UDFIEART - BA (Hons) Fine Art (Top-up)

The BA Fine Art course is highly student focused, where individualised learning opportunities and student choice in subject matter and approach to study is tailored. This takes into consideration the students cultural background and identity as outlined in the university’s Education for Social Justice Framework (ESJF). Employability is fostered through learning from direct experience and real-world contact with external partners and live project opportunities. Independent and critical thinking and an awareness of our social responsibility to consider the impact of our decision and actions is fundamental to the course’s principles.

The course is designed to create a supportive, engaging, enjoyable, deep and creatively and professionally relevant learning experience. It will allow the student to construct a unique and personal creative identity through fine art practice, based on the student’s interests, concerns, ideas, experiences, background and identity. We work together with the student as part of a community to understand and develop the best version of the student as a creative and professional practitioner. Peer-to-peer and group learning is at the core of the teaching, creating the possibilities for future collaborations and professional opportunities.

The course is studio-based, where the learning is built on listening, dialogue and a fostering of critical thinking, enabling the students to become autonomous practitioners considerate of others. The student will learn advanced technical skills in a number of material disciplines, such as drawing, painting, printmaking, video, sound, photography, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, installation and performance art throughout the three years. Thus, creating the possibility for the student to develop professional level technical skills for career development. The teaching methods include lectures, seminars, study trips, group critiques, workshop activities, group and individual tutorials with tutors, industry professionals and subject specialists. The critical contextual studies module is integrated with the studio practice modules as we aim to foster a critical thinker and maker, who is equipped with knowledge and understanding of the historical, political, cultural and socio-economic context of contemporary art practice that informs their own stainable and professional practice.

The course aligns with the University’s Strategic Plan, the Education for Social Justice Framework and Student Partnership Agreement in promoting accessible and inclusive education in an environment that respects and values the identities of our students and accommodates diversity in all its forms. Consideration has been given to the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Art & Design (2019), the QAA Higher Education Qualifications Framework, and the University’s Academic Regulations.

The BA Fine Art course aims are to provide a high quality, specialist undergraduate education in art in the most plural, inclusive way, by which we mean the course accommodates all methods of enquiry in art, via critical practice as well as studio practice. The course seeks to ensure its graduates are knowledgeable, creative, culturally and environmentally aware, technically able and of value to future employers, as a part of any team in the world of work. The course fosters curiosity and a sense of enquiry, competence in research, analysis and presentation, independence of thought, self-reliance, confidence and openness to professional development.

The graduate will have developed knowledge and understanding of contemporary and historic fine art discourse and practices. They will have an understanding of art practice as diverse, post-colonial and global, and able to interrogate aspects of our inherited world with social justice in mind; consider who they and their work are in the world, and what role display and being public has with respect to their identity and practice. They will understand how this may be applied with investigation and experimentation with fine art and creative processes in order to create fine art works relevant to the principles and expectations of contemporary practice.

They will be able to set their work, personal experience and individual cultural capital within critical and cultural debates whilst considering the needs and perspectives of diverse specialist and non-specialist audiences.

On completing the course graduates will have developed a strong set of transferable skills that will enable them to have the resilience to plan, engage in, manage, self-motivate and drive forward professional level careers. They will have developed the necessary skills and understanding to communicate and to work effectively and collaboratively in a variety of creative sector and broader professional settings.

On completion of the BA Fine Art course, the student will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. recognise the relationship existing between culture, politics and the economy both historically and contemporaneously and its relevance to concepts, principles and theories of fine art;

2. describe, explore, test and challenge a range of methods of enquiry associated with fine art process;

3. assimilate into practice the principles, codes and ethics necessary to the practice of fine art;

Cognitive Intellectual Abilities

4. employ a range of intellectual skills that contribute to both convergent and divergent forms of thinking, observation, investigation, research and analysis, independently appraising and articulating reasoned arguments to select, organise, structure, reference and formulate responses to historical, theoretical, practice-based or technical questions about art;

5. apply and test art ideas by understanding the context and critical issues that surround them and make decisions in art practice based upon social, ethical, environmental and economic issues;

6. consider the needs and views of the art spectator, audience, community, culture or wider public and assimilate them in relation to specific art projects, attending talks and events to analyse, appraise and challenge how contemporaries address these needs and views;

Transferable Skills
7. interact collaboratively on art projects with other artists, associated professionals, community, as well the wider public;
8. communicate art ideas, principles and concepts effectively by oral, written and visual means with clarity and confidence;

9. exercise self-directed management skills in art, including self-reflection, evaluation, time management, team negotiation and collaboration;

10. Demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and will act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners/professionals in their discipline.

