene in specific societal structures.
Along with the structured framework of study, not only is ongoing and compressive individual coaching provided to students by experienced and high profile artists, art pedagogy specialists, and cultural studies experts, but also there are close connections with the Art, Design & Public Spheres Research Group of the Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art HSLU. This Cooperation enables MFA graduates to already enter a pre-PhD program.
In addition, students profit from cooperation with other institutions and HSLU departments, such as: intermediatory/outreach forums of the Kunstmuseum Luzern and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, the Music and Art Performance Master of Arts in Music programs of the Lucerne School of Music HSLU, The Valais School of Art édhéa for the ACT performance series, the Institute for Education in the Arts, academy of fine arts Vienna, HEAD – Genève and the the Pädagogische Hochschule PH Luzern (Teacher Training College).
Student projects can be developed individually or as a team in the MFA beginning with the concept and on through the definition of the theoretical basis and beyond to the detailed plans for execution. Intensive exchange with docents and also between students is highly valued in the study program. This exchange is made possible and furthered through numerous colloquia and group discussions, through the spatial proximity of students to each other in their studio workplaces, and through the mutual determination each year of a specific theme, location in Central Switzerland, or collaborating institution, which constitutes the common point of reference for all students for their final artistic Master’s thesis.
The integration of four majors under the umbrella of one student group with a common focus on socially relevant art production in the fields of art in public spheres, critical image practices, and art teaching is a unique Masters in Fine Arts program in Switzerland. Although students of the respective three majors concentrate on their own work and development within their different practice fields, a great advantage for all are the possibilities for intensive and dynamic exchange concerning art theory, artistic practice, and artistic, pedagogical, and curatorial intermediatorial/outreach approaches and strategies.
Students enrolled in the Major in Art Teaching MAT profit from a curriculum that provides leeway for an ambitious artistic practice and exploring and questioning theoretical positions so that by the end of their studies they are well equipped with a high degree of competence based in a pedagogy of art teaching that is artistically informed and based in active engagement. On the other hand, students enrolled in the Major in Art in Public Spheres, Major in Critical Image Practices and Major Knowledge to Society are continuously confronted with issues concerning collaboration, intermediatorial/outreach aspects, and the importance of addressing participants/viewers, elements which play pivotal roles in relation to specific public spheres or realms and with regard to critical image practices in image-based media.
