labricoleuse | Ask LaBricoleuse: "Where else is there a program like yours?" (Reply)

Two posts in one day! You can tell i'm in a holding pattern, can't you?

In the past week i've had several emails from people asking not only about our MFA program here at UNC-Chapel Hill, but about the existence of similar programs at other universities. The fact is, it's easy to find graduate programs offering a concentration in costume design, or a split-focus between design and technology, but not so easy to locate the few that offer or allow a strict specialization in technology alone. Ironic, since every production only has one costume designer (who granted may have an assistant or few) but a multitude of costume production artists.

Our program is easy to find info about due to this blog (forgive my hubris!), but where, several of you ask, might one look for other programs? After all, not every student's goals are going to be congruent with the focus of our program, and it's good to "shop around" when looking for the right fit in a graduate school. So, I encourage those with an interest in the field to check out our program, but to check out the others out there, as well! As such, i've made up a list of the other programs i'm aware of out there that offer masters degrees in costume production/technology.

Alphebetical Listing of Graduate Programs with a Concentration in Costume Production/Technology:
(links go to the specific program page or PDF where possible)

Boston University

~~Brandeis University~~ [ETA Feb 2010: Brandeis has eliminated all tech/production graduate programming.]

Carnegie Mellon [ETA: New as of 2010.]

Indiana University at Bloomington [ETA: New as of 2013]

North Carolina School of the Arts

Ohio University

Pennsylvania State University

Rutgers University

~~Temple University~~ [ETA Jan 2011: Temple has eliminated all tech/production graduate programming.]

University of Arizona at Tucson

~~University of Florida at Gainesville~~ (ETA Jan 2018: this program appears to have been eliminated)

University of Illinois at Urbana

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Texas at Austin

Now, of course these aren't all "like ours," in that every program has its own areas of expertise and focus, different course offerings and faculty, theory vs practice foci, etc etc. It's a list in flux, as other programs pop up i'll add them, and if (knock wood, heaven forbid) any fall casualty to the economy, i'll cross them off. And, if you know of another costume-production-centric program that offers concentrations in areas like draping, tailoring, costume crafts, and shop management i don't have listed yet, let me know and i'll add it here!

(I'm not listing design/technology combination degree programs, as those are quite common, and i'm not listing focus programs in related disciplines like fiber art or puppetry.)

Most programs' application deadlines are past or approaching so fast that it'd be unreasonable to expect to submit a competitive application at this point for the fall. If you're beginning to look into graduate school for the 2010-11 academic year or beyond, be sure to ask about how the economy is affecting funding of graduate positions and the academic programs themselves for the immediate future. I know that we lost our management track in budget cuts, and I've heard that other universities are also taking similar or heavier hits. (For example, it's been widely publicized in the media that Brandeis' endowment took an enormous loss in the Madoff investment implosion.) Best to find out up-front how that's going to affect the programs you care about.

And, for more of my posts on applying to graduate school in the field of professional costume, check out the FAQ tag in the sidebar.

ETA: It also seems like a useful thing to aggregate certificate programs, which are not MFAs/graduate degrees, but which offer shorter-term concentrated study in costume production.