Program Overview

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BA (Honours) Fine Art with Foundation Year

Course summary

Harness your curiosity, imagination and inventiveness to explore the ideas and possibilities of Fine Art – developing your own creative approach to contemporary art practice with an initial foundation year to prepare for the course.

How you learn

This foundation course brings together students across all our art and design courses as one creative community. You’ll work and learn together in a dedicated studio space and have access to our top-class facilities.

Based in our bespoke studios, workshops, and digital spaces, you’ll become part of a dynamic and collaborative learning community. Together, you’ll undertake creative adventures, explore possibilities, and challenge conventions.

Through our teaching, we help you unlock your potential to contribute as a creative thinker and doer and apply your knowledge to art practice, culture and society.

You learn through:

• Studio practice
• Workshops
• Technical demonstrations
• Group and individual tutorials
• Creative reviews
• Lectures
• Guest talks
• External visits and field trips

Key themes

Your foundation year will help you get to grips with University life as you study alongside a creative community of Art and Design students. Expect to be hands-on in the studio, learning through doing as you explore the creative process with collaborative projects, workshops and field trips.

Find out more about your foundation year.

Throughout the course, you’ll develop your making and thinking skills using a diverse range of creative processes, media and software – and you’ll explore ideas and practices through workshops led by skilled tutors and technicians.

Activities include painting, print, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image, performance and interaction, art writing, site-specific and socially-engaged/participatory work, and other forms of contemporary art practice.

You’ll learn different methods for research, understanding how artists work and think, and how research supports the development of contemporary practice. By collaborating with others, you’ll build confidence in communicating ideas and sharing your work with audiences.

At every step, we’ll help you position your practice in relation to real-world opportunities and challenges, so you can create work for particular contexts and participants through exhibitions, screenings and other live projects with external partners.

Course support

We’re a dedicated, qualified, and highly experienced teaching team, with world-leading research and recognised professional creative reputations, who take the time to get to know you.

Throughout your learning journey, you’ll experience a range of dedicated personal, academic and career development support, such as:

• Access to our Skills Centre with one-to-ones and online resources to help with planning and structuring your assignments
• Access to office and studio space, expert workshops, freelancing opportunities and a vast business network to tap into
• Industry-specific employability activities and careers support for up to five years after you graduate

The course develops strategies of attention, empathy, imagination, courage and resilience in the face of an uncertain future. Our course prioritises care as a critical activity – care for global human contexts and for the more-than-human world.

Applied learning

Your course has been designed to embrace real-world challenges and provide you with the practical skills and knowledge to be successful.

We do this by developing your expertise in collaboration with the professional creative and cultural sectors – with commercial and creative practitioners, commissioners, clients and arts organisations.

Work placements

You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a year-long work placement (25 weeks minimum) or multiple placements before your final year. This gives you valuable work experience to prepare you for your future career and allows you to graduate with an Applied Professional Diploma to add to your CV.

Previous students have worked in galleries with practising artists and in schools, while others have set up their own artist residency. You may also be able to work or study abroad with the possibility of funding through the Turing scheme.

Live projects

Take part in live projects in creative and critical arts practice where you work with external partners to respond to real-world challenges, projects and opportunities.

Field trips

We offer opportunities to go on study trips and visits in the UK and abroad – with free travel and accommodation for all mandatory field trips. These might include workshops, conferences or visits to practitioners’ studios, cultural institutions and special collections.

There’s also the option to enhance your studies further with our optional field trips. Recently, the course has visited the Venice Biennale and Berlin. These trips are valuable for the experience of seeing work first-hand and understanding the professional world of contemporary fine art.

Students can also apply for funding through the Turing Scheme to support a study exchange or placement outside of the UK.

Networking opportunities

Many of our academics are professional art practitioners and world-renowned researchers who help you understand and access thriving art networks.

With a diverse set of guest lectures, you’ll hear first-hand advice from leading artists, curators and thinkers. Previous guests have included:

• Uthra Rajgopal, winner of the prestigious Art Fund New Collecting Award
• ArtsCatalyst, a Sheffield-based visual arts organisation
• Harun Morrison, artist, writer, and former trustee of the Black Cultural Archive
• Shepherd Manyika, an artist-educator working with leading UK Art Galleries
• Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, a social designer whose work fosters collaborative culture

Exhibitions

You’ll exhibit your work in prestigious public galleries and exhibitions, such as The Post Hall Gallery, the Millenium Galleries, Bloc Gallery and S1 Art Space.

At the end of your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to exhibit your work in our annual Future Now Festival of Creativity – to which we invite VIP guests, employers, businesses, influencers, friends and family and the general public. The festival is widely attended and is hosted in the city centre. You’ll also be able to curate and exhibit your work on our online Gallery.

Course leaders and tutors

• Joanne Lee, Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design

Modules

Year 1

• Foundation Projects — Developing Creative Practice
• Foundation Skills & Methods

Year 2

• Developing Fine Art: Progressing Ideas And Expanding Practice
• Introducing Fine Art: Ideas, Materials And Processes

Year 3

• Contexts For Fine Art: Working With Sites, Communities, Audiences And Participants
• Experiments In Fine Art: Curiosity, Testing, Positioning
• Future Now: Collaboration In Action

Year 4

• Undergraduate Sandwich Placement Applied Professional Diploma

Year 5

• Challenging Fine Art: Deepening Creative And Critical Investigation
• Presenting Fine Art: Resolving Ideas And Making Public

Future careers

This course prepares you for careers and future study in:

• Art practice
• Research
• Curation
• Museums and galleries
• Creative and critical writing
• Publishing
• Film direction
• Production and editing
• Set design
• Prop-making
• Art direction
• Animation
• Music and media industries
• Teaching
• Art therapy

Our graduates exhibit in diverse galleries and festivals, have been nominated for the Turner Prize, Jarman Award, Oscars and BAFTAs, written and starred in TV series, released critically-acclaimed music and published significant works of fiction.

Our graduates also lead major art galleries, teach and research at UK and international higher education institutions.

Previous graduates who have become successful in their field include:

• Martin Clark, director of Camden Arts Centre
• Kid Acne, internationally renowned artist and illustrator
• George Shaw, Turner Prize nominee 2011
• Rosalind Nashashibi, Turner Prize nominee 2017
• Nick Park, Oscar-winning creator of Wallace and Gromit
• Hannah Duraid, The Great Escape Game entrepreneur
• Dawn Shadforth, British music video and documentary director

Equipment and facilities

We strive for an inclusive and equitable studio environment where divergent ideas, histories, and practices are encouraged to thrive.

Our fully equipped and purpose-designed studios, workshops and facilities include state-of-the-art equipment, such as:

• Painting and sculpture spaces
• Project space
• Dedicated TV and film studios
• Photography studios
• Industry-relevant hardware and software
• Performance spaces
• Creative media centre
• Professional gallery
• Printmaking
• Wood, metal and mixed media workshops
• Ceramics workshops
• Casting and metalwork facilities
• 3D printing

Where will I study?

You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.

Entry requirements

• 80 UCAS points
• English Language or Literature at grade C or 4
• IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills or equivalent

Fees and funding

• Home students: £9,535 per year (capped at a maximum of 20% of this during your placement year)
• International students: £18,000 per year (capped at a maximum of 20% of this during your placement year)