At Montserrat, you will find a place of inspiration, respect, and encouragement, where you can develop your talents, achieve your vision, and build a thriving creative life.
Montserrat’s BFA curriculum is built on an interdisciplinary approach, encouraging experimentation across concentrations and preparing students to be versatile, creative professionals. This framework ensures graduates develop both a deep technical proficiency in their chosen studio and the broad, critical thinking skills required for contemporary practice.
The Creative Employment Initiative
Montserrat’s longstanding commitment to career readiness is now exemplified by its Creative Employment Initiative, a program that guarantees every student paid, career-focused work while pursuing their education (beginning with the 2026 incoming class).
The Center for Career Design and Creative Enterprise integrates professional practice and experiential learning into the academic experience. This initiative is designed to:
- Cultivate entrepreneurial skills and provide financial support.
- Deepen real-world experience through client-facing work.
- Expand professional networks within the $900 billion creative economy.
History
Montserrat was born in the late sixties, a time when people were questioning the status quo and seeking new solutions. A group of artists who were working and teaching in the Boston area shared a bold idea: to create a new kind of art school in Massachusetts for professional education in the visual arts—a school that would not only focus on the arts but would also focus intensely on the individual needs of each student. Foregoing the limitations of traditional institutions, these artists labored to breathe life into their idea.
In the early years, Montserrat School of Visual Arts offered a professional diploma. By the 1980s, the still-young Massachusetts art school was accredited and granted the authority to award the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree, accompanied by a new name: Montserrat College of Art. By 1990, Montserrat had moved to historic downtown Beverly, Massachusetts, steadily establishing a vibrant and eclectic seaside campus with residence halls and studio buildings.
Today, the dream of those founding artists is a dynamic reality. Students are drawn by the intensive studio environment and one-on-one instruction from a faculty of accomplished artists, designers, and scholars.
