The MFA: Expectations and Preparation

Online course via Zoom
Faculty: Kara L. Rooney
Co-Faculty Advisor: Yevgeniya Baras

About the course:

This 8-week course and workshop is led by artist, Kara L. Rooney, and is co-taught by artist, Yevgeniya Baras. This course is ideal for someone interested in strengthening their preparation for their MFA application and or someone trying to figure out if an MFA is the right path for them. Artists in this course will have be paired with a Faculty Advisor, Kara or Yevgeniya, who will work with them in small groups twice during the class length to sharpen their portfolio and writing / statements for future MFA applications.

Guest Speakers include recent alumni, professors and Department Heads from MFA Programs across North America; including Boston University, Hunter College, SAIC, Kent State and Cornell. The core purpose of this course is to educate and prepare artists for expectations and realities within and outside the MFA paradigm. Artists in the course will also hear from an artist who declined attending an MFA program.

Artists will have the opportunity to learn more about various MFA programs and engage with invited Guest Speakers to ask questions about cadence, expectations, philosophy and demands of such programs. The goal of this course is to open up the eyes and minds of artists who are curious about MFA programs and who may be working towards applying.

This is an excellent course if you are planning to apply to for an upcoming MFA application!

Artists in this course will:

• Meet in small pod groups of five presenting portfolios and writing samples to peers and Faculty Advisors 

• Share their work in class to introduce their work and goals to the group and faculty 

• Build a solid portfolio of 15-20 images 

• Strengthen their statement for their application towards their MFA or otherwise 

• Learn about various MFA Programs from invited Guest Speakers and engage in a Q&A!

• Have the opportunity to ask for advice and questions to broaden your perspective on the MFA and its role 

• Create friendships and camaraderie with peers in the class and their break out pod group

• Gain comfort and confidence speaking about their work to improve their interview abilities

Guest Speakers:

“I was surprised and grateful to hear from a number of different perspectives—from people with established careers in the fine arts and in academia and from those who took alternate paths. I appreciated the honesty of all the speakers, and especially of our class facilitators, in describing many of the challenges and benefits that come from making a fine arts career through the academic route.”

- Ariana Martinez (participated in The MFA course in Fall 2022, led by Catherine Haggarty + Yevgeniya Baras)

Faculty Bios:

Kara Rooney is an interdisciplinary artist and critic working in performance, sculpture and new media installation. Her visual work has been widely exhibited in international and domestic venues including Fridman Gallery, NY; TOTAH, NY; Driscoll Babcock Gallery, NY;  A.I.R. Gallery, NY; the Chelsea Art Museum, NY; the Jersey City Museum, NJ; the Montclair Art Museum, NJ; the Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; El Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico, MX; and the Karamay Museum of Fine Arts, Xin Jiang, China. She has been an artist in residence at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, IT; the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program; the MeetFactory, Prague, CZ; La Quiñonera, Mexico City, MX; and the Queens College Art Center, NY among others. Rooney is a grant recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2020), the DUMBO Cultural Space Subsidy Program (2017 - 2020) and The Santo Foundation (2014). 

In addition to her visual work, Rooney has held various positions as an art critic, visiting lecturer, and guest curator, most notably as Artseen Editor for The Brooklyn Rail from 2009 – 2016. Her critical writings have been published in Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic and M/E/A/N/I/N/G, as well as included in publications by David Zwirner Publishing, Whitechapel Gallery, London, and MIT Press. Rooney earned her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2009 where she serves as a longstanding faculty member and is a former adjunct professor at Rhode Island School of Design. She is the current curator and programming director of CLEA RSKY CDMX. 

Yevgeniya Baras is an artist working in New York. She has exhibited her work at galleries including White Columns, NY; Reyes Finn Gallery, Detroit; Gavin Brown Enterprise, NY; Nicelle Beauchene, NY; Mother Gallery, NY; Inman Gallery, Houston; Sperone Westwater Gallery, NY; Thomas Erben Gallery, NY; the Pit, LA as well as internationally including NBB Gallery, Berlin; Julien Cadet Gallery, Paris; Station Gallery, Sydney. She is represented by the Landing Gallery in LA and Sargent’s Daughters in NY.

Yevgeniya is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant in 2023 and 2018. Yevgeniya was named Senior Fulbright Scholar for 2022/2023. She was a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in 2021, Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019.

Yevgeniya was selected for the Chinati Foundation Residency in 2018 and the Yaddo Residency in 2017. She received the Artadia Prize and was selected for the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program and the MacDowell Colony residency in 2015. In 2014 she was named a recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation’s Emerging Artist Prize. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, LA Times, ArtForum, The New York Review of Books, and Art in America. 

Yevgeniya co-founded and co-curated Regina Rex Gallery on the Lower East Side of NY (2010-2018).

Yevgeniya holds a BA in Psychology and Fine Arts and an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Financial Aid is available. NYC Crit Club provides payment plans, BIPOC scholarships and additional aid based on extenuating circumstances. Please click here to learn more before enrolling.