PFMAFIAR - Master of Fine Arts

The MFA Fine Arts course is a classic London Met art school course. In this art school we learn, teach and think in art through making and from each other. We are socially responsible and deeply supportive. That is the over-arching pedagogic ethos (the vision) of this course, designed with art students to ensure it meets their art aspirations. The course’s learning and teaching thus focuses strongly on artists’ work relationship with other artists, encouraging collective work on and towards art exhibition.

This course thus aligns with the University’s Strategic Plan, its Education for Social Justice Framework and its Student Partnership Agreement, in promoting accessible and inclusive education, all 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’s Subject Benchmark Statement for Art & Design 2019 (December), the QAA’s Higher Education Qualifications Framework 2014 (Oct), the QAA Masters’ Degree Characteristics Statement for 2020 (Feb), and the University’s Academic Regulations (annual).

The MFA Fine Arts is grounded in the understanding that art is a key vehicle of critique as well as a driver for change in society and the environment. You will be introduced to art practice at postgraduate level that may be further developed at doctoral level, as appropriate. Challenges and opportunities for today’s artists are constantly reimagined as the future’s unpredictability tests our capacity to adapt and invent solutions and responses to emerging needs and scenarios. You will produce work that defies narrow conceptions of the artist as concerned solely with visual communication or practical and commercial content.

A key aim of the MFA Fine Arts course is to encourage you to understand the role of the artist in contributing to the societal creative economy as a dynamic agent, commentator and author of cultural change. You will pursue with rigour the advancement of aesthetic literacy or visual communication philosophies through a breadth of media. You will develop a sustainable art practice to meet the requirements of either or both the commercial and experimental art sectors, where deep analysis and fast, flexible, imaginative process across all platforms are expected. You will be situated in a real, complex and ambiguous context for project work, with parameters that cover the social, political and economic hinterland, as well as the physical and mediated.

The MFA Fine Arts course recognises the whole range of strategies and tools available to artists, from traditional processes and media to emerging media platforms. Creative exploration of art possibilities through traditional, digital and post-digital means is encouraged, the retrospective consideration of the traditional and the thrill of the new offering both creative and commercial opportunities. This course seeks to capitalise on these with its unique reservoir of creative and commercial staff expertise and physical resources.

These are our teaching and learning strategies:

Projects enable you to develop and extend your individual intellectual and creative capabilities. ‘Live’ projects develop management skills, negotiation and collaborative working skills while developing your own approach to working in real-world/public contexts and professional standards of practice.

Peer review, critiques and self-evaluation encourage you to analyse and critically evaluate and engage with your own work and the work of others and develop advanced communication and presentation skills.

Seminars, reading groups, lectures support you rigorously and systematically to interrogate core practice, material, theory and case studies and provide a platform for debate and engagement in the wider world of creative practice and culture.

Blended Learning (the Weblearn virtual learning environment) includes the provision of course and module information on the web, project proposal development, practical, illustrated guidance in website creation, instruction in social media techniques, lecture notes and feedback.

Self-directed study is core to the course and used as the basis for tutorial discussion and critique. You will be encouraged to engage with personal development planning (PDP) to enable you to reflect on, plan and review your own personal development as an ongoing process.

Technical/ ICT workshop inductions and workshop demonstrations are available along with open access to technical/ ICT facilities to enable you to test and produce work in an appropriate medium based on your own research plans.

Professional practice talks and workshops are shared across the School and support you to develop your entrepreneurial strategies and the skills necessary for subject-specific or related professional practice and open opportunities for cross-disciplinary practice.

The aims of the MFA Fine Arts course are to:
1. produce graduates who can negotiate complex, unstable, ambiguous ideas, problems and scenarios to realise a confident, professional and advanced output in art;
2. ensure that its students understand the importance of, and have the knowledge and experience to apply and carry out, ethical and appropriate academic research methods and techniques in art;
3. develop in its students the collaborative, team-working and presentational skills to sustain a contemporary professional art practice;
4. champion a supportive and dynamic art studio culture for a lively, creative and collaborative learning environment, in which dialogue and exchange flourish, encouraging students to engage in heuristic learning and creative, critical enquiry and debate.