Subject-Specific Practical Skills

11. organise and apply tools, equipment, materials and techniques relating to painting, sculpture, installation, video, printmaking, photography, performance, ceramics, sound or other hybrid, non-medium-specific art projects, using both traditional and digital techniques;

12. develop employability and entrepreneurial skills to effectively communicate, present, publish and exhibit project work made by artists, understanding the roles and expertise of the extended team within the art world;

13. arrange and curate artworks and materials for the build and installation of exhibition spaces open to the public, using professional display devices, lighting, fixtures and fittings where appropriate, with due care for space and health and safety, making good on departure.

Subject Benchmark Statement

Art and Design

https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/sbs-art-and-design-17.pdf?sfvrsn=71eef781_22

All the BA Fine Art course's assessment and feedback practices are typically informed by reflection, consideration of professional practice, as well as subject-specific and educational scholarship. The assessment strategy for the course has been designed holistically, to ensure fairness, accessibility and inclusivity as well as manageable timing, workloads and clarity of expectations for students. Students will receive a combination of formative and summative assessment strategies to monitor and measure their progress.

The assessment regimes for the modules and tasks are designed together with the briefs, prior to the start of the year, considering student, external examiner, professional collaborator and colleague feedback from previous instances. The requirements of briefs and their components, the assessment criteria, grading scheme and descriptors are published and explained to students at the start of the year and are designed to be used as consistently as possible, to avoid unnecessary complication. All Fine Art students are provided with regular opportunities to develop an understanding of best academic practice and the necessary skills to demonstrate it. Where possible there is flexibility in submission requirements in order to cater for divergent personal circumstances and learning styles and approaches. The volume, timing and nature of assessments enable students to demonstrate the extent to which they have achieved the intended learning outcomes and formative assessment is clearly designed to support students in developing for successful summative assessment.

Formative Feedback on assessment is timely, constructive and developmental. In every case, there is required formative feedback opportunities prior to summative assessment at set points. This is recorded so that it can be used by both students and staff to track further progress and engage support where it is required. Feedback follows good pedagogic practice in that it is constructed as ‘feed-forward’, with a focus on specific actions and strategies as to how to improve, not only on what requires improvement.

For Summative assessment students are informed of the procedures that include first and second marking as well as Subject and School parity assessment discussions. Together with external examiner scrutiny of the assessment process and marks, this ensures that the student understands and has confidence in the probity of the process and security of the final marks.

Work-based learning is embedded in the course through the inclusion of Professional Practice aspects being taught throughout the three years. The course recognises, and has responded to, changes in the professional landscape. Today fine art practitioners are able to make work for a variety of professional contexts, and the course introduces, and enables, the student to various professional career options available to them upon completion of the course.

The student will have the opportunity to take part in both national and international study visits and meet and receive feedback from artists, curators, writers and individuals working within the creative sector. You will experience live briefs, show work in public exhibitions as well as engage with community arts events, commercial commissions, competitions and other work-related opportunities that are offered through the many organisations, businesses, galleries, groups, and individuals with whom the course and its team as well as the university have strong links.

The tutors and lecturers contributing to the course are practitioners who share their knowledge and experience with students throughout their course of study. The flexible practice-led model of delivery for the course means that evolving opportunities for work-related learning through collaboration with external companies, agencies, institutions, competitions and professionals are taken up as they arise.

Students’ understanding of professional standards and expectations builds as they progress from level to level. During their final year, students work towards completion of professional standard body of work exhibited at the annual summer show and associated events.

Part-Time Structure

Year 5: CP6013 Critical Contextual Studies: Dissertation + FA6011 Planning Studio Practice

Year 6: FA6P02 Consolidating Studio Practice

COURSE COMPLETION

Level 6: to achieve an Honours degree award on this course, students must have completed
and passed each Level 6 module at 40% or above.

PART-TIME MODE OF STUDY
Part-time study is defined as 60 credits per year. Consequently, in part-time mode, the duration of study for a 120-credit degree will be 2 years. The pattern of study in this instance shall be as follows:

Year 1 – CP6013 Critical Contextual Studies: Dissertation + FA6011 Planning Studio Practice
Year 2 – FA6P02 Consolidating Studio Practice

All modules on the course are core and compulsory (there is no flexibility in choice or in the order in which modules may be taken), interim awards are therefore defined by the course structure. The part time route is prescribed (section 23).

