Master of Arts in Fine Arts at the Lucerne School of Art and Design HSLU Socially Engaged – Profiled Artistically – Didactically Informed in Art

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The overall aim of the Master of Arts in Fine Arts HSLU program is to develop the ability to apply or transfer professional competencies in art to spheres of everyday life, to art museum pedagogical and artistic outreach endeavors, and to teaching visual arts up to the secondary level (in Switzerland, so-called Matura schools). The core of the MFA is to develop an engaged and informed practice in working with images, space, social situations, and the creation of public realms for participation and debate not only through image-based media, but also as art production under the conditions of the post-digital age.

In the course of the MFA program, students will become able through their projects and activities – which are supported to be precise in terms of the artistic and intermediatorial intentions and with a high degree of competence in communication and engagement – to respond to the circumstances of society today and to intervene in specific societal structures.

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All three majors allow opportunities for developing a personal experimental stance, exploring and questioning means and methods of artistic and aesthetic research, and acquiring solidly based competencies relative to the chosen professional field. Along with the structured framework of study, not only is ongoing and compressive individual coaching provided to students by experienced and high profile artists, art pedagogy specialists, and cultural studies experts, but also there are close connections with the Art, Design & Public Spheres Research Group of the Lucerne School of Art and Design HSLU, the Pädagogische Hochschule PH Luzern (Teacher Training College) and international partner institutions of the MFA. Colloquia, group discussions, and symposia promote intensive exchange and discourse between MFA students and docents, mentors, and students from other universities as well as professionals in art representing recognized positions in national and international debates.

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The integration of three majors under the umbrella of one student group with a common focus on socially relevant art production in the fields of art in public spheres, critical image practices, and art teaching is a unique Masters in Fine Arts program in Switzerland. Although students of the respective three majors concentrate on their own work and development within their different practice fields, a great advantage for all are the possibilities for intensive and dynamic exchange concerning art theory, artistic practice, and artistic, pedagogical, and curatorial intermediatorial/outreach approaches and strategies. 

Students enrolled in the Major in Art Teaching MAT profit from a curriculum that provides leeway for an ambitious artistic practice and exploring and questioning theoretical positions so that by the end of their studies they are well equipped with a high degree of competence based in a pedagogy of art teaching that is artistically informed and based in active engagement. On the other hand, students enrolled in the Major in Art in Public Spheres or Major in Image Practices are continuously confronted with issues concerning collaboration, intermediatorial/outreach aspects, and the importance of addressing participants/viewers, elements which play pivotal roles in relation to specific public spheres or realms and with regard to critical image practices in image-based media.

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Student projects can be developed individually or as a team in the MFA beginning with the concept and on through the definition of the theoretical basis and beyond to the detailed plans for execution. Intensive exchange with docents and also between students is highly valued in the study program. This exchange is made possible and furthered through numerous colloquia and group discussions, through the spatial proximity of students to each other in their studio workplaces, and through the mutual determination each year of a specific theme, location in Central Switzerland, or collaborating institution, which constitutes the common point of reference for all students for their final artistic Master’s thesis.

Inclusion of Numerous Experts
Expressly engaged as student mentors, high-profile artists and intermediatory/outreach professionals support all students with their artistic work. In the Major in Art Teaching MAT, the respective mentors also coach students personally in lesson planning and preparing for teaching. The fact that many of the docents are intensively involved in the Art, Design & Public Spheres Research Group of the Lucerne School of Art and Design HSLU guarantees a direct transfer of knowledge and experience between research, theory, and practice. Alternating guest docents and ongoing, more long-term guest professors from the fields of art theory and cultural studies enhance the contextual foundation of student projects through the guest docents’ and guest professors’ respective professional backgrounds. Workshop/conference events, and special modules such as the Master Dialogues series and Joint Ventures bring international experts from the areas of independent artistic practice, art intermediatory/outreach program work, and art theory to the Master of Arts in Fine Arts HSLU.

In addition, students profit from cooperation with other institutions and HSLU departments, such as: intermediatory/outreach forums of the Kunstmuseum Luzern and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, the Music and Art Performance Master of Arts in Music programs of the Lucerne School of Music HSLU, The Valais School of Art édhéa for the ACT performance series, the Institute for Education in the Arts, academy of fine arts Vienna and HEAD – Genève. Cooperation with the Art, Design & Public Spheres Research Group of the Lucerne School of Art and Design HSLU enables MFA graduates to already enter a pre-PhD program.

