Program Overview

---

Overview

Explore your creativity and master traditional and digital making skills, using a range of materials, including glass and ceramics. Utilise outstanding facilities, participate in competitions, public exhibitions and live commissions. Become an artist, designer, maker and work in diverse art, design and making contexts.

Course Details

Duration

• 3/6 years

Mode

• Full/Part time

Fees

• £9,535 (UK/Europe)
• £16,500 (International)

UCAS Code

• W260

Next Start Date

• 15 Sep 25

Course Structure

Year 1 (National Level 4)

Focus on skill acquisition to introduce a broad base of techniques:

• Ceramics: throwing, glazes, hand building, slip casting, decals, mono-printing, press moulding
• Glass: sustainable glassblowing, kiln casting, stained glass, glass painting, sandcasting, sandblasting, glass cutting, gluing and construction
• Finishing techniques: grinding and polishing, wood finishing, metal patination
• Digital crafts: rhinoceros 3D modeling, blender, 3d printing, water jet cutting, laser cutting
• Wood and metal - basic skills
• Artists talks and visits will provide examples of professional careers and practice verbal presentation skills
• Aspects of historical and contemporary artist designer maker contexts
• Academic research, referencing and writing skills

Core Modules:

• Studio Techniques for Making (60 credits) Explore a variety of processes in glassmaking, ceramics, wood, metal and digital fabrication. Experience the value of team-work in shared studio spaces. Organise schedules for different making processes and accomplish new tasks to deadline. Learn traditional making techniques, as well as more recent developments such as waterjet cutting, 3D printing and laser cutting. Enhance your knowledge by researching technical processes used by other artists, designers and makers.
• Ideas Into Practice (40 credits) Gain the ability to use 3D design software and traditional drawing as tools to develop, research and design ideas. Explore the basic aspects of both traditional and digital drawing. Investigate processes of model making, testing of materials, and thinking skills to generate two bodies of work in response to a project brief. Gain a greater understanding of what different material processes have to offer you and advance your technical and manipulative skills.
• Key Themes for Art, Design and Making (20 credits) Develop your knowledge and understanding of the historical and contemporary contexts of art, design and making. Explore the work of significant key practitioners - artists, designers and makers. Understand the development of Modernism, Abstraction and Post Modernism and their relationship to movements in contemporary art, craft and design. Learn how to communicate your understanding and build your confidence in research skills, writing and presentations.

Year 2 (National Level 5)

Focus on development of professional transferable skills, understanding of contexts of practice and broader cultural issues, and of independent study and skills acquisition:

• Continuing skill acquisition, including printmaking for glass and ceramics, advanced ceramics techniques, and digital skills
• Applying for ‘real world’ opportunities like competitions, exhibitions and work experience
• First semester: Focus on work in place, space and context through developing a project in response to a specific place, purpose or audience
• Design boards, visualisations and sample making
• Second semester: planning, executing and evaluating a self-directed project for exhibition at a professional public gallery - usually at Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
• Opportunity to study abroad including USA, Australia or Sweden

Core Modules:

• Making for Place, Space and Audience (40 credits) Develop a project that investigates space, place, context and audience. Explore different modes of practice including socially engaged, site-specific and site-sensitive and working to commission for clients. Identify and use appropriate skills and techniques in the manipulation of materials for a particular place, space, or context. Learn analogue and digital (Rhino) model-making skills and develop testing methodologies to explore your ideas at smaller scale. Develop confidence to pitch your ideas to intended audience and potential clients and learn how to use analogue and digital skills (Illustrator) to create a design board that charts your ideas visually.
• Making for Exhibition (40 credits) Exhibit your work in a professional gallery (either online or in the gallery). Explore your creative potential and extend your technical abilities through the creation of a body of work. Develop, implement and reflect upon your own work, and exhibit as part of a group show hosted by Shipley Art Gallery and Museum in Gateshead. Expand your knowledge of project management through helping to organise and curate the exhibition.
• Dialogues in Art, Design and Making (20 credits) Develop your academic skills, including researching, reading and writing. Build on your writing skills and plan a written argument. Hear from professional artists through the weekly 'Creative Lives' programme. Gain a unique insight into professional artists' practice and possible career pathways.
• Collaborative Creativity (20 credits) Negotiate a relevant placement where you will position your practical and creative skills, build networks and begin to identify relevant professional pathways. Alternatively, work with fellow students from across our different Arts disciplines to create a group negotiated creative outcome.

Final Year (National Level 6)

The final year is geared towards the presentation of a professional body of work for public exhibition at your degree show.

