During the summer trimesters of the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art (MFA) program at Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D), MFA low and full residency graduate candidates descend on Portland, Maine, for an eight-week intensive to bond as an artistic cohort while exploring the interdisciplinary conversation that will challenge and inform the art created throughout their program. Central to this Summer Intensive is the intimate exchange between our emerging artist candidates and the prestigious Visiting Artists who are on site each week for lectures, critiques, and studio visits.
We are pleased to announce the 2025 Summer Visiting Artist Lecture Series, running June 16 - July 30:
- Vincent Tiley works between art and fashion to create garment-based durational performances that explore how clothing is used as language. Learn more.
- Firefly the Hybrid is a multi-talented artist and dramatic performer, and a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, one of five traditionally allied Wabanaki tribal nations in the Atlantic Northeast. Learn more.
- Pap Souleye Fall is a Senegalese-American artist who explores the transmedia potential between sculpture, installation, performance, cosplay, digital media, and comics. Learn more.
- Boru O’Brien O’Connell works with video, photography, writing, and performance.
- Dr. Nadia Buyse, an artist, theorist, cultural activist, and musician whose music spans genres, is united by a DIY aesthetic, transmedial performance, and video art. Learn more.
- Brian Smith MFA ’20 is a Portland, Maine–based artist working across sculpture, painting, and drawing. Learn more.
- Anne Harris has been painting slowly and drawing quickly, variants of self-portraiture, for the last thirty years. Learn more.
- Paul D’Amato was raised in Boston during the civil rights movement, which shaped his interest in making work about class, community, and the simple drama of everyday life. Learn more.
- Faythe Levine, a curator, photographer, director, and author, was once a prominent figure in the DIY ethic indie craft movement. Learn more.
- Jocelyn Lee has been making psychological portraits for 40 years, and since moving to Maine in 2014, the landscape has assumed a more prominent role in her work. Learn more.
- Yoko Inoue is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work takes the form of sculpture, installation, collaborative projects, and public intervention performance art.
- Anne Buckwalter's MFA ‘12 creative practice explores the intersection of sexuality and domestic life. Inspired by the folk art traditions of her Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, her paintings arrange disparate objects in interior spaces, integrating the erotic with the mundane. By imagining obscure narratives that embrace paradoxes, her work delves into questions about the body, femininity, and desire. Learn more.
In 2024, the MFA Visiting Artists Series featured names such as Jane Wong, Demian DinéYahzi, Sonya Schönberger, and more.
Learn more about the opportunity to work with world-renowned faculty, visiting artists, and graduate advisors here.