ObjectivesThis is a media independent course where students are at liberty to pursue cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary practices. The course stresses the development of personalised practice towards professional maturity. It encourages continuation alongside a fresh injection of reflection and analysis and a heightened awareness of contemporary professional values. The course enables students to pursue independent vocational objectives, even collaborations with existing external agencies and live projects. Most importantly it promotes self-determination and the appreciation of cultural imperatives and mechanisms and enables students to establish criteria for sustainability.
Entry requirementsEntrance requirements: A good honours degree in an appropriate subject or professional qualifications plus evidence of a general education deemed equivalent
Academic titleMA/PgDip Contemporary Fine Art
Course descriptionContemporary Fine Art - MA/PgDip
STRUCTURE | The course can be taken full-time over one year, or part-time over two years. Individual modules - Art Research and Enquiry, Context and Discourse: Proposal, Negotiation of Context: Commission/ Brief, and Presentational Strategies: Documentation and Process - can be taken on a standalone basis.
The course is highly student-centred and sets out to support the student's individual priorities in the development of their professional and/or academic maturity. The course helps students to develop an advanced consciousness of experimental research, techniques and processes of enquiry, and the ability to assess and select appropriately. It also assists students in developing complex and multifaceted creative agendas and offers students guidance, supervision and support in the development of a professional and advanced critical, contextual practice.
FEATURES | The use of the word 'contemporary' in the title of the course is without prejudice. The course supports the student whatever their perception of currency and encourages the individual to relate that to an independently constructed notion of 'contemporary'. The course supports the notion of the artist as a professional whose role it is to negotiate and align context to the experience of making. 'Context' refers to the wider independent interests and enquiries which inform the practice of the individual artist. In this sense, the individual student is responsible for the identity and didactics of their work, and the function of the course is to expand, test and question the source and motivation for practice.
A key feature of any visual/fine arts postgraduate experience is the presence of a peer group whose collective motive is the pursuance of both quality and risk. All academic staff contributing to the course are practitioners in the visual and fine arts.
Graduates from this course seek to further their careers in the arts. On completion, they will engage in studio-based and socially responsive practice, public arts, social intervention and cross-disciplinary collaborations, and self-employment and personal enterprise activities. One of the most frequently asked questions concerns funding oppor-tunities.
APPLICANT PROFILE | The course is aimed at those who aspire to professional, studio-based practice and are motivated by socially and contextually integrated practices. Some applicants also seek to integrate elements of academic research, associated curatorial practices, or administrative or managerial roles with their arts practice.
Applicants would normally hold an honours degree, professional qualification or equivalent in an appropriate subject or discipline. However, all applicants are invited for interview with portfolio and are invited to submit evidence of prior learning and experience.