Welcome to Massachusetts College of Art and Design

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Welcome to MassArt

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Massachusetts College of Art and Design or MassArt is the nation's only independent public college of art and design. Our urban campus has nearly one million square feet of studio, classroom, workshop, living, and exhibition space. We offer Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in 18 disciplines in addition to graduate degrees, design certificates, and open-enrollment classes for youth and adults. As a MassArt student, you can take advantage of Boston's world-class museums and cross-register at over a dozen other colleges throughout the city. MassArt is a vibrant learning community where artists and designers are prepared to contribute to the creative economy and shape contemporary culture. In case this is your first visit, here are some tips to help you get started: -Click on the center button or the "next" button to jump to the next destination. -If you already know where you want to go, simply select that location from the list on the sidebar OR click directly on the map below. -And remember to explore each destination in more detail by clicking the interactive icons included throughout each location.

Residence Halls

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Located directly across the street from the academic buildings, MassArt's residence halls provide unique accommodations, 24/7 security, and programming and benefits to suit the needs of student-artists. At 21 stories tall, MassArt's iconic Tree House houses first-year and sophomore students in a suite-style layout with single, double, and triple bedrooms with suite-shared bathrooms. Smith Hall houses first-year students only in suite-style living spaces of 3 to 5 students. The Artists' Residence has apartment-style suites for undergraduate and graduate students. Each residence hall has a live-in Residence Director and Resident Assistants who help foster a sense of community, plan common-area events, and provide support to residents.

Dining & Student Life

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Located in the Kennedy Building, MassArt's Dining Commons offers a variety of menu items including vegetarian and vegan options. Students can use their meal plan at other nearby dining facilities such as the Beatty Dining Commons at the Wentworth Institute of Technology. The Kennedy Building houses many student-centered offices including Student Development, Counseling & Wellness, the Academic Resource Center, and Career Development. Downstairs is the MassArt Supply and Bookstore and The Restore, a donation based volunteer-run store providing free art materials to students. MassArt offers students a diverse array of activities, leadership positions, and on-campus jobs and hosts numerous cultural events, performances, and exhibitions throughout the academic year.

Design & Media Center

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The Design and Media Center, or "DMC," is the front entrance of campus as well as a central artery connecting MassArt's academic buildings. This 40,000 square foot building provides a flexible framework to support contemporary, interdisciplinary practices and teaching methods. The building includes a three-story, sky-lit atrium for events and installations, such as the Senior Fashion Show and the MassArt Auction; a two-story exhibition space, the Patricia Doran Graduate Gallery for graduate student work; the 130-seat DMC Lecture Hall; and a state-of-the-art lighting studio, two high-tech black box studios, a fully-equipped sound studio, and numerous project rooms that can be flexibly reserved by faculty and students from across all disciplines.

Digital Fabrication Labs

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The Digital Fabrication Labs or FABLABS at MassArt are designed to support interdisciplinary making and experimentation and are open to all undergraduate and graduate students. State-of-the-art equipment enables users to transform digital designs into tangible creations using various materials and fabrication techniques. In the UPLAB, overlooking Evans Way Park, students can explore 3D printing and wire bending. Adjacent to UPLAB is the PCLAB where students can access Wacom tablets and 3D modeling software. On the lower level of the DMC, students can explore laser cutting and waterjet cutting in the BASELAB. Community members can attend workshops or training sessions with FABLAB monitors to learn about these cutting-edge technologies.

Woodshop & Metalshop

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Located on the lower level of the DMC, MassArt's Woodshop is a spacious facility that provides students from all disciplines access to professional tools and equipment in a supportive environment. The Woodshop includes a machine room, a workbench room, and classroom space for lectures, presentations, and critiques. MassArt's Metalshop, in the Collins Building, has four distinct areas: The Foundry, where students cast molds using molten bronze, aluminum, or copper; The Forge area, which includes coal and gas forges for blacksmithing, bladesmithing, and advanced metalworking; The Welding area, with large tables for layout and fabrication; and the Machining area, for finishing work once a piece has been cast, forged, or welded.

