about meca : history

Maine College of Art (MECA) was founded in 1882 as part of the Portland Society of Art. An organized curriculum was established in 1911 and the first diplomas awarded in the 1920's by the School of Fine and Applied Arts. In 1972, the School's name was changed to Portland School of Art, and its mission redirected to educate professional visual artists. A core of highly qualified faculty was recruited and a two-year Foundation Program was developed.

The first Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees were awarded in 1975, following accreditation in 1973 by the National Association of Colleges of Art and Design (NASAD) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In 1982, the School separated from the Portland Society of Art, which also managed the Portland Museum of Art, to become an independent organization with its own Board of Trustees. In 1983, the College purchased and renovated the Baxter Building, the former home of the Portland Public Library.

In 1992, Portland School of Art was renamed Maine College of Art to better identify its status as a degree-granting, New England institution. In 1993, the College purchased the five-story landmark Porteous Building at the center of Portland's downtown Arts District and began a phased renovation project to create updated, consolidated core facilities for the College. In 1998, an innovative Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program was established.

In 2005, the College entered into a master lease at 51 Oak Street, an 80-bed dormitory-style residence hall and it 2006 it acquired The Shepley Apartments, a 60-bed facility. These residence halls brought 140 beds under College control and both are within a block of the Porteous Building.

In 2007, the College received a 27,000 foot space at 540 Congress Street, adjacent to the Porteous Building and entered into a long-term lease for the upper floor of the Porteous Annex, also adjacent to the Porteous Building for administrative offices.

MECA is one of 34 private, non-profit, degree-granting professional art colleges in the country, and one of only 18 such colleges not affiliated with a larger academic or arts institution.

The College awards the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in eleven studio majors: Ceramics, Graphic Design, Illustration Metalsmithing and Jewelry, New Media, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Self-Designed Studies and Woodworking & Furniture Design. MECA offers a rigorous Foundation Program that provides intensive training in the fundamentals of drawing and design prior to the major. Required courses in Art History and Liberal Arts constitute fully one-third of the degree program, and are taught from the perspective of the artist. The academic and the creative are indivisible at the College. Programs are designed to equip students with the skills, visual insights, self-confidence, and discipline traditionally associated with the independent professional artist and designer.

In 2006, the College added a ten-month Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Art Education.

MECA's distinctive Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program combines on-campus summer intensives with off-campus supervised studio work. Launched in 1998, it was the first program of its kind in the country. Visiting faculty are leading artists and designers, and give public lectures.

The student body is currently approximately 400 BFA and MFA degree students. About 40% of the students come from Maine, and 70% from New England. Over 95% of undergraduates receive financial assistance.

Full and part-time BFA faculty number 65. All studio faculty are professional exhibiting artists. Full-time and visiting artist appointments are filled by national search. The College maintains a small student to faculty ratio in its degree programs, creating an intimate teaching and learning environment that allows for the individual attention required in quality visual arts training.

Maine College of Art annually serves more than 2000 adults in the region through more than 200 credit and non-credit public courses in its year-round Continuing Studies program. Over 300 teenagers and children participate in MECA's Saturday School and summer classes begun in Portland in 1973.

An Early College program begun in 1982 is a four-week summer intensive that enrolls 50 advanced high school students from throughout the country and that awards college credit.

The College's Joanne Waxman Library is one of the largest independent visual arts libraries in New England (40,000 volumes, 50,000 slides, 100 periodicals and 150 videos). It is the only year-round art library in Maine whose holdings are focused on studio art and design. Open to the public, it is a critical resource for the thriving artist, design and cultural communities in the region.

The College's Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art (ICA at MECA), presents exhibitions of leading-edge contemporary art year-round which are free and open to the public. ICA offers both adult and children's educational programs. The First Thursdays program brings together local artists, scholars and curators to address current topics in contemporary art.

MECA's public Visiting Artist Lectures Series features distinguished artists, curators, designers and scholars from across the country.