Program Overview

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Fine Art BA(Hons)

Harness Falmouth’s renowned fine art expertise, which champions critical exploration.

Key details

• Location: Falmouth Campus
• Course duration: 3 years / 4 years
• Attendance: Full-time / Professional Placement
• UCAS code: W100 / FY11 / PY19

Course overview

Realise your artistic vision and ambition on our renowned Fine Art degree, which champions curiosity and encourages critical exploration of historical and contemporary art practices, cultural issues, contexts and debates. With access to studio space and facilities including 3D, printmaking and time-based media workshops, you’ll evolve your own practice through a rich variety of mediums. By graduation you’ll have an industry-ready portfolio and the ability to effectively present your work to the world, building the foundations for an enduring career.

You will:

• Work in a fine art studio space from day one, with access to excellent facilities including 3D, printmaking and time-based media workshops
• Collaborate with industry partners such as Newlyn Art Gallery and Tate St Ives
• Develop professional practice skills, learning to identify opportunities, take initiative and sustain a viable long-term career in the arts and beyond
• Evolve your fine art practice through opportunities such as field recordings, voice laboratories, self-publishing projects, specialist workshops, guest lectures and performances
• Collaborate with peers and staff to produce group exhibitions and an online arts festival
• Build an industry-ready fine art portfolio

Course details

Year one

In the first year of your Fine Art degree, you'll join technical workshops and inductions to kick-start approaches to artistic practice. With a focus on co-creation, you'll collaborate with your peers to develop a range of ways to think about, self-initiate, and develop your practice. You'll also investigate contemporary and historical art contexts, developments and debates. At the end of the year, you'll go on to develop and deliver a group exhibition.

Modules

• Press Play
  • With a focus on co-creation and collaborative peer learning, you'll develop a range of ways to think about, self-initiate, and develop your artistic practice. You'll undertake technical workshops and inductions and explore ambitious ideas – testing boundaries, taking risks, experimenting and making meaning. You'll also be introduced to a range of contemporary and historical art practices, cultural issues, debates, and contexts.
• Practice in Context 1
  • In this module, you'll benefit from the combined expertise of both our Fine Art and Drawing courses. Through lectures and group discussions surrounding contemporary and historical art contexts, developments and debates, you'll develop a self-reflective approach to studio practice.
  • You'll also be introduced to academic writing and research conventions. Through this, you'll develop your own critical analysis skills and learn to communicate your ideas professionally and effectively.
• Initiating Practice
  • In this module, you'll strengthen your understanding of what it means to have and maintain an independent artistic practice. You'll explore methods for practice-based research to identify connections between sources, underpin your practice with rich source material and develop conceptual themes for your work. You'll also look at how your practice fits within the professional industry and construct a collaborative group exhibition – exploring different modes of display and audience experience.
• Practice in Context 2
  • This is part two of the Practice in Context module, where you'll have access to expertise across Falmouth School of Art. You'll be introduced to a range of themes and trends that have shaped contemporary artistic practices, such as socially engaged practices and recent philosophical shifts in the role and value of artistic production. You'll also engage with a greater range of academic source material and strategies for analysing, researching, and writing about art.

Year two

In your second year, you’ll expand your horizons of what art practice is and can be, and how this translates to professional contexts. You’ll further your understanding of research by exploring the relationships between sources, methodologies, themes, and ideas in support of your evolving practice. You’ll also continue to develop the academic and cognitive skills required to develop thoughtful and critical practice, in both visual and written forms.
At the end of the year, you’ll work in teams to produce a public-facing arts event. To do this, you’ll utilise vital professional practice skills including collaboration, team working, negotiation, persuasion, liaison and project management.

Modules

• Situating Practice: Studio
  • In this module, you’ll establish themes in your practice and gain an understanding of how your work interacts with a range of professional and theoretical contexts. Working in both the studio and technical workshops, you’ll develop a new body of work focusing on process, material investigation and technical experimentation.
  • You’ll also explore how to identify themes and contexts that emerge from thinking through making and how you ‘tell the story’ of your practice and research, situated in real-world contexts.
• Situating Practice: Art Discourses
  • In this module, you’ll be introduced to discussions on a range of diverse themes in contemporary art. You’ll look at the histories that have given rise to certain works and the ideas informing them, questioning the choices that artists make and how artists orientate themselves on the constantly shifting grounds of contemporary art.
• Testing Ground: Art Encounters
  • Here, you’ll begin generating a portfolio of research. You’ll be introduced to core research methodologies and contemporary critical research practices. You’ll also learn and then apply methods for planning and organising your research. Additionally, you’ll explore a range of strategies for undertaking critical reading, and experimental, creative modes of writing.
• Testing Ground: Collaboration
  • Working in exhibition planning groups, you’ll identify and work towards a live context for your current practice. Each group will contribute to planning and preparing a public-facing arts festival and the group curation of your practice.
• Testing Ground: Studio
  • In this module, you’ll challenge and test established conventions within your practice. The emphasis will be on experimentation and risk through the practical business of making. Through a combination of seminars, tutorials and peer review you will articulate and receive critical feedback on your work. You will curate a body of work into an organised portfolio with a supporting artist statement.

