Montserrat College of Art is an independent residential college of art and design located in the coastal, historic city of Beverly, Massachusetts. The college delivers an innovative curriculum which focuses on the individual needs of each student. The college was established in 1970, at a time when artists and educators were seeking new creative approaches and progressive non-traditional methods of teaching.
From a bold and pioneering group of Boston-based artists, the Montserrat College of Art emerged. It is a progressive college of art and design with a small, tight-knit community of creatives working in an intensive studio environment, providing educational opportunities to produce exciting and original work.
Today, the college offers a range of accredited programs of study culminating with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Areas of focus are animation and interactive media, book arts, graphic design, illustration, painting and drawing, photography, video, printmaking, sculpture, self-designed studies and a program in art education. The college encourages an interdisciplinary approach and collaboration between different areas of study and also includes options for minors in art education, art history, creative writing, curatorial studies and entrepreneurship in the arts.
Students benefit from a small and highly communal population of around 375 students, with a faculty to student ratio of 12:1, which results in plenty of contact time between staff and individual students, and a personalized educational experience. Students are immersed in art 24 hours a day.
The college exhibits the work of accomplished regional, national and international contemporary artists alongside student work in its galleries, and organises a yearly timetable of free lectures and events which connects the school with the wider artistic community.