The MFA Fine Arts course recognises the complexity of cultural practices informed by all current social, economic and technological contexts and so we address the needs of arts students for whom traditional roles are blurred and a variety of art skills may be needed. The MFA Fine Arts course therefore aims overall to equip students with the knowledge and practical, theoretical and conceptual skills required to function effectively as flexible and adaptable practitioners within the arts sector as it grows.

Course Learning Outcome 1

By the end of the course, students will demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and will act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners or professionals in their discipline (a behaviour and value that meets Course Aim 1, in part).

Course Learning Outcome 2

By the end of the course, students will be able to plan, propose and produce art projects from inception to completion, effectively managing art learning and art project development to demonstrate an advanced and professional creative response to challenging and complex self-set and/or external art problems (these are subject-specific skills that meet Course Aim 1, in part).

Course Learning Outcome 3

By the end of the course, students will be able to present both an individual and a collective response and approach in art proposals, as well as the rationale underpinning their development and production, defending this clearly to commissioners, peers and related professionals, in practical, conceptual and socially responsible terms (a transferable skill that meets Course Aim 1 in part).

Course Learning Outcome 4

By the end of the course, students will be able to construct and regularly apply an iterative process that communicates, tests and evaluates art ideas and art propositions through critical, self-reflective and objective analyses (a cognitive and intellectual skill that meets Course Aim 2, in part).

Course Learning Outcome 5

By the end of the course, students will be able to interpret and evaluate art from a range of critical perspectives, considering the cultural and socio-economical context of art's distribution and mediated consumption, including reflection on and response to audience response and impact, and the commercial, ethical, environmental and legal issues involved in art (knowledge and understanding that meets Course Aim 2, in part).

Course Learning Outcome 6

By the end of the course, students will work effectively as a member of an art team, acknowledging all individuals' potential for contribution, negotiating task allocation appropriately and helping other students (a transferable skill that meets Course Aim 3).

Course Learning Outcome 7

By the end of the course, students will have the confidence and organizational skills to help organize, contribute to and complete student-generated live events and pop-up exhibitions; visits to art studios, galleries and museums; regular course cohort discussions in studio and sessions as art mentors (subject-specific skills that meet Course Aim 4).

QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Art and Design 2019 (December).

Assessment is based on individual art project development, written submissions, individual and group presentations and a culminating art project displayed in exhibition to the general public. Students are required to submit a portfolio of their relevant practical work together with all supporting material. Assessment includes a combination of diagnostic, formative and summative methods.

Assessment of knowledge and understanding is through coursework and projects. This may include as appropriate, oral presentations, group critiques, practical outcomes, continuous coursework, groupwork, practical (group and individual) and critical review, study plans, learning agreements, reports, portfolios, verbal and visual presentations. Group critiques are used to assess students’ ability to identify and communicate their intentions both verbally and through their art practice. After each summative coursework assessment, staff and students will engage in dialogue to promote a shared understanding of the basis on which academic judgements are made, within 3 weeks of first submission.

Students will participate reflectively in assessment. Self-evaluation involves students in reflection on their own progress in relation to the relevant learning outcomes and mirrors the assessment process conducted by the course team, providing the basis for discussion at assessment feedback sessions after summative coursework assessment has taken place.

There will be formative assessment and feedback throughout the course, delivered in-class, through tutorials, in critique sessions and at presentations of work in progress. Feedback will be recorded and provided to students in line with approved School procedures and timelines. Feedback will follow the School’s policy of ‘feed forward’ clearly identifying both strengths of the work reviewed, as well as areas and ways to improve work for the future. Students will maintain appropriate records of their work as it develops across their agreed programme of studies and to take part in seminar discussion of their own and others’ work.

