Alumni Survey
Revised: September 2022
Master of Fine Arts Alumni Survey
Responses to the 2021 alumni survey shows that alumni are very pleased with the quality of the program overall, citing especially the “effectiveness of project mentors” and the “quality of critiques during the retreats” as high-value components of their experience. Among the reasons cited for enrolling in the program, survey respondents gave the highest rating to opportunities for “artistic growth and the development of creative practice,” with all respondents marking it with the highest rating, “extremely important.” Graduates indicated that the rigorous requirements of the program are adaptable to their individual artistic goals. The chart below shows respondents’ ratings of key areas of educational value.
Research conducted by the Provost indicates that of the 65 (as of Summer 2022) graduates of the program 63 remain active in the media arts (one graduate is deceased). Of the 40 active graduates working in photography, all have exhibited in commercial and/or university galleries and three have had solo museum exhibitions. The 16 graduates active in film and video work in a number of capacities including: operating their own production companies; as independent filmmakers regularly submitting independent films to festivals; and as industry professionals, primarily cinematographers and editors. Of the 63 who are actively working in the media arts, 21 are currently employed as teachers, 10 have taught or are teaching at the college level, two are teaching in high schools and nine are teaching in specialized areas. Graduates have developed diverse, individual practices that enable them to fuse their priorities and lifestyles with creative work. While some are self-employed photographers, filmmakers, and interdisciplinary and transmedia artists, others are gainfully employed as administrators in the non-profit arts sector, or in management of businesses in the arts industry.
Current students and recent graduates are engaged in increasingly diverse artistic practices including various time-based media presentations, installation, performance art, social practice art, and sound art, in addition to the traditional forms of photography and filmmaking. Students working in all of these forms are exhibiting this work, garnering media attention, winning prizes and places in prestigious residencies. Although fostering the development of such wide-ranging artistic interests and practices is complex and often challenging, certainly more so than it would be to follow a more limited and prescriptive curriculum, the results have been impressive, and the MFA at MMC remains committed to this pedagogical approach, rooted in the ideals of authenticity and sustainability. Further, these transdisciplinary practices are aligned with institutional purposes of embracing new technologies and modes of expression as well as the institutional mission to deepen human understanding and expand communication in the world.
Professional Certificate Programs Alumni Survey
167 graduates of our Certificate programs were sent surveys in 2021. This group represented all graduates of various programs that were in place since 2006, including a Professional Certificate in Photography, Professional Certificate in Filmmaking, Professional Certificate in Multimedia as well a successor program called the Independent Filmmaking Certificate Program, and the current program, Professional Certificate in Visual Storytelling.
The current offerings include PCVS, and the Certificate in Collaborative Filmmaking, a newly evolved filmmaking certificate that was developed in 2015, with the first year held in 2019.
Of the 167 graduates surveyed, 24 responded (14.3%). Responses indicate that all students have worked
either full-time or part-time in a position where they reported that the certificate program prepared them
for. The claim stated above, however, applies only to the current program in place since 2013 (PCVS). Of
the respondents that graduated from the PCVS program, one is working as a producer/editor; three are
working as free-lance photographers, and one as a gallery owner.