Transcription: Academy of Fine Arts MFA Open House
7.6.2022
Transcription notes
| JU: | Jaakko Uoti |
| DP: | Daniel Peltz |
| XR: | Xenia Ramm |
| AC: | Alyssa Coffin |
| wo- | an unfinished word |
| (word) | an uncertain passage in speech or an unrecognised speaker |
| (-) | an unrecognisable word |
| (–) | unrecognisable words |
| [pause 10 s] | a pause in speech of at least 10 seconds |
| , . ? : | a grammatically correct punctuation mark or a pause in speech of less than 10 seconds |
Transcription starts
JU: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Academy of Fine Arts MFA Open House webinar. We now gradually have people coming in and we are starting the webinar. First I would like to introduce myself and our panelists for today. My name is Jaakko Uoti, I’m the planning officer of student admission here at the Academy of Fine Arts, and with me I have Daniel Peltz, professor of time and space, and Xenia Ramm and Alyssa Coffin, who are our students at the Academy of Fine Arts now doing their Master’s degrees. Before starting a few words about practicalities of the event. You in the audience can send us questions through the Q&A function and we will go through them and read them aloud during this event. We’ve also received some questions that have been sent to us in advance that we will also address during the webinar. In the case that we run out of time or miss some of the questions, don’t worry about that. We have, if you submitted your question to us in writing, we have your contact info so we can also continue the discussion after the webinar, if something goes amiss. Thank you for coming, and I will now hand it to Daniel, Alyssa and Xenia, and you can further introduce yourselves. Daniel, would you like to start?
DP: Sure. Maybe I’ll do just a quick introduction, and I’ll let Alyssa and Xenia introduce themselves and then I’ll come back and I’ll tell you a little bit, something about the Academy and about the MFA programs. While I do that, Alyssa was going to walk us around a little bit, so you get to see some spaces while you listen to some head. If there’s something you see of interest, you can ask, and you can also interrupt while I’m talking, and Alyssa can tell us where she is. So, my name is Daniel Peltz as Jaakko said. I’m the professor of time and space arts at Kuvataideakatemia, the Academy of Fine Arts here in Helsinki. Just as a brief introduction before I talk about the Academy, I’ll say that I’m here representing both my program but also the Academy at large. We have four main study area, so time and space arts, which includes three subareas: moving image, photography and my area speciliazation which is site and situation specific practices. And then we have another division in
painting, in sculpture and printmaking all under one Master’s in Fine Arts program. The Academy of Fine Arts is also part of Uniarts structure, so the Fine Arts Academy is connected to two other primary national academies, the Academy of Music, Sibelius Academy, and the Theatre Academy. In fact we’re physically connected to the Theatre Academy, so our building is right next door. Student in the program have access to offerings at all the academies. Maybe Alyssa and Xenia you want to say a little something?
AC: Hi, my name is Alyssa, and I’m a Master’s in time and space arts here in KuvA. And I just moved to here in January from the United States to start the program.
XR: Are you done? [laugh] I’m Xenia, also a time and space Master’s student, and we are overloaded from this department today. I am from Copenhagen where I am now doing my internship, which is something you can do during your studies, apply for financial training to do one or few months of internships. Now I’m with with this big video and stage production collective here in Copenhagen for the summer, but I did my whole degree so far in Kuva. I started in 2018 in my Bachelor’s, doing the whole five and a half years’ in time and space.
DP: Thank you, Xenia. Again, really welcome to everybody. I’m going to tell you a few things about the Academy, and I think we have a really special two-year MFA program. Just as a little background, I’ve taught for the last twenty-two years in different contexts, many of them in the US context at both private institution and at public universities. I’ve also taught at universities in Sweden, in China, in Australia and in Kore. So, I have experience in different parts of the world. I just came back from working with a Pan-African arts school. I actually just came back yesterday, so if I’m a little off, it’s because I needed espresso to be ready for this meeting. So, I have experience teaching a lot of different parts of the world, so I’m happy to also answer questions about the relationship between university fine arts educations in Finland versus other parts of the world you may be coming from. In the future, we’re hoping to do this presentation in a way that we can see you, and you don’t have to ask your questions in a mediated way, but for now we have this strange kind of firewall between us in the webinar.
