Fine Art MA

About the course

MA Fine Art is a Masters award within the MA Art and Design programme at the School of Creative Arts. Within the postgraduate programme there is strong emphasis on professional practice and the real-world applications of art and design. You will develop key research skills and gain a good understanding of the work of other practitioners in your field.

The aim of the postgraduate programme is to equip you with the skills, knowledge and understanding required to practice at an advanced level, to foster your creativity and enhance your employment opportunities. You will work alongside artists and designers who are involved with a wide variety of media and forms. Induction, seminars and social events for students and staff mean that you will be part of a friendly and supportive postgraduate community, which also includes film makers, musicians and professionals working in new media. Senior research staff and internationally renowned artists work with postgraduate students, helping you to develop original and challenging work.

This is the perfect opportunity to develop your individual creative practice and place it within the wider professional context of fine art.

On the MA Fine Art course, we focus on helping you develop the entrepreneurial skills you need to further your career and explore funding opportunities and employment in the creative and cultural spheres. You will work with other students to explore and challenge the boundaries of your practice and, through discussion, explore some of the key ideas that inform contemporary fine art practice. We strongly encourage conceptual experimentation and development of originality in use of materials to explore possibilities and realise the potential of your ideas.

The masters programme includes seminars on the knowledge and skills you will need to survive successfully in the professional environment, such as funding and dissemination of art works. You will be introduced to research methods and debates, and continue the development of your own practice. There are opportunities to update and advance your technical skills if you are returning to education or continuing your studies, including information technology skills for both generic and subject-related use.

The postgraduate programme encourages self-reflection and self-criticism with the intention of enabling our graduating students to establish a rewarding professional art practice through the realisation of a body of practice which reflects the individual's agenda and professional concerns.

Our staff are experienced in research and professional practice, and you will also benefit from contributions from visiting artists, designers, makers and other arts and design professionals, as well as from involvement with our international exhibitions programme and gallery environment. 

Why choose this course?

• On the MA Fine Art degree you will develop your individual creative practice in Fine Art.
• This postgraduate degree allows you to develop knowledge and understanding of current critical debate.
• Gain advanced technical and entrepreneurial skills for the successful creative practitioner.
• You will work alongside practitioners working in a range of areas of practice, in stimulating and challenging environment.

Study routes

• Part Time, 2 Years
• Full Time, 1 Years

Locations

• University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Careers

The MA Fine Art is designed to enable you to operate successfully as a professional practitioner in your area of specialism. Graduates have gone on to establish studios, exhibit professionally, work as curators, Phd study, teaching, work towards site specific commissions.

Teaching methods

The programme is centered on individual practice and encourages critical dialogue between traditions, disciplines and media. The practice modules develop individual practice through a combination of work-in-progress seminars, tutorials and gallery visits and discussions. A sustained body of creative work forms the basis of assessment, supported by written documentation and assignments. The course is also designed to help you acquire research skills and understand what is going on now in fine and applied arts.

Structure

Year 1

Core Modules

• Creative Enterprise and Context

  This module emphasises the professional contexts of the student's work both in terms of its content and in terms of the kind of outcomes used for assessment. A series of lectures present ideas about key issues in the Creative Industries and Health and Social sectors. The lectures provide a broad context for ideas about the emergence and future of the Creative Industries and Health and Social sectors about Intellectual Property Rights, about the social conditions of the workplace and about the planning and management of projects. 'Break out' seminars lead to the student producing a piece of work that explores topics relevant to their award of study. Alongside these is the development of professional 'presentation of self' skills appropriate for the student's aspirations. This includes the development of portfolios, showreels and other material and skills in preparing and delivering a pitch or bid for funding as if for a Creative Industries or in the Health and Social sectors.

• Discourse / Reflection: Art and Design

  This module provides students with a detailed understanding of some of the issues and critical debates that inform current movements in contemporary art, design, media and other cultural practices. Particular emphasis is given to using the module as a crucible for informed analysis and debate for use as a tool to advance students' practice. A series of lectures about cultural theory relating to contemporary practice outline the themes of the module. Emphasis is then placed on students' own investigations culminating in the submission of a written text (or alternative submission by negotiation) and a series of student presentations that consist of formally presented papers based on a critical evaluation of some aspect of advanced scholarship, research and/or creative practice that relates to students' practice. The delivery of the module is concurrent with the Practice 1&2 Modules in which students are required to test their studio based practice against various external critical, commercial and/or aesthetic imperatives that have arisen through the process of research.

• Major Study: Fine Art

  The module enables students to develop and realise their practice in the form of a final presentation of Fine Art work, which demonstrates an accumulation of specialist knowledge and creative endeavour. Students build upon ideas established and explored in earlier parts of the programme and bring together various practical, theoretical commercial and other contextual concerns to complete a sustained body of original and innovative practice. This body of work will evidence creative autonomy, demonstrate professional excellence and in-depth knowledge of contemporary Fine Art practice. The realisation of this body of work is supported by work-in-progress seminars involving students from all of the Art & Design MAs, group and individual tutorials. During the module students are required to present a summary of their work in a Postgraduate Programme-wide student conference, which is formatively assessed and forms the basis of a summatively assessed contextualising document to accompany the body of Fine Art work.

• Practice 1: Art and Design

  Students are required at interview to submit a proposal for Masters level study which forms the basis for the development of their practice during the MA. This module is designed to enable students to research and develop this proposal. It aims to help students make a critical evaluation of their work, to identify and acquire the skills necessary to begin to realise the proposal and develop a methodology by which they expand and explore the project. Furthermore, the module aims to help students develop an exploratory and expansive approach to their work and to carry out research into the creative and commercial contexts appropriate to their practice. During the module, the student's practice will be refined and ideas and concepts within the proposal debated, developed and challenged through a series of student-led seminars and tutorials.

• Practice 2: Art and Design

  Based on the formative and summative feedback received from Practice 1, Practice 2 enables students to further develop their work in preparation for its final realisation in the Major Study module related to one of the following awards: Applied Arts, Contemporary Textiles, Fashion, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior and Spatial Design, or Product Design. Students are required to investigate and prepare a body of advanced practice-based work, together with a summary contextualising document that demonstrates how the work has been developed, the key aesthetic, commercial and contextual issues that have arisen and the impact of these factors on the resulting portfolio of practice. The module is delivered through individual tutorials and student led work-in-progress online discussions.

• Research and Enquiry

  This module aims to provide students with a range of research skills suitable for postgraduate level study in art, art therapy, design, film, media and music. The module helps students locate their work within contemporary advance-level practice in their disciplines and to make a critical evaluation of the bodies of ideas that sustain them. Key skills addressed include those of data management, critical evaluation, communication skills, notions of creativity and a range of modes of contextual analysis. The skills gleaned on this module will provide students with a platform for research for the remainder of the programme and in their future careers.

Optional

Fees & funding

Fees 2013

UK/EU Students

Full time: £6,700 for the 2013 academic year

International Students

Full time: £11,000 for the 2013 academic year

Discounts are available for International students if payment is made in full at registration

View detailed information about tuition fees

Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

View detailed information about our accommodation

How to apply