Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar - VCUQ, Doha - Gallery news: VCUQatar Announces MFA in Design Studies

VCUQatar Announces MFA in Design Studies (3.3.2009)

VCUQatar Announces Master of Fine Arts program

Doha, Qatar - Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar's Dean, Allyson Vanstone announced the new VCUQatar Master of Fine Arts program in Design Studies on the opening day of the Mousharaka Conference.

The MFA in Design Studies is the first graduate program in design in the Gulf Region.
The program acknowledges that design is a professional discipline that is broadly based and highly collaborative, incorporating the transfer of knowledge across traditional domains to create products and processes of manufacture, environments, forms of communication and the organization of information. Only six students will be accepted into the program each year. Students in the program will receive individual mentorship throughout their course of study.

Ms. Vanstone said, "The degree emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary design practice. The MFA will provide a robust environment for in-depth research, a platform for testing theories and a studio for integrated project development within the region and beyond." She added that the pioneering program would be implemented in the Fall of 2009.

The program is designed to provide an educational environment where self-directed students with diverse knowledge sets in design and related disciplines collaborate and challenge the definition and development of design problems, processes, and solutions. Students can expand and deepen their abilities and increase their motivation to contribute directly to innovation, education and leadership in design thinking and making. Graduates will have opportunities to approach design on a strategic level to provide a high degree of constructive and sustainable value to the economic, social and cultural contexts of the global community. This MFA track is pending VCU approval.

About Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar:
Established in the US in 1838 and in Qatar in 1998 Virginia Commonwealth University offers students from all over the world the opportunity to earn Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in fashion, graphic and interior design. A team of highly skilled professors provide rigorous curricula that prepare students to assume leadership roles in the professional design field of their choice. VCUQatar regularly organizes and hosts exhibitions, gallery events, world-class conferences and holds an annual fashion show. VCUQatar is supported and funded by the Qatar Foundation. For more information please visit www.qatar.vcu.edu or call +974 492 7245.

About Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development
Founded in 1995 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, and chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, Qatar Foundation is a private, non-profit organization committed to the principle that a nation's greatest natural resource is its people. The headquarters of Qatar Foundation are located within its flagship project, Education City, a fourteen million square-meter campus which hosts numerous progressive learning institutions and centers of research, including branch campuses of six of the world's leading universities, plus a cutting-edge research and development center. Qatar Foundation also works to enhance the quality of life in Qatar by investing in community health and development.
For more information please visit: www.qf.org.qa

VCUQatar Announces Master of Fine Arts program Press Release as pdf-File 107 KB

VCUQatar Announces Master of Fine Arts program Press Release as pdf-File 122 KB in Arabic language

Images:
VCUQatar Dean Allyson Vanstone announcing the MFA program.
VCUQatar Dean Allyson Vanstone, file photo