2020 and 2021 MFA in Visual Art Thesis Exhibitions at Kemper Art Museum

    MFA in Visual Art Thesis Exhibitions at Kemper Art Museum
    By: Paul Langdon

    The Sam Fox School’s 2020 and 2021 MFA in Visual Art Thesis Exhibitions are currently on show at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Since 2006, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University has been helping students to refine their skills in architecture, art, and design. T These exhibitions are the culmination of the visual art students’ two years spent within the MFA program.

    The artists enrolled in the MFA in Visual Art program deepen their practice by working with professional artists and world renown scholars specializing in their cross-disciplinary fields of study. They also have access to studio spaces in addition to Washington University’s many resources, including a system of 12 libraries, a professional media production center, and the Kemper Art Museum.

    However, when the coronavirus pandemic forced students across the country from their classrooms, the artists in the 2020 class had to continue their studies remotely after being vacated from their studio spaces.

    “This has been an amazingly challenging year,” says Lisa Bulawsky, who was appointed Chair of the MFA in Visual Art program in July of 2020. “The 2020 MFA thesis graduates had their show at the Kemper postponed and we are so grateful that we were able to mount it here alongside the 2021 graduates thesis exhibition. The Kemper Museum is currently not open to the public, it’s open to the campus community only. But this is a significant moment for these artists, to be able to show in a museum. It’s a major part of our MFA in Visual Art program that their thesis exhibitions are mounted in such an important venue.”

    While the pandemic has posed a wide array of difficulties for educational institutions around the globe, the Sam Fox School at Washington University has persevered through these arduous times, and is continuing to evolve as it moves forward.

    “We are going to be launching a new curriculum in the fall of 2021 that’s going to shift the focus a little bit more towards really intensive making in an environment of research,” Bulawsky explains. “This new program of study will provide a lot of group and communal activities, collaboration, and opportunities for students to engage with the local community in St. Louis.”

    More information about this curriculum is available at www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu and both the 2020 and 2021 MFA in Visual Art Thesis Exhibitions can be viewed online at www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.