As I said, the degree here is a two-year MFA program, it’s a little bit unusual in its schedule in relation to other schools in that we January first start as opposed to a fall start. Our application cycle comes up earlier or later than other places, however you may think of it. So, our application cycle comes up in, the deadline is in August. All our required courses and thesis supervision are available in English, and Helsinki is a very international city, so it’s always really wonderful to learn some Finnish, but it’s a very challenging language and it’s not a requirement that you need to learn in order to study here. This is the only fine art academy university level art education in Finland. It’s very well resources, it provides good national and international visibility to its students. All the MFA students are provided their own studio space for a completion of the MFA thesis work and a grant for the production of the work. We
also have full tuition scholarship options that Jaakko will point you to more later on, and there are opportunities for funded study travel. I’m taking the current MFA students to Documenta this August along with a group of faculty. There are opportunities for funded internships and to go on exchange to other schools. When you graduate, there are special funded alumni residency opportunities available only to graduate of the Academy, as well as numerous opportunities to apply for state and regional arts grants for those who stay in the area. I really wish I had known about places like this when I applied to do my MFA studies.
We’re in a brand new building, that Alyssa is walking us around, we’re in the corridor now, I think walking towards the Site and Situation studio, multimedia lab. Yes, we are. She’s about to walk in and show you a little bit of the spaces. The new building in what’s considered the city centre. We have really pretty incredible making and exhibition facilities. It’s a small academy, where students get a lot of individual attention in the faculty, as well as from numerous visiting professors and external studio visitors, who offer workshops and studio visits. So it really is very much a studio programs. The core of your studies are your individual artistic practice, and those are supervised through studio visits with the core faculty at the Academy, but also by invited visitors. As I said, I’m in charge of the time and space program, but we have subspecializations within that, moving image, photography and my areas, Site and Situations specific practices. We also have specializations in painting, sculpture and printmaking. As I said, we’re part of the Uniarts structure, giving you access to courses at the Theatre and Music Academies, and our building is physically connected to the Theatre Academy.
I think Alyssa is now headed towards the photo studio and the video study. Maybe I’ll stop my talking and we’ll see if we can tune in with here. I think she is going into the photo studio. This is the little vestibule. Yeah, this is our new photo studio. She’ll continue to come around a little bit. But I think it’s really good to – I’ll stop my kind of spieling now, and we can see if we have some questions from people to keep us going. And Alyssa, if you want to say anything about where you are, you’re welcome to.
AC: I’ve actually never used this studio, so I don’t have much to say. [chuckle] But it’s very beautiful.
XR: But you can work with digital and analogue photo in the school, and also analog film. There are clinics and courses and technicians available that you can either join learning programs or just work from your own project and get individual as you need with it, like various media.
DP: Yeah, that’s a really good point. There’s a lot of direct hands-on assistance that’s provided to students in (-) learning about the different workshops that we have and also for getting support with the making of your projects as she said. We have this structure of clinics, so you don’t just have to take a course in something in order to
learn about it. If you’re interested for example in learning more about analog filmmaking or about photography, you can just sign up for a clinic with one of the technicians and learn more about those. We do have quite an unusual – at this point, we do have quite a lot of opportunities in time and space for analog work. We have a whole course in August focused on analog motion picture work and analog experimental film work, and then we also have quite a lot of – we’ve maintained quite a lot of analog capability. This is inside the video studio.
XR: And the same goes for all the departments. There are drop-in clinics and courses for all study areas and you can choose yourself, you don’t have to only study in your study area. Some people stay in one study area but actually end up more or less doing a degree in another area, and that’s okay. There’s mobility. So, every week I can drop into sculpture clinics or just use the workspace or take courses there if I want to.
AC: So, it’s nice as well that you can mix everything.
DP: Yeah. I think that actually, Alyssa, did you take a wood course or a kind of introduction to the woodshop last year?
AC: Yeah, that’s another really great thing is that, yeah, you can have access to every department, you can just take the required course, and there was just one week long intensive, and they give you a really thorough intro to wood and metal. And this magic key gets you in.
DP: Do you want to take us down into the woodshop? AC: Yeah, I will.
JU: We have some questions that we can probably in the meanwhile address. We have some lives questions and some that I can also bring from the questions that have been submitted before. There was one question, can students study mixed media, painting or experimental art in the MFA? I think we kind of addressed this flexibility before, but can you, perhaps do you want to elaborate on this, Daniel?
DP: I’m not sure exactly what the person is asking means. By mixed media, is she actually referring to mixed media within the field of painting –
JU: Yeah.
