Interdisciplinary Studio
The Interdisciplinary Studio focuses not on artistic mediums but on artistic methods. ID students work across artistic mediums, academic disciplines, and social concerns to combine artistic production and focused research in the development of site- and debate-specific forms of critical cultural engagement that extend beyond the framework of individual studio art practice.
Interdisciplinary Studio Faculty
Professor
Cauleen Smith
Professor
Andrea Fraser
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Location
Location
Interdisciplinary Studio is one of six areas of study offered in the M.F.A. Art program. Class meetings are held at the Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios in Culver City.
Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studio equipment checkout is in Broad Art Center Room 2100B.
Interdisciplinary Studio Courses
Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studio Courses
Studio, eight hours; seven hours arranged. Requisites: courses 31A, 31B, 31C. Varied project-based studies in conceptually-driven approaches to art making in which students' core concerns and aims determine all aspects of projects, including medium, method, and presentational context. Combination of courses 149 and 149A may be repeated for maximum of 20 units. Letter grading.
Studio, eight hours; seven hours arranged. Requisites: courses 31A, 31B, 31C. Varied project-based studies in conceptually-driven approaches to art making that advance anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Students' core concerns and aims determine all aspects of projects, including medium, method, and presentational context. Combination of courses 149 and 149A may be repeated for maximum of 20 units. Letter grading.
Graduate Interdisciplinary Studio Courses
Studio, eight hours. Tutorial focused on directed research, studio visits, and group discussions of recommended readings. May be repeated for credit. S/U or letter grading.
Discussion, four hours; tutorial, to be arranged. Group critique/discussion of students' research. Additional tutorial meetings by arrangement with instructor. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading.
Seminar, three hours. Advanced topics in critical theory and study of contemporary art, with emphasis on individuals, issues, and methodologies. Possible areas of study from structuralism, deconstruction, feminist and psychoanalytic theory, commodification, and censorship. May be repeated for credit. Concurrently scheduled with course C180. Letter grading.
Interdisciplinary Studio Background
Interdisciplinary Studio was established as a graduate area of study in 1997 by Mary Kelly during her tenure as Art Department Chair. Kelly created ID in response to a growing demand among young artists for a graduate program in which they could pursue project-based work driven by social purpose and grounded in interdisciplinary research. Andrea Fraser took over as Area Head in 2017, developing an undergraduate ID curriculum in 2021. Cauleen Smith joined the faculty in 2022.
ID alumni have worked in activism and advocacy, architecture, archives, books, chemistry, community organizing, dance, film, food, human rights, installation, law, music, painting, performance, photography, publishing, sculpture, social practice, sound, theater, and video, among other field of practice. They include Ph.D. candidates from leading universities; founders of activist groups, archives, dance companies, foundations, journals and presses; participants Documenta, Made in LA, PERFORMA, the Sundance Film Festival, the Whitney Biennial; recipients of Herb Alpert and Mohn Awards, and Foundation for Contemporary Art Grants, and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships; and faculty at art schools and universities across the United States and Europe.
Interdisciplinary Studio M.F.A. Candidates
- Vanessa Norton 2027
- Sabaah Folayan 2028
- vincent hernandez 2028