Interior Design (MFA)
What our students, alumni, and faculty are doing in NYC and worldwide
thinkparsonsgrad@newschool.edu
212.229.5150 (U.S. only)
Program Contacts
Michele Gorman, Co-director
Arianna Deane, Co-director
The Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design is an exploratory program guided by students’ research interests aimed at charting radical, regenerative pathways for interior design. Focusing on design as a social practice, the program enables students to develop innovative design practices. Together students and faculty reshape traditional definitions of the field by exploring human and nonhuman species’ experiences as they relate to space, technology, and materials. Students employ their unique cultural perspectives to investigate interiors in relation to current social, gender, and racial issues while addressing the impact of design on health, climate, and ecology.
The studio-based and research-oriented curriculum challenges you to analyze the relationship between human behavior and perception of the interior. This program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.
The Making Center, a spacious studio bringing together creative tools from around the university, offers students unprecedented opportunities to acquire industry-ready skills, transform how products are made, and upend conventional notions of supply chains, local production, mass customization, and craft.
Graduates are positioned to transform the field as practitioners and educators by working in interior design and architecture studios and in the fields of industrial design and sustainable design; developing new design practices; and collaborating with
nonprofit, government, and educational institutions.
Discover what our students, alumni, and faculty are doing in NYC and worldwide.
Research is integral to the Parsons learning experience, and students and faculty work together to challenge existing paradigms and advance emerging scholarship and practice. Explore the thematic research laboratories housed at Parsons and throughout The New School.
Connect to the organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs driving global creativity and commerce. In classes, internships, and extracurricular projects, you gain marketable problem-solving skills in sectors ranging from government and nonprofits to tech and creative industries.
New York City’s thriving creative industry and cultural institutions are part of your Parsons education. Our Career Services Office is enmeshed in the art and design industries and can help you advance your career with industry-oriented internships.
Funds are earmarked for graduate travel, research, and work to support your study. Opportunities include paid teaching assistantships, research fellowships and assistantships (including ones offered throughout The New School), ample student employment, and other grants available to U.S. domestic and international students alike.
Enjoy access to extensive resources including New School libraries, computer labs, archives, and studios, along with Parsons’ state-of-the-art Making Center, facilities offering a broad array of tools to support your creative and academic growth.
Full-time or part-time program (two years, 65 credits); best suited to students who have previous college experience in an unrelated field and want to change careers.
The New School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
