Get Real-World Experience

Be Treated as a Professional as You Become One

On the first day of class, our programs instantly immerse you in your art and present a world of opportunity that goes way beyond textbooks and tests. At George Mason University, we create artistic professionals ready to work upon graduation.


We Take a Hands-On Approach

You'll take practical courses designed to prepare you for the high demands of your craft while keeping your unique needs in mind. This hands-on approach allows you to experience the arts for yourself. Programs also provide incredible opportunities to take you out of the conventional classroom and into the community and even around the world. From day one, you'll make your mark at George Mason.

Can't wait to get started? You don't have to—you can do any of the following and more:

From master classes to internships, portfolio and audition training to off-campus work partnerships and entrepreneurship-based courses, you'll have access to experiences that will make your résumé sing. Students who take advantage of these opportunities discover they're qualified for many fulfilling careers, whether they follow a traditional path or blaze their own trails. 

We encourage all CVPA students to ask, "Did I make my education count for me?"
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Read Student Success Stories

One of the Chosen Few

School of Dance student Kalen Simpson was one of only a handful of students to be awarded a fellowship at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2024. Kalen shares a few of his takeaways from the experience dancing with the company last fall.


Rachelle Etienne-Robinson
Curating a New York Exhibition
Curating a New York Exhibition

In February 2025, Arts Management student ('26) and George Mason staff member Rachelle Etienne-Robinson co-curated a New York show at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery called Black Dress II: Homage, which celebrates a history of black fashion in America. With hopes of a potential tour or permanent space, Adrienne Jones (who created the original show 10 years before) and Etienne-Robinson see the current exhibition not as an end-point, but as the next step in their journey. 

Joseph Cameron Rhodes Murdock's animation displayed on a large screen on wall of D.C. metro depicting "The Magnificent Pixie Titans and the Workshop Varmint"
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation

Four CVPA students have their original animations displayed on screens in six Metro stations in D.C. as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Art in Transit Program. These animations will be on rotation in the stations for a full year but this is part of a longer 5-year partnership. Art student, Joseph Cameron Rhodes Murdock, says of his animation, The Magnificent Pixie Titans and the Workshop Varmint, “In this animation, the Wessel, a small creature who loves shiny objects and getting into mischief, breaks into a magic workshop and wreaks havoc....My greatest joy is to create inhabitants of worlds, not just creatures that look cool but ones that have purpose." 

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Art in Transit Program
Setting the Stage for her Career
Setting the Stage for her Career

Ali Coburn poses at Atlas Theater in Washington, D.C. where she works throughout the year. Arts Management major and rising senior Alexandra “Ali” Coburn loves working on and off the stage. In 2023, she was needing to complete volunteer hours for the Intro to Arts Management course and Erin Feng, the executive director of Capital City Symphony offered her an internship. Coburn’s responsibilities include creating content for their social media pages, various writing assignments, and designing their quarterly newsletter. Coburn designed the company’s first newsletter in five years. 

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Photo by Ron Aira/George Mason University.
Quiet on Set!
Quiet on Set!

Film and Video Studies major Jacques Lykes interned at House Creative Services, Chief Administrative Officer at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C. Ron Aira/Creative Services/George Mason University

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Ron Aira/Creative Services/George Mason University
Learning on the Job
Learning on the Job

Film and Video Studies major Sami Saab interned at DC Camera.

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Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications
Dancer Sydney Heldman bending over backwards looking at us upside down wearing black against yellow background
Already a Working Dancer
Already a Working Dancer

Dance student (BFA, '26) Sydney Heldman was sought after by Beyond the Barre Cincinnati, Ohio to create four original solos for Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), all while a student at George Mason School of Dance. In school she has taken part in residencies with Doug Varone and Dancers and Shaun Boyle D’Arcy, and has choreographed two student works on George Mason dancers—Worthy is the Lamb and Kokomo. When not in class she has been in various summer intensives such as Ballet BC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, and GagaLab, where she has absorbed a wide variety of repertoire that continues to influence and inspire her own work.

students standing around a table looking at the book covers design by school of art students
Art Students Collaborate with Publishing House
Art Students Collaborate with Publishing House

In early 2025, School of Art students in a publication design course had the opportunity to design book covers for a novel that is being published by the university’s Stillhouse Press, an independent small publisher affiliated with the English Department.

