Program Overview

BA (Hons) Fine Art

Overview

Fine Art at Suffolk is established as a diverse and vibrant creative community where students engage actively in critical practice and practical skills with the support and guidance of experts in the field.

The heart of Fine Art Suffolk is in the arts studios, where you develop your practice, underpinned by a rigorous program of contextual, critical and professional studies. You will be challenged to think and make beyond a single medium and to embrace interdisciplinary thinking.

A course team of diverse backgrounds and specialist knowledge, all internationally exhibiting practitioners, offers intense small group and one-to-one tuition via lectures, seminars, workshops, and studio tutorials. The critique is an integral part of learning at Suffolk and enables our students to become intellectually aware and practically resilient.

You will benefit from a programme of visiting artists and professionals as well as access to a range of study trips and gallery visits, both near and far. Exhibition opportunities, internships and work placements complement studio studies and enable you to contextualise your work in relation to a variety of visual art arenas in the region, nationally and internationally.

From your first year, you are given bright and airy studio space of your own within which to work, alongside extensively equipped workshop facilities ranging from printmaking to wood working, purpose-built installation spaces, life-studio and digital media rooms, all staffed by knowledgeable and helpful technical staff.

As a graduate you will be equipped with a broad artistic skill set and a portfolio of practise that shows confident positioning in the contemporary art world.

Course Modules

• Materials and Processes (Mandatory)
  • In this module you are introduced to a range of materials and processes pertinent to contemporary fine art practice. It is an opportunity for you to experiment and explore a variety of fine art disciplines. This comprises a practice informed by curiosity and imagination and a creative and speculative approach to the manipulation of ideas, materials, methods and processes. The ethos of the module is to embed awareness of creative thinking through doing.
• Concepts and Sites (Mandatory)
  • In this module you will incorporate conceptual considerations of projects and place into your practice. You will be guided in project-based activity through thematic briefs. The focus here is the interactive relationship between materials, media and processes; between ideas and issues; and between producer and audience. You will begin to consider contextualization through mode and site of presentation, as well as the reception and documentation of the work.
• Drawing: Representing and Recording (Mandatory)
  • This module emphasises the fundamental skill of drawing, engaging you in the practice of observing, recording, analysing, speculating, developing, visualising, evaluating and communicating. The purpose of the module is to develop understanding and skills in drawing, both as a tool for further development of work, and as a practice in its own right.
• Research and Context (Mandatory)
  • This module enables you to contextualise themes of contemporary art practice with reference to relevant art historical and theoretical reference points. The module introduces a range of visual and textual material towards developing your capacity to examine and interrogate your own artwork as well as the works of other artists.
• Studio Practice (Mandatory)
  • In this module you continue to develop your individual studio practice building on the knowledge and experience gained at Level 4. You will stretch your imaginative skills with experimentation and broaden your awareness of practical developments in contemporary fine art. The relationship between practical and conceptual understanding is explored throughout, in the studio, critiques and exhibition of final work.
• Professional Engagement (Mandatory)
  • This module complements Studio Practice and Extended Practice. It allows you to develop your understanding, experience and reflection on your own practice in relation to others. This situated position is key to deeper understanding of the development of your practice, and importantly, your position in the wider community. It encourages you to begin to position your work in relation to professional contexts.
• Critical Perspectives (Mandatory)
  • This module builds on the foundations set in Research and Context. It concentrates on developing a more complex understanding of specific ideas and themes pertinent to contemporary fine art practice. Key relevant theoretical texts from art as well as subjects such as psychoanalysis, philosophy, critical, cultural and film studies, are employed in relation to examples of contemporary art practice.
• Extended Practice 40 credits (Optional)
  • This module acts as a transition to facilitate your progression from guided learning to your assumption of a more autonomous role and ownership of your own practice. You will continue to develop your individual studio practice building on the knowledge and experience gained from the previous semester, and to apply an understanding of the relationship between the artist, the artwork and the viewer. In this module you will begin to articulate the parameters of your Dissertation as a holistic engagement with your practice. – EITHER this module, or Extended Practice for 20 credits along with Avant-Garde and Experimental Film, must be taken.
• Extended Practice (20 credits) (Optional)
  • This module acts as a transition to facilitate your progression from guided learning to your assumption of a more autonomous role and ownership of your own practice. You will continue to develop your individual studio practice building on the knowledge and experience gained from the previous semester, and to apply an understanding of the relationship between the artist, the artwork and the viewer. In this module you will begin to articulate the parameters of your Dissertation as a holistic engagement with your practice. – EITHER this module must be taken along with Avant-Garde and Experimental Film or Extended Practice for 40 credits must be taken on its own.
• Avant-Garde and Experimental Film (Optional)
  • Combining thinking, making and reflecting directly, this module takes a playful and experimental approach towards stimulating your imagination and creativity. In it, you will explore alternatives to mainstream cinema which have attracted the label avant-garde, experimental, underground or alternative. It aims towards expanding your theoretical, critical, practical and creative horizons by engaging with a range of work and filmmaking modes. You will write a short case study on the production context and salient style and techniques of a particular movement, practitioner or film, and make and reflect on your own individual experimental short film, taking your case study findings as a point of departure. - EITHER this module must be taken along with Extended Practice for 20 credits or Extended Practice for 40 credits is taken on its own.
• Degree Project (Mandatory)
  • This module draws on and extends knowledge and skills gained from all previous Level 4 and 5 modules. It is the culmination of all learning through installation and exhibition of a coherent body of work. Degree Project provides opportunity to interrogate the relationship between artist, artwork and viewer through presentation of a Final Exhibition. It is the nucleus of your research and practice in Level 6 reflecting practical dexterity, theoretical underpinning and professional values. In this module you progress to an autonomous ownership of your own learning and practice.
• Research and Dissertation (Mandatory)
  • This module allows you to extend your knowledge developed in Research and Context and Critical Perspectives together with the synthesis of theory and practice established in Extended Practice. A dialogue is expected to take place between the research and content in this module and that of Degree Project. The module addresses specific discursive and research methodologies appropriate to your individual work, extending your capacity to construct and present a focused and sustained academic discussion.
• Professional Practice 2 (Mandatory)
  • This module builds on the Level 5 module Professional Engagement. You will be supported, guided and supervised in posting a continuous blog or relevant social media in order to promote your practice. This is alongside the production of either a business plan or relevant funding application in order to prepare you for a sustainable practice in either a self-employed or employed capacity.

