During the eighteen-course program, which normally requires two years in residence (six quarters), students will pursue individual courses of study under the guidance of the faculty. Students work with all faculty within the Department of Visual Arts and are encouraged to develop a constructive dialogue with faculty members both inside Visual Arts and within the University at large.

Although registration and the recording of courses and grades will conform to standard University practices, the program is designed to provide a flexible structure. Studio investigations will continue through the entire two year period, augmented by quarterly course selections in art history and other academic disciplines. Individual programs will be formulated with faculty and with the concurrence of the Graduate Student Advisor. Programs may well change in method and media as students develop their focus of inquiry.

Throughout the two year program, MFA students take three specially designed seminars that facilitate the investigation of their own artistic language and the development of community. The seminars aim to sharpen skills of critical thinking and writing, and include the examination of the social and economic aspects of contemporary artistic practice, as well as its theoretical, critical and art-historical contexts. Students come to the program with diverse intellectual, cultural and artistic backgrounds as well as different practices. First and second year students work together to articulate a common language with which to discuss and make art in a critical and supportive community. Students are encouraged to be creative and analytical as they examine their own visual vocabulary and intellectual underpinnings. There are other relevant advanced seminars listed both through DOVA and other departments, for example: Early Video Art 1968-1979, The Skyscraper, Frankfurt School on Cinema, Modernity, and Mass Culture, Kitsch, and Sound Theory/Sound Practice. Also available to graduate students are the many classes offered by the College, which are listed in the undergraduate course catalog.

Throughout the academic year we have a lively schedule of visiting artists. These visitors come to Midway Studios anywhere from a few days to a whole quarter and speak about their own work as well as critique student work. The University of Chicago provides an enormously rich intellectual environment and students will find engaging lectures and workshops on a daily basis, especially in some of the interdisciplinary programs such as the Center for Gender Studies, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, The Mass Culture Studies Workshop, The Committee on Cinema and Media Studies, Art History, and so on. Workshops that focus on professional and pedagogical issues are also offered periodically both by DOVA and by Career and Placement Services to assist students in everything from taking slides to preparing to find a teaching job to pursuing artistic representation in galleries and museums. Exhibiting one's work and curating are strong topics of interest and courses are offered that examine alternative, traditional, and critical practices. Each spring, DOVA helps support a faculty-led weekend tour of museums, galleries and studios in New York City or Los Angeles (or another relevant art site)

Critical conversation is at the heart of the experience offered at Midway Studios. Since making art is ultimately a social act, we inevitably enlist the aid and reaction of others. For us, critiques, artists' visits, open studio evenings, and social occasions allow us to challenge and extend each others viewpoints, to offer options, cite contemporary and historical precedents, and create community.

All students and faculty meet as a group once a week to discuss and critique students’ art practice. Quarterly group critiques bring the faculty and students together along with a larger group of affiliate faculty, invited students, critics, and other guests to discuss, question, and offer constructive criticism. The discussion varies from specific technical, formal, and conceptual issues to more general dialogue as suggested by the student and the work. In addition to these weekly meetings students make individual appointments to meet with faculty throughout the quarter. In this public forum, faculty and fellow students offer fresh perspectives and try to bring new insight to the work. This combination of individual and public critiques facilitate students' understanding of their own and others' practice and are part of a supportive critical atmosphere that characterizes the Midway experience.