About - History & Timeline

History & Timeline

Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) was founded in 1882 as part of the Portland Society of Art.

An organized curriculum was established in 1911 and the first diplomas were awarded in the 1920s by the School of Fine and Applied Arts. In 1972, the School's name was changed to Portland School of Art, and its mission redirected to educate professional visual artists. A core of highly qualified faculty was recruited and a two-year Foundation Program was developed.

The first Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees were awarded in 1975, following accreditation in 1973 by the National Association of Colleges of Art and Design (NASAD) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In 1982, the School separated from the Portland Society of Art, which also managed the Portland Museum of Art, to become an independent organization with its own Board of Trustees. In 1983, the College purchased and renovated the Baxter Building, the former home of the Portland Public Library.

In 1992, Portland School of Art was renamed Maine College of Art & Design to better identify its status as a degree-granting, New England institution. In 1993, the College purchased the five-story landmark Porteous Building at the center of Portland's downtown Arts District and began a phased renovation project to create updated, consolidated core facilities for the College. In 1998, an innovative Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program was established.

In 2005, the College entered into a master lease at 51 Oak Street, an 80-bed dormitory- style residence hall which it now owns, and in 2006 it acquired The Shepley Apartments, a 60-bed facility. These residence halls brought 140 beds under College control and both are within a block of the Porteous Building.

In 2006, the College added a ten-month Post Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Art Education. In 2014, this program received approval from the State of Maine and accreditation to become the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). In 2007, the College was gifted a 27,000-foot space at 540 Congress Street, adjacent to the Porteous Building and entered into a long-term lease for the upper floor of the Porteous Annex, also adjacent to the Porteous Building for administrative offices. In 2012, the College master-leased a third residence hall, Miles Standish. In 2012, an additional 5,000-foot space was leased at 85 Free Street, contiguous to the Annex for additional academic classrooms.

MECA&D is one of 42 private, nonprofit, degree-granting professional art colleges in the country. The College awards the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in eleven studio majors: Ceramics, Digital Media, Graphic Design, Illustration, Metalsmithing & Jewelry, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Textile & Fashion Design, and Woodworking & Furniture Design. MECA&D offers a rigorous Foundation Program that provides intensive training in the fundamentals of drawing and design prior to the major. Required courses in Art History and Academic Studies constitute fully one-third of the degree program, and are taught from the perspective of the artist. The academic and the creative are indivisible at the College. Programs are designed to equip students with the skills, visual insights, self-confidence, and discipline traditionally associated with the independent professional artist and designer.

MECA&D's distinctive Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program combines on-campus summer intensives with off-campus supervised studio work. Launched in 1998, it was the first program of its kind in the country. Visiting faculty are leading artists and designers, and give public lectures. Our Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program combines field work and community engagement to prepare artists to become effective art educators. In April of 2016, MECA&D began integrating the landmark educational institution of Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, which had run independently from 1973 to 2015, into a discreet graduate certificate program to be launched in the fall of 2017.

The student body is currently comprised of approximately 453 BFA, MAT, and MFA degree students. About 30% of the students come from Maine, and 70% from New England. Over 95% of undergraduates receive financial assistance. Full and part-time BFA faculty number 90. All studio faculty are professional exhibiting artists. Full-time and visiting artist appointments are filled by national search. The College maintains a small student to faculty ratio in its degree programs, creating an intimate teaching and learning environment that allows for the individual attention required in quality visual arts training. Maine College of Art & Design annually serves more than 1,200 adults and youths in the region through more than 200 credit and non-credit public courses in its year-round Continuing Studies program.

A Pre-College program begun in 1982 is a three-week summer intensive that enrolls 65 advanced high school students from throughout the country and awards college credit. The College's Joanne Waxman Library is one of the largest independent visual arts libraries in New England (42,000 volumes, 150 periodicals, and 550 videos). It is the only year-round art library in Maine whose holdings are focused on studio art and design.

The College's Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA at MECA&D) presents exhibitions of leading-edge contemporary art year-round which are free and open to the public. ICA offers both adult and children's educational programs. MECA&D's public Visiting Artist Lectures Series features distinguished artists, curators, designers and scholars from across the country.