Fine Art BA (Hons)

In the second year, we will continue to support you in your creative development, considering your creative practice in relation to sites, situations, locations and contexts of display and experience.

You have an opportunity to participate in an overseas study trip in the second semester to further develop your understanding of the contribution of art from a global perspective.

You will be encouraged to consider the larger themes, histories and ideas that contextualise the production and reception of your work.

Modules

• Art Explorations 1 - 40 credits

  You will be encouraged to develop a resourceful and creative approach to the development of your work, describing it in a visual language appropriate to your ideas. Through a programme of tutorials, studio critiques and illustrated talks, you will be asked to discuss your ideas and approaches with staff and fellow students and adapt, expand or challenge their working methods in the light of this dialogue.

  At the end of the module you will present an extended body of work that builds upon your work at level 1. You will also write a short evaluative report identifying ideas and approaches that you will take in the next studio module, Art Explorations Part 2.

  Compulsory

  Assessment: Coursework

• Fine Art Contextual Explorations (Part 1) - 10 credits

  This module will build on the knowledge and understanding you gained in the first year. You have the opportunity to look at contextual and theoretical issues relevant to contemporary fine art and illustration practices in more depth. This will be through lectures, where a broad range of work by contemporary practitioners will be discussed alongside relevant theory, and seminars where research techniques will be developed. You will be expected to develop your research ability and engage with relevant debates and reflect on your evolving studio practice in suitable contexts.

  Compulsory

  Assessment: Coursework

• Contextual and Professional Explorations - 20 credits

  You will continue to build on the knowledge and understanding you have gained on the course so far and consider contextual, theoretical and professional issues relevant to contemporary fine art and illustration practices.

  This module will culminate in two outcomes.

  • a written proposal of 1,000 words for the third-year dissertation/reflective report/virtual exhibition, supported by a working bibliography
  • a professional website research portfolio comprising a series of written documents (1,000 words total).

  This is where you explore and demonstrate methodologies for disseminating your practice and contexts in discipline-appropriate ways to broader audiences within the professional arena.

  Compulsory

  Assessment: Coursework

• Add+Vantage - 10 credits

  Find out more about the Add+Vantage module.

  Compulsory

After your second year, the course offers an optional Professional Placement or Study Abroad Year*.

You can take the Professional Placement Year or the Study Abroad Year module which both typically run for a full academic year between Years 2 and 3 of your course. You can progress onto the relevant module if you have successfully completed the first two years of the course (accumulating 240 credits). You must confirm what option, from the list below, you want to take before the end of your second year:

1. an Erasmus study placement at an EU university
2. a study placement at a university outside the EU
3. an Erasmus professional work placement
4. an approved professional work placement separately and independently organised that is outside the EU
5. an approved professional work placement separately and independently organised within the UK.

If you successfully complete the Professional Placement Year or the Study Abroad Year modules, they will appear on your final academic transcript. If you complete this year, you will also gain an enhanced degree award title as the additional suffix of “With Professional Enhancement” if you’ve gone on a work placement, and “With International Enhancement” if you’ve gone on a study abroad programme.

By the final year, you will be working independently, exploring individual or collaborative interests to produce self-initiated art projects.

In the final stage of your course, you will research, develop and produce a substantial body of work in your final project, suitable for external exhibition and distribution. The year culminates in you presenting your final body of artwork at

Modules

• Art Consolidations 1 - 40 credits

  This module aims to get you strongly engaged in your studio practice from the outset of the year. This module also gives you the opportunity to further revise and develop your creative intentions for Level 3 at the end of Level 2. Based solely in the studio, this module will prepare you for their final degree show module.

  Compulsory

  Assessment: Coursework

• Art Consolidations 2 - 40 credits

  At the start of this module, you prepare a working study proposal for studio practice build upon a well-understood contextual framework during the module.

  Optional

  Assessment: Coursework

• Art Consolidation and Professional Practice - 40 credits

  Art Consolidations

  Building on your practice from Level 2 and the first module at Level 3, you will examine and explore a particular set of visual ideas and problems and articulate and develop them through appropriate visual languages. You will be expected to evaluate, analyse and contextualise your work within supporting log books, sketchbooks and through discussion.

  This module should provide you with an intense and uninterrupted period of studio practice representing 400 hours of focused endeavour leading to the production of a substantial, sustained, coherent and fully realised body of work

  Professional Practice

  The module provides you with an opportunity to test the research taken into relevant professional networks and skills. Through an agreed study proposal, you will be expected to identify a particular project, or brief, and explore an area of professional experience that’s relevant to your main area of study. This can be a project of your own choosing or a response to a pre-existing brief or commission.

  Optional

  Assessment: Coursework

• Contextual Studies Consolidations -20 credits

  You will be expected to make independent judgements and reasoned arguments concerning the contexts of your practice. You should be able to source and research relevant material, and write your findings in a 5,000-word report. This will involve ideas and practices directly from within fine art or illustration, but may well also relate to concepts from other disciplines.

  Compulsory

  Assessment: Coursework

• Professional Consolidations - 10 credits

  This module is designed to encourage you to consider your own body of work within the context of your chosen field.

  This should help you build on the skills and reflection you developed in Levels 1 and 2, continuing to reflect on the relations, interpretations and contexts of current practice. You should consider your career aims and ambitions, and prepare and present a relevant body of work in the contexts of exit strategies and the degree show.

  In your final year, you present yourself and your work to the practice community. Individual, group and class work may be presented and must be organized and co-ordinated.

  Optional

  Assessment: Coursework

• Add+Vantage

  Find out more about the Add+Vantage module.

  Compulsory