• Experimentation, visualization, testing in order to develop a professional and resolved body of work for exhibition
• Refinement of making skills, finishing techniques, presentation methods and consolidation of ideas in a final body of artworks
• Research and write a critical dissertation relevant to students’ individual studio work and/or career goals. Also, focus on establishing a professional identity and career plan
• Research career options, understand the nature of the sector the student aspires to enter and in turn develop a relevant career plan
• Develop online portfolio or drawings and finished work

Core Modules:

• Experiment Visualise Prototype (40 credits) Experiment with a range of materials and processes. Make a body of test pieces while developing a specialised understanding of your materials and the technologies required to develop your ideas into an object. Record your research and experimentation in a testing folder to provide a solid reference for future work. Explore how to realise your ideas in two dimensions through drawing and other image-making processes, and computer-aided modelling. Produce a professionally presented portfolio of images and design proposals to display a clear narrative on the development of your ideas. Present a prototype artwork or object.
• Refine Resolve Exhibit (40 credits) Explore your creative potential and extend your technical abilities to a professional level. Create work with a high degree of sophistication and conceptual rigour for online exhibitions. Plan a scheme of work and manage your personal project. Set and achieve goals, culminating in the production of a body of work with a personal creative identity.
• Dissertation: Your Creative Context (20 credits) Research and write a dissertation of words that relates to themes and issues relevant to your studio practice or your career ambitions. Demonstrate coherent specialist knowledge and understanding of the historical and contemporary themes/practices relevant to artists, designers and makers and how these relate to your independent work. Evaluate the creative context in which you hope to work in the future and develop your understanding of the professional world in which you hope to work.
• Professional Practice: Planning Your Creative Career (20 credits) Develop a career planning portfolio that will help you launch your professional career on graduating. Understand where your practice is placed within the creative industries and prepare yourself to enter your chosen sector. Research the requirements and principles of self-employment and graduate employment. Explore methods of recording and promoting your work and understand the principles of how to cost work realistically. Learn how to produce a range of presentation and communication materials appropriate to present your practice in a professional manner to your intended audience.

Entry Requirements

Our typical offer is:

• Irish Leaving Certificate: 112 UCAS points – Students must have H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths & English.
• QQI/FETAC 5: Pass profile overall. For entry we also require H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths and English from Irish Leaving Certificate.

Fees and Finance

• The annual, full-time fee for this course is £9,535 if you are from the UK/Europe and £16,500 if you are an international student.
• Tuition fees for part-time students are £7,145 per 90 credits. Please note that part-time courses are not available to international students who require a Student visa to study in the UK.

Career Ready

We aim to develop you as a graduate who has the skills to work in diverse art, design and making contexts. You are likely to develop a ‘portfolio career’ that might involve a mix of working as an artist for gallery exhibitions, a designer making work to commission for specific contexts, and a maker who can fabricate work for yourself or others.

Industry Links

Our links with the arts and creative industries are key to giving you the real world experience that will help your future career. Our current links include Sunderland Arts Studio, British Ceramics Biennial, Arts Council England, Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA), National Association for Ceramics in Higher Education (NACHE), Equal Arts, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA), Nissan, and the National Trust.

Facilities

You'll work in excellently equipped studios, giving you access to many events and exhibitions as well as visiting professionals (including artists, designers and makers). You’ll be allocated your own workspace, in our open plan working areas which facilitates the learning community and allows students to learn and share knowledge freely.

Digital Making Facilities

• Waterjet Sweden waterjet cutting machine 3 x 2 m cutting area
• PCs with Lantec software
• 3D printers
• Delta wasp 3D clay printer
• EinScan 3D scanner
• Rhino 3D modelling software

Students also have access to facilities within FabLab on campus, which includes laser cutters, routers, milling machines, vinyl cutters and 3D printers.

Glass and Ceramics Facilities

• A range of glass and ceramics kilns including a large gas kiln
• Raku and kiln building area
• Ceramics hand building, throwing, mould making and glaze workshops
• Sustainable glass workshop with international quality equipment including energy saving electric furnaces and reheating chambers
• Glass mould making workshop
• Fully equipped cold working studio (sandblasting, cutting, grinding and polishing)
• Architectural and stained glass studio
• Printing facility for glass, ceramics and other surfaces
• Lampworking stations
• Project and exhibition space
• Workspace for each student

Library Services - Arts and Design

The University Library is your gateway to information resources and services both on and off campus. We’ve got thousands of print books, e-books, exhibition catalogues and journals, giving you reliable and up-to-date academic and industry articles. A single search box enables searching across print and digital resources, and you’ll have tailored digital resources and support for students in Art and Design.

Access to many study places, including quiet and silent zones, PCs and Macs, group work hubs, online module reading lists and study skills support, all in our quality learning environments. You’ll have full use of two libraries, both with extensive opening hours, and ‘Live Chat’ enables you to access library support and help from anywhere 24/7.

We’re much more than a library; the University Library and Study Skills team are on hand to guide you throughout your studies on and off campus from embedded skills sessions, digital skills support to 1-2-1 and drop-in advice on research and academic skills.