DP: It’s a fine art degree, so your own practice is what guides you and there are no limitations in terms of what media or how you mix them to any extent, whether it’s within the particular painting or more broadly. The focus is really on individual artist student practice. There’s no attempt made by the school to try to regulate or limit what types of media you work with. I did want to say also that I realized that I didn’t
mention, but there are also quite significant exhibition opportunities. We’re looking mostly at the production spaces. Alyssa’s now down in the woodshop, showing us around. There is also a foundry next door, but right now were in the woodworking area. And there’s open outdoor area where some sculpture work is happening also. But the final exhibition for the master’s takes place in our main gallery, which maybe after Alyssa shows us the sculpture studio she can wander over there because it’s on the same floor. It’s an extermely well-attended exhibition both by arts professionals, by all the national arts organizations. It’s important to understand the Art Academy’s position in relation to the country to know that as it’s the only national art academy, a tremendous number of people come to see this exhibition, there is a lot of support provided for it. And that’s in the spring of your second year. There are also opportunities for those who are working less with gallery-based outcomes to produce different types of events and presentations of their work outside of the gallery spaces. And there are other shows that students can participate in while they’re in the Academy, and there are also project rooms that you can use alongside these other studios when you need another kind of space to build a different kind of project than what your individual studio allows. We can take another question. Oh, you’s actually going over to the – we’re in the ceramics area.
JU: There was also one question submitted beforehand that is kind of addressing this issue of crossover, but more regarding the application process. The applicant said that their Bachelor’s degree was in painting, but they have always worked with both sculpture and painting, and they were wondering if it would be okay if they apply to include both sculpture and paintings in the portfolio, or is it better to prepare their application portfolio according to the subject area chosen. And also they were wondering if painting students can access sculpture studios as well. But do you have anything regarding the reviewing of the portfolios? Is there any kind of good – ?
DP: Yeah, sure. I can definitely speak about that. I’ve been involved in the admissions process the past two years. It’s a really good question, because once you’re admitted, the capacity to cross over and work with different areas is very fluid. At the admissions process, though, we do the admissions process separately in each of the study areas. So, you apply to one study area – Jaakko can maybe answer when I’m done about whether you’re allowed to apply to more than one – but I think that you’re supposed to apply to just one.
JU: Yes.
DP: Sometimes we actually are able to pass students between the study areas during that process, so sometimes if we get a sense that the student would belong more in another study area, we’ll pass them to the other study area for consideration. But as you can only apply to one, I would really encourage you to, if you want to stay in that study area, to make sure that that work is first in your portfolio and clear. Because we will asking ourselves that one looking at them, and if we see a portfolio for example in time and space and most of the work is in sculpture, then we’ll
probably hand it over to sculpture. So, I’d encourage you to make that work first. You definitely can include work in other areas, and I’d encourage you to. There’s nothing medium-restrictive in any kind of a slavish way about the process, but at the admissions stage, we will definitely be looking for past work within the study area. I hope that answers the questios. If it doesn’t, please ask a clarifying question, because it’s an important question. Also, we’re in the main exhibition space, for anyone who wants to know it. Alyssa is showing us around. There’s a black box there.
XR: And in general, we do contemporary fine arts, all of it is very experimental, very cross-over. You can learn traditional techniques like bronze-casting and woodcut and things like this, but no one will tell you that you’re using the material or the media wrong. Anything you want to express with what you learn is kind of okay. So, in that way I would say it’s very mixed media and very experimental, anything that more or less everyone does. It’s very few students who stick to classically one medium or one way of working.
DP: I mentioned this but – actually, Alyssa’s crossing over now to the Theatre Academy, and it’s nice to see how direct our connection is. Of course you can explore opportunities for courses and other kinds of interactions, but you can also have informal interactions. They do a lot of presentations, performances, both in the dance and choreography side as well as in the theatre side. Those are open to everyone at the Academy. The library is also over here on their side. And very importatly, the café is here. So, there’s subsidized student lunch café. It’s a nice thing in Finland, they have a very affordable – how much is the lunch?
XR: Lunch is only 2,70.
DP: Two euro seventy. Kind of unusual coming from other parts of the world. And the food is pretty good. You can see, this is – I actually don’t see these open stages all that often, but the theatre black box is to the other side, and Alyssa’s also coming up on the library on the left and the café on the right, now she is there. This is outer café but there’s also an inner café area.
