Maine College of Art & Design: A Hub for Artistic and Critical Inquiry
Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D), located in the heart of Portland's vibrant Arts District, has a rich history dating back to 1882. As the oldest arts educational institution in Maine, MECA&D has evolved into a nationally respected college of art and design, offering a comprehensive range of programs and fostering a dynamic community of artists, designers, and innovators. The college provides unparalleled access to tools and resources, ensuring students can fully maximize their investment in themselves. With over 200,000 square feet of academic and studio space and 24/7 studio access, MECA&D provides an immersive and supportive environment for artistic exploration and growth.
A Foundation in Critical Thinking and Artistic Practice
At MECA&D, studio practice is intertwined with dominant social and cultural ideas. The Academic Studies program encourages students to think critically about gender, race, history, and theory, enabling them to challenge conventions and unearth new ideas. The interdisciplinary curriculum includes courses in media theory, art history, cultural analysis, critical theory, World History, Philosophy, the Business of Art, Literature, Humanities, Natural Science, and Math. Instructors and professors push students to interrogate representations of identity and how they affect the way we read images and texts. Academic Studies Minors in Art History, Writing, and Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design ask how our ways of knowing, reading, and seeing are challenged by contemporary events and historical residues.
The goal of the Academic Studies curriculum is to enhance students' ability to participate meaningfully in the discourses that shape their lives, supplementing studio work with research, writing, and critical thinking skills.
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Program: Majors and Minors
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program at MECA&D is a four-year course of study based on the following sequence: Foundation, Majoring, and Core Seminars. To graduate with a BFA degree, students need to earn 120 credits, with requirements across Art and Design Studio courses and Academic Studies courses in Art History and Liberal Arts. Each of the eight majors offered at the college has its own studio, and students have 24/7 access to facilities. With fewer than 400 students, the program offers intimate class sizes and access to a faculty of artist educators.
The BFA program offers eight majors:
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- Animation & Game Art
- Ceramics
- Graphic Design
- Illustration
- Painting
- Photography
- Sculpture
- Textile & Fashion Design
MECA&D also offers several minors to enhance students' academic experience and allow them to explore passions they didn't know they had:
Art History: Studying Art History at Maine College of Art & Design helps students understand the historical and social contexts of their work, develop writing and critical thinking skills, and create art individually and collaboratively. Students gain knowledge in the history of world art--both Western and non-Western. Requirements include two semesters of Art History Survey, one non-western art history course, one elective art history course, and one semester of Critical Issues, a 200-level critical theory course. Students learn about art history from ancient to contemporary art.
Art & Entrepreneurship: The Art & Entrepreneurship Minor gives students the opportunity to pursue an entrepreneurial focus across studio disciplines. Through project-based, experiential courses, client projects, internships, workshops, and community partnerships, students develop a range of skills to launch and successfully grow their entrepreneurial endeavors. This interdisciplinary minor is designed to help students transform any discipline or concept into a real-world venture. Students are required to take The Art of Business (NS 250) and other Art and Entrepreneurship courses to complete the minor. The minor is 15 credits total.
Writing: This 18-credit Writing Minor, which is comprised of a diverse range of creative and expository writing courses, allows students to further enrich their artistic journey while developing exceptional communication and deep reading skills. In the Writing Workshop, which is the capstone experience, students complete a peer-edited, personal writing project-novel, graphic novel, screenplay, poetry compilation, memoir, essay-with the goal of publication. It is sponsored through the Liliane Willens Endowed Academic Support Fund.
Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design (SEAD): Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design (SEAD) takes a place-based approach to learning that transforms the Southern Maine landscape of coastal wetlands and tide-pools, urban forests and public parks into a laboratory for investigating climate change. SEAD students apply both their creative and analytical skills to investigate the most important issue of our time: sustaining life on Earth. This interdisciplinary curriculum brings ecological studies together with studio art practices; addressing real-world problems, students gain a knowledge base for “green” technology and planning, water conservation, natural resource management, environmental design and creative problem solving.
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Art & Music: The Bob Crewe Program in Art and Music enables students to explore the deep relationship between art and music. Made possible by a $3 million bequest from the Bob Crewe Foundation, this program is unique in that it is fundamentally embedded into the Art and Design program, not separated from it. The goals of the program are to foster experimentation in art and music, to support significant contributions to popular musical expression, and to do both in a way that encourages interdisciplinary exploration. The program, working in tandem with the College's rigorous visual arts offerings, prepares students to cross traditional boundaries as musicians, performers, sound artists, artists and thinkers.
