The January 2026 residency of the Clark MFA in Visual Arts recently unfolded across the vast MASS MoCA campus, where industrial architecture and contemporary art installations created a charged backdrop for a week of intensive learning, creating, and community-building.
Students from across the country engaged in critique-space installations, advisor meetings, and faculty-led seminars, and guest-artist talks brought fresh perspectives and deep expertise to the 10-day session.
Student interaction and community building remained at the heart of the residency, visible in shared meals, peer‑led workshops, salon‑style critiques, and the steady hum of collaboration in every corner of the museum.
The week’s activity culminated with a curated thesis show installed in a MASS MoCA event space, standing as a testament to the program’s immersive model: a community of artists in a groundbreaking MFA program, gathering twice a year to push their practices forward within one of the country’s most inspiring contemporary art spaces.
“I’m thrilled that the second Clark MFA residency at MASS MoCA was such a success,” says Ben Sloat, director of the MFA in Visual Arts degree. “Bridging the university and museum worlds has been tremendously enriching for our program, and to have a world-class curator like Christina Yang organize our thesis exhibition was a professionalizing experience for all of our graduates.”
Yang is executive director of the Association of Art Museum Curators and has held positions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the Berkeley Art Museum.
