Introduction

Our studio-based MA Fine Art course provides an opportunity for you to further explore, test and challenge your creative ideas in a supportive, professional environment. The programme reflects the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary art practice/s, facilitating the exploration of a range of approaches, including, but not limited to drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, moving image, digital media, installation, sound, performance, social and collaborative practice. By engaging with contemporary critical issues and with how artistic practices are understood in the 21st century and across different contexts, you will be encouraged to experiment, take risks, shift expectations and to strengthen the motivation, direction and ambition of your practice. Full-time students are normally offered a dedicated studio space, while part-timers can access the studios as a shared work-base. Other facilities include printmaking, 3D/sculpture workshops, photography darkrooms and computer suites for video production and digital imaging.

With our Masters degree in Fine Art, teaching is primarily through one-to-one and group tutorials, seminars, workshops and studio critiques, in which you will learn about recent theories, contexts and practices. You are also encouraged and expected to develop your work and research independently. You will be supported by teaching staff who are themselves experienced artists, working across different disciplines. Our Fine Art Research Unit series of talks – and other specialist talks across ARU – let you hear invited artists, PhD students and staff talk about their work and engage in debates about contemporary art practice.

How you'll be assessed

On most of our core modules, you will demonstrate your progress through visual research outcomes supported by a written evaluative statement, except for the Master’s Dissertation where you will submit a 6,000-word contextual essay.

Careers

This Masters degree in Fine Art will prepare you for work as a practising artist, and you will also gain skills and knowledge that will equip you for related roles. As well as continuing their artistic practices, through which they have taken up artist residencies, research and fellowship opportunities and public art projects in the UK and abroad, our graduates also pursue careers in further and higher education, museum and gallery management. ARU's links with organisations including Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge Artworks, Commission Projects and Motion Sickness will give you opportunities to take part in professional exhibitions, workshops, portfolio review and other live projects.