Program Overview

Fine Art BA (Hons)

Overview

Discover and develop your own perspective and ideas within contemporary art. Explore your creative interests across a broad range of Fine Art practice and work collaboratively with peers and professional artists in our artist community. Graduate well prepared for a creative career with a strong portfolio of work that will impress prospective employers.

Course Structure

• Year 1 (national level 4):
  • Core modules:
    • Studio and Show (40 credits)
      • Start to develop your own personal studio Fine Art practice. Have the freedom to develop your own self-negotiated project from the wide portfolio of Fine Art approaches, which might include painting, drawing, sculpture, print making, and digital subject areas. Work collaboratively with peers to select and install work, fundraise, design posters, organise publicity and arrange opening night catering and hospitality for the Fine Art Year 1 public show. Exhibit your body of work that you have developed throughout the year.
    • Fine Art Making Skills (40 credits)
      • Gain an introduction to core Fine Art practical skills in painting, printmaking, digital photography, sound, and sculpture, via a series of set projects. Engage with health and safety inductions regarding the use of materials and stainability. Set up your own professional individual studio space and learn how to access and use the School of Art and Design’s workshop facilities.
    • Contemporary Approaches to Drawing (20 credits)
      • Get an introduction to drawing principles through a series of structured drawing projects, including drawing both two and three dimensionally, and digitally. Engage with traditional, diverse and contemporary approaches to drawing, using a wide range of ideas, materials and working methods. Expand your own definition of drawing and develop a portfolio of drawing experiences that examines a traditional, contemporary and your individual response to the subject of drawing.
    • Fine Art Histories and Ideas (20 credits)
      • Learn about some of the key art movements and ideas which shaped, and continue to shape, the world culturally. Engage with themes including, for example: Symbolism, Expression, Surrealism and Abstraction. Examine the importance of feminism, multi-culturalism, and political activism, as generators of change, by discussing art from a range of different cultural contexts, histories, and traditions at a time of increasing globalisation. Explore new models of contemporary art practice, in particular, the impact of new technologies, social media, and the different ways artists are interacting with audiences. Develop essay skills in terms of theoretical research, debate and analytical critical writing.
• Year 2 (national level 5):
  • Core modules:
    • Fine Art Methodology (40 credits)
      • Further consider the form and the appropriateness of the medium for the articulation of your ideas, choosing from Fine Art’s wide portfolio of subjects: painting, drawing printmaking, sculpture, digital, performance and installation. Examine through practical work the creation of an artwork from concept to realisation. Experiment and learn about possible new combinations of media and forms. Benefit from workshops delivered by the Employability and Enterprise Hub which will enable you to further develop your understanding of professional routes for art graduates and begin to reflect on your aspirations.
    • Fine Art in Society (40 credits)
      • Develop your own studio practice towards installing a live exhibition open to a public audience, learning how to install, curate and advertise your exhibition, including poster design, managing a budget, organising an exhibition opening, and recording your live project outcome in an appropriate media. Alternatively, research and present a proposal for a socially engaged arts project, with a supporting body of artwork. Locate your ideas within a wider audience outside of your studio, finding a place and context for your art in society.
    • Art in Society: Theory and Context (20 credits)
      • Develop your understanding of how Fine Art practices are shaped by and help shape historical, social, cultural and political issues. Explore key contemporary debates around inclusivity, diversity, ethics and sustainability. Consider the broader social role of the artist, both gallery and socially engaged artists and identify artists who you admire as professional role models.
    • Collaborative Creativity (20 credits)
      • Prepare for real world and live collaborative creative projects. Build your work experience, establish and enhance your creative and professional networks and broaden your understanding of graduate opportunities, creative enterprise and career pathways. 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 outcome.
• Final year (national level 6):
  • Core modules:
    • Practice, Publication, Pitch (40 credits)
      • Focus on the research and production of an advanced, self-negotiated project with a professional focus. Prepare your practice for future exhibitions, arts-related and wider professional applications. Develop a studio presentation, publish a digital STUDIOzine and present your ideas live to an interview panel. Benefit from a weekly careers-practice programme which includes: Artists Voice Film programme, Employability and Enterprise Hub seminars, application and funding advice for postgraduates, and seminars on writing applications, artists statements, how interviews work, support for postgraduate applications including teacher training, art therapy, artist residencies, internships and participatory-arts career information.
    • Fine Art Exhibition (60 credits)
      • Take advantage of an intensive period of studio practice, working towards the realisation and completion of an individual personal project. Participate in a critically selected solo exhibition, presented for both your final degree assessment and the public degree show exhibition audience. Work collaboratively towards event fundraising, catalogue publication, photographing work, posters, press releases, opening night hospitality, invigilation, and exhibition tours. Learn to make work that confidently communicates your ideas effectively to an audience.
    • Dissertation, Theory and Application (20 credits)
      • Select your own topic of research related to Fine Art or visual culture, relevant to your practical work. Demonstrate your research by either written dissertation (3,500 – 4,500 words) or by a word document outlining your Fine Art research practice, including preparation for an arts funding application. Contextualise and gain a broader knowledge of the ideas underpinning your art practice. Develop a range of transferable skills appropriate for future professional development opportunities and further study.

Facilities

• Studio-based practice: The core to the Fine Art course, with a generous sized individual studio space in Priestman Building.
• Project and exhibition spaces: For paintings, prints and sculpture, plus digital installation and performance work, where ideas can be tested, outside of your individual space, providing an effective and discursive learning environment.
• Workshops: Excellently equipped in printmaking, 3D printing, digital photography, digital sewing and embroidery, woodwork, metalwork and casting, as well as support in the development of film and sound.
• Faculty Priestman Gallery: Opportunity to exhibit and gain experiences supporting the installation and curating public exhibitions.
• FabLab: Access to FabLab on City Campus.

Entry Requirements

• Typical offer: 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.
• Interview/portfolio requirements: We’ll invite you to an informal interview where we'd like to see evidence of your creative potential. Please prepare a portfolio of work you have completed so far.

Fees and Finance

• Annual, full-time fee: £9,535 if you are from the UK/Europe, £16,500 if you are an international student.
• Tuition fees for part-time students: £7,145 per 90 credits.

Career Ready

• Professional Portfolio: Develop a Professional Portfolio throughout your time at university, including an online art blog and art book publication of your work, with an artist statement and a CV.
• Career options: Prepare you to become a confident professional, with transferable skills. Increasingly, creative workers follow a ‘portfolio’ career comprising a range of roles such as teaching in schools, colleges and universities; artist residencies; creative practitioner; and as a practising fine artist.
• Our graduates: Destinations for Fine Art graduates also include public arts, curating and other areas within the creative industries. Some of our graduates work as artists and show their work in commercial galleries. Others have gone on to work in museums, galleries, and many different types of employment and self-employment.