Fine Art

The Fine Art course is designed to develop your skills in your chosen media, which include painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, book illustration, experimental film/video, sound art, installation and site-specific performance.

Our degree encourages the rethinking of traditional skills in the context of contemporary, conceptual practices. Weekly life drawing classes are held in the school and can be attended by MA students by arrangement with the lecturer. Students have access to dedicated work spaces, computing facilities, studios and workshops.

The course enables you to develop and sustain a self-initiated programme that demonstrates a creative interpretation of a chosen subject, along with technical expertise and a thorough knowledge of appropriate conceptual, theoretical and historical frameworks.

Your art practice will be informed by our 'Artworld' module, which aims to develop your understanding of the contemporary art world and help you to situate your practice within socioeconomic, political and institutional contexts.

Duration:

One year full-time.

Contact Time:

Approximately 10-14 hours a week in the first two semesters. During semester three you will arrange your level of contact time with your assigned supervisor.

Course Fees:

Please see the tuition fee pages for current tuition fees. Please note that all fees are subject to an annual increase.

Funding:

Funding opportunities may be available, please check our funding calculator for details.

Our Fine Art students build careers as professional painters, illustrators, photographers, printmakers, designers, curators and administrators. Our graduates work as university or museum educators, secondary school teachers, art gallery managers, exhibition curators, and conservators of easel painting, ceramics and works on paper. Their employers include the Arts Council, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Royal Collections Trust.

Skills

Throughout this course you will develop a wide array of skills that will not only market you as a professional artist, but also as a mature individual with attractive skills and qualities for potential employers. This course will encourage you to:

• Develop and sustain a self-initiated programme of work.
• Increase your critical faculties.
• Increase your technical possibilities, developing individual abilities in a certain area of art practice to the highest standards possible.
• Develop your skills, knowledge, and hands on experience of artistic processes.
• Develop a conceptual, practical and historical framework for your art.
• Play an active, learning based role in the operation of the School’s galleries..
• Stage public exhibitions and perform as a professional, exhibiting artist.
• Hold up your work against scrutiny from tutors, peers, critics, and the public.
• Improve your capacity for conducting a critical review of yours and others’ work through discussion, presentation and writing.
• Develop research and study skills.
• Manage the practicalities of exhibition preparation, installation, and curation. 

Assessment is via a mix of exhibitions, portfolios, essays, presentations, web-design production, and teaching experience projects.

Having completed the final exhibition (final assessment element) of my undergraduate degree in Aberystwyth, I felt I was only really beginning to discover my voice as an artist, and hone my individual language of paint. The Master’s degree provided the opportunity to continue with this development almost immediately, in an environment I was comfortable and confident to explore my practice.

The MA in Fine Art provides the opportunity to focus on a particular area of interest, and explore this in a deeper way to that of the undergraduate degree. The skill of being able to critically and objectively view my work has been an important skill that I was able to develop on the Master's course. This is a skill that is very important to possess, and is proving invaluable to me as I currently pursue my PhD.

The School of Art offers a great environment in which to undertake postgraduate study. The number of postgraduates each year means that class sizes are not too large, which encourages stimulating discussion through seminars, meetings and workshops, and allows opportunity for equal contribution. The guarantee of studio space for both full-time and part-time students makes the course a very attractive proposition also. The opportunity to work under some high profile academics within the department offers valuable opportunity for collaboration and networking and makes the School of Art a very exciting and inspiring environment in which to undertake Postgraduate study. Adam Blackburn