Contemporary Crafts

This dynamic Masters programme offers makers, from a wide range of disciplines, an exciting opportunity to advance their individual creative practice. You will be guided through the academic research process to support and develop your practice. Our students can find the process initially daunting but ultimately liberating. This is a course that supports you to find your voice.<br/><br/>The course will immerse you in exciting conversations about thinking and making. You will have the opportunity to build both your academic- and practice-based skills and see how they inspire and inform each other. Challenged to consider the context of your practice in terms of contemporary crafts you will be given the critical tools to extend your vision. The programme will encourage you to expand boundaries, think conceptually, and extend your own visual, technical and creative vocabulary. Your practice will be informed by rigorous research, experimentation and exploration, all designed to foster innovation in your thinking and your practice.<br/><br/>Modules are project-led and studio-based, supported by close supervision, group tutorials, lectures, seminars, and access to a wide range of workshops and facilities. There is an emphasis on the development of both professional and entrepreneurial skills that aim to ensure the viability, relevance and sustainability of your practice long after the course has finished.<br/><br/>**After this Course** <br/>The course fosters post graduates in their realisation of their individual creative ambitions and goals. The programme provides a platform for the building of skills and confidence to nurture and drive independence, creative engagement and critical awareness, essential elements of contemporary designer-maker and artist- maker identities. Many post-graduate students on completion of the course establish themselves as ‘sole traders’ or creative professionals with portfolio careers. The broad range of transferable skills developed over the course allows graduate Master practitioners wide opportunities in the creative arts sector through consultancy, community arts, teaching and residencies whilst others want to further extend their research and practice by studying for a PhD.<br/><br/>**Highlights** <br/>1. Reflect on and analyse the central concerns, concepts and focus of your practice and develop a research proposal that will be the platform for your MA study. <br/>2. Engage with research methodologies to underpin and inform your MA practice. <br/>3. Explore and extend your ideas, media and processes. <br/>4. Develop both professional and entrepreneurial skills for both creative and commercially sound practice. <br/>5. Individual and small group tutorials and dedicated supervision and support. <br/>6. Dedicated individual studio spaces. <br/>7. Access to a wide range of craft workshops including textiles, printmaking, small metals, jewellery, ceramics and the forge, supported by photography, film, IT and library facilities.