Fine Art

MA

Intermediate award(s): PG Cert, PG Dip
Part-Time

Patsy Rathbone

Fine Art

“The culture within the Art school is very supportive, contact with lecturers is frequent. There is an engagement with the art world, current art practices and theory, which is invaluable, with many visiting artists coming in. ”

Course overview

This course offers a specialist practice-based curriculum which embraces a variety of creative attitudes and practices ranging from painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, digital media, photography and performance. The 120-credit modular course places emphasis on autonomous learning and innovative research whilst also offering transferable skills for professional engagement. Learning is achieved through a sustained self-directed body of practice supported by one-to-one tutorials, lectures, seminars and peer group presentations.

Contemporary fine art reflects a range of cultural perspectives and addresses audiences across a range of professional contexts. This course therefore, supports a curriculum which addresses advanced fine art practice across a broad range of creative disciplines whilst also providing opportunities for professional engagement within the creative industries. The modular design of the course and the development of learning outcomes, reflects this relationship and places emphasis on autonomous learning and innovative research whilst also offering transferable skills for professional engagement.

The interplay of this provision enables you to locate your work at the forefront of contemporary fine art practice, developing both critical and creative dialogues with staff and fellow students, and providing you with the opportunity to test out your ideas within a professional environment and context.

The acquisition of key transferable skills is embedded throughout the course. Full-time fractional and part-time staff members within the Faculty provide links to industry through their own professional career profiles. The direct professional experience gained through such affiliations is passed down through tutorial engagement with the students who are encouraged to actively pursue opportunities supported by tutorial guidance.

The opportunity to extend professional skills is further augmented through option modules from Lord Ashcroft International Business School's MA Arts Management, which address key issues applicable to employment within the public and museums art sector.

Module guide

Core modules
  • Process and Practice as Research (30 Credits)

    This module, at the beginning of the course, considers the process of designing a research project for art and design students at Masters level. Supporting lectures and seminars, delivered on a cross-school platform, introduce exemplars of research practice from a range of creative perspectives as a means of informing your individual studio research. Using the initial lectures as a starting point, you are asked to design and undertake a practice-based project which tests the scope and limits of a specific research method or methods. The research process involves writing a proposal, identifying milestones, delivering an outcome and evaluating the pilot project. Group critiques and tutorials within a subject specialist area allow students to discuss the ongoing progress of their pilot projects. The concept of peer review as a means of validation is introduced, and you will participate in peer review as presenter and reviewer.

  • Acts and Discourses (30 Credits)

    This module asks you to develop a body of self directed fine art research which reflects a clear awareness and engagement with curatorial issues. A seminar series within the module will introduce various areas within curatorial and exhibition practices on both a theoretical and practical level, with a strong emphasis on the contemporary scene in relation to developments that have taken place over the last three decades. Themes within the seminar series will include: 1) Exhibiting Practices, an introduction 2) Frames 3) Neutrality: the 'white cube' and its legacy 4) alternative spaces 5) Environmental approaches, and 6) the politics of cultural representation.

  • Fine Art: Critical Practice (30 Credits)

    Your learning on this module is established through a sustained body of self-directed fine art research. This is supported by supervisory tutorials, peer group learning and a seminar series exploring critical and theoretical aspects of practice. Your individual practice will be analysed within a critical and cultural context and you will be asked to evaluate your research in relation to contemporary fine art practice and theory. You are encouraged to articulate your ideas through a self-reflective and considered use of process, media and context.

  • Masters Dissertation: Art and Design (60 credits)

    The Masters Dissertation: Art and Design forms the major written element of the MA. You are invited to choose a topic related to your area of study, as the basis for a research essay of a maximum of 8,000 words. It is expected that you will use the module to investigate the use of critical writing as an aspect of your own creative development, by investigating issues and preoccupations for which you feel a particular affinity or concern, and that you use the dissertation as an instrument of enquiry into the debates, conventions and values which define your own field of practice. Group tutorials will explore the use of different modes of critical method and conventions of art and design research, and the production of critical writing as an aspect of an individual's creative and professional practice.

  • Masters Project: Art and Design

    The Masters project represents the culmination of learning on the course, and provides an opportunity for you to develop and resolve a major area of research. You are asked to negotiate, manage, co-ordinate and bring to successful conclusion a complex, practice-based research project. This project may involve external engagement alongside the personal exploration of themes and concepts in your specialist field. You are expected to build on previous modules to identify a complex area for investigation and enquiry, and the research methods appropriate to the project. The creative outcomes which emerge from this module form the basis of a major final MA Exhibition.

In addition to teaching time on-campus, all courses require intensive self-guided learning, research or private study and there may also be optional training, seminars, visits, lectures or master classes to attend.

Assessment

Assessment of core practice modules is based upon submission of visual research outcomes supported by a supporting statement submitted on completion of each module. Essay submission forms the primary method of assessment for the MA Dissertation and module options in arts management.

Nisar Ahemad A.Momin, India

Fine Art

“The course provided me a very close view of the world's capital in art. It is a very great opportunity to learn and adopt British contemporary art practice. Cambridge School of Art covers all postmodern aspects of fine art institutional practice. Teaching at Anglia Ruskin University is like mother care in nurturing creative abilities and skills of individual students.
”

Facilities

Cambridge School of Art has a superb range of facilities for students of Fine Art with studios leading directly off the Ruskin Gallery. The facilities include excellent printmaking and sculpture workshops, as well as photography dark rooms, life drawing, and computer suites for video production and digital imaging.