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Conceived in relation to a specific context, location, or region, the Master’s theses of the diploma exhibition of the final projects represent the conclusion of the study program. Within the parameters of the site-specific exhibition, students are free to determine the form of the final Master’s thesis project: artistic works are possible as well as art teaching or intermediatory/outreach projects. The focus on alternating sites and regions of Central Switzerland enables aspiring artists, intermediatory/outreach professionals, and teachers to investigate and question a rich variety of everyday rural, suburban, and urban contexts, which are clustered together in the Central Swiss agglomeration. In 2019, the diploma exhibition of final projects was entitled Schichtwechsel [in English, a “change of shift”] at the Papieri Cham (ZG); in 2018, onstansstad.ch in Stansstad (NW); in 2017, tell me in Altdorf (UR); in 2016, WIR SIND DA [We’ve Arrived] in Emmen (LU); in 2015, Punktlandung [Spot Landing] in the communities of Pfäffikon (SZ) and Lachen (SZ); in 2014, Zwischenhalt Luzern [Stopover Lucerne] in Lucerne (LU); in 2013, Manöver Sarnen [Sarnen Maneuver] in Sarnen (OW); in 2012, Fokus Zug [Zug Focus] in Zug (ZG); and, in 2011, the Master Kunst Tour in Littau-Reussbühl (LU).

For further information, see: Archive of Diploma Exhibition Final Projects

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The Master of Arts in Fine Arts HSLU strongly emphasizes artistic project work and establishing an individual – or also collective – authorial artistic profile – not only of the students enrolled in the Major in Art in Public Spheres MAPS and Major in Image Practices MIP, but also of those in the Major in Art Teaching MAT. The student’s personal – or students’ mutual, in the case of collective work – artistic project is positioned at the center of the studies, which develops from the first semester until the final Master’s thesis project and is coached and guided by mentors and collectively in exchange with fellow students.

Following the tenet of “learning by working on projects,” the MFA provides a wide range of opportunities for students. For example, they can participate in invited and open-call competitions, events, and exhibitions, such as the Kunsthoch Luzern; Sihlcity; Intervenire Muri (2015) and Wachgeküsst (2019). Students also can work in a site-specific and artistically intermediatory way in institutional contexts such as at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (2015) and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich (2019). Such opportunities are often interdisciplinary in nature, such as Und weg mit den Minuten at the Kunsthaus Zug (2014) and Strollology (2018) created in cooperation with the Luzerner Theater. Both interdisciplinary projects were realized in collaboration with students of the Music and Art Performance Master of Arts in Music programs of the Lucerne School of Music HSLU. Students also have opportunities within the framework of their studies to organize and realize independent exhibitions and festivals. These can relate to a specific site, such as in Beyond the Timberline (2012); and, they can be interactive with the public and/or performative in nature, as with ACT, an ongoing performance festival entailing projects and events in public space. In addition, students are prepared for entering their chosen careers by working on projects in profession-specific modules and also by completing internships. Reflection about contemporary discourses in lectures, seminars, and events such as the Master Dialogues series with international experts from fields concerning art and public spheres, critical image practices, and art pedagogy/didactics complement the practice-oriented nature of the MFA study program.

Major in Art in Public Spheres MAPS and Major in Image Practices MIP graduates of the MFA are solidly qualified to realize artistic projects in image-based media such as site-specific interventions in public space or institutional as well as non-institutional contexts (e.g., artist-run spaces, etc.) as independent agents or as commissioned by institutions or other clients, e.g., artist projects can be realized in cooperation with public and private institutions, with urban planning authorities and professionals, as well as with neighborhood initiatives and/or architectural firms. A primary aim is to enable students to initiate artistic practice as a long-term cooperation in diverse professional fields and to hone curatorial and intermediatorial/outreach skills.

Through the study program’s unique combination of working on artistic projects and developing competencies through didactical and art pedagogy modules and professional and teaching internships, Major in Art Teaching MAT graduates are certified to teach visual arts up to the secondary level (in Switzerland, so-called Matura schools) and work in the field of artistic or cultural education. The approach to and method of teaching, which these graduates have developed through their studies and practical experience, are informed by an understanding of contemporary art pedagogy and participatory form of artistic intervention in public institutions committed to artistic education.

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