Professional placement (optional)

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year.

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the Employability team.

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying.

How you’ll study during your professional placement

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks.

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation.

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth.

Year three

In the third year of your Fine Art degree, you’ll work to establish a professional level of agency over your own creative practice. You'll complete an extensive research project that addresses the question of ‘research as practice’; providing an opportunity to scope the embedded methodologies and theoretical frameworks of your practice. You’ll then mobilise this research to produce a professional, public-facing final exhibition.
Throughout the year, you’ll be supported to develop your professional practice skills, expand your industry and research networks, and find opportunities to test your practice in the real world.

Modules

• Practice as Research
  • Through challenge and exploration, in this module you’ll begin to understand and mobilise research as an integral aspect of practice, culminating in a set of outputs distinctive to your own critical concerns.
• Entrepreneurial Practices: Agencies & Audiences
  • In this module, you’ll build an entrepreneurial skillset by engaging with public contexts as a dynamic material within your practice. You’ll also be required to identify the relevant audiences, platforms and tools for the dissemination of your practice and research in relation to your career goals.
• Realisation
  • This module is a culmination of the skills, knowledge and understanding you have accumulated over three years of study. You’ll be expected to challenge and finesse your practice, with your degree show exhibition showcasing your accomplishments to a wider audience. You’ll also be required to liaise with your cohort to collectively organise, curate and promote an exciting exhibition.
• Sustaining Practice
  • In this module, you’ll consider things like curation, the catalogue, planning and delivering a show – and what to carry forward beyond university. You’ll be required to thoroughly document the planning, investigation and development of your chosen project, reflect on and evaluate your own professional development and initiate industry connections and explore opportunities for your career.

Integrated Foundation Year (optional)

Why study an Integrated Foundation Year route?

If you’re taking on a new subject that you haven’t studied in depth before, have been out of education for a while or have a non-standard educational background then an Integrated Foundation Year degree may be the right choice for you. It is a four-year degree with an Integrated Foundation Year to start, which allows you to explore the primary elements of your subject before progressing on to the remaining three years of the BA(Hons) degree.

What you'll learn

If you choose this pathway, you'll study five core modules in your Foundation year. These are all designed to help you explore the foundational elements of your subject. You'll gain relevant technical skills, learn to experiment and take risks, develop an understanding of professional practice, have opportunities to work across disciplines and collaborate with other students on live project briefs.

Modules

• Explore
  • You'll begin your foundation year by working collaboratively with others to explore themes of the future. You'll take risks, experiment through play and be supported to break through barriers.
• Technique
  • You'll take subject-specific workshops and develop essential technical and practical skills in your area of study. You'll also enhance your analytical and organisational abilities.
• Apply
  • You'll work with your peer group to think beyond discipline by addressing a societal or global issue. You'll then showcase your work to your peers and deliver an accompanying evaluation of your process.
• Industry
  • You'll enhance your creative and practical skills in your subject specialism by responding to typical industry briefs, underpinned by focused research and experiments. You'll also gain industry insights through guest lectures and workshops.
• Launch
  • You'll develop your unique identity in your specialism through the production of a self-initiated body of work. Your final project will be the bridge to your next year, fully supported by evaluative reviews and critical analysis of the work you have created.

How you'll learn & be assessed

How you'll learn

This Fine Art degree is constructed around the studio. You'll learn through individual tutorials, group discussions, critiques and technical workshops, while leading your own efforts in exhibitions and presentations.

Beginning with introductory studio-based exercises and media workshops, you'll take more and more responsibility for self-directed study as you learn and present work in public exhibitions.

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

How you'll be assessed

You'll be assessed with practical exams and coursework.

Assessment methods

• Foundation year assessments are 100% coursework based
• Practice-based modules will be assessed on the presentation of visual work, including preparatory work
• Critical studies modules will be assessed on written assignments
• In the final year you’ll be assessed on your dissertation and your studio-based module - culminating in an exhibition of your final-year work

Facilities

• Studio space.
• Dedicated workshops for 3D and bronze casting foundry, printmaking, paint preparation, laser cutting and rapid prototyping.
• Digital imaging facilities.
• Video and photography facilities.
• Performance and sound facilities.
• 140,000 books.
• 17,000 DVD/video titles.
• Over 400 journal titles.
• Radio archives, slides, pictures, maps and archive collections.

Staff

All staff are practising artists, working across a range of disciplines. Our visiting professors have included Elizabeth Price and Rory Pilgrim, and our speakers have included Zoe Williams, Phoebe Collings-James, Charlie Porter, Martin Clark and Richard Wentworth.

