SVA Says It Will End Curatorial Practice MFA Program
17March 3, 2026
TheSchool of Visual Artsin New York will cease offering a master’s of arts degree in curatorial practice beginning in 2027,Artnewsreports. The news comes as the school, like many arts colleges across the country, faces financial difficulty.Artnewslast June listed SVAas one of the US art schools most reliant on international students attending its graduate programs, behind only the Savannah College of Art and Design. Trump administration policies of the past year have had a chilling effect on international enrollment at higher learning institutions across the country.
SVA’s curatorial MFA was founded in 2013 by Steven Henry Madoff, who assumed chairmanship of the department a decade ago. Per a communication shared with faculty and partially reprinted inArtnews, Madoff over a year ago told David Rhodes, the school’s president, that he intended to retire in May 2027; Rhodes made the decision to end the program when that happens. Madoff alluded to SVA’s “financial challenges” as one reason for the program’s cessation. Among those currently teaching in the program are Ruth Estévez, co-director of the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture; Chrissie Iles, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and Charles Renfro, a founding partner at architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
SVA has been having an especially rocky time in recent months. In February, the school saw the departure of David A. Ross, longtime chair of its art practice MFA program, after his name appeared more than seven hundred times in a newly released trove of files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019. Last summer, the school laid off thirty staffers, citing budget woes.