Public Engagement: The Public Engagement minor is a four-year program that integrates art, real-world problems, and community partners into its teaching curriculum. This program is designed to support the College's dynamic curriculum, engage students more deeply, and prepare them with professional and interpersonal skills that set them apart in the workforce. Graduates seamlessly apply the skills they learned to create positive change as creative and social agents in the world. The interdisciplinary curriculum has been part of the pedagogy for over 25 years. Together, students learn and apply the skills of co-creating, designing, building, and activating our world to make it better for all.
Drawing: With the advent of postmodernism, artistic practices have splintered into an ever-widening variety of possibilities that has redefined the role of drawing in the contemporary art world. The program asks students to think across traditional academic boundaries, challenge and reinvent their art practice, and increase their intellectual and aesthetic curiosity. The program curriculum is delivered through lectures, small group discussions, individual and group critiques, one-on-one studio advising, and intensive online activity.
Graduate Programs: MFA, MAT, and Salt Graduate Certificate
MECA&D offers a range of graduate programs designed to further students' artistic and professional development:
Master of Fine Arts (MFA): Among the first low residency MFA Programs in the country, MECA&D now has two options to choose from. The full residency MFA gives you the option of moving to the Arts District in Portland, Maine, with 24/7 access to 200,000 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities in Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Metals, Wood, Ceramics, Photography, Digital Media, and Expanded Practices. Both options include the hallmarks that make the program distinct- two eight-week summer intensives in Maine, a rigorous curriculum and exceptional commitment to one-on-one student mentoring by core faculty, studio advisors and distinguished visiting artists, critics and curators. Online and in-person course work emphasizes research, experimentation, reflection, collaboration, and engaged problem-solving.
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Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT): Maine College of Art & Design’s 10-month Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program prepares artists to develop into effective art educators who are fully prepared for life at the front of the classroom. The program is divided into three phases: One-month Summer Intensive - Theory-based courses are taught in an institute setting with field experiences beginning on the very first day; 15-week Fall Semester - Take courses on studio art, teaching methods, and curriculum building. As an MAT candidate, you work in alternative settings to learn how to manage different types of classrooms for all students; 3. 15-week Spring Semester - The program culminates with a student teaching experience that can take place almost anywhere and is enhanced by an Action Research Seminar. The MAT schedule is designed to let you graduate just in time to apply for the following academic year’s teaching positions when they open.
Salt Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies: Students learn the art of creating documentaries with the Graduate Certificate Program in either Radio & Podcasting or Short Film. Since 1973, the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies has taught students from all over the United States and around the world to become skilled documentarians and storytellers. Faculty members are working documentarians and teaching professionals who help provide a strong foundation for students to develop new skills, build expertise, and make their best work. For a densely-packed semester, Salt students bring their passions, ideas, challenges, and projects to concentrate on Radio & Podcasting or Short Film. Graduates leave the program with a portfolio of professional work prepared to advance their careers in storytelling.
- Radio & Podcasting: Salt’s Radio+Podcasting track focuses on skills, tools and techniques for telling a compelling story with sound. Student cohorts engage in fieldwork, assignments, class discussion, instructor feedback, and peer critique, to learn how to: Identify, pre-report, and evaluate a possible story; Carry out successful interviews; Collect field recordings; Manage all digital assets; Use interview tape and other elements to build and shape a story; and, Write and edit, and produce polished work in ProTools, the industry standard for audio editing. Students also gain critical experience pitching work and marketing themselves as radio producers. Over the course of the semester, students will produce a variety of short audio assignments as well as an in-depth final project. Graduates of the Radio+Podcasting track leave with a portfolio of work ready to start or build upon their audio careers. Armed with a deeper understanding of how to tell stories with sound, alumni have gone on to hold positions at leading global news outlets and podcast companies.
