Printmaking

MA

Intermediate award(s): PG Dip, PG Cert
Full-Time
Students at work in our printmaking studio.

Course overview

This is designed for creative practitioners who wish to transform their visual practice through an engagement with print media. It offers the opportunity to extend and deepen your creative research within a supportive and critically informed environment. As a Masters student, you will formulate a creative proposal towards a sustained programme of visual print research. Our course is delivered through individual studio practice supported by one-to-one tutorials, workshops, seminars, presentations and lectures. Your individual practice will be developed through an engagement with critical and theoretical dialogue and supported by lectures, seminars and tutorials by specialist academic staff and leading professionals within the field. The course culminates in a final exhibition of work which provides both a professional benchmark and a platform for future career development.

Printmaking makes a vital contribution to the language of contemporary art practice. Advances in printmaking technology have broadened the definitions of the medium, enabling artists to combine traditional print processes with digital media towards a wide range of creative solutions. If you are new to print, we provide technical inductions for traditional and emerging print media, including relief printing and intaglio processes including photo etching, screenprint, photolithography and digital processes.

This course is aimed at artists from a variety of creative disciplines who wish to expand their visual practice within a supportive and critically engaged environment.

Sharon Carpenter

MA Printmaking

“I've been encouraged to make use of facilities during times beyond my assigned study periods, allowing me to fit my studies around my life rather than my life around my studies.

The print room facilities are excellent and my work has been exhibited alongside work by Josef Albers (a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition) at the Ruskin Gallery.
”

Additional course information

This 120-credit modular course places emphasis on autonomous learning and innovative research whilst also offering transferable skills for professional engagement. The acquisition of key transferable skills is embedded throughout the course.

Full-time fractional and part-time staff members within the School of Art provide links to industry through their own professional career profiles. The direct professional experience gained through such affiliations is passed through tutorial engagement with students, who are encouraged to actively pursue professional opportunities supported by tutorial guidance.

Studio practice is reviewed within the light of key theoretical debates and supported by a programme of critical studies seminars. Professional engagement in the field of printmaking and related industries is embedded within all modules and supported by a strong profile of visiting lecturers to the course. The opportunity to extend professional skills is further augmented through option modules from Lord Ashcroft International Business School in Arts Management, which addresses key issues applicable to employment within the public and museums art sector.

Cambridge provides an ideal location to study printmaking at Masters level and offers a number of prestigious museums and galleries including The Fitzwilliam Museum, Kettle's Yard, and the Wysing Arts Centre and Aid and Abet.

Module guide

Core modules
  • 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.

  • Printmaking: Research and Context (30 Credits)

    During this module you are required to establish and develop a sustained body of self-directed print research. Individual practice is supported by supervisory tutorials, peer group learning and a seminar series exploring critical and theoretical aspects of practice. A written proposal forms the basis of a programme of practice-based enquiry, augmented by theoretical research. Learning is acquired through direct experimental research in which you test and develop the ideas outlined in your statement of intent. The specific content and mode of work within the module is therefore contingent upon the research direction of your individual project.

  • Masters Dissertation: Art and Design (60 credits)

    This module forms the major written element of the course. You are invited to choose a topic related to your area of study, as the basis for a research essay within a maximum 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

    This is the culmination of learning on the course and provides an opportunity for you to develop and resolve a major area of research. You will be 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 will be 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 will 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 our arts management course.

Maryam Khalid A Almubarak, Saudi Arabia

MA Printmaking

“







I can confidently say that the MA Printmaking really encouraged my creativity. The different equipment available in the printmaking studio encourages students' innovation and inspiration. In the studio, we learnt how to use the equipment with the different techniques in a very effective manner. The tutors were extremely supportive and cooperative in making this learning experience an invaluable one. The flexibility of understanding any different concepts from the student makes me more confident to open my mind to a new horizon.

Being educated to use all available different techniques was one of the major advantages of the MA Printmaking where I have been inspired to deliver and do my best. Additionally, having the flexibility to use different techniques helped me to focus on the field I like. I was more in to the digital printmaking side, where I was combining Photoshop and other software, along with some other equipment in the studio, to come up with most of my art works.

During my studying I observed that all of the students in my college with their different majors have been working as one team and came up with valuable art works under the name of Cambridge School of Art.

During my degree, Cambridge School of Art arranged for opportunities with different galleries which were very supportive and helpful in connecting students with real-life experience.
”

Facilities

Our superb print facilities, described as 'world class' in a recent external examiners report, provide exciting opportunities for you to develop your practice across a range of traditional and new media including intaglio, screen, relief, litho and digital print and laser processes.

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 and print practice. These seminars, coordinated by Dr David Ryan, Reader in Fine Art, 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.

Visiting printmaking professionals have included Katherine Jones, Stephen Chambers, Veronique, Chance, Sean Rorke, Rebecca Salter, Penny Brewill, Mike Taylor, Kate Palmer, Jo Love and Jane Dixon, Leo Brook and Amanda Couch.

Course leader

Dr Veronique Chance

Associated careers

Postgraduate students of MA Printmaking can 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.

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.

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, Interviews

Portfolio requirements

Your portfolio should:
  • show examples of your recent visual practice (not necessarily prints) 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

1 year

Teaching times*

Tues 10.00am-5.00pm

Available starts

September, January


For students starting in January, this course will be delivered over 18 months and there will be no teaching in Trimester 3.

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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