The Master of Fine Arts Program will challenge and support independently motivated artists in their intellectual, philosophical and artistic development. The graduate program encourages lifelong learning, career success and community involvement.
The JMU School of Art, Design, and Art History is one of the most notable and time-honored public university visual art programs in the United States, dating its foundation to the creation of the institution in 1908. The Master of Fine Arts degree was the first terminal degree granted by the university, and today the M.F.A. is a nationally ranked program by U.S. News and World Report.
The JMU School of Art, Design, and Art History is a collaborative community that fosters independent thought and creativity, embraces the diversity of cultural expression, and cultivates excellence in the making and understanding of visual art. SADAH's graduate programs are part of The Graduate School at JMU.
M.F.A. Student Profiles
M.F.A. students earned their Bachelors degrees from a variety of universities, from large, prestigious private art schools to smaller liberal arts colleges. Some of the undergraduate art schools represented in the M.F.A. program include:
- Illinois State University
- Mary Baldwin University
- Longwood University
- Lesley University
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Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
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Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
- James Madison University
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MIT Institute of Design, Mumbai
- George Mason University
- University of Cape Town
- Radford University
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Tufts University
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University of Utah
Students from around the world have earned their M.F.A. at JMU. Countries represented in the M.F.A. program include:
- China
- Colombia
- England
- India
- Iran
- Japan
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- South America
- South Korea
M.F.A. Graduate Accomplishments
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Overall Best Oral Presentation, Graduate Student Showcase of Scholarship and Creative Activities, JMU.
2026 Graduate Student Association Impact Award for significant contributions to the graduate student community, JMU.
2025-26 SOAR Outstanding Individual Contribution to a Student Organization Award, JMU.
2025–2026 McGuire Visiting Artist Fellow at The Blake School in Minneapolis, MN, a mural arts mentorship program focused on youth engagement and public art.
Alexandria Searls
2026 Museum Studies Research Competition Finalist, The Virginia Association of Museums, for “Sites and Sounds, Sights and Silences,” merging work from studio art/fibers and art history to propose multisensory involvement in museums and indigenous sites.
2026 Graduate Student Association Professional Development Grant, JMU.
Jeremy Starn
2026 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Graduate Fellowship, $6,000, VMFA, Richmond, VA
2025 Integrative Arts Project Grant, Office of Creative Propulsion, JMU
2025 Graduate Student Association Professional Development Grant, JMU
Renée Calway
2025-26 Working Title: Creative Voices of Virginia, VA MOCA, Virginia Beach, VA.
2025 Prisms, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (VA MOCA), Virginia Beach, VA.
2025 Deep Ecology Reclaim, Duke Critique Space, JMU. Solo exhibition.
2025 Art and the Ecosystem, Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, JMU.
2026 Dilapidated Dreams of the Salt of the Earth, Duke Critique Space, JMU. Solo exhibition.
Brandie Dziegiel, Carly Brink, Renée Calway
2026 Grad Solos I, Grace St Gallery and Duke Critique Spaces, JMU
Behnaz Ghasempour
2026 Invisible Threads, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, JMU.
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Belonging, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, JMU. This included JMU Project 50, an interactive thesis mural engaging over 80 participants including university leadership, faculty, staff, students, local and international artists, and community members.
2026 I Still Have a Dream, Hotel Madison, Harrisonburg, VA. Solo Exhibition.
2025 Distorted Families, Arts Council of the Valley, Harrisonburg, VA. Solo Exhibition.
Liv Luke
2026 Weaving Eigengrau, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, JMU.
Alexandria Searls, Elisha Hill, Jeremy Starn
2026 Grad Solos II, Grace St Gallery and Duke Critique Spaces, JMU.
Alexandria Searls, Brandie Dziegiel, Carly Brink, Jeremy Starn, Ver Ikeseh
2026 Graduate Student Group Show, Office of the Provost, JMU.
Jeremy Starn
2026 Alternative Topographies, Arts Council of the Valle, Harrisonburg, VA. Solo Exhibition.
2026 Collections of Curiosities, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin University. Co-curator of interdepartmental exhibition.
2026 UnBound #15, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA.
2026 A Fools Errand, Community Counseling Center, Harrisonburg, VA. Solo Exhibition.
2025 A Fools Errand, Arts Incarnate, Harrisonburg, VA. Solo Exhibition.
2025 At Hand, At Present: Collage and the Practice of Making Do, The Mid-American College Art Association (MACAA) juried hybrid exhibition, online.
2025 Midwest Nice Art Annual National Juried Exhibition, Northern State University.
Ver Ikeseh
2025-26 Graduate Student Association Liaison Representative, supporting graduate student advocacy and engagement.
2025-26 Member of Vision Team 5: Graduate Research, JMU.
Renée Calway
2026 “Dilapidated Dreams of the Salt of the Earth”, Architecture class, JMU.
2026 “Dilapidated Dreams of the Salt of the Earth”, ForKids! Staff group, organization in fighting for families and children living in poverty, Chesapeake, VA.
Jeremy Starn
2025 “Displacement”, Pecha Kucha: Boundless Bound Symposium, JMU.
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Braunstein, Justin. “Collaborative community mural: JMU students, staff and the Harrisonburg community paint mural”, The Breeze, April 16, 2026.
https://www.breezejmu.org/culture/collaborative-community-mural-jmu-students-staff-and-the-harrisonburg-community-paint-mural/article_4a655da5-0567-40e5-afa0-0b4f480adf8a.html
2026 Ver Ikeseh: Belonging, produced by JMU Media Productions.
Alexandria Searls, Brandie Dziegiel, Renée Calway,
2025 Art and the Environment: Three MFA in Art First Years Respond, JMU News, Thursday, December 18, 2025, https://www.jmu.edu/news/sadah/2025/12-17-mfa-first-years.shtml.
Jeremy Starn
2026 Jeremy Starn: Unsettling Monumental Achievements, Kwaaie Pier, January 28, 2026, online magazine interview. https://kwaaiepier.nl/jeremy-starn-unsettling-monumental-achievements/
Renée Calway
2026 Dilapidated Dreams of the Salt of the Earth, JMU.
2026 In Via Tecum: Stilleven in Ash and Amber, Zeiders American Dream Theater, Virginia Beach, VA.
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Kwibuka 32, a live painting performance at a commemorative event marking the remembrance of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda; the work is now part of the permanent collection of the Department of Political Science at JMU.
Jeremy Starn
2025 Take a picture with nature, it'll last longer, Community engagement art project, Harrisonburg, VA
Behnaz Ghasempour
2026 Invisible Threads, MFA Thesis Publication, Scholarly Commons, JMU.
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Belonging, MFA Thesis Publication, Scholarly Commons, JMU.
Liv Luke
2026 Weaving Eigengrau, MFA Thesis Publication, Scholarly Commons, JMU.
Alexandria Searls
2026 “Walking Art”, Voices for Distant Worlds, Boundless Unbound, editor Feixue Mei, JMU. Artist book be exhibited at LA Book Art Fair, May 2026.
Renee Calway
2026 From These Bricks, MADCon, Staunton, VA.
- Blacklight Stencil Night, The Rabbit Hole, Norfolk, VA.
- Dilapidated Dreams of the Salt of the Earth, six open workshops at JMU; Architecture class at JMU; ForKids! Children in Shelter group, Chesapeake, VA; ForKids! Staff group, Chesapeake, VA.
2025 Push, Peel, Print; A Night at the Museum, Rosemont Elementary School, Virginia Beach, VA; Celebrating Children, Mt. Trashmore, Virginia Beach, VA.
2025 Let’s Take Act, Virginia Beach ViBe District, VA.
Ver Ikeseh
2026 Mentor for Artists and Apprentices Program at the Explore More Discovery Museum, working with youth artists in a structured mentorship and exhibition program.
Financial Support
All M.F.A. full-time students admitted to the graduate program are recommended for a Graduate Assistantship within The School of Art, Design and Art History. This assistantship pays for full in-state tuition and graduate comprehensive fees for 18 graduate credits per year in exchange for 20 hours of work per week, per the stipend amount set by The Graduate School. The program requires an additional 6 credits to be completed during summer sessions; this tuition is not covered by the assistantship, but students may be able to apply for financial support. Students in their third year of M.F.A. study may be eligible for a Teaching Assistantship, which awards a larger stipend.
Acceptance into the Art M.F.A. program is highly competitive, with just three in-state Graduate Assistantships available. The offer of Graduate and Teaching Assistantship employment is contingent upon budget availability.
Please go to the Cost of Attendance Calculator to see the estimated cost of attendance for your program of study.
M.F.A. Thesis Exhibitions
MFA Thesis Catalogs
Graduate Faculty
A distinguished graduate faculty of practicing artists and scholars is dedicated to exemplary teaching and research and to the professional growth of each student. Graduate students are challenged through a rigorous curriculum of study that seeks to develop their personal practice of contemporary art and the historical and theoretical contexts that inform it.
Corinne Diop
Professor of Art, Graduate Director for Art, Photography Area Head
