MassArt Graduate programs structure robust assistantship offerings each semester for its graduate student population. The assistantships are paid opportunities that build professional and academic experience while supporting teaching, research, studios, galleries, and administration. Intended to be more than jobs, they provide mentorship and wider connection to the college, outside of a student’s specific grad program.
Current student, Lucy Bennett (MFA Studio Arts ‘27), describes their assistantships as “such an important extension of my MFA experience. Through my teaching assistantships, I’ve been able to work alongside faculty and undergraduate students and see how different artists approach making, problem-solving, and learning. Teaching has become another way of learning for me.”
The graduate assistantships are organized into two categories: teaching and technical, with the latter generating a broad range of possibilities: Everything from skill-building in one of MassArt’s studio facilities — for example, ceramics, digital fabrication, printing, and more — to work that centers cultural change in the Justice Equity & Transformation office or social media management and design in Marketing.
Bennet’s second assistantship (students may have up to two each semester) is in MassArt’s Graduate gallery, MassArt x SoWa.
“Working at the gallery has been one of the absolute highlights of my graduate experience. I love working First Fridays, meeting artists, helping with installations and de-installations, and getting to participate in the curatorial side of the gallery through experiences like jurying exhibitions. I’ve also been able to build relationships with artists, staff and faculty, and people working in other galleries in the area. It has given me the kind of involvement and hands-on experience in the arts community that I had been wanting so badly, and it has been incredibly enriching!”
Hands-on experience is precisely what the assistantships are all about, giving students something concrete to launch from as they seek employment in their chosen fields or are applying to other competitive opportunities.
Fall 2026 applications are now open for all the MFA programs at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in Boston.
