Currently all admitted Ceramics MFA students receive 1/4 time assistantships including a tuition waiver and a monthly stipend. As part of their assistantship duties, MFA students teach or assist one class each semester and are assigned responsibility for other departmental duties. Ceramics MFA students are integral to the function of the department and are intimately involved in its success.

Ceramics grad students are encouraged to show their work regularly. There are opportunities to show work at the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, in the greater Knoxville area, and in major art centers hosting the College Art Associate Conference. All UT Art students have the opportunity to show at Gallery 1010, the School of Art’s off-campus, student-run gallery.

The School of Art has a very active visiting artist program. In particular, the UT Potter’s Club brings visiting artists to campus each year to give lectures, workshops, and critique student work.

The UT Potter’s Club also sponsors student travel to the National Council for Education in the Ceramics Arts Conferences (NCECA) and helps support visiting ceramic artists.

The Ceramics Student Resources page provides technical resources including ceramics suppliers and MSDS sheets, and lists of ceramics residencies, workshops, and publications. Students are encouraged to pursue opportunities for artistic growth through funding assistance by the School of Art.

Graduate students each take 5 credits of the Graduate Ceramics Seminar for their first four semesters. This course has two parts: independent self-directed studio work and participation in a seminar class aimed at placing this work in a critical, conceptual, and historical context. All course work including elective and art history requirements are completed in the first two years. The third year of the MFA program is devoted solely to the development of the project in lieu of thesis exhibition.

ART 503: Theory/Practice/Art Fundamentals
Required for all GTAs. Surveys art theory and practice as it relates to teaching art foundations. Practical instruction, professional development, and pedagogy will be introduced in the form of lectures, group discussions, readings, and project development.

ART 504: First-Semester Graduate Seminar
Issues in art, design and art history presented by School of Art faculty.

ART 507: Professional Practice: Teaching Internship
Individual study in development of skills and methodology in teaching studio courses.

ART 521: Graduate Ceramics I

ART 525: Graduate Ceramics II

A minimum of 60 credit hours to include the following.

• A minimum of 16 credit hours of studio courses in a concentration area.
• A minimum of 9 credit hours of graduate-level academic (non-studio) courses of which at least 6 credit hours are to be in art history.
• 1 credit hour of First-Semester Graduate Seminar.
• A minimum of 14 credit hours of electives consisting of any combination of courses offered by the University of Tennessee for graduate credit. Students with a GTA are required to successfully complete 3 credit hours of ART 503 – Theory and Practice of Art Fundamentals. These credit hours are considered to be elective. A concentration area may have course requirements that reduce the number of elective credit hours.
• In lieu of a comprehensive exam, MFA students must complete a Project in Lieu of Thesis with written statements and accompanying documentation. A third year of semi-independent study, students must have completed all required coursework prior to taking 20 credit hours of ART 599 Projects in Lieu of Thesis.

• First-year evaluation. At the end of the first two semesters in residence, the student must present a portfolio for evaluation by the faculty and receive permission to continue in the program.
• Second-year evaluation. With the completion of all course work, the student must present work for evaluation by the faculty and receive permission to register for Project in Lieu of Thesis.
• If in a review by the student’s major area faculty, the student’s progress is deemed insufficient, the faculty may recommend a work period without advancement toward the degree, probation with specific goals set for a specific time, or dismissal.

A graduate minor in art history may be arranged during the student’s first semester of study with the consent of the student’s area instructors and the art history faculty. Students must complete a minimum of 12 credit hours in art history that is agreed upon by the art history faculty after review of previous undergraduate course work. A reading knowledge of French, German, or Italian is a prerequisite unless waived by the art history faculty. Graduate Council policy stipulates that a member from the minor unit must serve on the thesis committee.