Applications for the MFA in Applied Craft and Design are now being accepted for Fall 2013. To learn more, go to pnca.edu/graduate/acd.

The MFA in Applied Craft and Design (AC+D) represents a new paradigm in craft and design education, one that synthesizes and reconfigures the relationship between making and thinking. Setting foot into the Bison Building for the first time, new students in the AC+D program jump right into a lightning fast design build project. These students, who've never met before, have just two weeks to collaborate on a well-designed, elegantly-executed solution for a project responding to a real community need. 

This year, students from the AC+D program imagined, designed, and built a public bike repair shop and community hub in North Portland's New Columbia neighborhood. The students worked with and were mentored by Jack Sanders of Design Build Adventure and multimedia artist Butch Anthony. This is the AC+D program's fourth Design Build Project.

To read more about the Design Build 2012, go to UNTITLED, PNCA's online magazine, for a more in-depth look into the public bike repair shop. See a profile of the 2011 Design Build and the transformation of the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center into a dynamic space for literacy and learning.  


About MFA in Applied Craft and Design 
Connecting design thinking to design doing, Pacific Northwest College of Art and Oregon College of Art and Craft have collaborated to create a unique MFA Program grounded in hands-on making, entrepreneurial strategies, and social and environmental engagement.

Combining a mentor-based approach with an exceptional visiting artist program, students work one-on-one with nationally and internationally recognized designers, makers, and scholars in a self-directed curriculum that challenges them to bring to life the full strength of their ideas and skills.

Encouraging a cross-disciplinary studio environment in which the workshop is a lab to collaboratively explore design and making processes, the Program welcomes students from a wide range of creative backgrounds to make original work with an applied purpose.

With a curriculum focused on the development of a strong artistic voice, the realization of work for a specific community or client, and entrepreneurism that connects making a living with making a difference, the MFA in Applied Craft and Design is the only graduate program of its kind.


MFA+MA Programs
Portland, Oregon
PNCA offers five master's programs that prepare students for a life of creative practice: the Master of Fine Arts in Applied Craft and Design (offered jointly with Oregon College of Art and Craft), the Master of Fine Arts in Collaborative Design, the Master of Arts in Critical Theory and Creative Research, the Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies, and the Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies.