Contemporary Art, Design and New Media Art Histories (MA)
OCAD University’s MA in Contemporary Art, Design and New Media Art Histories is unique in Canada in its focus on contemporary production and theory across art, media, and design. Students in this interdisciplinary program engage with contemporary issues and works, while drawing on theoretical frameworks, historical contexts, and creative precedents that have shaped today’s visual and critical landscape.
Program facilities are located in the heart of Toronto’s arts and culture district, in close proximity to the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Design Exchange, the Textile Museum of Canada, the Gardiner Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.
The program is small, allowing direct access to faculty expertise and supervision. Core faculty in the program are internationally-known scholars, writers, historians, and curators, active in their fields. Faculty expertise in global art history, Indigenous theory and practice, feminist and LGBTQ2+ studies, cinema studies, performance art, photography, video games, comic art, and design studies fuels a diverse range of approaches and course offerings, and supports students’ cutting-edge research into contemporary art, design, and media.
The program is able to offer generous funding packages in many cases, and most incoming students are granted teaching assistantships in undergraduate art and design history courses, providing valuable teaching experience.
To apply to the program, you should have a four-year bachelor’s degree in art history, visual culture, film studies, communications or a similar program, with a minimum 75% (B+) average over your last two years of study.
Students can take courses across a range of offerings in contemporary art history, design history, and media studies, as well as elective courses offered in OCAD U’s six other graduate programs. Additionally, there are opportunities to develop Independent study courses with faculty members, participate in study-abroad courses, and gain credit for internships.