Fine Art BA(Hons)

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Portfolio advice 

We are looking for independent, self-motivated, and creative individuals who are keen to experiment and expand their fine art knowledge through practical making and thinking. We seek evidence of curiosity about and commitment to fine art and are looking for students who are able to discuss fine art work and critically reflect on their own and others work. The Fine Art course welcomes students whose work embraces different fine art branches, processes, materials and contexts but also students who are keen to expand and deepen their knowledge of specific fine art forms.

What should I include in my portfolio?

You should prepare an online portfolio of 15–20 examples of your art work that specifically reflect your interest in joining the Fine Art course and that show evidence of your creative process and making skills. To demonstrate your enthusiasm for the fine art subject area your portfolio should contain self-motivated investigations and include independent projects in addition to examples of any work resulting from set briefs. How you research and critically reflect on topics within sketchbooks, models and through preparatory studies is as important as providing examples of your completed artworks. Your portfolio should focus on work and forms of work that you are actively interested in and demonstrate what themes, materials, processes and related research excites you when making artworks.

Whatever form/s your work takes, whether it is handcrafted or digital or a combination of both, we look at your portfolio to evidence the ways in which you develop ideas in practical forms. The personal statement you include with your application should demonstrate your ability to articulate ideas about your art works and show your enthusiasm for practical and intellectual enquiry.

Find out more about how to create and submit your portfolio.

Top reasons to choose this course

• Gain skills in working with a range of materials and processes understanding that often through the process of engaging with materials and processes, new discoveries are made.

• We allow you the space and give you the guidance to think through making, turning ideas into tangible creative outcomes.

• Lecturers are practising artists who bring a diverse range of skills and experience to your learning.

• Plan, organise and execute exhibitions for public audience throughout the course.

• Learn to communicate ideas in visual, written and spoken forms.

• Develop tenacity, resourcefulness, resilience and self-motivation, fundamental aspects of sustaining an art practice or working within the creative industries.

• Space to discuss, articulate and critically evaluate your own and others’ artwork.

• Learn to develop professional proposal documents that communicate planned work in visual and text form and include ethical, and health and safety considerations.

• Show a body of work in the university’s graduate show.
• Opportunity to apply for an exchange program with the University of Nagoya, Japan.

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Year 1

In the first year you are introduced to studio practice and explore the relationship between thinking and making in a supportive and friendly environment. An expansive approach to research enables you to explore different methods of articulating your ideas and documenting your work.

You'll develop your emerging fine art practice within the studio and in relation to a specific site or sites. There is an emphasis on material exploration and experimentation and work is challenged through critical discussions and debate, building confidence in articulating your practice.

You will be introduced to key institutions, roles and terms within the expanded world of contemporary art and learn to navigate and discuss complex ideas and issues which increases your understanding and builds a collective vocabulary.

Modules

• Studio Practice 1: Thinking and Making

  This module is an introduction to studio practice. You will identify key concerns in your practice whilst exploring the relationship between studio practice, thinking and making.

  The module introduces an expansive approach to research, and you'll explore different methods of articulating ideas and documenting work.

• Studio Practice 2: Making and Site

  This module supports you to develop and explore your emerging studio practice in the studio and in relation to a specific site or sites. Your work is challenged through critical discussion and wide-ranging material exploration and experimentation, which opens up new possibilities for your practice.

  The module stresses the importance of expansive research and changing methods of documentation. Individually and in groups, you will explore new ways of articulating your critical language based on observation and feedback.

• Contemporary Art Institutional Roles and Terms

  This module will introduce you to key institutions, roles and terms within the contemporary art world, encouraging you to engage with discussion and debates about these.

  This module introduces key institutions, roles and terms within the contemporary art world. Using inquiry-based learning, we meet each week as a group to discuss an institution, role or term from a range of perspectives, for example, what is the practical, ideological, economic and social function of an art gallery.

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Introduction to Global Art Histories and Art Writing

  This module introduces you to global art histories underpinned by art writing and art practice. You'll explore and critique Western art history, indigenous, decolonial, punk, feminist and queer art histories, high and low art theory, art criticism, art journalism and artist's experimental writing.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 2

In your second year you'll continue to advance your fine art practice through explorative and practical approaches. You develop the visual, written and spoken communication skills to present your work to varied audiences. There is a greater emphasis on considering the context, form and cultural framing of your work and on the professional skills associated with proposal making, documentation of artworks and exhibition making.

The second-year public exhibition teaches you to present a resolved work in a group exhibition, to negotiate, to work as part of a team and to practice key roles associated with exhibition making.

Modules

• Diary Practice: Making Meaning in Times of Global Challenge

  With our world facing unprecedented challenges including hunger, poverty and climate change, it is critical to rethink how we live, work and learn. In this module you will explore ways in which fine art practices have engaged with these challenges and sought new ways of connecting communities. During the module, you will develop a project that explores an area relating to the UN's Sustainability Development Goals.

• Studio Practice 4: Practice-led Research

  This module supports the development and communication of your art practice by providing a framework for you to progress, structure and present practical and research material. You will create work that communicates your art practice, research, fine art placement activity and professional development to produce a presentation that maps your creative process and research.

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Contexts and Specialisms

  This module will explore the theoretical, analytical and critical frameworks in your field of fine art practice. It addresses how characteristics of disciplines, genres and media have been defined and challenged within an expanding and global field of practice. You will be encouraged to think about and articulate your ideas around art and consider alternative viewpoints to the Eurocentric Western cultural traditions within fine art.