JU: There are a few questions about the application, perhaps a continuation to the first one. There was a question of do I have to submit sculpture works for my portfolio, and how about digital art made on an iPad, how do you perceive that?
DP: As Xenia said, what’s important to understand is that this is a contemporary fine art program, so really like any medium, any form is fine. We have students experimenting across and within pretty much any imaginable mode of making art. If you’re applying in sculpture and you’re not showing anything that looks explicitly like a sculpture, then it would be helpful to explain why that is, but it doesn’t mean you can’t apply in sculpture and have a reason why you want to work within, that you’re
contextualizing your work in the field of sculpture but it takes another form. That’s completely possible.
JU: There’s also a question of is it possible to apply if the applicant has completed previous studies as an industrial designer, or is it required to have a BA in visual arts to be eligible to apply.
DP: Can you answer that, Jaakko, to the policy?
JU: Yeah. In regard to the formal admission criteria, it is fairly open. The mainframe is that we expect a BA or BFA from visual arts or similar field, but there’s flexibility there. We can also deem eligible an applicant who has their prior Bachelor’s education from another field, but I guess the kind of rule of thumb there is that we put more emphasis on their other skills and their other experience of working as a professional artist, if it’s so that they don’t have fine arts education. This is kind of done on a case by case basis because we also acknowledge that people come from different background and want to allow that.
DP: It’s definitely, it’s not a – as Jaakko said, we can make exceptions to the general principle that students come with an undergraduate degree in a related field. But the most important thing is really your portfolio and your statement. If you have an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering or in anthropology or women’s studies, that’s fine, if you also have a portfolio that demonstrates your capacity to study at the Master level. So I very much encourage you to apply in that situation.
XR: And it’s really wonderful that KuvA accepts students from all kinds of backgrounds, and also with no age restrictions. We study together with people from all places in the world and from all age levels and all types of background before that. Especially since in Finland people can take as many educations as they can manage in their life, so we have people who study multiple degrees at the same time or have already educated themselves and worked within specialized fields and then crossed over to fine arts. The student body is quite resourceful and rich in that way.
JU: Then there was a question if there are drawing departments or a specialist area, and is there a possibility for an MA in book art. I think this is perhaps a thing that is kind of (-) in some of the subject areas. I guess perhaps in printmaking this kind of book-making or book art is kind of close to that.
DP: I would say that actually there’s a lot of interest in book-making and in publication as part of artistic practice. There are courses specifically in that area. If your primary practice is drawing, you would apply in printmaking, definitely. But of course there can be, there are students whose practice is primarily a drawing practice, and that would be in the printmaking area. We don’t specifically have an MFA concentration in book arts, but it’s completely possible to do an MFA in printmaking and have your work be focused on the area of book arts.
JU: So there is no clear specialization or a different program for book art, but it’s more about making your own study path so that you can take up courses that support that aim for you.
XR: There are courses in book-binding and paper-making and different kind of printmaking and publishing. And then there is the drawing clinic, so once a week there is open drop-in drawing session. So anyone can go there is they want. I guess a lot of painters go there, but also just some people who like the relaxation of just life model drawing.
DP: I also know that the books arts and paper-making courses are very popular outside of printmaking too. I know several students, of Master’s students in time and space arts took the paper-making course and it had a great influence on their studio practice.
XR: There are sometimes specialized drawing courses, like crossover with performance or other areas, so more focused, contextualized drawing practices.
DP: Alyssa’s being such an amazing tour guide for us. I feel like we should let her say something.
AC: This is the student union space, and Xenia, maybe you want to say a little bit about the student union and what happens in there?
DP: Good idea.
XR: It might be messy. [laugh] AC: I’ll let you answer.
XR: So, we have a lot of parties up there, sometimes. So, sometimes it’s left like this after the weekend. But it’s also wonderful that we can do that. All the students have access to the space 247.
AC: And there’s a full kitchen here, so if you’re ever (-) and need to make dinner it’s really convenient.
XR: Yeah, last time I left it we had a big dinner there and we left it really nicely, but then I can see the summer holidays started, maybe, and – yeah, I used to be student union chair of KuvA since like three years now, but I actually just abdicated that position, because I will be going into my final thesis part of my Master’s, so it was time for me to give up this position. Student union is like this separate thing, but also connected, and then there are student union representatives within the student body. So it’s possible to apply for smaller project grants from student union directly,
if you want make a student initiative event or communal things. For many years we had people doing Tuesday dinners back when I started. Every Tuesday the would cook, and the student union would sponsor this food and people could come and eat together if they wanted to, but it could also be possible to make parties or other kinds of, yeah, whatever you feel like, really. So that exists as well. But we are right now also in this little bit of restructuring since moving with the Academy to the new building and next to the Theatre Academy, so also within student union we have been trying to gather us ropes more and somehow be more present, having regular student forums where people come and meet for afternoon pizza and can talk to each other and ask us questions. A more structured way of running it.
