As a Christian college professor with an MFA from a secular institution, I have dealt with the issue closely. My perception is that most of what we refer to as “Christian” colleges here are actually evangelical in culture. Protestants and evangelicals do not have a history of participation in the visual arts — they are very comfortable with writing and any music before 1900. But that’s about it for the arts. Only very recently has it even become acceptable to study, much less create visual art. So, the cultural problem is the key issue. The fallout is that there are few existing faculty or administrators with any clue about what art is, much less who to hire, what to teach, etc.

Having said that, APU just created the first BFA in cinematic arts at an evangelical institution. Perhaps, once that gets going, MFAs will follow. BFAs or MFAs will always be very closely related to contemporary arts — music, theater, film, etc. And due to the anti-intellectual climate among evangelicals in relationship to popular arts, it is very difficult to create a program that appeals to a student who takes popular culture and the arts seriously. I firmly believe, if you build it, they will come. It’s a question of which institution wants to enroll a lot of students paying private tuition first. This is the biggest unmet need in Christian higher education. And it shows just how out of touch current Christian administrators and faculty are with the world into which they send students.

An MFA in Acting http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/theatre/ .

An MFA in Cinema-Television with majors in Directing, Producing, or Script and Screenwriting http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/CTV/degree.htm .

My alma mater (which i hate to divulge because i’ve been so critical) Asbury College is holding a conference on the arts and faith this fall and I am proud that in terms of that issue they are doing fine things.

you should google the conference they may have some things online and @ http://www.travisshaffer.com you can view my work Eleven megachurches which is hanging in conjunction with the confrence at AC right now…

i enjoy your blog, and take care

My own reasoning for wanting an MFA from a Christian U was not so much to avoid a public school (I have heard of other people’s experiences being very much like the Art School Confidential model, but min was not). My BFA work was done at a public university. I was not averse to the experience. What I wanted was an environment, however, that pushed me to further combine my faith and work in a sound intellectual manner. Not a fluffy devotional one.

You mention another problem with many/most faith based schools w/ an art program, No BFA, this is typically a result of under funding/not enough resources, Faculty and facilities. My school had a lot of work to do to even maintain their BA accred.

Having no BFA effectively makes getting into a top tier MFA program even nearer to impossible than otherwise. many schools state in app. materials not to bother applying w/out one. So you are left to apply to mid level programs.

My real contention though is that so much of the history of art (as well as contemporary work / theory) is in conflict with the christian worldview (if not directly attacking) that it seems unlikely that a strongly faith based school, with undoubtedly conservative* past and board of trustees/administration –
*(understand i mean conservative literally, they seek to conserve the status of the school, not to change, not conservative as in the left/right dichotomy in this case that is irrelevant)
-would really give the appropriate freedom to its faculty / art dept. to tackle those issues honestly and progress with the artworld to stay relevant. If they did are they willing to hire the sort of faculty who have despite disagreements invested the time in being conscious and educated on all realms of art.

so why not a christian BA followed by a christian MFA

-because though all schools are different.. some likely better than others with this. The BA probably isn’t giving you as rounded of an education on art as you might expect from other types of good schools w/ a BFA. (though christian schools can be great academic institutions for the liberal arts and general education)

If nothing else they are unable to offer as many courses, which hurts, and usually have 2 or less AH faculty my guess is that at most schools neither of them deal with anything close to contemporary art (because the schools need broad applicable faculty that don’t specialize and cover lots of ground)

So if you jump from that into 2 or 3 years of specialized study at a MFA (where in some ways you aren’t there to learn, but to do research toward your thesis. Learning happens but not the same.

You will likely find that in many cases you have a deficiency somewhere (history, technical, theory, general experience in the presence of art/critique etc..)

a liberal arts BA is maybe 40-50 art credits (many of which were probably guided/independant studies to save the school money

an art school or public school kid will have a BFA and close to 70-90 credits of art usually including 15+ AH and have been forced to sit through many visiting contemporary artist lectures…..

So you show up for your MFA and are either (in my case) forced to catch up quickly because you are a year behind and finding out about artists/ movements that were not made aware to you in AH or Critique

At a Christian MFA, i would assume (i think safely) most of your students will come in with a christian undergrad BA some w/ a BFA. and so will be on a more level playing field (yields less diversity) and not feel as though they have as much if any catching up to do.

I’m projecting my own assumptions i realize that.. but the lack of diversity of thought / among students seems troubling to me…

in my program we have 13ish MFA Candidates from varying states and types of schools, i don’t know them all very personally yet (just got many new ones, but i know atleast 4 or 5 are christians. It doesn’t have to be that all art kids in public schools are godhaters) My work is very much centered around my beliefs and the church and I have not been outcast because I am playing by the rules… defend your work by intellectual means as it is a UNIVERSITY…

I find it frustrating when students that want to make work that has no academic framework or precedent and wish to obtain an MFA or BFA for that matter which is not a sign of artistry but an academic degree. This applies both to christian school kids who’s defense of thier work is only that jesus loves them and that is enough, and art school kids who’s defense is that this is trendy/looks cool, or i want to make work about sex because my mom isn’t here or i’m on drugs etc.

either way there are short falls but the bottom line is that it is an academic endevor and if your final goal is to make “devotional art” then make it but you needn’t get an MFA…

After all of this writing i didn’t set out to do… What I aim to say is that though i can understand why it is frustrating to you that christian schools don’t offer an MFA but require one to teach… it doesn’t make any sense… they don’t offer most of the degrees that they require to teach. My personal opinion is that if you are called to teach then consider 2 or 3 years in a “secular” MFA a long term missions trip. Then get a job teaching…

You will then find the real problem is that Though you need an MFA to teach… thousands of people already have MFA’s and can’t get jobs.

The market is over-saturated, so what we really need is less MFA Programs not more!

The only knowledge I have personally of an undergraduate art degree at a Christian liberal arts U is at John Brown University, and not because I attended there but because I know a good number of the profs as friends in the dept. They teach outside the limited realm you describe above. The catch is that they don’t offer a BFA program yet (they’re working hard to get one though).