Exhibition and Experience Design
imaginative, experimental
Master of FINE ARTS (MFA)
Here design professionals of myriad types come together to apply original research to real-world problems. Advance your technical design and concept development skills, and learn how to create exhibition environments that are powerful narrative experiences. The MFA in Exhibition and Experience Design (EED) is a laboratory for state-of-the-art cross-disciplinary design experimentation. Students learn the art of experiential storytelling and creating interpretive environments rooted in narrative and visitor-driven experiences. Built upon a foundation of field and studio work, critical research, and thesis construction, students’ educational experience will be comprehensive, incorporating applied design disciplines and the cultivation of conceptual thinking. Through research and theoretical exploration, combined with firsthand engagement with industry, students develop a rigorous creative logic, graduating as leaders and stewards of our communities and the future of the profession.
Who Should Apply
The ideal applicant has an undergraduate degree in a related discipline, proficiency in a range of design software, and experience in designing environments. Candidates with a passion for learning and working in creative environments should apply.
Number of Credits
60
Duration of Program
4 semesters, day classes; students may also choose to attend on a part-time basis
The Exhibition and Experience Design Experience
Collaborate on a global level with peers and industry connections. Students join this program from across the U.S. and around the world. Many have completed research throughout Asia, Europe, and South America. Through our Visiting Scholars program, we have hosted numerous Fulbright Scholars and international researchers.
Through the EED Design Partnership program, participate in projects and competitions sponsored by a variety of institutions and industry partners. These partners have included the Smithsonian, Sony, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Pinnacle, American Museum of Natural History, Society for Experiential Graphic Design, Experiential Designers and Producers Association, EuroShop,Procédés Chénel, the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, the National Justice Museum, among many others.
Develop your professional network. Both our curriculum and our New York City location offer exceptional opportunities to forge strong bonds with leaders in the field.
Challenge your ability to collaborate. Join design professionals of nearly every stripe—from architects to graphic, industrial, interior, and lighting designers—to create experiential environments that are relevant, exciting, and transformational.
Learn to be a master storyteller. Leave the program having honed a powerful creative logic that calls on a wide variety of skills, including the psychology of visitors, narrative and object studies, exhibition development and planning, and researching to building tangible constructs. The result: emotionally powerful work that brings people into a lived narrative experience, as told in your own original voice.
More About the Program
Areas of Study
Exhibition and experience design planning; presentation; concept development; graphics; lighting and model making for museums, retail, corporate, nonprofit, and public interior and exterior venues; audience research; project management; international professional practices; phenomenology; and theory, history, and evolution of the industry.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Graduates are prepared for careers with design firms, museums, corporations, public agencies, cultural organizations, and for roles as designers and producers of environmental experiences.
MASTER of Fine Art THESIS/CAPSTONE PROJECT
This two-part degree requirement is research-based. Students must conceive and prove in writing an original, theory-based argument. This applied research must then be executed via practical design. Both the written thesis and the capstone project are critiqued by industry leaders.
INTERNSHIPS
Students may elect to intern at approved exhibition venues—such as design firms and production facilities, retail sites, or museums. Past internship sites include Pentagram, ESI Design, Derse, the Smithsonian, American Museum of Natural History, Group Delphi, Kate Spade, Skolnick Architecture & Design Partnership, Local Projects, Liberty Science Center, and many others.
INTERNSHIPS
Students may elect to intern at approved exhibition venues—such as design firms and production facilities, retail sites, or museums. Past internship sites include Pentagram, ESI Design, Derse, the Smithsonian, American Museum of Natural History, Group Delphi, Kate Spade, Skolnick Architecture & Design Partnership, Local Projects, Liberty Science Center, and many others.