At Virginia Commonwealth University talented individuals with art or non-art backgrounds challenge and subvert the common definitions of photography, film, and video. Through its graduate program the department seeks to advance the highest standards of photography and film by providing an artistic community for the development and exchange of progressive visual ideas.

The students engage in critical dialogue with the diverse and distinguished faculty of artists, critics, and scholars who stress the importance of experimentation and conceptualization. They create work in traditional and contemporary genres and processes including performance imaging, docudramatic filmmaking, and multi-media installation. Most students work in both film/video and photography.  US News ranks VCUarts the number two public university program in multimedia.

The graduate program’s requirements are flexible and determined by the needs of each student on an individual basis. On completion of the program each student must have an in-depth understanding of the critical dialogue that connects photography and film with other disciplines. The program culminates in the presentation of a visual body of work, with the appropriate written documentation, that coherently reflects two years of intelligent investigation into some aspect of the medium.

Graduate teaching assistantships and scholarships are available and there are opportunities to teach as an adjunct professor.

The MFA Curriculum Photography and Film

Students are encouraged to take graduate courses in other VCUarts nationally ranked visual and performing arts programs. With approval of the department chair substitutions for departmental courses may be made.