Call for Applications: 2026 Masters of Fine Arts, UBC Okanagan

Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies

The MFA program at UBC Okanagan provides a creative environment led by experienced faculty from a variety of disciplines. Gain exposure to advanced concepts in contemporary art in one of our specializations in Visual Arts, Creative Writing, or Interdisciplinary Studies.

Guests visiting the MFA studios at UBC Okanagan, winter 2025

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, BC provides students with opportunities to develop sophisticated production skills within a variety of media.

The MFA program provides students with opportunities to develop advanced production skills across a variety of media while engaging in creative practice-based research that bridges academic inquiry and fine arts disciplines. Students are encouraged to pursue interdisciplinary approaches and explore non-traditional, community, or collaborative creative practices. While in residence, each student has a studio space to work in an artistic environment. The program features state-of-the-art facilities in digital media, printmaking, sculpture, and photography, and each student has access to a personal studio space to work, share, and develop their practice within a dynamic cohort of peers.

Students can specialize in Visual Arts, Creative Writing, or Interdisciplinary Studies. All three areas share an MFA Colloquium course that fosters collaboration across disciplines and promotes innovative, interdisciplinary artistic opportunities. The Visual Arts and Creative Writing specializations focus on advanced disciplinary production, while the Interdisciplinary Studies specialization allows students to integrate Visual Arts, Creative Writing, Performance, or Curation with a complementary academic field of study.

Find out more about the program, professors and our students; learn about the labs and centres that form our community and how you can become part of them.

Visit gradstudies.ok.ubc.ca/igs/digital-arts-humanities.

Creative Writing MFA students offering a reading at an open house event, winter 2025

Submission Requirements

• English language test (for non-native speakers of English)
• CV or resumé
• Portfolio
• Artistic Statement/Statement of Intent (500 words): A brief description contextualizing your work in relationship to contemporary art/writing/performance/curatorial practice, including interdisciplinary innovation. Indicate your goals for the MFA including a proposed project or area of interest and the resources you will require, particularly in relation to space and equipment. Faculty supervision preferences may be included here or listed in the application
• Two reference letters (applicants may submit the online application form at any time during the call for applications – doing so triggers the invitation to referees – and continue to upload supporting documents until the deadline)

How to Submit

Applying takes time. Students are advised to start the application process two months in advance of the application deadline.

Visit gradstudies.ok.ubc.ca/how-to-apply to find out more about applying to UBC Okanagan.

Submission Deadline: January 15, 2026

MFA student, Natasha Harvey with her MFA thesis exhibition in the FINA Gallery at UBC Okanagan

About the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies

The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan is a community engaged faculty whose work combines traditional scholarly and hands-on skills with contemporary technologies. We offer the study of historical and contemporary creativity in various forms, and are a meeting place for passionate thinkers, researchers, makers, and artists committed to a university experience that builds connections between global, local, settler, and indigenous communities.

UBC Okanagan is situated on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.

UBC Okanagan
Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
1148 Research Road
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7
fccs.ok.ubc.ca

Facebook @IGSDAHU
Instagram @dahu.igs

Accessibility:
For more information, visit here.

Image Descriptions:
1. A photograph of five individuals in a room with paintings on the walls, books and paint on a table in the forefront.
2. A photographs of seven individuals reading at the front of a room with a few more individuals siting around listening.
3. A photograph of four individuals in a gallery setting, one individual is filming the others, and there is a large painting on the wall behind them.
4. A black and white logo for the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Okanagan Campus.