UDFINAFY - BA (Hons) Fine Art (including foundation year)

The focus of the BA (Hons) Fine Art course is on learning and teaching in the creation, curating and display of artworks - both material and virtual - in two, three and/or four dimensions. The art student develops graduate-level skills of critical thinking in reductive or additive use of art concepts of line, shape, form, colour, value, space and texture in the media of drawing, painting, printmaking, video, sound, photography, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, installation and performance art, as well as in the display of finished artworks to audiences.

In development of this course, consideration has been given to the following: the Subject Benchmark Statements (Art and Design 2017 and History of Art, Architecture and Design 2017), the Higher Education Qualification Framework, the University’s Strategic Plan and Student Charter, the University’s Academic Regulations, the views and feedback of students, external examiners and employers/clients, developments within the subject area, and the changing needs of the cultural/commercial sectors and professions. Due consideration has also been given to inclusivity in course and assessment design, and specifically to the transition from the Level 3 year to the Level 4 – 6 BA programme.

Embedded in the Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, the course draws on the strengths of teaching staff from across the School and the wide circle of academic and cultural contacts and collaborators attached to the School and University.

The course seeks to provide and foster:

• learning through direct experience, connecting academic and creative studies
• student choice in subject and style of learning
• a culture of independent and critical thought, encouraging the challenging of received ideas and practice
• employability attributes, through live projects engaging with professional artists, external partners, art institutions and art organisations that create a realistic environment of professional expectations for art students, preparing them for graduate-level employment
• engagement across the School and University, providing opportunities for collaborative project work during study
• individualised learning and study support opportunities, that cater for different learning styles
• awareness of the duty of all to understand the impact of their decisions and actions as artists and to strive to act responsibly

The course operates within a cluster programme of related undergraduate awards, bringing together best practice from related fields. Four cognate BA awards (Fine Art, Painting, Photography and Fashion Photography) enable students to explore the fundamental aspects of art and photography through a focus on art worlds and their audiences or business or fashion.

The course enables the art student to embrace material and immaterial exploration in contemporary art, thinking through making and learning by doing. The course draws on the wide range of contexts current in contemporary art. The art student develops skills in art media to enable the testing, sampling and representation of their ideas. Using the Cass workshop facilities and expertise, the art student works with materials in different dimensions to experiment and collaborate with students and experts across a platform of related disciplines (including drawing, painting, printmaking, video, sound, photography, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, installation and performance art), using a wide range of material techniques in traditional, analogue and digital workshop processes. The foundation year provides a programme of study in widely applicable and 2D, 3D and time based art-specific skills, knowledge and contextual awareness that prepares students for level 4 study, including expectations of assessment and preparation for assessment in higher education. The foundation year offers a safe and managed transition from the directed learning of secondary education and regular contact with the staff and students of the level 4-6 cohort through workshops, critiques, exhibitions and cluster and School-wide events.

Historically, artists have expressed through their work the latest technological advances, in step with cultural, social and political developments that colour our material culture and vernacular history. Important art archives are kept with London institutions such as the Tate, INIVA, the Warburg Institute and the V&A which allow us locally to research sources, methods and approaches for contemporary art practice.

Learning and teaching on the course is rooted in a studio structure that enables art students to engage with different art projects from different positions in contemporary art. The studios provide opportunities of live briefs and real settings. These provide the context for art students to develop skills in critical thinking about material and virtual artworks and their display.

Throughout the course, art students are asked to consider and position themselves and their skills and interests in relation to different art worlds to develop a portfolio that expresses their individual practice. Art students work through assignments and projects, steadily building on existing skills, developing and realising new ideas and concepts. This approach ensures that the art student is guided through the acquisition of key knowledge, skills and critical development, as the course progresses.

Each year in levels 4 - 6, the course comprises four year-long modules in the areas of art studio practice, project development and realisation, critical and contextual studies, technical skills and professional practice. Throughout the preparatory foundation year, students are prepared with the skills and knowledge in research and development for 2D, 3D and time based art, a range of realisation techniques and contextual awareness to enable a secure and confident transition to level 4. The foundation year is designed as three stages.

Stage 1 introduces and establishes a common ground of new experiences, values and practical skills. It lays the foundation for the course and serves as a base from which more independent work can be developed. Classes, workshops, inductions and tasks are relatively short and focus on substantial production and skills acquisition.

Stage 2 is more open-ended, with a series of longer projects and more choice and decision making for the student who is encouraged to apply, reinforce and develop effective practices from Stage 1 to establish a personal perspective, responsibility for time-management, self-knowledge and a sense of direction for their own creative practice. Direct experience of possible choices for subject-area of study ahead are through Cass subject-area tutors involvement in Stage 2 studio projects generally and from specific subject-area studio projects run by Cass undergraduate subject-area tutors that include use of subject area studios, workshops, technical facilities and expertise. Students experience what is shared across creative practices as well as what is specific to a subject-area’s culture.

