Program of Study

Boston University’s MFA in Visual Narrative integrates the long-standing fine arts tradition of College of Arts’ School of Visual Arts with sequential art storytelling practices, allowing students the opportunity to craft stories in the medium of comics, long-form graphic novels, picture books, and transmedia that integrate written and visual language.

BU’s MFA in Visual Narrative underscores the myriad possibilities emerging from the amalgamation of Comics, Picture Books, and Transmedia, especially when synergized within a Research I institution. This integration entails intertwining research in the humanities and sciences with the artistic disciplines of comics, picture books, and transmedia, thereby forging multifaceted storytelling experiences. Through exploring the practical applications of various modes of Visual Narrative, the program delves into the medium’s capacity to convey narratives with empathy and to communicate effectively with a wide-ranging audience.

Students engage critically with the history of the discipline, including its role galvanizing social messages and contributing to the way information is disseminated and made persuasive to mass audiences.

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Crafting stories that integrate written and visual language.

Boston University’s new Visual Narrative MFA program is one of only a handful of programs in the country focused on producing media such as comics and graphic books, picture books, and animation.

The new Master of Fine Arts degree is led by renowned comic book artist and CFA alum Joel Christian Gill (CFA’04).

Facilities and Resources

VISUAL NARRATIVE STUDIO

STUDIOS AND SHOPS

Graduate students will have 24-hour access to a shared professional studio space with students in the degree.

With training, graduate students are also granted access to the Printmaking facilities on the 4th floor of the 808 Building, directly above the graduate studios. Printmaking facilities include etching, lithography, silkscreen, bookmaking, letterpress and digital print studios.

Additional facilities available to graduate students include a fully equipped woodshop, welding shop, ceramics facilities, black-and-white darkrooms, digital media studios including vinyl cutters and a Risograph printer.

Students frequently utilize the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC), a 15,000-square-foot, $9 million facility on Commonwealth Avenue, just steps from the School of Visual Arts. This state-of-the-art facility features everything from laser etching to rapid prototyping, allowing designers to collaborate with engineering staff and students to see their projects through all stages of hands-on production.

COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES

The Visual Arts Resource Library is a non-circulating collection of books, exhibition catalogues, directories, magazines, and sound and video recordings available for SVA students and faculty. New books are added annually, and acquisition recommendations are always welcome. In addition to housing an over 6,000-volume reference collection, which includes many rare and unique items.

The Visual Arts Resource Library’s digital resources include Apple desktop computers fully loaded with the Adobe Creative Cloud, a large-format digital scanner, and a tabletop copy stand for documenting work. A collection of digital equipment, including digital cameras, projectors, audio recording equipment, lighting kits, and more, are available for short terms loans to SVA students and faculty. Visit the SVA equipment page to learn more.

The Karl Fortress Audio Archive is a resource developed by Karl Eugene Fortess (1907–1993), a painter and printmaker who headed the School of Visual Arts printmaking department from 1956 to 1973. Beginning in the early sixties, he undertook a major artist interview project, creating 269 recordings with prominent American artists. These interviews are available for students to borrow from the library on mp3 players. The list of interviews in the library’s collection includes many prominent American artists of the twentieth century, among them Romare Bearden, Thomas Hart Benton, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Philip Guston, Alex Katz, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Levine, Robert Motherwell, and Alice Neel.

The Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, whose mission it is to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice.

The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, which captures and documents history by collecting the manuscripts from individuals who play a significant part in the fields of journalism, poetry, literature and criticism, dance, music, theater, film, television, and political and religious movements.

Graduate Curriculum Requirements

Curriculum requirements for the MFA Painting program can be found on the Academic Bulletin.

VISIT BU BULLETIN

Important Dates

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Program Faculty

• 

  Joel Christian Gill

  Associate Professor of Art; Chair, Department of Visual Narrative

• 

  Cathy Johnson Johnson

  Lecturer in Art, Visual Narrative

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  Paul Karasik

  Lecturer in Art