Entry Requirements

• UK Academic Requirements:
  • 112 UCAS Points (or above)
  • BBC (A-Level)
  • DMM (BTEC)
  • Merit (T Level)
  • Pass in Access to HE Diploma
• International Requirements:
  • IELTS 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components) where English is not the student's first language.
• Transferring Credit:
  • If you have previously studied at higher education level before you may be able to transfer credits to a related course at the University of Suffolk and reduce the period of study time necessary to achieve your degree.
• Mature Applicants:
  • Students aged 21 or over at the start of their course are regarded as mature students. The University of Suffolk offers a flexible admissions policy for mature students, which takes into account life and work experience.

Career Opportunities

• Freelance Artists
• Exhibition Organisers
• Gallery Managers
• Curators
• Teachers & Lecturers
• Art Therapists
• Arts Administrators
• And more

Your Course Team

• Dr Susan Barnet
• Dr Jane Watt
• Srin Surti
• Dr Matthew Bowman
• Ann-Marie James
• Ryan Gander OBE RA

Fees and Funding

• 2025/26:
  • UK Full-time Tuition Fee: £9,535 per year
  • UK Part-time Tuition Fees: £1,589 per 20 credit module
  • International Full-time Tuition Fee: £15,690 per year
• 2026/27:
  • UK Full-time Tuition Fee: £9,535 per year
  • UK Part-time Tuition Fees: £1,589 per 20 credit module
  • International Full-time Tuition Fee: £15,690 per year

Facilities and Resources

• From their first year, students are given a bright and airy studio space of their own to work in.
• We have comprehensively equipped workshop facilities ranging from printmaking to wood working, sculpture and ceramics, laser cutting and 3D printing, virtual reality technology and large-format full-colour printing, all staffed by knowledgeable and helpful technical staff, and all accessible daily.
• All tutors are practicing and internationally exhibiting artists. As well we invite local, national and international practitioners and speakers to work with our students.
• We are committed to offering a contemporary art context to our students through visits to galleries and museums and through trips both near and far.