Transart Institute offers student-centered postgraduate art programs which foster independent thinking, risk-taking and the creation of an informed and sustainable art praxis. The Institute is also a platform for faculty to expand their teaching praxis by making space for creativity and experimentation.

Beyond its educational objectives, Transart Institute is engaged in building an international community in support of students, alumni, faculty and their artistic and academic goals. The institute offers its former students a virtual and material basis for artistic practice, the exchange of ideas, opportunities and critiques, supporting individual and collective growth beyond the duration of the program. Despite its small size, Transart Institute has become a place where the diverse and often incongruous experiences, philosophies and epistemologies of the post-colonial world can be in contact with each other.

History

Transart Institute was founded in 2004. It started delivering a postgraduate course, the MFA in New Media, accredited by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Culture in 2005 and the first summer residency was held in 2005 with an international body of 25 students and eight faculty. From 2006 to 2008 the summer residencies took place at the O.K. Center Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

, in 2009 and 2010 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Since 2010 the program is validated as MFA Creative Practice through the University of Plymouth

University of Plymouth

Plymouth University is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students . It has almost 3,000 staff...

. In 2009 alumni founded the Transart Exhibition Collective.

MFA Creative Practice

Transart Institute offers an international, low-residency MFA

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 program for working artists in a highly individualized format. The innovative program consists of three intensive summer residencies with lectures, workshops, critiques, seminars, performances and exhibitions in Europe and two shorter, winter residencies in New York. In the four semesters between residencies, students create their own course of study realizing individual art and research projects with the support of faculty and self-chosen artist studio advisors wherever they work and live.

Practice-based (studio) PhD

At this point (May 2010) a path to a studio-based PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 is in progress and practice-based doctoral programs are currently available through University of Plymouth. The University has a history of over ten years with practice-based PhD programs notably the Planetary Collegium

Planetary Collegium

The Planetary Collegium is an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub based in the University of Plymouth, with linked centers in Zurich and Milan...

.

Summer Certificate

Transart Institute also offers a summer program for artists who are not seeking a degree. Participants join MFA students in workshops, lectures and critiques and leave the residency with input on project plans for the year ahead. Artists attend the residency to get a creative surge, get a fresh perspective on their work, revitalize their practice, take their work in a new direction, make plans for a focussed praxis in the year ahead and to become part of an international community of artists, theorists and curators. Participants in the Summer Certificate Program are typically students from other MFA programs, mid-career artists, curators and teachers at other tertiary institutions.

All programs at Transart Institute are geared towards the development of a sustainable artistic praxis rather than training in certain media or genres, challenging students to think conceptually and work creatively in new ways. Current students work with animation, curating, digital media, film, gaming, graphic design, installation, painting, performance, photography, robotics, sculpture, sound, text, video, virtual reality.

Students

The majority of Transart students are emerging and mid-career artists and teachers at tertiary institutions. Students converge for the summer residency from areas as diverse as Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Iceland, Croatia, Ethiopia, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Austria, Egypt, the Netherlands, the Philippines, the UK and the US.

Faculty

Transart faculty comes from a wide range of academic and artistic backgrounds as well as geographic locations.


Summer Faculty 2010-11:

Myron Beasley, PhD, Brazil/USA


Sarah Bennett, PhD, UK


Lynn Book, MFA, USA


Jean Marie Casbarian, MFA, USA


Ofri Cnaani, MFA, Israel/USA


Cella, MFA, USA


Geoff Cox, PhD, UK/Denmark


Claire Daigle, PhD, USA (2011)


David Dunn, MFA, USA


Nicolás Dumit Estevez, MFA, Dominican Republic/USA


Victoria Hindley, MFA, USA


Laura González, PhD cand. Spain/UK (2011)


Carolyn Guertin, PhD, Canada/USA (2011)


Klaus Knoll, PhD, Austria/USA


Mary Ting, MFA, China/USA

Admission

is per rolling admissions with a deadline in early June for the academic year which start with the summer residency.

Scholarships

For the MFA Creative Practice the following scholarships are awarded on an annual basis: Transart Institute Developing Country Scholarships, achievement scholarships and merit scholarships. The scholarships provide a reduction in tuition up to 50%.