BFA Defenses (before senior year)
If you are going to or are planning on going to a school that offers a BFA instead of or in addition to a BA you will hear about the BFA defense your entire school life. A BFA is a Bachelors in Fine Arts degree. A BFA defense is a project that a senior works on for the entire year. Or maybe they have been working on it for longer depending on the person. But they really kick it into gear for their last year at school. A BFA can be any type of project, but usually it has something to do with the major the person is in. If you are going to a school where BFA is held in high regard you will end up doing one. The school I am at doesn’t have a BA as an option so the only way to graduate is to do one.
When you are not a senior, going to BFAs can be either strongly recommended or even required for you to go by your school. My freshman year I was required to go to at least three, my sophomore year all of the ones in my major, then my junior year all of the ones in my major again. However, even if I wasn’t required to go to them, I would go anyway. I find myself going to a lot more than is required, this year because some of my friends are seniors and because I really do want to see them. This is a chance to see what your fellow students are capable of and a free chance to see some really good art (or not so good art. You can generally predict which BFAs are going to be a trainwreck). Then you can also prepare for your own BFA while watching others.
What goes on at a BFA?
The senior puts up their work.
A time is scheduled for their defense
A good amount of people come for one hour to hear them talk about their work.
The senior then presents their work and thesis to everyone who has attended. This takes about 10-20 minutes depending on the student.
Questions are opened up to their panel, which are their teachers. Their panel goes at it; asking them all about their work, about their thesis, why they thought this, why they did that. Every BFA is structured a bit different with time due to the individual and the teachers involved. We all know some teachers just like to hear themselves talk.
What is supposed to happen is the last 10 minutes or so is opened up to the rest of the attendees to ask questions. Your teachers may tell you beforehand that they expect you to ask questions at this part. Sometimes this happens and you can ask questions (it pretty much works like any other critique which you are a master at by now). Generally only the juniors are able to get anything in if at all so you don’t really have to worry about this until junior year. The photography department at my school is notorious for having the panel go way over time and only giving the audience like 2 minutes to ask questions.
My recommendation: go to at least 5 BFA defenses every year. Each one is very different from the other. Try to go to really different majors so that you get a well rounded idea of what a BFA defense is about. A sculpture BFA is completely different from an Illustration BFA. I can't talk about what it's like to do a BFA yet because I am still in art school so obviously I haven't done one yet. But senior year is coming so I am more than willing to share my experience on this page in the coming months! Ahhhhhhhhh imnotreadyimgonnadieimgonnadie