- Short Film: In the Short Film track, students use a combination of documentary film, journalism, ethics, anthropology, art, and design fundamentals to tell compelling visual and audio stories. Student cohorts engage in fieldwork, tailored assignments, class discussion, instructor feedback, and peer critique to: Identify, pre-report, and evaluate a possible story; Carry out successful film shoots; Use video to build and shape a story; Write and edit; Manage all digital assets; Produce polished work in Premiere Pro, an industry standard for editing film; Pitch their concepts; and, Market themselves as filmmakers. Over the course of the semester, students shoot and produce two projects: the first short film, and the second a final in-depth piece. Graduates from Short Film have a portfolio of short film work suitable for submission to international film festivals and a new level of understanding around the importance of ethical storytelling through short film.
Study Abroad Opportunities
MECA&D offers a variety of study abroad opportunities to provide students with a global perspective and immerse them in different cultures. Unlike many other colleges, MECA&D works with students to identify the right international experience based on their professional and personal goals.
MECA&D has pre-existing agreements with several international schools including:
- Cortona, Italy through the University of Georgia
- Burren College of Art in Ireland
- Paris College of Art in France
- API - Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence, Italy
- API - Kingston University, London, UK
- Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Students can also participate in the AICAD Mobility Program, which allows qualified students to spend a semester at another participating AICAD school without additional cost or loss of credit. Academic credit for workshops is available through an arrangement between MECA&D and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.
History and Evolution
Maine College of Art & Design was established in 1882 as a part of the Portland Society of Art. A structured curriculum was introduced in 1911, with the first diplomas awarded in the 1920s by the School of Fine and Applied Arts. In 1972, the institution's name was changed to Portland School of Art, and its mission shifted towards educating professional visual artists.
The first Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees were awarded in 1975, after accreditation in 1973 by the National Association of Colleges of Art and Design (NASAD) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In 1982, the School separated from the Portland Society of Art, becoming an independent organization with its own Board of Trustees.
In 1992, Portland School of Art was renamed Maine College of Art to better represent its status as a degree-granting institution in New England. The College purchased the five-story landmark Porteous Building in Portland's downtown Arts District in 1993 and initiated a phased renovation project to update and consolidate the College's core facilities. An innovative Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program was established in 1998.
In 2005, the College leased 51 Oak Street, an 80-bed dormitory residence hall that it now owns. In 2006, the school acquired the Shepley Apartments, a 60-bed facility. Also in 2006, the College introduced a ten-month Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Art Education, which received approval from the State of Maine and accreditation to become the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in 2014.
In 2021, the institution's name was changed once more to Maine College of Art & Design, emphasizing the importance of design in its courses and programs.
The Porteous Building: A Vertical Campus
Maine College of Art & Design's central academic building resides on Congress Street. This historic building, the Porteous, Mitchell and Braun Company Building, was renovated in the late 1990s to suit the school's needs. With 125,000 square feet (11,600 m2) of space, this former department store is now a six-floor vertical campus. In the mid-1990’s, the Maine College of Art (“MECA”), founded in 1882, proposed to renovate and occupy the historic Porteous Building, a 1904 beaux arts style building on Congress Street in Portland, Maine, and to convert this vacant department store into the heart of a 24/7 Portland Arts District with classrooms and studio space, bringing artists, art students and art lovers into downtown. As bond counsel to the Maine Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority, Hawkins spearheaded the $3.8 million loan to MECA from an Authority moral obligation bond issue and negotiated the a tri-party intercreditor agreement, as the urban renewal project was also funded from proceeds of bonds issued by the City of Portland, Maine and loans from a consortium of commercial banks. The issue contained complex security issues and complex tax issues resulting from the multi-use nature of the main campus building.
A Thriving Arts Community
Maine College of Art & Design is located in the heart of the Portland Arts District. Recognized as one of the top cities for artists in the country, Portland is filled with artists, designers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Through the Artists as Work program, students learn how to become a working artist and have opportunities to exhibit locally, collaborate with organizations, intern with professionals, study internationally, and sell their work.
MECA&D hosts the Collect Art Sale, an annual fundraiser supporting participating artists and the College's Student Scholarship Fund that has raised over $1 million to date. The sale presents an opportunity for emerging artists to exhibit work alongside established artists. The annual Fashion Show exhibits student work created for the body while raising funds for student scholarships. Once a year, the historic Porteous Building becomes a bustling marketplace where you can shop for one-of-a-kind goods from Maine College of Art & Design faculty, staff, alumni, and students.
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