In the fall of 2008, MassArt at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown admitted its fourth class of MFA candidates. The program – a collaboration between FAWC and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design – attracts students who wish to pursue a rigorous course of study while continuing to live and work where they normally live and work, with the draw of residencies in September and May in Provincetown at the Work Center. This collaboration is the first and only MFA degree program on Cape Cod and one of 15 low-residency visual arts MFA programs in the country. Resident faculty includes Joel Janowitz, Jim Peters and Helen Miranda Wilson. Visiting artists have included Gregory Amenoff, Susanna Coffey, Angela Dufresne, Louise Fishman, Mary Heilmann, Sharon Horvath, Julie Heffernan, Brian Kim, Michael Mazur, Thomas Nozkowski, Sheila Pepe, and Joan Snyder, among others. Former FAWC fellows have served in the program as mentors, including Richard Baker, Linda Bond, Paul Bowen and Bert Yarborough.

The program is thriving. The MFA students love Provincetown and the Work Center. Graduates keep returning even after they've graduated. Artist lectures and student and faculty exhibits bring the graduates back. The Provincetown Art Association and Museum has hosted the graduate thesis show, and graduates with Cape connections have, in turn, become PAAM members. The Alden Gallery on the East End of Commercial Street has offered to host part of the thesis show next September, and three of the graduates have become regular exhibitors at the gallery. Just as Provincetown is changing the lives of the students, the students are becoming a part of the town.

For further information on the MFA program go online at www.massart.edu or email mfawcprogram@massart.edu. From October through April you can call MassArt at 617-879-7178, and from May through September, you can call the Fine Arts Work Center at 508-487-9960 ext. 107. A complete course brochure is available at FAWC.