Regular meetings with the director and artists and critics-in-residence broaden the definition of and illuminate current and historical ideas about artmaking. In addition, Mount Royal Seminar brings to campus for lectures and studio critiques a diverse array of internationally renowned artists, critics, and curators whose work is shaping the landscape of art and culture—from painting, sculpture, and performance to film, installation, and digital art. The Seminar centers on student presentations about relevant issues and themes in contemporary art. Group critiques, an integral element of the Mount Royal curriculum, are facilitated by the director and one to two other artists-in-residence.

The resources of Mount Royal extend beyond the walls of the school. These visits take on an intimate and casual feeling as dinners are planned and catered to continue the dialogue with visitors past their lectures and individual studio critiques and often include other guests such as art collectors and dealers. Going further still, the program supplements students’ travel to New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC to visit gallery and museum shows which have been hand selected by the Director based in relationship to the work of each individual. In this and other ways, graduates are prepared to add to the discourse surrounding contemporary art as exhibiting artists, faculty, and critics.

Facilities & Resources

The program’s expansive individual studios occupy the fifth floor of MICA’s Fred Lazarus IV Center, where students have access to a range of resources including a wood shop, spray booth, computer lab, lounge, seminar space, installation spaces and student-managed galleries that provide invaluable experience in organizing, curating, and mounting exhibitions of graduate student work. Students have multiple opportunities to exhibit their work publicly throughout their course of study, also including the annual Mt. Royal exhibition and, in the spring of their final year, the Thesis shows.

Who Should Apply

Mount Royal’s 27 students are committed to engaging and pursuing art at the highest levels of contemporary thought and practice. They form a supportive community of artists within MICA’s larger graduate community and are encouraged to interact and collaborate as a vital component of their education and formation as artists. Mount Royal students locate themselves at the center of their education, are active participants in MICA’s community of artists and in the thriving arts scene in Baltimore and the surrounding region, and take advantage of the many opportunities available in the major metropolitan centers of the Northeast as they find their own voices and develop professionally.