DP: Just to say, as it’s not specifically mentioned, but it’s part of time and space arts and within my area of specialization – we’re coming I think into one of the edit studios
– that there are many students who work with performance and performative practices, even though they’re not mentioned specifically, and if you’re interested in specializing in those kinds of practices, you would apply in time and space arts.
JU: There was one question about the structure of the studies or the program. It’s kind of a general question, but how structured the MFA program is? For example, how much of it is individual work and how much of it is mandatory theory courses, for instance? Can you address that?
DP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I can answer that, I can address it from the perspective of the faculty, but I think it’s also really good to hear directly from the students, it’s something that Xenia and certainly Alyssa can speak to. It’s one of the things that actually differentiates the program from some of the other programs within Uniarts is that it very much is a studio-based program. A lot of the degree is your independent artistic practice, and there is a lot of freedom to decide within that. There are some required courses that you’ll take mostly earlier in the degree, including some thematic theory courses, but you can actually choose amongst the offerings in those. There are some additional requirements that need to be fulfilled, but it’s really quite minimal. Maybe the students can speak a little bit to that.
AC: I think that’s been one of the most, yeah, things that I’ve enjoyed about the structure of the program, just how much I’m able to curate it to my own pursuits and interests and needs, and never feel overburdened by the requirements. But it’s hard balance, because there’s actually a huge amount of (-) in course offerings, and so it’s really hard to say no to courses. But you’re really encouraged to not get too distracted by courses, and focus on your studio practice, and I think that’s something I really value. It feels like everyone is supporting me and my individual practice and wanting the courses to support that rather than distract or become stressful and overbearing. I’m able to pull courses from different departments and really curate something that leads to what I’m trying to pursue. It’s really valuable.
XR: Like Alyssa says, there is a lot of courses. And since we also can take courses in the Theatre Academy and the Music Academy, and there are also these joint separate, not really subject areas but departments for like art and technology and sound arts – so, it would be wonderful to have time to do ten degrees within the school, but since it’s only two years, you can try out anything you want, but also if you end up taking to omany courses, you don’t have time to really work with the new skills you require. I did my Bachelor also, so I had a few extra years to play around in this way, but sometimes it has been like that that I have been learning so many new things I never manage to implement them. So, now later in my degree I have been taking way fewer courses and just focused on my own project-based work, because I kind of knew what I wanted to work with. But maybe if you come and it’s in a brand new (-) academy and everything, yeah, taking a few introductory courses to areas that you know you have interest in working in. Like I knew I wanted to work with video before I came, and I never did that before, so I took a lot of video courses, and now I work very independently with video as a medium. So, if you have an interest in metal, go to the metal clinic, take a metal course. Maybe it will light your fire, maybe not. It’s okay to realize that something is not really for you.
DP: Yeah. But to be really clear again in response to the question, the studies are very free to be customized, as Alyssa was saying, to your interests. There are very few requirements to get in your way. And I agree with what the students have said and something I’m always counceling people who I’m working with, is to be careful so you don’t take too many courses, but it’s not because you have to take them, it’s just there’s a lot of tempting things out there when you come to a school. And just so you understand, because Alyssa and Xenia are coming from the two different paths within the program, so some students start with their Bachelor and they go all the way through Master’s, so that’s the path that Xenia’s on, and some students like Alyssa come from outside having gotten a Bachelor’s somewhere else, and they do just the two Master year. I’d say that the final like – during the Master education, at least in time and space arts it’s about two thirds, one third. One third who are doing the two-year MFA and two thirds who are coming from all the way through from the BFA.
XR: I think no matter how you come into the school and how long you study, it’s really that you can tailor your own degree program. You get to decide what – well, you have a few mandatory courses, but even some of the mandatory courses, like Daniel said, it’s free that you have to do some thematic theory courses. But I did so far all of mine in sound arts, for instance, even though it’s actually in the Theatre Academy. So it’s very few courses that is specific, and you decide yourself when you take them. They are offered once a year, maybe, so maybe if one semester that you want to do something and not something else, you can flip it around a little bit. There is some flexibility. So, –
AC: Yeah – oh, sorry.