Libraries
Our campus libraries offer a wide range of publications and a variety of study facilities, including open-access computers, areas for quiet or group study and bookable rooms. We also have an extensive Digital Library providing on and off-site access to e-books, e-journals and databases.

We endeavour to make our libraries as accessible as possible for all our students. During Semester time, they open 24 hours a day from Monday to Thursday, until midnight on Friday and Saturday and for 12 hours on Sunday.

IT resources
Our open access computer facilities provide free access to the internet, email, messaging services and the full Microsoft Office suite. A high speed wireless service is also available in all key areas on campus. If you are away from campus or a distant learner, our student desktop and its many applications can be accessed remotely using the internet. Your personal student email account provides free document storage, calendar facilities and social networking opportunities.

Throughout your studies you will have access to our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), providing course notes, reading materials and multi-media content to support your learning, while our e-vision system gives you instant access to your academic record and your timetable.

Special features

Vocational disciplines are enhanced through a rolling programme of Fine Art Research Unit (FARU) seminars and workshops by leading visiting professionals within the field of fine art practice. These seminars, coordinated by Dr David Ryan, Reader, are offered on a school-wide basis and cover a broad range of practices within the creative arts industries. Recent visiting artists have included Danny Rolph, Hayley Newman, Günter Herbst, David Kefford, Bernice Donszelmann, Phillip Allen and Tim Ellis.

Course leader

Dr Veronique Chance

Links with industry and professional recognition

Our emphasis on professional practice contributes to regular student success in major national and international competitions and an active student engagement with live professional exhibition projects and exhibitions.

  • Postgraduate Fine Art Student Exhibition Achievement 2011 -12
  • Searle Award for Creativity Winners in 2011 and 2012
  • Arts Council East Escalator Development Programme
  • Evanion Project, British Library, London
  • International Print Biennale, Newcastle
  • BITE, Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition, London
  • International Print Biennial, Oriel Wrecsam
  • The Limits of Seeing - (Art, Space & Perception), Cambridge Science Circle
  • Changing Spaces, Project Space Exhibitions, Cambridge
  • Niche, Project Space, Cambridge
  • Material Worlds, Norwich
  • If Not Now Whenever, Redchurch Street Gallery, London
  • Exposure Artists, Momentum Arts, London
  • Exili-Trencat Per La Linea Del Temps, Reus, Catalonia
  • Folk Museum, Cambridge
  • Re: Location (Four Artists Four Sites), Cambridge
  • Flying Colours, Assembly House, Norwich
  • Upcoming British Talent, The Future Gallery, London
  • Leper Chapel, Project Space, Cambridge
  • Cambridge Artworks

Associated careers

Postgraduate students of our MA Fine Art benefit from a number of career opportunities. In addition to developing successful careers within the creative field, graduates have followed pathways in further and higher education, museum and gallery management, public arts projects, artist in residence schemes and fellowships opportunities both in this country and abroad.

Work placements

The Fine Art team have developed professional placement links with a number of contemporary arts organisations throughout the region as a means of providing valuable 'live' professional experience. Recent placements by postgraduate fine art students have included:
  • Wysing Arts Centre
  • Aid and Abet
  • Futurecity
  • Changing Spaces
  • Artichoke Print workshops
  • Curwen Print Study Centre
  • Momentum Arts
  • BBC History Department
  • International Project Space
  • ICA Footnotes 5
  • David Roberts Art Foundation
  • Hayward Gallery Wide Open School
  • Joseph Needham Centre
Entry Requirements: A good honours degree, (or equivalent) normally in a related subject. Applicants with professional experience are also encouraged to apply. Entry will normally be subject to submission of a portfolio, and an interview Candidates for whom English is not a first language will be expected to demonstrate IELTS at level 6.5, or equivalent. Non-Academic Conditions: Art Portfolio
Portfolio requirements
Your portfolio should show examples of your recent visual practice and where possible should include work which is indicative of some of the themes and areas interest you would like to develop on the Masters. These may take the form of original artworks or good quality reproductions in hard copy of digital form. The portfolio should contain evidence of visual and or textual research which has informed the development of your practice.

International applicants
International applicants are encouraged to host their portfolios online and provide us with the URL or submit in pdf format by email attached. CD or hardcopy formats submitted by post to our International Admissions Office are also acceptable but please note that these will not be returned to applicants.

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

We welcome applications from International and EU students. Please select one of the links below for English language and country-specific entry requirement information.

If we have confirmed you do not meet our entry requirements you might want to consider a preparatory course at Cambridge Ruskin International College (CRIC), our partner college, based on our Cambridge campus, before coming to study with us.

How to apply

Location

Duration

2 years

Teaching times*

Tues 4 hours between
10.00am and 5.00pm

Available starts

September, January

Student finance

Open Day

Saturday 13 July
Postgraduate Open Day

Advice & support

Employability

Faculty

Arts, Law & Social Sciences

Department

Cambridge School of Art

Contact us

UK and EU applicants:International applicants:

 

*Teaching days and times are for guidance only and are subject to change each academic year. We advise all applicants to wait until they are in receipt of their timetable before making arrangements around their course times.

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