Stage 3 helps the student undertake a sustained, focussed and resolved study with a longer, final project that is perceived as ‘under their control’. The emphasis is on increasing/focussing their subject-area knowledge - testing their commitment, and the production and organisation of coherent and resolved work - as they devise the brief, manage the process and outcome, and are participants in the process of evaluating their work.

As a common basis of engagement, the art studio accommodates teaching methods including lectures, seminars, study trips, group critiques, workshop activities, group and individual tutorials with tutors, industry professionals and subject specialists. Project work and critical and contextual studies offer opportunities for presentation: visual, spoken and textual, using digital technologies, blogs, videos, photography and websites. The course seeks to foster learning and teaching that adopts a student-centred approach, identifying individual learning styles and accommodating them.

Lectures provide and encourage a critically informed view of a topic, contextualising the subject and illustrating applied approaches. Lectures provide students with a managed introduction to a theme, enabling them to continue with suggested or directed self-study.

Seminars enable students to debate and explore subjects, questions and assignments with peers and tutors, encouraging an open and collaborative approach to shared learning.

Tutorials support individual learning, allowing for individual approaches to study, and catering for individual interests. Tutorials can be diagnostic or can support specific assignment or project-related questions and support differing student paths to achievement of learning outcomes.

Study trips offer opportunities for vital direct experience with art objects and sites of art study, and to communicate with and learn from experts and specialists at art institutions and organisations.

Live briefings and feedback are an important aspect of work-related learning, exposing art students to experience of professional ways of working, of professional expectations of standards, and of the most current professional practice.

Group critiques allow students to benefit from feedback on their own and others’ work, to contribute to that feedback, and are a valuable part of the peer-to-peer learning that is a core expectation and reason for University study.

REFER TO COURSE HANDBOOK

The BA Fine Art course aims are all aligned with the qualification descriptors in the Quality Assurance Agency’s Framework for Higher Education Qualifications.
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, both of which this course understands as inseparable for art pedagogy. 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 course aims (CA) are to:
CA1. promote risk-taking, exploratory and innovative strategies for making art, via its system of studio groups;
CA2. encourage penetrating research and analysis, developing a rigorous and professional approach to the practice and challenges of being an artist to develop social or commercial entrepreneurialism and career opportunities via its professional practice modules;
CA3. ensure responsible ethical art practice in relation to cultural, environmental, material and social circumstances and the needs of peoples and communities, via studio practice and critical and contextual studies teaching;
CA4. develop in its professional practice modules an understanding of the working practices, roles and regulatory environment of the art sector;
CA5. foster critical thinking in the Critical and Contextual studies modules about the cultural, psychological, emotional, political, technological and economic factors related to art and its display;
CA6. develop curiosity, independent enquiry and capacity to reason, critique and reflect upon art practice through an integrated approach to art practice, method of enquiry, research and analysis in studio practice and critical and contextual studies modules;
CA7. through working with 2D, 3D and 4D materials in traditional, analogue and digital processes and platforms, develop art media skills for professional art practice by a strong workshop programme in its studio practice modules;
CA8. combine intellectual processes, personal creative vision and technical skills in realisation of artworks for display in galleries and exhibition spaces via a regular programme of art shows and exhibitions;
CA9. develop confident and persuasive presentational and communication skills utilising multidisciplinary approaches and production techniques via a series of presentation assessment items;
CA10. produce graduates who can work independently, manage their own time and tasks and those of others, reflect objectively on their own performance, and plan effectively for the future, including for their careers by insisting that students prioritise their time through regular planning of time for work/life balance in study, leisure and employment;
CA11. support the growth of the individual; fostering self-reliance and commitment to personal and professional development, ensuring that graduates remain well-informed about current and developing thought and practice, and therefore maintain their employability, all via a strong pastoral approach in studio practice and course academic tuition.

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 art concepts, principles and theories (CA5, CA6);
2. describe, explore, test and challenge a range of methods of enquiry associated with art process (CA1, CA2, CA5);
3. assimilate into practice the principles, codes and ethics necessary to art practice (CA3, CA4);

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 (CA2, CA6, CA8);
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 (CA2, CA3, CA8);
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 (CA3, CA8);

Transferable Skills
7. interact collaboratively on art projects with other artists, associated professionals, community, as well the wider public (CA7, CA9, CA10);
8. communicate art ideas, principles and concepts effectively by oral, written and visual means with clarity and confidence (CA4, CA9);
9. exercise self-directed management skills in art, including self-reflection, evaluation, time management, team negotiation and collaboration (CA10, CA11);

Subject-Specific Practical Skills
10. 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 (CA7, CA8);
11. 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 (CA2, CA9);
12. 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 (CA2, CA4, CA10, CA11).

