At MassArt, students majoring in Ceramics dig into the foundational techniques, skills, and ideas that are critical to today’s artists, designers, and educators working with clay. These include handbuilding, wheelworking, moldmaking, glazing, and kiln-firing, as well as work in ceramic casting, architectural ceramics, new technologies, and clay and glaze materials.
Students work in a wheelworking class, down the hall from the Kiln Room in the Collins building.
The Collins building houses expansive ceramics studios
Students load a kiln in MassArt’s 3,000 square-foot Kiln Room
Seminar and advanced studio courses focus on developing a professional portfolio, and emphasize critical thinking, research, lectures, and critiques. Students also further enrich their learning with visiting artists and on field trips.
The program provides students with the practical and theoretical preparation they need to pursue ceramics as a dedicated vocation, or to develop their ceramic practice as a part of their larger artistic work.
Students are required to take a professional practices course that prepares them for life after MassArt, and seniors document and present their work in a final thesis.
Students who complete the Ceramics BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
An annual Fellowship in Glass invites an emerging artist to share their process, advance their work, and offer students fresh perspectives.
Field trips, travel courses, and opportunities to study abroad supplement the Glass program curriculum, and expose students to creative glass practices around the world.
A scholarship competition awards selected Glass majors the opportunity for intensive summer studies in specialized areas of glass research.
The Kanik Chung Legacy Fellowship is awarded annually to an emerging artist, regardless of academic experience, who is a first-generation U.S. citizen; contributes to the glass economy as a design entrepreneur; and/or is dedicated to pursuing art driven by cultural heritage, political content, or social justice.
The Hot Shop supports glassblowing, sculpture, and casting with:
The Flame Workshop supports flameworking and sculpture with:
The Cold Shops support glass carving and cold construction with:
The Mold/Enamel Room supports casting, fusing, and enameling with:
The Majors Studio is a secure studio room with shared wall space and expansive windows that provides Glass majors with individual studio work surfaces and shelf spaces to pursue independent projects and develop their personal work.
Glass Blowing (3D Fine Arts, Glass) in the Hot Shop with Nikki Tsamis.
Glass majors at MassArt cultivate the critical knowledge to pursue sustainable and meaningful futures as creative glass practitioners. Our curriculum provides a progressive trajectory that develops technical skills in glassblowing, flameworking, casting, mold-making, carving, and cold construction to inform thematic projects, historical context, personal interests, and professional development.
Specialized glass studio courses examine materiality, process, and emerging technology, and seminars encourage students to examine the values that drive their work, their role as artists in society, and the relevant context for their work.
MassArt’s comprehensive glass studios provide state-of-the-art equipment for glass fabrication, including two furnaces for casting, blowing, and hot-sculpting glass, two workstations, and four annealers. The new flameshop is outfitted with five torches and workstations, and two annealers. Kilns support casting and fusing courses, and two state-of-the art coldshops include a sandblaster, carving equipment, polishing tools, and a Mercker lathe.
In the studios and classrooms, our dedicated and accomplished Glass faculty work directly with students to provide technical instruction, facilitate discussions and lectures, and provide individualized feedback and support. Beyond the curriculum, students are encouraged to participate in a wealth of opportunities to enrich their experience at MassArt and develop their personal practices through travel, scholarships, and networking with professionals in the field.
Notable alumni of MassArt’s Glass program are successful creative entrepreneurs, exhibiting artists, award-winning designers, technical fabricators, and educators.
Students who complete the Glass BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
At MassArt, Sculpture students have limitless opportunities to explore the wide-ranging world of sculptural practice. Students engage with a vast array of materials and processes available across the Fine Arts Department: from fiber to iron, clay to bronze, wood to mold making, figure modeling to performance, and more. We have a deep commitment to craft, hands-on material engagement, and open ended exploration.
MassArt also offers an MFA in Studio Arts, in which students can choose to concentrate in Sculpture. Our full-time, two-year (60-credit) MFA Studio Arts program encourages students to experiment and explore, while refining the technical and conceptual strategies in their work.
There are no limits to what a student can investigate in Sculpture. Our students engage in object-making practices that transcend the boundaries of fine art, craft, and design
MassArt’s Iron Corps is a student-run group dedicated to the art and practice of casting iron, a unique and rigorous process.
Learn MoreThe Jewelry and Metalsmithing program combines hands-on practice with creative problem solving. Students engage with traditional and contemporary metalwork as they investigate social, cultural, and historical contexts.
Students learn essential jewelry and metalsmithing practices and concepts such as cold connections, fabrication, soldering, patination, casting, stone settings, raising, forging, repossé and chasing. Specialty electives offered include enameling, anodizing, CAD/CAM, and advanced techniques. All instruction occurs in a safety-driven, cooperative environment focusing on empathy and responsibility.
The jewelry and metals department is a supportive and inspiring environment. The small scale allows for a tight-knit community of talented makers.Julia Giangrande ‘23 BFA Jewelry & Metalsmithing
Jewelry & Metalsmithing work on display.
Learn essential skills and bring your creative vision to life in MassArt’s studios, among the best equipped in the country.
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It’s a genuine honor to work with MassArt’s talented students at this remarkable state-funded school.Heather White Professor, Fine Arts 3D
The Glass program is an energetic and supportive community of makers who share a passion for the material. Students develop versatile skills and explore innovative glass-forming techniques using state-of-the-art facilities and digital labs. The program offers opportunities for professional growth through enriching visiting artist programs and competitive summer workshop scholarships. The accomplished faculty and dynamic community inspire students to expand their artistic potential, cultivating critical knowledge to succeed in today’s world.