D.C. Metro Showcasing Film Student Animation
D.C. Metro Showcasing Film Student Animation

Four CVPA students have their original animations displayed on screens in six Metro stations in D.C. as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Art in Transit Program. These animations will be on rotation in the stations for a full year but this is part of a longer 5-year partnership. Computer Game Design student, Valeria Hunt, said of her animation: "My stop-motion cut-out animation, Man with the Suitcase, portrays moments from everyday life that many people can relate to....Man with the Suitcase is about daily struggles, with a touch of humor to help us get through the day."

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Art in Transit Program
Emely Ramos at About Murals at Mason
Creating Art in Public Spaces
Creating Art in Public Spaces

In the Fall of 2023, George Mason University Master of Art Teaching student, Emely Ramos, painted a 209 ft long x 7 ft tall mural featuring a series of iconic women throughout different periods of fashion for Tysons Corner Center, called Icons of FashionThese notable figures are displayed in a runway format to showcase their memorable outfits. Tysons is the most "high-profile" client Murals at Mason has worked with so far, and the commission was only Emely's second (and the largest) mural she has done so far.

Interning at Major D.C. Organizations
Interning at Major D.C. Organizations

In the summer of 2022, senior Sonja Phillips-Thomas (Film and Music double major), interned at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C.

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Photo: Ron Aira/Creative Services/ George Mason University.
Katherine Ashby with her designs at Gunston Hall
Design professional artwork for a client
Design professional artwork for a client

In November 2022, senior Painting major Katherine Ashby was commissioned by Gunston Hall to create life-size portraits of George Mason IV and other people who lived at Gunston Hall, including some of the people held in slavery there.

Taka Hunter's animation, Ichi Nichi, in D.C. Metro
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation

Four CVPA students have their original animations displayed on screens in six Metro stations in D.C. as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Art in Transit Program. These animations will be on rotation in the stations for a full year but this is part of a longer 5-year partnership. School of Art student, Taka Hunter, says of his animation: “Ichi Nichi (One Day) is a short piece made up of day-to-day moments....If there’s anything I want to achieve with Ichi Nichi, it’s to make someone feel seen.”

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Art in Transit Program
Mason Korea Students - Art

Art students at Mason Korea have self-published their own children's books as part of the Graphic Design Methods and Principles course project taught by Dr. Miriam Ahmed.

Jennifer Perez' animation consisting of blue background and space like animal figures seen on large screen in the Washington D.C. metro
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation
D.C. Metro Showcasing Art Student Animation

Four CVPA students have their original animations displayed on screens in six Metro stations in D.C. as part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Art in Transit Program. These animations will be on rotation in the stations for a full year but this is part of a longer 5-year partnership. School of Art student, Jennifer Perez, says of her work, "Stardust Playground is a fantastical, loose reimagining of a childhood memory of a family trip to a swimming pool....These free-spirited animal characters joyfully play in zero gravity."

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Art in Transit Program
Designing Games with Real-World Application
Designing Games with Real-World Application

Ying Wang designed an augmented reality (AR) game as part of an independent study project in George Mason's Computer Game Design Program. She developed the concept and created 2D and 3D child-friendly animated characters. Wang, who was a student in Director Sang Nam’s GAME 399 Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Design course in Fall 2020, said she’s proud to see her app come to fruition, and she encourages children to do their own part to overcome this pandemic by following the simple steps featured in her app.

Green Machine Pep Band at the Whitehouse Egg Roll
Bringing the Rock to the Roll!
Bringing the Rock to the Roll!

For the second year running, George Mason students, faculty, and staff of the CVPA Green Machine Ensembles played in front of the White House at the annual Easter Egg Roll on April 1, 2024. 

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Joshua Cruse & Nathaniel Henry / Green Machine Ensembles
George Mason Arts Management Students working on installation
Exhibition Installation
Exhibition Installation

Arts Management graduate students assist George Mason's Campus Curator for Mason Exibitions, Don Russell, with the installation Migratory Aesthetics in the Gillespie Gallery of Art.

Interning On the Hill
Interning On the Hill

George Mason student Mirella Guzman-Escobar, studying Graphic Design at the School of Art, interned at House Creative Services, Chief Administrative Officer at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C.

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Ron Aira/Creative Services/George Mason University