Announcement
Boston, MA —
Emerson College has announced a first of its kind partnership with Paris College of Art and the creation of a joint Global Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film Art, which draws on the expertise of both institutions and offers an intercontinental education: students will spend semesters on three Emerson campuses located in Paris, the Netherlands, and Boston. With the launch of this new program, Emerson becomes the first U.S. college devoted to the arts, communications, and the liberal arts, to offer an international bachelor’s degree program in film art.
According to Lee Pelton, President of Emerson College, the partnership with Paris College of Art (PCA) is the first of several international degree programs that Emerson plans to offer as part of its Global Portals initiative. Emerson will launch 3+1 Master’s degree programs with universities in Lugano, Switzerland and Barcelona, Spain. The College also plans to establish programs in Sydney, Australia and Hong Kong by 2022.
“Emerson is known internationally as the premier institution of higher learning for creative leaders in communications, the arts, and the liberal arts,” said President Pelton. “To continue to fulfill our mission in an increasingly global world, Emerson is creating a borderless campus—which we see as vital to educating the world’s future generations of artists and storytellers.”
The Emerson-PCA joint degree combines existing and new curricula at the two institutions to create a distinctive, three-year BFA program in filmmaking. The program builds on the advantages of each institution—PCA’s strengths in studio art and design, and Emerson’s excellence in film, media, and the liberal arts—to serve students seeking an international education with application of artistic processes and practices in the media arts.
Applications for this innovative program open in August 2018, with the first international cohort of students beginning their studies on Emerson’s Boston campus in the Summer of 2019. Students will then spend their academic years in Paris at the Paris College of Art, with summer semesters in Boston and at Emerson College’s Kasteel Well, a restored 14th-century medieval castle in the Netherlands.
According to Michaele Whelan, Provost of Emerson College, students will create everything from experimental films and videos, gallery installations, web series, and public media art—in short, they'll be making the film and media art that shapes and defines our intercultural world.
“The Emerson-PCA joint degree program leverages the talent and resources of both institutions to create something entirely unique: a truly international education for globally aware and aspiring international film art students,” said Whelan. “The opportunity to study film in multiple countries will broaden students’ understanding of contemporary art discourses and practices, allowing them to create new and compelling film art. Students will interact with and learn from artists and filmmakers from around the world, expanding their intercultural competence and communication abilities, and challenging them to analyze their own assumptions and frames of reference.”
The Global BFA degree program will offer students a hands-on experience in digital filmmaking combined with traditional studio arts practices, and media, cultural, and critical studies. Courses will be taught by faculty from both PCA and Emerson College in English. French language classes will also be part of the program.
Admission requirements for the program are the same as other programs within Emerson’s Visual Media Arts department with the exception that applicants will be required to submit an essay describing their desire to study at an intercontinental program.
About the College
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,780 undergraduates and 670 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic as well as its new Global Portals, with the first opening last fall in Paris. The College has an active network of 51,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit Emerson.edu.
