Fine Art Practice BA

The Fine Art Practice Degree programme is unique within Wales due to the<br/>bespoke foundry and dedicated print studio facilities. The course has an<br/>emphasis on experimentation in an exciting studio environment supported by<br/>specialist workshops; exploring the past to inform contemporary practice.<br/>The degree programme is dynamic, challenging and creative, run by tutors who<br/>are recognised specialists in their field. We aim for our students to investigate<br/>and understand the contemporary fine art world and its continually evolving<br/>position due to social and political factors. The local landscape plays an<br/>insightful role in the potential for students to explore site specific, installation,<br/>performance and land art practice. This will encourage and enable you to<br/>formulate experimental approaches through a multitude of art forms. Methods<br/>and material workshops are taught in a hands-on way; valuing the importance<br/>of thinking through making.<br/><br/>All students are encouraged to embrace the expansive field of fine art through<br/>lectures on its history, culture and contemporary position. This is supported<br/>through discussion of your work in one to one tutorials, seminars, group and<br/>cross-course crits. You will learn transferable skills for employability within the<br/>creative industries, many former students have well-established careers<br/>regionally, nationally and internationally. Students will also form a confident<br/>language in response to contemporary art practice by the end of their studies.<br/><br/>Our art school offers you individual workspaces and specific workshops for steel<br/>fabrication, stone carving, wood, plaster, life-drawing, painting, and a print<br/>studio for woodblock, stone lithography and etching. The department holds the<br/>only foundry in the UK that specialises in bronze, aluminium and iron casting.<br/><br/>The first year is structured around skill based inquiry into sculpture, painting,<br/>and printmaking, learning through practical experience in a safe and inclusive<br/>environment. All students learn and develop representational drawing skills<br/>through close observation of still life and the figure. In the second and third<br/>year you will express and explore your artistic, social and personal interests<br/>independently and critically informed by focused research. Weekly tutorial<br/>sessions with tutors will support students to develop and create a personal<br/>body of work. Students have dedicated studio spaces within a well-equipped,<br/>light and airy environment. Class sizes are small allowing for a high level of tutor<br/>interaction and easy access to resources.<br/><br/>The course supports the development of your studio practice with an emphasis<br/>on craft and skill. Lectures and contextual dialogues enable you to position<br/>yourself and your practice in terms of art history and contemporary critical<br/>thought, so that you will be equipped with the tools to map and research your<br/>own interests. Frequent opportunities for public exhibitions and events prepare<br/>you professionally for a wide range of potential careers. All these skills are<br/>transferable across a range of professional contexts. This taught creative<br/>thinking ability associated with fine art practice is becoming increasingly<br/>important in the world of commerce and business.<br/><br/>We aim to help students realise their full potential within a supportive, friendly,<br/>nurturing and creative working environment.