Accepted MFA art portfolio
When I was making my portfolio I looked for other ones online and it helped a lot! I practice a lot of different mediums and was applying for a lot of different kinds of programs, so I created a whole show from scratch that maintained somewhat of a consistent theme through out to have some sense of unity as that wasn’t created through my medium or technique. I edited out some of identifying information to post online, but they obviously weren’t edited when I submitted my portfolio.
I kept seeing people post that the work isn’t as important as being able to see how you engage intellectually with your work, but Also to try not to write too much. So I worked for a while on the balance of intelectual engagement, personal expression, and length of writing.
I ended up getting eight interviews and accepted into four programs (2: 50% funding, 2: full funding) and told I would have been accepted into one more program but they’re pausing their MFA program for the foreseeable future —and I officially accepted an offer yesterday.
I hope visualizing an “accepted” portfolio is helpful for people applying in the future! I thought I needed to create 20 specific pieces of work originally, after I began searching for examples, I realized that wasn’t necessarily the case and that seeing detail shots, or shots of gallery layout could be helpful too! I know you technically aren’t supposed to add together multiple pieces, but I kind of bent the rules for pieces I felt were meant to be viewed together. This allowed me more room for detail shots. I also had two video pieces I submitted with some of my applications. They aren’t viewable here.