Printshop & Painting Studios

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MassArt's 9,000 square foot Printshop in East Hall is one of the largest of its kind in the region, offering students dedicated spaces for a range of printmaking techniques, including relief printing (such as woodcut and linocut), intaglio (such as etching and engraving), lithography, silkscreen printing, and digital printing. MassArt's Painting program provides undergraduate and graduate painting students their own workstations and studios in the Kennedy Building. They offer ample space, natural light, and individual workstations for artists, while fostering a community of painters who can exchange ideas, collaborate, and learn from one another.

The Lab

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Located on the 3rd floor of the Tower Building, "The Lab" offers students from all departments access to technology and digital media in a supportive environment that reflects the realities of professional art and design fields. Outfitted with high-performance computer workstations, the Lab has space for classes and independent work in design, animation, digital illustration, photography, video and audio, interactive multimedia, 3D modeling and rendering, electronic device control, and computer programming. Staff members, who are artists or designers, along with student lab monitors are available to provide assistance with printing and using the technology.

Design Studios

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MassArt's Design Studios provide students with a dedicated space to explore and develop their skills. Fashion Design facilities, on the 6th floor of the Tower Building, offer studio classrooms and workrooms equipped with industry-standard cutting tables, industrial machines, dress forms and software for apparel and textile design. Illustration and Communication Design students have work spaces on the ninth floor along with a publishing studio, a ventilated oil painting room, computer workstations, and one of largest letterpress shops in New England. Architecture and Industrial Design studios, on the tenth floor, are dynamic spaces where students can engage in design projects, receive feedback from faculty and peers, and refine their design concepts.

Animations Studios

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The Animation program at MassArt exposes students to a wide range of experimental and conventional techniques, including documentary animation, character animation, experimental video, and digitally generated animation. The Animation Studios offer a range of equipment, software, and tools necessary for creating animated content, including 2D animation, 3D animation, stop-motion, motion graphics, and more. Through hands-on practice, collaboration, and expert instruction, students have the opportunity to develop their skills and create compelling animated works. Coursework in the Animation program culminates in a degree project consisting of a sustained film as well as a portfolio reel highlighting students' professional and creative objectives.

Pozen Center

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MassArt's Pozen Center, a 1907 auditorium with Palladian windows located in North Hall, is the main studio space for the Studio for Interrelated Media department, or SIM. SIM is a unique interdisciplinary program that encourages students to experiment with a diverse range of artistic and technical skills, including video and sound production, performance, installation art, interactive media, and more. As one of the few flexible multi-use art spaces in Boston, the Pozen center is an important community resource, equipped with a moveable lighting grid, surround sound, and projection system. Other SIM facilities include a professional recording studio, an electronic projects lab, and the SIM "Crypt" where students can borrow equipment.

Photography Digital Labs & Darkroom

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MassArt's Photography Digital Labs and Darkrooms provide students with the resources and equipment necessary for both digital and traditional analog photography processes. The 11,000 square foot facilities include three digital labs equipped with computers, industry-standard software, digital scanners, and professional-grade printers. In addition, MassArt provides two large communal darkrooms with 30 enlarger stations for analog photography processes, individual darkrooms and a non-silver darkroom. Students within the department are able to check-out a full range of photography equipment through the floor's Photo Cage. The department's extraordinary Visiting Artist Lecture Series is an integral part of the curriculum and is free and open to the public

Ceramics Kiln Room

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MassArt has one of the premier ceramic kiln rooms in New England. The 3,000 square-foot MassArt Kiln Room, located in the Collins building, is fully ventilated for indoor firing and includes custom-made ventilation for each kiln, including Raku and Sawdust/Smoke firing. MassArt offers spacious facilities, resources and equipment necessary for exploring a variety of contemporary and traditional ceramics techniques. There are Ceramics Classrooms, a Glazing Room, a Glaze Lab and Glaze Disposal Area, a Clay Mixing Room, Mold-making Facilities, and Silk-screening Facilities. The department encourages community engagement and a student-run "Clay for Change" club teaches students about clay practices that have social and economic impact in the community.