LEVEL 6 CORE MODULES:

FA6011 Planning Studio Practice
FA6P02 Consolidating Studio Practice
CP6013 Critical Contextual Studies: Dissertation

The course’s principle of guiding learning through a practice-led curriculum promotes ongoing reflection and personal development. This is supported by regular formative feedback on work in progress that enables students to understand their progress and find opportunities for multiple and individualised routes to successful outcomes. Most modules are year-long, with first semester summative assessment points. Mid semester points of review, ensure that students, together with their tutors, can devise study strategies appropriate to individual learning styles, while ensuring monitoring of engagement and progress. The system is highly individualised but also benefits from peer engagement in group critiques.

Students are required to employ strong reflective skills across multiple modules. Within the Studio Practice modules at all levels students reflect on their own making, identifying ways in which their work can be iteratively developed. Students complete specific reflective journals in which they are required to demonstrate an understanding of the use of reflection to connect learning experience to the improvement of future performance.

The course’s engagement with external partners and employers ensures that personal development for career planning is effectively contextualised and suitable for the contemporary workplace. The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

Throughout the modules and the course therefore, in this way, students build bodies of work, including reflections on progress and achievement, and planning for their future achievement of targets.

The course recognises the importance of equipping students for future employability within the creative industries and beyond and the course continues to seek opportunities with outside agencies to widen the opportunity to provide professional contexts for the student. For example, working with Arebyte gallery staff and IMT gallery to learn curatorial and exhibition practices. You will develop an excellent understanding of how to make the most of your creative identity within diverse professional contexts. You will build a wide array of professional and transferable skills needed for a career as a professional artist, as well as within the world of museums and galleries, curatorial practices, writing for art publications. Furthermore, you will develop the essential knowledge and understanding that will enable you to begin a career in associated professions, ranging from being a photographer, an editor, community practitioner, educator or academia to environmental design. This is supported by tutors and visiting professionals who are all practicing artists, writers and curators. Across the team you will be able to draw on their many years’ experience working within the fine art, editorial, gallery and museum, design, documentary and academic fields.

Students can also benefit from support and guidance from the Careers and Employability services and the University’s business incubator unit, ‘Accelerator’. Sessions run in conjunction with the Careers Service addressing the skills necessary to plan and pursue careers within the creative sector are delivered at L5 and L6 as part of the Professional Practice module.

Both early career and more established visiting creative professionals will give you insights and knowledge that will enable you to plan and pursue your career on graduation. Simulated and live briefs teach you how to manage a creative commission and help you build knowledge and understanding that can be applied equally as a practicing artist as they can working within creative production and commissioning. Students enjoy many opportunities to engage with real world clients from community groups to NGO’s to commercial commissions.

Students typically take-up careers in art or the creative and cultural industries or progress to further study at MA and PhD level.

Many organisations value a Fine Art graduate’s creativity very highly, and you’ll be joining the School’s proud list of students, which includes famous artists such as Tracey Emin, Sam Taylor-Wood, John Cecil Stephenson and Professor Gerard Hemsworth.

There are a wide range of job opportunities as artists, curators, art critics and art journalists, as previous graduates will testify. Others have gone on to become artists' assistants, art technicians, gallery administrators, art event organisers, marketers, auctioneers, print technicians, photographers, video producers and studio managers.

Alternative career paths include arts officers for local government, art teachers, art tutors and lecturers. Some graduates have even pursued rewarding roles as art therapists, working in hospitals, day care, rehabilitation, prisons and the probation service.

There’s also the chance that your work may one day be displayed alongside our past students. Organisations that host work by our graduates include the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Venice Biennale, ICA, Henry Moore Foundation, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim, Art Basel, Frieze, Parkett, Artforum, The English Arts Council and the Pompidou Centre.

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have one of the following:

• 240 credits from a Higher National Diploma (HND), Foundation Degree (FdA/ FdSc) or equivalent international qualification in a relevant subject
• 240 credits from years 1 and 2 of an undergraduate degree (BA/BSc) in a relevant subject at a different institution
• a portfolio interview

Suitable applicants living in the UK will be invited to a portfolio interview. Applicants living outside the UK will be required to submit a portfolio of work via email.

Portfolios and interviews

Your portfolio should be selective but have enough work to show the range of your interests and talents. We're interested in seeing how you develop a project from beginning to end, not only finished work.

Physical portfolio

If you are coming in person to your interview we strongly suggest bringing a physical portfolio of work.

Things to bring:

• Sketchbooks – we love to see your sketchbooks with ideas and notes, even if they are messy
• Examples of the development of a project from start to finish and the final outcome
• Some work that you are really proud of and want to talk about
• Some work that shows you experimenting with different processes

Digital portfolio

If you are submitting an online application, please follow these guidelines.

Things to include:

• Scans or photographs demonstrating items from the list above
• Storyboarding for motion-based work
• Scans of sketchbook pages showing development
• Be sure to check the resolution and overall quality of your image to ensure submissions are not pixelated