XR: I just wanted to say that I don’t think there exist two students in the school that is taking the same education, somehow. We are all doing very different degrees within the same house.
AC: Yeah, and I would say even within the requirements like art theory, at least my experience was, the professor really said, this is for you, and it wasn’t so much like dumping a lot of theory on us and saying you need to read all of this. It was kind of like, you know, what are you curious about, what’s the book you always wished you had time to read, and how can this be building towards your these. Just the freedom within that even to kind of tailor it to leading to this thesis. Especially for me, because it feels so condensed, like I only have two years, and now it’s already time to start my thesis, so just having the freedom within the requirements to gear it towards what I want to be thinking about.
DP: The same is true, we didn’t speak about this, but we do have a written thesis that you complete. The written component is quite short, it’s only about fifteen pages, and it also is treated in a very similar way. So, it’s not an academic excercise and having to write in a particular way. You have a thesis writing seminar that really is approached from the perspective or artist writing and encourages you to develop your own writing practice that accompanies your art practice. So, it follows very similarly to the model that Alyssa and Xenia are describing and the rest of the curriculum.
JU: There was one question regarding the application. Do I have to have exhibitions before I can apply to Master studies?
DP: It’s the work itself that will be evaluated, not the context in which you’ve shown them. But of course it’s, the expectation is that you have a developed practice, that you have a developed body of work by the time you come. If you haven’t had an opportunity to exhibit that, that doesn’t prevent you from being able to be succesful in the admissions process.
JU: Regarding each applicant, their prior experience of working in the field of fine arts is evaluated, but the kind of, this doesn’t strictly have to be in the form of exhibition. It can be also other project that you’ve participated in, events, the organization of exhibitions or other kinds. It doesn’t also have to be strictly exhibition as Daniel said, but some of course of working professionally as an artist is expexted.
XR: But being an artist can be many things. Some of us came from backgrounds that had nothing to do with exhibitions and galleries. I work a little bit more in that now since the school offers all these gallery opportunities and that’s the framework a little bit, but I did my Bachelor thesis for instance in running an artists’ residency in a Finnish village. So, you can argue that whatever you do is fine art if you perceive it as such, but it doesn’t have to be within a gallery space in order to be exhibited for the public. It can be many things, I would say.
JU: Yeah, it can take different, regarding what is your practice and goal, personally. There are still more specific questions or continuations to an earlier question about mixed media painting. Are there any such courses taught in the MFA and can a student graduate speciliazed in these areas. About this specialization, I think formally, when you graduate, your specialization is the subject that you’ve student in. I think this is kind of a painting-specific question, so I don’t know if we have info on what kind of course offerings they have, but I guess this kind of mixed media or experimental painting is something that I’m pretty sure that is on offering in some shape or form, or can be attained.
DP: Yeah, definitely. And if you have specific questions about the offerings, you can both take a look, our course offerings are available online and they’re open access, and you can also reach out in terms of painting to Sigrid Sandström, one of the painting professors. I’m sure that she’d be happy to answer specific questions about offerings, if you’re not sure if your practice would be well-supported. But as we said earlier, based on what I can see of the question, in terms of this question about mixed media and experimentation, there’s no question that these practices are supported by the Academy.
XR: I mean, what I learned in painting department, being there for two weeks in my introduction semester, was that anything is a painting if you approach it like that. So, a chair on the floor might seem like a sculpture or furniture, but if you think that it’s a painting, if you look at it like a painting, then it is. I spent two weeks in painting painting only with light, and I was told you can definitely come in painting if you want to, you don’t even have to touch the paint, it’s fine. So, I think you decide yourself what is your specialized degree. You make a project and then that is what you graduate in, somehow. You can decide yourself and then ask for advice or guidance specifically for that.
JU: I think it’s fair to say overall that none of the subject areas of our teaching is very kind of academic or conservative.