• Studio Practice 3: Public Exhibition

  This module supports you in advancing your art practice, ideas, methods and materials, introducing you to working in specific contexts through explorative, practical approaches. You will develop articulation of your studio practice in visual, written and spoken forms, present your work in public exhibition and practice professional development skills to document your work. You will also create proposal documents for public exhibition that consider inclusive, safe and ethical working methods.

Final year

In your final year you'll develop and consolidate your art practice and extend your technical skills base through the creation of a body of work. Research situates your practice in relevant contexts and professional skills are developed to support future ambitions.

You synthesise your previous learning, test your ideas practically, write proposals and work towards a final degree show exhibition. There is a strong emphasis on documenting your practice and artist statement, and on placing your work in critically informed contexts. This helps you to prepare for postgraduate study and careers within the creative industries.

Modules

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Articulation of your Critical Position

  In this module you will continue to work with increasing independence, expanding and refining your work in relation to theory and practice. The practical aspects of this module give you a foundation to explore, develop and shape your independent and reflective positions on art. You will identify a focused area of investigation and articulate an in-depth body of work which demonstrates an understanding of the theories and issues that underpin your subject.

• Studio Practice 5: Consolidating and Situating Practice

  In this module you will further develop your technical skills and studio practice along with your research skills to enable you to produce work informed by its theoretical contexts. You will document, collate and present images and an artist’s statement that communicate your practice and research. You will also develop professional skills to support your future ambitions.

• Studio Practice 6: Planning and Completion of Degree

  Representing the culmination of your studies, this module will help you integrate and build on your previous learning through planning, writing proposals and working towards your final degree show exhibition. You will articulate your artwork, practice and research in an artist’s statement suitable for the public exhibition. The module will also prepare you for postgraduate study or a career in the fine art or creative industries.

Facilities

The course has its own studios and you will have access to a fabrication workshop and skilled specialist technical demonstrators. Within the workshop areas it is possible to work with a broad range of materials and processes including:

• woodworking
• metalworking
• plaster casting
• concrete casting
• metal casting
• plastics
• clay and stone
• mould making
• maquette making
• sewing.

Alongside the course-specific facilities you will have access to central services such as:

• The Media Centre where you can loan cameras, video projectors, monitors, media players and audio equipment to experiment with ideas or to use for exhibitions and crits.
• The TECH HUB – a team of technical demonstrators based in Grand Parade who provide specialist creative software support including Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects etc), Rhino, Blender and C4D, as well as web and blog-related software. They manage digital manufacturing services within the School of Art and Media, including laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC routing, plasma cutting and 3-axis CNC milling. They also have VR headsets and 3D scanners. The TECH HUB has its own dedicated PC suite with all of the software they support as well as standard university programmes.

Meet the team

Alice Fox, course leader

Alice has worked for many years with inclusive performance and visual arts alongside some of the world’s most socially excluded groups, in particular people with learning disabilities and elders. She often works internationally, training NGOs, cultural, health and education sector professionals. She has delivered inclusive arts projects for Tate Exchange, The National Gallery and The British Council in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Nepal. Read more about Alice.

Professor Matthew Cornford

Matthew Cornford is an artist who has worked on a wide range of art projects in response to specific contexts and situations. He has had work and projects exhibited in Europe, North America and at galleries in the UK including Camden Arts Centre, ICA, John Hansard Gallery, Photographers Gallery, De La Warr Pavilion and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. For a number of years Matthew Cornford has worked with John Beck researching the cultural history of British art schools, giving talks at galleries and universities. In 2019 their exhibition The Art Schools of North West England opened at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. Read more about Matthew.

Ole Hagen

Ole Hagen works in sculpture, drawing, performance and moving image, often staging theatrical tableaux for the camera. His work explores selfhood, introspection and perception in the context of cultural narratives relating to the distinction between the physical and the mental, the material and the immaterial. Ole employs humour and hyperbole to exaggerate the apparent gap between subject and object in order to question orthodox materialist paradigms. Read more about Ole.

Eloise Calandre

Eloise is an Artist and Senior Lecturer specialising in photography and moving image. Her research practice is underpinned by photography. She works both independently and collaboratively toward interactive public projects and exhibition. Read more about Eloise.

Caleb Madden

Caleb's interests lie in critical noise theory and its potential for aiding novel approaches to the production and analysis of contemporary art. Incorporating a number of strands which emerge from, and often lead back to speculative philosophy, his research aims to elaborate an understanding of the way art practices expand possibility space within the social imaginary. Read more about Caleb.

Jayne Lloyd

Jayne Lloyd is a Senior Lecturer and an artist and researcher who works across sculpture, drawing and performance in her own arts practice and in the development and realisation of inclusive arts projects. Read more about Jayne.

James Murray

James is an artist, researcher, and educator. His studio work combines manual techniques with automated processes. His work has been the subject of international solo, group, and two-person exhibitions at venues including Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts; Stephane Simoens Contemporary Fine Art, Knokke; and Rule Gallery, Denver, USA. Read more about James.

Naomi Salaman

Naomi Salaman is an artist, curator and lecturer. Her work investigates art practice, pedagogy and cultural institutions using historical, critical and feminist perspectives. Her interests are in contemporary art, Image/Text, the history of vision, the art school, art education and art theory. She has a doctorate in visual arts practice on the history of the art school and art theory. Read more about Naomi.

Daniel Campbell Blight

Daniel works on various forms of the essay, fiction and poetry, and has written for magazines and journals including 1000 Words, Aperture, Foam, frieze, the Guardian, Philosophy of Photography, Photoworks, Vogue Italia. His book, The Image of Whiteness: Contemporary Photography and Racialization, was published in 2019. Read Daniel's full profile.

Technicians on the course include: Helen Stuart and Louise Gregory.

Summer shows 2024

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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