Jonty Lees

Course Leader BA(Hons) Fine Art

My research examines the Cornwall Schools Art Collection. The collection is important and culturally...

Dr Tom Baugh

Head of Art

Thomas is the Head of Art at Falmouth University. Thomas situates his artistic research ac...

Dr Neil Chapman

Senior Lecturer, Fine Art

Neil Chapman is an artist, writer and researcher. His current work explores material textual practic...

Dr Glad Fryer

Lecturer, Fine Art

My work takes an image on a journey beginning with a photographic source image and ending in a paint...

Lucy Willow

Senior Lecturer subject specialist in sculpture

I joined the BA Fine Art team in 2012 as senior lecturer with subject specialism in sculpture and am...

Maria Christoforidou

Lecturer

Maria Christoforidou is an artist, writer and researcher. Maria was born in Zambia, grew up in Greec...

Dr Laura Rosser

Senior Lecturer and 3rd Year Lead on BA Fine Art

Laura Rosser is a print-based artist researcher. She joined Falmouth University in 2021 and is a Sen...

Dr David Paton

Senior Lecturer MA Fine Art and BA(Hons) Drawing

David is Senior Lecturer for MA Fine Art based at Woodlane Campus, and 1st Year Lead for BA(Hons) Dr...

Oliver Thomas-Irvine

Associate Lecturer, Fine Art BA(Hons)

Amy and Oliver Thomas-Irvine’s work spans across sculpture, installation, performance, photography...

Dr Bram Arnold

Associate Lecturer, Fine Art BA(Hons)

Dr Bram Thomas Arnold is an artist who started with walking and kept going into performance, drawing...

Elizabeth Tomos

Lecturer, Fine Art BA(Hons)

Elizabeth Tomos has been working in Higher Education since 2010 and is currently working as a Lectur...

Bronwen Buckeridge

Senior Lecturer, Fine Art BA(Hons)

Bronwen Buckeridge works with field recordings, dialogue and text, paying attention to the non-human...

Jane Bailey

Lecturer, Fine Art BA(Hons)

Jane Bailey is an artist, researcher and educator with over 20 years’ experience. Employing partic...

Got a question about this course?

If you want to know more about the course structure, our application requirements or what our graduates have gone on to achieve, our friendly course team is here to help.

Careers

Our graduates have worked as:

• Internationally exhibiting artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize
• Exhibitors at Bischoff/Weiss
• A Cannes Film Festival prize-winning filmmaker
• A Creative Presenter at Ralph Lauren

What can you do with an art degree?

A drawing, art or design degree will teach you skills that are relevant for multiple industries so you can follow a career path that is truly fulfilling for a lifetime.

How to apply

Ready to apply for 2025?

You can apply for our undergraduate degrees via UCAS. You'll need our university UCAS code (F33) as well as your course code (which you'll find on your course page) for your application.

Application advice & interview information

• For starting your studies in 2025
  • UK applications: 29 January 2025 (for equal consideration)
  • Applications after the 29 January will be considered on a first-come, first-served as long as there are places available. Apply for this course now.
• International fee payers
  • International fee payers can apply throughout the year. But we recommend applying as early as possible, to make time for visa and travel arrangements.

Entry requirements

We consider all applications on their own individual merit and potential. We invite all applicants to an interview day or audition to give them the opportunity to demonstrate this along with what inspires and motivates them in their field. Applicants will also be able to show their portfolio or give a performance depending on the course. We welcome applications from all subject backgrounds, whether you’ve specialised in STEM, the arts or humanities.

Course routes & entry requirements

• BA/BSc(Hons) three year degree: 104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points
• BA/BSc(Hons) four year degree with professional placement: 104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points
• BA/BSc(Hons) four year degree with Integrated Foundation Year: 80 – 120 UCAS Tariff points

Fees, costs & funding

Tuition fees

Tuition fees for students starting the course in September 2025

• Annual tuition fee: £9,535 per year (Full-time UK)
• Annual tuition fee: £17,950 per year (Full-time EU/international)
• Annual tuition fee: £1,905 per professional placement year (Full-time UK and EU/international)
• Annual tuition fee: £9,535 per Integrated Foundation Year (Full-time UK)
• Annual tuition fee: £17,950 per Integrated Foundation Year (Full-time EU/international)

Typical course costs

• £380-£480 - Recurring annual costs
• £100-£400 - One off costs for the course duration
• £800 - Optional study visits and placements for the course duration

Additional typical course costs for Integrated Foundation Year pathway

• £250 for materials
• A laptop/desktop computer
• Adobe Creative Suite

Funding

For information about funding available, please visit our student funding pages.

Ask a student

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From course details and academic support, to the social scene and settling in, our students are ready and available to answer any questions you might have. Simply set up your account, send them a question and they'll get back to you within 24 hours.

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