Top reasons to choose this course
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Develop tenacity, resourcefulness, resilience and self-motivation, fundamental aspects of sustaining an art practice or working within the creative industries.
- Show a body of work in the university’s graduate show.
- Opportunity to apply for an exchange program with the University of Nagoya, Japan.
Year 1
In the first year you are introduced to studio practice and explore the relationship between thinking and making in a supportive and friendly environment. An expansive approach to research enables you to explore different methods of articulating your ideas and documenting your work.
You'll develop your emerging fine art practice within the studio and in relation to a specific site or sites. There is an emphasis on material exploration and experimentation and work is challenged through critical discussions and debate, building confidence in articulating your practice.
You will be introduced to key institutions, roles and terms within the expanded world of contemporary art and learn to navigate and discuss complex ideas and issues which increases your understanding and builds a collective vocabulary.
Modules
- Studio Practice 1: Thinking and Making
This module is an introduction to studio practice. You will identify key concerns in your practice whilst exploring the relationship between studio practice, thinking and making.
The module introduces an expansive approach to research, and you'll explore different methods of articulating ideas and documenting work.
- Studio Practice 2: Making and Site
This module supports you to develop and explore your emerging studio practice in the studio and in relation to a specific site or sites. Your work is challenged through critical discussion and wide-ranging material exploration and experimentation, which opens up new possibilities for your practice.
The module stresses the importance of expansive research and changing methods of documentation. Individually and in groups, you will explore new ways of articulating your critical language based on observation and feedback.
- Contemporary Art Institutional Roles and Terms
This module will introduce you to key institutions, roles and terms within the contemporary art world, encouraging you to engage with discussion and debates about these.
This module introduces key institutions, roles and terms within the contemporary art world. Using inquiry-based learning, we meet each week as a group to discuss an institution, role or term from a range of perspectives, for example, what is the practical, ideological, economic and social function of an art gallery.
- Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Introduction to Global Art Histories and Art Writing
This module introduces you to global art histories underpinned by art writing and art practice. You'll explore and critique Western art history, indigenous, decolonial, punk, feminist and queer art histories, high and low art theory, art criticism, art journalism and artist's experimental writing.
Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through .
Year 2
In your second year you'll continue to advance your fine art practice through explorative and practical approaches. You develop the visual, written and spoken communication skills to present your work to varied audiences. There is a greater emphasis on considering the context, form and cultural framing of your work and on the professional skills associated with proposal making, documentation of artworks and exhibition making.
The second-year public exhibition teaches you to present a resolved work in a group exhibition, to negotiate, to work as part of a team and to practice key roles associated with exhibition making.
Modules
- Studio Practice 3: Public Exhibition
- Studio Practice 4: Practice-led Research
- Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Contexts and Specialisms
- Diary Practice: Making Meaning in Times of Global Challenge
Final year
In your final year you'll develop and consolidate your art practice and extend your technical skills base through the creation of a body of work. Research situates your practice in relevant contexts and professional skills are developed to support future ambitions.
You synthesise your previous learning, test your ideas practically, write proposals and work towards a final degree show exhibition. There is a strong emphasis on documenting your practice and artist statement, and on placing your work in critically informed contexts. This helps you to prepare for postgraduate study and careers within the creative industries.
Modules
- Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Articulation of Your Critical Position
- Studio Practice 5: Consolidating and Situating Practice
- Studio Practice 6: Planning and Completion of Degree
Facilities
The course has its own studios and you will have access to a fabrication workshop and skilled specialist technical demonstrators. Within the workshop areas it is possible to work with a broad range of materials and processes including:
- woodworking
- metalworking
- plaster casting
- concrete casting
- metal casting
- plastics
- clay and stone
- mould making
- maquette making
- sewing.
Alongside the course-specific facilities you will have access to central services such as:
- The Media Centre where you can loan cameras, video projectors, monitors, media players and audio equipment to experiment with ideas or to use for exhibitions and crits.
- The TECH HUB – a team of technical demonstrators based in Grand Parade who provide specialist creative software support including Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects etc), Rhino, Blender and C4D, as well as web and blog-related software. They manage digital manufacturing services within the School of Art and Media, including laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC routing, plasma cutting and 3-axis CNC milling. They also have VR headsets and 3D scanners. The TECH HUB has its own dedicated PC suite with all of the software they support as well as standard university programmes.
Meet the team
Alice Fox, course leader
Alice has worked for many years with inclusive performance and visual arts alongside some of the world’s most socially excluded groups, in particular people with learning disabilities and elders. She often works internationally, training NGOs, cultural, health and education sector professionals. She has delivered inclusive arts projects for Tate Exchange, The National Gallery and The British Council in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Nepal.
Professor Matthew Cornford
Matthew Cornford is an artist who has worked on a wide range of art projects in response to specific contexts and situations. He has had work and projects exhibited in Europe, North America and at galleries in the UK including Camden Arts Centre, ICA, John Hansard Gallery, Photographers Gallery, De La Warr Pavilion and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. For a number of years Matthew Cornford has worked with John Beck researching the cultural history of British art schools, giving talks at galleries and universities. In 2019 their exhibition The Art Schools of North West England opened at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. .
Ole Hagen
Ole Hagen works in sculpture, drawing, performance and moving image, often staging theatrical tableaux for the camera. His work explores selfhood, introspection and perception in the context of cultural narratives relating to the distinction between the physical and the mental, the material and the immaterial. Ole employs humour and hyperbole to exaggerate the apparent gap between subject and object in order to question orthodox materialist paradigms. .
Eloise Calandre
Eloise is an Artist and Senior Lecturer specialising in photography and moving image. Her research practice is underpinned by photography. She works both independently and collaboratively toward interactive public projects and exhibition.
Caleb Madden
Caleb's interests lie in critical noise theory and its potential for aiding novel approaches to the production and analysis of contemporary art. Incorporating a number of strands which emerge from, and often lead back to speculative philosophy, his research aims to elaborate an understanding of the way art practices expand possibility space within the social imaginary.
Jayne Lloyd
Jayne Lloyd is a Senior Lecturer and an artist and researcher who works across sculpture, drawing and performance in her own arts practice and in the development and realisation of inclusive arts projects.
James Murray
James is an artist, researcher, and educator. His studio work combines manual techniques with automated processes. His work has been the subject of international solo, group, and two-person exhibitions at venues including Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; the 蜜柚社区 Centre for Contemporary Arts; Stephane Simoens Contemporary Fine Art, Knokke; and Rule Gallery, Denver, USA.
Naomi Salaman
Naomi Salaman is an artist, curator and lecturer. Her work investigates art practice, pedagogy and cultural institutions using historical, critical and feminist perspectives. Her interests are in contemporary art, Image/Text, the history of vision, the art school, art education and art theory. She has a doctorate in visual arts practice on the history of the art school and art theory. .
Daniel Campbell Blight
Daniel works on various forms of the essay, fiction and poetry, and has written for magazines and journals including 1000 Words, Aperture, Foam, frieze, the Guardian, Philosophy of Photography, Photoworks, Vogue Italia. His book, The Image of Whiteness: Contemporary Photography and Racialization, was published in 2019.
Technicians on the course include: Helen Stuart and Louise Gregory.