Module Title Module Code Course Learning Outcome

Project AA3001 LO2, LO3, LO6, LO8
Techniques AA3002 LO2, LO8, LO10
Formats AA3004 LO1, LO6, LO7
Critical and Contextual Studies: Foundation CP3010 LO1, LO4, LO8, LO9

Critical and Contextual Studies 1 (Art) CP4013 LO1, LO4, LO7
Visual Intelligence FA4007 LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5, LO9
Project Work 1 FA4P01 LO2, LO3, LO6, LO7, LO8
Techniques: Fine Art FA4008 LO2, LO10, LO12

Critical and Contextual Studies 2 (Art) CP5013 LO1, LO3, LO4, LO8
Methods and Enquiry 1 FA5006 LO1, LO2, LO5, LO9
Project Work 2 FA5P01 LO3, LO4, LO6, LO7, LO9
Professional Practice 1: Fine Art FA5007 LO2, LO11, LO12

Critical and Contextual Studies: Dissertation (Art) CP6013 LO1, LO4, LO9
Methods and Enquiry 2 FA6010 LO1, LO2, LO5, LO9
Major Project FA6P01 LO2, LO6, LO8, LO9
Professional Practice 2: Fine Art FA6006 LO3, LO7, LO11, LO12

Subject Benchmark Statement: Art & Design (2017)
Subject Benchmark Statement: History of Art, Architecture and Design (2017)

The assessment strategy for the BA Fine Art course has been designed holistically, to ensure manageable timing, workloads and clarity of expectations for students and to avoid duplication of assessment of learning outcomes.

The assessment regimes for the modules are designed together with the programme, prior to the start of each year, to take into account student, external examiner, professional collaborator and colleague feedback from previous instances. The requirements of project 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. Assessment is directly related to the achievement of learning outcomes. Qualification frameworks and subject benchmark statements are consulted to ensure clear language that is appropriate to level of study. Students are informed of the procedures for first, second and parity marking, and external examiner scrutiny of the assessment process and marks, to ensure that they understand and have confidence in the probity of the process and security of the final marks.

In every case, there is required formative assessment and feedback prior to summative assessment at set points in the course, either following assignment hand-in or at an Interim Review in January. This is recorded and shared 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. Challenge to students is managed, so that students performing well within year are encouraged to strive for excellence, while those performing less well experience clear, targeted and structured guidance, including notice of where they are doing well or are showing potential.

The course adheres to the University’s requirements for summative assessment and written feedback turnaround times and to the University's Academic Regulations for first marking and second mark sampling. In its studio practice modules every coursework is second-marked, not just a sample. First and second marks in studio practice are shared by staff in one local file before agreement of final marks and proof-read transcription to central system. Additionally, the course engages in Subject and School parity exercises to ensure that assessment standards are consistent. This is especially important in relation to studio delivery through which students on the same modules will be undertaking differing projects.

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. Staff and students typically engage in constructive dialogue to promote a shared understanding of the basis on which academic judgements are made. All art students are provided with regular opportunities to develop an understanding of best academic practice and the necessary skills to demonstrate it. 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 summative assessment. Feedback on assessment is timely, constructive and developmental and all processes for marking assessments and for moderating marks are clearly articulated and consistently operated by all those involved in the assessment process.

Work-related learning is embedded in the course both formally in the modules FA5007 Professional Practice 1: Fine Art and FA6006 Professional Practice 2: Fine Art and throughout the course through live projects, industry visits, visiting speakers and events such as ‘Making a Living’ and ‘Celebration’ weeks.

With support from the Careers and Employability Office, students progress through study culminating in L6, learning to present themselves and their work online and externally, developing and refining CVs, undertaking employment research, becoming aware of employment or external project opportunities, making approaches and applications, undertaking relevant practical work, obtaining feedback or appraisal and critically reflecting on the experience and learning. Work-related learning is a core element in the course with at least 70 hours working on live projects for real organisations. Students will experience a competitive recruitment process / pitch for opportunities and they will be required to reflect on their experience of the project and undertake forward career action planning. The course has two core modules with built-in work-related learning, enabling the student to undertake professional activity, either employment, a work placement, professional training, volunteering activity in the not-for-profit sector, or where available, within Fine Art’s Virtual Business Environment at the university

A large majority of the tutors and lecturers on the course are practitioners and share their knowledge and experience with students throughout their course of study. The studio delivery of the course means that opportunities for work related learning through collaboration with external companies, agencies, institutions, competitions and professionals can be taken up as they arise, if appropriate to the programme of study.

Studios function as simulations of professional workplaces, with expectations of professional standards, conduct and delivery building as the students progress from level to level. During their final year, students are expected to work independently towards completion of professional portfolio of projects, culminating in exhibition of these in the annual summer show and associated events.

