Graduate students organize the ARS Lecture Series with a faculty adviser. The Visual Arts Seminar (required of M.F.A. students) invites artists, critics, curators, master printers, gallery directors, and museum personnel to meet in an informal seminar setting with M.F.A. students and interested art history and criticism graduate students and faculty. Every year, the graduate students invite notable scholars and artists to share their research with the Stony Brook community and the public at large. The series is intended to foster dialogue and develop camaraderie across institutions, and to provide insight into works and practices that have particularly affected recent scholarship. All lectures are free and open to the public.