Summative assessment involves a formal presentation of work produced and considers the measure of achievement in relation to module learning outcomes.

The assessment strategy for the MFA Fine Arts course is designed holistically to ensure fairness, accessibility and inclusivity as well as manageable timing, workloads and clarity of expectations for students, and to avoid duplication of assessment of learning outcomes. Where appropriate, students are engaged as partners in the design of their assessments.

The assessment regimes for the modules and tasks are designed together with any 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 at the start of each module and are designed to be used as consistently as possible, to avoid unnecessary complication.

In every case, there is required formative assessment and feedback 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.

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. Additionally, the course engages in Subject and School parity exercises to ensure that assessment standards are consistent.

Work-based learning is embedded in the course through art projects, visits, visiting professional speakers and participation in public events.

The majority of tutors and lecturers contributing to the course are art practitioners who share their knowledge and experience with art 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 organisations, agencies, institutions, competitions and professionals are taken up as they arise.

Students’ understanding of professional standards and expectations builds as they progress through Level 7. Throughout the course, students work towards completion of interview-ready professional portfolios of art project work, exhibited in the sequence of three exhibitions that the course features, the final one being part of the School’s annual Masters’ show and associated events.

The course will undertake a formal academic review of student performance at the end of each study period. Students performing below threshold standard will be recommended and/or required to reschedule their programme of study via intermission.
Specifically, students who have not passed 3 or more modules (100 credits) prior to the start of the summer studies period will not be permitted to commence the Project module (FA7P01).
Postgraduate students may be considered for APL into the MFA (from a relevant PG course in the UK QAA’s Art & Design subject) up to 60 credits based on submission of a portfolio of work and interview.
Students returning from an intermission of study are required to submit a revised project proposal of an appropriate standard prior to re-enrolment.

Part-time structure:

This is the route prescription for the part-time mode of attendance.

Year 1: (FA7053, FA7054 and FA7055)

Year 2: (FA7056 and FA7P01)

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) and any interim award is therefore defined by the course structure. The part time route is prescribed (section 23).

The MFA Fine Arts 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 interim points of review, which ensures that students, together with their tutors, can devise study strategies appropriate to individual learning styles, while ensuring monitoring of engagement and progress.

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 MFA Fine Arts is a qualification to help you establish yourself as a professional, employed or self-employed artist. The course exposes you to ideas, practices and individuals active in your field. There are groupwork and networking modules designed to help you develop your professional knowledge.

The School of Art, Architecture & Design (AAD) has a strong, long-standing and wide-ranging involvement with its associated professions and industries and previous AAD graduates have worked at Artsadmin, Pentagram, the Tate, the Royal Academy, Tom Dixon, Arts Council England, Heatherwick Studio, the Venice Biennale, Sotheby’s, Conran and many others.

Alternatively, we encourage graduates from the MFA Fine Arts to continue to study with us for a PhD in the Art subject area.

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

The MFA qualification helps you establish yourself as an artist or designer, either self-employed or working professional. You can use the experience gained to self-organise and network to win contracts, commissions and shows. Our professional practice and networking module will help you learn how to do this.

You can also use the MFA qualification to help you to find work with major employers in the art and design sector such as:

• Artsadmin
• Pentagram
• The Tate
• The Royal Academy
• Tom Dixon
• Arts Council England
• Heatherwick’s
• The Venice Biennale
• Sotheby’s
• Conrans

You can also use the MFA to go on to study for an art and design PhD. A PhD can help you get into a higher education art or design career to teach or research at art universities all over the world.

You will be required to have:

• an upper second-class (2:1) honours degree in an art or design subject

If your application passes all requirements, the University will invite you to choose from a series of interview dates at which interviewers assess your portfolio before making an offer.

Upon receipt of an invitation to choose an interview date, applicants who live too far away for the interview may request submission of a digital portfolio.

Relevant professional qualifications or extensive professional experience will also be considered.