DP: Yeah, it’s also, there’s a wide variety of teachers here, and you find the teachers who you’re interested in to have more dialogue with around your practice. If you have an interest in a particular area, people are very good at both figuring out who those people are or pointing you to them. That’s part of our job as faculty, is to support the practices that you have. Within my role in time and space arts, if there are students who are working in an area that I feel is not supported adequately, then we bring people in to support that area of practice. You also at the Master level have these – Xenia and Alyssa are just coming to that stage – but when you start your Master’s thesis project for second half of the year, however it goes, of you first year of study, second half of the first year of study, you select an external supervisor, who is somebody who is specifically selected by you to support your work, and that can be a specialist in any field or subfield. You can actually split that supervision to
(-) two people to support a very kind specific hybrid specialty. And even the formal examination of your thesis is done by external examinors who you get to select along with your professor. So you can also tailor the examination of your work to a very specific subspecialty.
JU: I could take up some questions submitted beforehard. There’s actually a set of several questions, it’s actually more specific to the time and space program and applying to that. ”I have a Bachelor degree in film and graphics. What kind of previous work could increase my admission chances if included to the portfolio?” And since they have a Bachelor in the field of design, with a specialization in film, video and graphics, they’re wondering if they’re eligible to apply to the time and space program overall.
DP: I mean, definitely. That background is squarely within the study areas. There’s no particular type of medium that will increase you chances of acceptance. The admissions process is done by the faculty within the areas, and we look to bring together a class with really strong work and diverse interests. So, I would really just encourage you to honestly present your best work and the work that you’re most invested in, and to use the statement to really in your own way and in your own words and as honestly to yourself, to present to us what your interests are in that work and that what we maybe can’t see when we’re looking at the portfolio but that’s important to understanding the core concerns and nature of your practice. I’d also really encourage you to share with us things that you haven’t done yet but that you really are interested in developing, things that we can’t see there. So it’s not just about what you’ve made, it’s also what you will be making and what you’re interested in making and the questions that you’re asking yourself around those works that are helpful to us in the admissions process.
JU: Same applicant, who would be an applicant who is applying from outside of the EU or EEA countries, and they were wondering what is kind of the scholarship/admission ratio for international students. I believe this would meam for internationals students, what are the chances of being admitted and the receiving a scholarship if they are applying for one.
DP: You’re gonna answer that one, Jaakko?
JU: We don’t have a very specific statistic about this, and we don’t have a kind of predetermined quota in regards to scholarships. The scholarship opportunities are for applications who are applying from outside of the EU and EEA countries, and they can apply for tuition fee waiver. Now we also have an option for this two year time between 2022 and 2024, we have this Finland scholarship program that is supported by the Ministry of Education that international students can also apply for, which is a very good option since it’s covering the tuition fee as well as supporting extra funding to start your studies. The applicants who are liable to paying a tuition fee can apply for a scholarship when they submit their application. There isn’t a separate
process, so it’s very easy in that sense. But the decisions regarding scholarships are always made after the final selection of the students that are admitted. I would say there is a very good chance of receiving a scholarship if you have been admitted to the last phases of the admission process and then you’re selected as a student. Since we don’t have tremendous amounts of students coming fromn outside of the EU, so for the tuition fee waivers, the 50 % waiver is pretty secured for everyone who has applied for, and also the Finland scholarship is, we’ve now had it in use for firstly in our last round of admissions and I believe majority of who applied for it managed to receive it.
DP: The hard thing is to be admitted. The scholarship part is actually, I think that the process, of course it depends on how many apply each year, but you don’t need to actually do anything in particular to apply additionally, if you just check a box. Alyssa, you’ve received one, right? Did you just check a box?
AC: I don’t even remember checking a box. It just happened, so. [chuckle]
DP: [laugh] Still check the box, even if Alyssa managed to do it without it. But we’re very fortunate right now to have this Finland scholarship which provided both the tuition waiver and an additional scholarship for the first year and then a capacity to apply for the tuition waiver for the second year. I think we’re in a very very strong position to offer good support, good financial support to admitted students. There was a question that I see on the chat about what if you don’t know who can aid in your specialization and when do you need to know who can aid you. So we don’t expect you to know that upon applying. Of course some people do take a look at the bios for various faculty who are teaching in the program and are interested in studying in a particular area of specialization of one of the faculty, but that’s not necessary either. We have a lot of other teachers as well who may not be so evident in those spaces. Really mostly just all you need to do it say what you’re interested in, and right people to assist you in doing that will give you the assistance to identify those, both in terms of regular supervision as well as thesis supervisor, you get supported during that work.