Jewelry Metals Studio

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The Jewelry and Metalsmithing program combines direct practice with conceptual problem solving. Students explore the methods and motives behind both traditional and contemporary metal work, learning how objects are informed by their historical contexts. The jewelry metals studio and facilities at MassArt are among the best equipped and safest in the country. Students learn essential techniques like construction, casting, forming, stone setting, and computer aided design. Coursework is also offered in all major metalworking techniques, including vacuum and centrifugal lost wax casting, vulcanized and silicone mold processes, hydraulic press techniques and die forming, and three-dimensional modeling and CNC milling.

Glass Hot Shop

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At MassArt, students have access to both cutting-edge technologies and centuries-old traditions of making. Art history and historical techniques help inform current practices. MassArt's Glass program encourages students to experiment with glass as a medium for individual expression through the creation of vessels and sculptural forms. It is also a popular destination for students of all disciplines at the College to take elective classes. The program introduces students to technical processes such as glassblowing, hot pour casting, and cold glass fabrication with equipment to cut, grind, polish, drill and sandblast glass.

Loom Room

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Perched on the third floor of North Hall are MassArt's incredible weaving labs. The labs feature thirty 45-inch 8-harness Macomber looms and two 60-inch looms for wider and more complicated weaving structures. Other facilities include a surface design room and dye lab, a papermaking studio, a motorized felting machine for large-scale felting projects, and individual studios for junior and senior Fibers majors. The Fibers program at MassArt provides students with a strong technical foundation in Fibers' many traditional and innovative processes, including weaving, hand papermaking, surface design, fiber sculpture and relief, collage and construction, and interlacing processes.

Campus Galleries

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There are seven campus galleries throughout MassArt, providing students ample opportunity to share their artwork with the public and gain professional experience managing exhibition spaces. The campus galleries include The Patricia Doran Graduate Gallery in the DMC, featuring exhibitions and student-curated events by MassArt's graduate students, and The Frances Euphemia Thompson Gallery in the Tower Building, showcasing curated exhibitions honoring distinguished members of the MassArt community. At the end of the year, MassArt's Student Government Association sponsors the All School Show, an annual event which features concurrent exhibitions of works by graduating and advancing BFA candidates - first-years to seniors across 18 disciplines.

The Morton R. Godine Library

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Open to the public, the Morton R. Godine Library is located on the 12th and 13th floors of MassArt's Tower Building with breathtaking views of the Boston skyline. The Library offers a circulating collection of more than 90,000 volumes, hundreds of periodicals including back issues, access to over a million digital images, an extensive collection of DVDs and films, and a superb collection of one-of-a-kind artists' books. Through the Fenway Library Consortium, students may freely borrow from 8 nearby colleges. The Godine's collection focuses on art, design, and education, and it provides solid resources to support the liberal arts and History of Art portions of the MassArt curriculum.

MassArt Art Museum (MAAM)

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The MassArt Art Museum, or MAAM, is a free, contemporary art museum on MassArt's campus. The museum showcases the work of emerging and established artists, as well as national and international artists, across a wide range of artistic mediums. MAAM serves as a platform for student learning and engagement, offering opportunities for students to work in a professional setting alongside visiting artists and museum staff. The museum's innovative programming and commitment to accessibility foster dialogue, creativity, and critical thinking within the college community and beyond. MAAM is a dynamic cultural hub, connecting artists, students, scholars, and the public through the power of contemporary art.

MassArt x SoWa Gallery

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The MassArt x SoWa graduate satellite gallery in Boston's SoWa Arts District exhibits high quality work in a broad range of media from emerging and established artists in the MassArt community. The gallery features the thesis work of our Master of Fine Arts students and premier work from our graduate design programs, as well as curatorial projects, alumni exhibitions, student and faculty curated shows, and collaborative exhibitions with our community partners. Visit Boston's SoWa Art + Design District for First Fridays every month, where artists, galleries, shops and showrooms open their doors to the public for an evening of art, culture and inspiration.

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