Exterior view of the School of Visual Arts in New York at night.Courtesy School of Visual Arts

Amid $22 M. deficit, New York’s School of Visual Arts Shutters Photography MFA program

by · ARTnews

The School of Visual Arts in New York is ending its MFA program in photography, video, and related media at the end of the 2027–28 academic school year, the school’s provost and vice president of academic affairs Jason Koth announced in an August email. The news was first reported by Hyperallergic, which reviewed the email.

In the email, Koth wrote that the choice to shutter the program was a result of “SVA’s ongoing economic challenges, the nationwide decline in enrollment in graduate-level photography programs, and broader federal policy and financial headwinds that have made it untenable to sustain the program’s current model.”

New York’s School of Visual Arts Reports One-Third Drop in Enrollment Since 2019, Faces Largest Budget Deficit EverEnrollment at New York’s School of Visual Arts is down some 34 percent since 2019, and the school faces a $22 million deficit, the largest in its historyBrian Boucher, 11 Aug 2026SVA Is Shutting Down Its MFA in Curatorial Practice ProgramOn Thursday, School of Visual Arts chair Steven Henry Madoff announced that the school will no longer off an MFA in curatorial practice.Leigh Anne Miller, 27 Feb 2026

Currently enrolled MFA candidates in the program will be allowed to complete their degrees, with Koth promising a “seamless teach-out process.”

The photography, video, and related media program, launched in 1988, is the latest cut to SVA’s curriculum, with the termination of its curatorial master’s program in 2027 announced earlier this year. Since 2019, SVA has seen registration plummet by 34 percent and is reportedly facing a $22 million structural budget deficit this year—the largest in its 80-year history.

SVA is the latest among many schools across the country that have adjusted their curriculum in an effort to adapt amid a changing political and technological climate.

“I believe that the closure could have been avoided through better coordination and by rethinking how we were going to deal with the future of AI in a more aggressive way,” founding chair Charles Traub, who launched the program, told Hyperallergic.

The rise of AI has impacted the mediums that the program focuses on, with many users turning to AI-generated images in lieu of stock photos and videos. Despite regulation concerns over AI, some universities have integrated it into their course offerings. Syracuse University, for example, opened a new Center for the Creator Economy, while also pausing admissions for 20 undergraduate majors, such as fine arts and digital humanities, as part of a larger restructuring last year.

Still, other schools have closed altogether in recent years or have been subsumed by a larger university, as was the case when Vanderbilt University acquired the California College of the Arts.

The Trump administration has also sought to dismantle funding for arts and education, with tighter restrictions placed on foreign students having severely reduced enrollment numbers at schools nationwide. At SVA, foreign students reportedly comprised nearly 45 percent of the student body last fall.