Fine Art

This course has studio communities and facilities for painting, sculpture, and performance and digital practices. Led by an experienced team of practising artists you will learn how to explore, navigate, and define your own specialism.

You are encouraged to pursue your individual interests through tutorials, seminars, workshops, and group critiques; while engaging in wider social, political, cultural, environmental, economic, technological contexts and contemporary issues.

Located in our purpose-built studios and aligned to painting, sculpture, or performance and digital, you will develop a strong artist identity shaped by your specialism and any interdisciplinary approaches you take. Access to workshops and facilities, specialist staff, mixed discipline and cross year critiques, and opportunities to collaborate ensure that you can challenge the boundaries of your practice.

Throughout the course there is an emphasis on technical skill and critical thought that synthesises thinking and making. You will acquire a range of creative and technical strategies to support the development and sustainability of your creative practice. Through exhibition proposals, projects, and collaborations you will develop the essential skills and experience you need as a practicing artist, expand your networks, and make lifelong contacts.

We have several cultural institutions on our doorstep and make regular visits to galleries and exhibitions which have included Leeds Art Gallery, the Henry Moore Institute, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and The Hepworth. National and international trips have included events such as the Venice Biennale. We also have a programme of industry speakers who engage in a range of arts practices and roles within arts organisations.

Year one – Your first year focuses on community building, making, and experimentation. Through a range of introductory workshops, seminars, and critiques you will explore materials and processes alongside developing your critical thinking.

Year two – In your second year you will develop your work within your specialist studio community, with specialist teaching, tutorials, and critiques to extend your practice. You will enhance your professionalism by implementing artists’ strategies and exhibition practice.

Year three – In your third year you will consolidate your informed and positioned practice and begin to work beyond your studio community. As a confident and emerging professional artist, you will extend your networks and learn how to develop proposals and applications for local, national, and international projects and exhibitions. Supported through critiques and tutorials, your final body of work is curated to form a public facing exhibition.