Level: Undergraduate
Study Mode: Full-time / Part-time
Duration: 3 years / 6 years
Application: Full-time via UCAS / part-time direct to College
Application Deadline: 15 Jan 2010
UCAS Course Code: W102
Institution Code: H18
Validated By: University of Wales

This broad-based course is underpinned by imaginative thinking, critical awareness and sound technical knowledge. Studying in a small specialist art college means that it is easy to cross boundaries and work across media and disciplines. Professional practice is an essential aspect of the course and students have the opportunity to take part in exhibitions, site-specific projects and short residencies.

Click here to view the programme specification of this course

Students are able to explore their practice through a diverse range of media including painting, drawing, installation, 3D, sculpture, performance art, photography, digital media, and video, sound and print. Small group teaching in a friendly studio environment means that you will always have good access to tutorial support and expert technical help. The tutors and technicians are all practising artists who exhibit nationally and internationally. Throughout the course students will be encouraged to develop a theoretical and critical understanding of contemporary fine art.

This degree is validated and awarded by the federal University of Wales. For further details regarding the University and its validation services, please log on to www.wales.ac.uk/validation or email validation@wales.ac.uk

Year One
Students will be introduced to studio practice and begin to develop a studio methodology supported by individual tutorials and regular group crits which provide a forum for the development of critical skills through the discussion of practical work.

Contextual study will introduce key movements and concepts in the field of art practice of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and lectures, delivered by contemporary fine art practitioners, highlight the application of art contexts and concepts in relation to the student’s own current practice, helping to make clear the relationship between theory and practice.

Students will be inducted into all college workshops. They will also learn the ICT and research skills necessary to equip them to tackle assignments in this and subsequent years.

By the end of the first year students will have developed sufficient understanding and knowledge to make informed choices in the path of more specialist study in the second year. They will understand the relationship between practice, theory and context of contemporary fine art and will be ready to apply these relationships to their work in Year two.

Year Two 
Students will develop their own projects, generated by speculative enquiry arising from their own interests. They are encouraged to experiment, explore and take risks to enable them to develop into informed, skilled, independent practitioners.

To support this more independent approach, a range of specialist workshops will be offered throughout the year and students are expected to choose those most appropriate for their current requirements. Personal tutorials from a wide range of staff enable students to focus the support and guidance they receive and group crits help students to refine their critical ability to both their own work and that of others.

The programme of Contextual Studies and Discourse continues and second year students will begin to consider more clearly their professional ambitions after graduation.

Year Three
Through a process of research and discussion, students will determine their body of self-directed study. Theoretical and contextual elements of study will have developed into a rationale for practice and the practice will demonstrate the theoretical research that informs it. At this stage the focus is neither on practice nor theory but on a theoretically informed practice.

The year begins with a period of individual research focussed on the particular aspect of enquiry that each student wishes to pursue. This critical enquiry is presented either in the form of a dissertation or a case study. The results of this research help to inform the substantial body of practice-based work undertaken during the rest of the academic year. The teaching composition of the large practice-based module reflects the expectation that students will now be integrating practice with context and theory to form a coherent whole. Students will be expected to have produced a substantial and thorough research based body of practical work by the end of the academic year which will prepare them for life as a professional contemporary artist.

This final year of the course also provides the student with the opportunity to assemble a highly specialist and professional portfolio of work and the knowledge and ability to begin their life as a professional contemporary artist..

A significant number of our graduates go on to undertake further study at postgraduate level in areas such as film, book arts and painting or a post graduate teaching certificate. Most graduates also continue to practice and exhibit their work nationally.

Minimum age 18
Successful portfolio interview
200 UCAS Tariff Points
Mature Students with related experience
English as a second language: IELTS score 6.0 or equivalent on enrolment

All applications to our Full Time Higher Education courses should be made via UCAS – for more details on how to apply, click here