The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland is one of the top visual art schools in the United States. In an effort to explain the unique selling points of the various art colleges a list of questions has been created to send out to all of the top institutions. Keep in mind that the primary focus of these questions regards the visual art undergraduate degree offered at the art school. This series of questions has been graciously answered by Kathleen Murray, Interim Media Relations Director at that Maryland Institute College of Art.
Can you briefly describe the flavor and feel of your campus?
Four words some it up: urban, historic, residential, green
How many students do you have?
1,850 (undergraduates and graduates) from 48 states and 47 foreign countries
What is your largest major?
Illustration
Can you briefly describe your financial aid?
Our financial aid packages are a combination of gift aid, which include merit based scholarships and need-based grants, and self-help, which includes work study programs and loans. We have need-blind freshman admission.
Can you provide the number of scholarship programs?
We have 20 scholarship programs for entering students and 70 scholarship programs for returning students.
What percentage of your student body has some kind of financial aid?
72 percent
Of that percentage receiving financial aid, what is the average percentage of their tuition being covered? 30 percent
Besides learning the nuts and bolts of creating art, how do you prepare your students business-wise for a career in the arts?
MICA focuses on career development. For example, our internship and career fair drew more than 45 employers from the Baltimore-Washington area to campus. Here is a link to the full list.
In 2008, the Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Career Development moved to the Gateway, MICA's newest student residence and life center. The new location offers even more space for students to research their career options, prepare for the grad school admission process, and meet with counselors to prepare résumés and craft applications for competitive residencies, grants, scholarships and fellowships.
In addition to the career center, MICA offers program-based professional development. For example, the 2009 MICA Illustration Showcase used Skype to connect illustration seniors with art directors and designers from around the country and abroad. This led to many great networking opportunities, including several commissions for work. Na Kim '09, who was matched with the NY Times Op-Ed page art director, produced a piece for the Times and has also gotten several of her pieces on Thumbtack Press.
How is your college involved in the community in which it is located?
MICA's Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program enlists the talents and energies of MICA students to provide the Baltimore community with enriching art-based educational experiences. In addition to CAP internships, MICA students may participate in a range of other community-related courses and extracurricular projects.
These initiatives range from a class for community-based mural projects, to Finding Baltimore-a CAP course focused on physically exploring Baltimore, to a class offered on public art and art intervention, to the multi-semester Exhibition Development Seminar that provides students with hands-on experience mounting a major exhibition linking specially designed cultural programs with underserved communities.
MICA's Master of Arts in Community Arts program immerses artists in intensive work with children, youth and adults in community settings. Real-world experiences are supported by classroom study and independent studio work; students also implement their own community art project. There is more information on this topic here.
For students who live on campus, what features are there in the community for them to engage in?
The city, home to the largest free arts festival in the country, is alive with art. Commercial galleries, artist-run galleries, and alternative art spaces can be found in the immediate vicinity of the College and throughout the city. Many of Baltimore's art museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Arts Museum, feature free admission.
In addition, our location offers easy access to the collections of the finest museums and galleries in the country. MICA offers regular, inexpensive bus trips to Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia. Baltimore is a city of 100,000 college students, including undergraduate and graduate students from around the country studying law, medicine, creative writing, engineering, architecture, music, theatre, business and a range of liberal arts subjects at The Johns Hopkins University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland, UMBC and Goucher College, among others.
What is unique about your college that makes it the best choice for attending?
MICA provides an education that is multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial and global. We're a top-ranked college of art and design with both undergraduate and graduate programs, and our liberal arts program is just as strong as our studio programs -- not all art colleges offer that. We offer 15 majors and 11 concentrations in art, design and education. The ability to minor in the liberal arts allows for customization of students' curriculum to achieve their career goals.
Our students have the freedom to combine majors, minors and concentrations across departments. For example, a student could major in illustration, minor in printmaking or book arts and minor in creative writing. Combine that coursework with an internship with a publishing company and you've planned out the perfect curriculum for a children's book illustrator. We allow students to create their own roadmaps. There are also many opportunities for project-based coursework through partnerships with other institutions, including Johns Hopkins University.
Mary Rayme - Mary Rayme is a graphic designer and arts educator with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
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