ACADEMIC PROGRESSION: As a condition of progressing from Level 3 to 4, Level 4 to Level 5 and from Level 5 to Level 6, students are required to have gained 120 credits per level, that is, by achieving pass marks (40% or above) in all four modules in the preceding level of study.

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 480-credit degree will be 8 years. The pattern of study in this instance shall be as follows:

Year 1 – AA3001 & AA3002 or CP3010 & AA3004
Year 2 – AA3001 & AA3002 or CP3010 & AA3004
Year 3 – FA4007, FA4008
Year 4 – CP4013, FA4P01
Year 5 – FA5006, FA5007
Year 6 – CP5013, FA5P01
Year 7 – CP6013, FA6010
Year 8 – FA6006, FA6P01

All modules are core and compulsory for students to qualify for an award of BA (Hons) Fine Art. There is no flexibility in choice or in the order in which modules may be taken. The part time route is prescribed (section 25).

Year 0/Level 3 core modules:
CP3010 Critical and Contextual Studies: Foundation
AA3001 Project
AA3002 Techniques
AA3004 Formats

Year 1/Level 4 core modules:
CP4013 Critical and Contextual Studies 1 (Art)
FA4007 Visual Intelligence
FA4P01 Project Work 1
FA4008 Techniques: Fine Art

Year 2/Level 5 core modules:
CP5013 Critical and Contextual Studies 2 (Art)
FA5006 Methods and Enquiry 1
FA5P01 Project Work 2
FA5007 Professional Practice 1: Fine Art

Year 3/Level 6 core modules:
CP6013 Critical and Contextual Studies: Dissertation (Art)
FA6010 Methods and Enquiry 2
FA6P01 Major Project
FA6006 Professional Practice 2: Fine Art

The School’s studio system of curriculum delivery embeds reflective learning and personal development planning throughout the course.

Most summative assessment is at the end of year-long modules, with several formative assessment points formally instituted over the course of the year. At these interim formative assessment and feedback points, students reflect on their progress to date with their peers and course staff (with the benefit of feedback from professional partners), seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. The feedback and student reflection are recorded and forms an action plan for the next period of study.

This system is highly individualised, but also benefits from peer engagement in studio critiques. 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.

In the foundation year the main outcome of the course is contained in the student’s portfolio of projects containing edited and organised versions of all the work the student has undertaken during the course. It is used both for the purposes of self-reflection and evaluation, formal assessment and, in various versions, to apply for jobs or courses. Building the portfolio is a continuous enterprise. Every project, practical or intellectual exercise can be represented in the portfolio but also has to contribute to the document as a whole and in its parts. Students learn to reflect on their work both as a specific item and in the context of their own developing profile in their portfolio.

Students typically take-up careers in the creative and cultural industries such as visual arts, arts administration, community arts, media and advertising, museum curating and environmental design. Others train as art teachers. Some make a living as artists. Many find careers in sales, public relations and marketing. Some students also progress to further study at MA and PhD level.

Careers advice is integral to the course. Art-related employers are invited to lecture and support the review of student CVs and portfolio surgeries are carried out through which the student is given encouraging and specific advice regarding their presentational focus. Students are mentored by art professionals throughout their final year and students are encouraged and supported to seek internships and work experience. Competition, exhibition and publicity opportunities exist throughout the course and external exhibitions enable art students to develop further career opportunities. Students are supported throughout to reflect upon their own practice to be able to progress successfully to their chosen field within the art sector.

Students can also benefit from support and guidance from the Careers and Employability services and the University’s business incubator unit, ‘Accelerator’.

Our Fine Art BA (including foundation year) BA degree is the ideal course if you’re planning a career in the cultural or creative industries.

The opportunities for careers are extensive, with London’s creative industries representing an estimated £42 billion of the capital’s economy.

Roles specific to fine art include artists, artists’ assistants, art technicians, exhibition and museum curators, and teachers, but a fine art degree can also open up creative roles in marketing, journalism and events management.

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

• at least one A level (or a minimum of 48 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC Subsidiary/National/BTEC Extended Diploma)
• English Language GCSE at grade C/4 or above or will need to take the University English test

You will need to attend an interview with your portfolio of creative work. We encourage applications from international/EU students with equivalent qualifications. We also accept mature students with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

If you live in the UK, you will be invited to a portfolio interview. If you live outside the UK you will be required to submit a small portfolio of work via email.

To study a degree at London Met, you must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. If you require a Tier 4 student visa you may need to provide the results of a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. For more information about English qualifications please see our English language requirements.

If you need (or wish) to improve your English before starting your degree, the University offers a Pre-sessional Academic English course to help you build your confidence and reach the level of English you require.