MA Arts and Education Practices is designed for the artist educator who wants to develop and refine their skills in working with others through artistic practice. The course aims to engage students with education as a practice of freedom (Hooks, Bell. 1994), and as a site of growth and transformation.

Based within Birmingham School of Art, we provide a unique platform to work as a community comprising of both experienced and aspiring artist educators engaging with the challenges and rewards of contemporary creative education. Working with specialists, you will connect with the diverse contexts in which creative education takes place: community projects, artist-led spaces, galleries, schools, colleges, universities, and peer-to-peer and family-led learning.

The course embeds skills to enable you to work across projects exploring the creative pedagogical models that inform both artistic practice and teaching and learning. You will explore the potential for freelance and permanent employment in creative education to enhance your own practice equipping you with specialist skills to use in the world.

Focus is given to self-development through collaborative work and exploring spaces of lifelong learning and creative pedagogical models. Your studies will engage with the potential for artistic practice to inform teaching and learning and how in turn work can be informed by your own experiences and engagements with pedagogy.

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit bearing, 20 week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

You will be responsible for finding and securing your own placement. The University, however, will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will also benefit from support sessions delivered by Careers+ as well as advice and guidance from your School.

Placements will only be confirmed following a competitive, employer-led selection process, therefore the University will not be able to guarantee placements for students who have registered for the ‘with Professional Placement’ course. All students who do not find a suitable placement or do not pass the competitive selection process will be automatically transferred back to the standard, non-placement version of the course.

Enhancing your employability skills
Studying an MA will help you to pursue or develop your career in a range of related professions across the educational sector and creative industries. This course will help to enhance your skillset and employability and either progress in your existing role or achieve your career ambitions in a new direction.

Many of our graduates have achieved regional, national and international recognition as professional artist educators and professionals in the creative industries sector.

Several modules on this course have been specifically designed to equip you with valuable transferable skills, for example Contemporary Curatorial Practice Small Arts Business Set Up and Creative Publishing and Public Dissemination.