XR: Maybe it’s important to emphasise that I think one way KuvA really defines itself differently from a lot of art schools is that we are not locked with one professor through your studies. In a lot of other art schools, you apply directly to study under one specific artist, but in this school you really choose your own teachers during the studies, more or less. You can just take course from whoever you want to. You can take private meetings with whoever you want to. Even in your department, if you don’t find someone who vibes with you directly to what you’re doing, you might find them in some other department. It’s more this anarchist structure of a lot of teachers for everyone. You can ask any of us if you need to find someone who’s specialized in something specific.
DP: Yeah, you can also – I speak from the perspective of the faculty all the time – but of course you’ll have your other MFA student peers who can readily point you to the people that they’ve found who are helpful. You can also receive a lot of support from that channel.
JU: This is a more simple question of how many students are selected for this program. This year, or this round of admissions, we have 23 maximum places in the whole fine arts program. But the subject area specific quotas are not set beforehand. It is the overall fine arts program in its entirety, the 23 student places.
DP: Does that include, are we doing a praxis round this year or is it not this year?
JU: This year, in the Master’s admission, we have the application to the MFA program and we also have the admission to the praxis program, which is the Master’s program is exhibition studies and curating, which is also hosted by the Academy but is a separate more theory-oriented MFA program. So those are running parallel, and interested students can apply to these two separate MFA programs if they wish to do so. We’re slowly reaching our time limit, and we have a few questions still, so I hope we can maybe address the remaining few still. This is a very practical matter regarding the admission criteria. ”I have an IELTS GT 5.5 and also a proficiency letter from my previous university that I taught all courses in English. Do these both documents fulfil the admission language criteria?” For the IELTS test, we are accepting an IELTS academic test with this 5.5 rate. Any kind of studies or degrees from a previous university, there are some formal requirements that must be checked, so not knowing where you have studied before, I cannot say directly if your previous studies give you eligibility. But either way, for this applicant and for every applicant, I really warmly suggest that you check the language profiency requirements beforehand, all of the accepted tests and these kind of minimun scores and test results are very in detail addressed there, so be sure to check them in the admission criteria, when you prepare your application. This is something that has to be done in the first phase, so be sure to check them already now before submitting your application in August.
DP: There was a question that was on acceptance rate. Do you have statistics on what percentage the acceptance rate was last year? Of course, we never know how many will apply each year, but last year, it’s been approximately – ?
JU: We have a statistic from all of the Academies’ degree programs, the admission rates, that is on the website under section Applicants. I can also look here and post a link to the statistic to the chat.
DP: Maybe I’ll answer one that I can see on the chat. There’s a question about someone having taken a gap of three and a half years after doing their Bachelor studies, and I would say that definitely does not decrease your admission acceptance possibility. I think we look very favorably upon people that continue their artistic
practice after doing a Bachelor’s. Again, the focus is really on your work. Ten year gap, also no problem. I see that posted on here. It’s really about the practice and the work that you’ve been doing. There’s no preference for continuous education at the Academy in that sense.
JU: Yes. Any kind of gap years are, first timer quotas or any kind of restrictions regarding age or nationality do not factor in the admission criteria.
DP: If it’s been ten years since you’ve made any art, that might be something different. [chuckle]
JU: That might be a different thing then. So, for instance in the last round of admissions in the autumn of 2021, to the MFA we received a total of 208 applications, that is the grand total of submitted electronic applications, and then we admitted 24 new students from those. Our amount of applications that we receive to the MFA has been in a steady increase for the few years, but it’s usually around 200 applications for the MFA. Now, I think we’ve succesfully reached our one-hour time limit for the webinar. Hopefully we managed to answer all of your questions as well as we could. If there’s something is is left unanswered, I encourage you to contact us via email afterwards at kuva.admissions@uniarts.fi. The application period is opening in August, and the application instructions are available on our website. I encourage you to review them, and if you have any questions regarding the language proficiency requirements, the portfolio or any other things related to admission criteria, I encourage you to contact us beforehand, to apply then in August.
XR: Welcome to Finland. [laugh]
JU: Yes. Thank you everyone for taking part. Daniel or Alyssa, do you have any closing remarks?
AC: If you’re coming from outside the EU and have any questions about the process of residency permits and all that, I’m willing to answer questions, just my journey and process.
DP: That’s a really good offer. I’d just make a note, write it down, if you’re admitted and Alyssa has offered to guide you a bit, I’d take her up on it. But thank you all for coming and being here to learn about the program. I hope that you heard something that piques your interest, and I look forward to your applications.
JU: Thank you, everyone.