BA Fine Art

The Fine Art BA (Hons) degree is one of the most challenging and creative courses you can study. Contemporary and historical skills, theories and materials; art histories; visual and contextual research; entrepreneurship and project management: at City & Guilds of London Art School we genuinely take time to support and challenge you in all these areas, enabling you to achieve exceptional results and move on to professional practice or further study with confidence and experience. We don’t believe in a ‘house style’; this is an Art School where, with focus and ambition, you can fully explore ways of making and thinking, and develop your own artistic ‘voice’.

This three-year full-time course is validated by Birmingham City University’s School of Art; regular checks by the Quality Assurance Agency confirm the standard of our provision and our external examiners attest to our consistently high standards and results.

Content and Structure

On this course, you are offered the opportunity to develop your work in the wider context of fine art through the specialist areas of painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. The emphasis is on supporting and challenging you to develop an approach to art practice based on your own creative interests and ideas, alongside an exploration of questions about what painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing might be now, given their historical roots, materials, processes and current discourses. Some elements of the course have a specific focus based on your choice of specialism, while group tutorials, live projects and other sessions, such as professional practice, are shared across the Fine Art course.

FIRST YEAR

You are introduced to contemporary practice through the historical genres of Fine Art with a particular emphasis on the technical use of materials and processes, alongside art histories research through practical workshops, seminars and lectures. The teaching on the Fine Art course aims to nurture your ambitions through regular discussion and advice in one to one tutorials and group critiques. You will be supported and challenged to develop an approach to self-directed study through the development of specialist skills and critical thinking as the year progresses.

On this Fine Art course, you are offered an opportunity to follow a specialist route through painting, sculpture, print or drawing while participating in the wider context of Fine Art. You engage in visual and contextual research and studio activity through a series of projects that consider personal narratives that relate to themes such as: transcription, the body, landscape and the object. As the year progresses you undertake increasingly self-directed projects and test out approaches to presentation and display.

The Art Histories Programme runs throughout the year, locating Fine Art practice in a historical and contemporary context and informing discussions in group critiques and seminars.

Drawing is an important component of the year enabling you to investigate its role as both a form of research and as a practice in its own right.

Within this carefully structured framework, you establish a basis for your own contribution to the wider cultural conversation about painting, sculpture, print, drawing and installation. This is celebrated in an end of year exhibition with second-year students that takes the form of an off-site ‘live project’ enabling you to develop important professional practice skills.

SECOND YEAR

The second year sees a shift in emphasis towards a more extended period of self-directed studio activity with a focus on practical and theoretical research methodologies and curatorial and exhibiting possibilities related to your practice. You will develop your own ideas through studio practice involving direct material research supported by group critiques, seminars and regular tutorial input from the range of tutor artists teaching on the course.

The Art Histories programme explores the history of ideas, enabling you to develop your critical understanding of the key artists, thinkers and theories that profoundly influence contemporary art practice. Your own ideas will be enriched and informed through engagement in this programme that has been carefully designed to compliment your studio activities.

The Professional Practice Programme sets out to prepare you for life after art school through a range of study visits, seminars and artist talks by art world professionals. In addition competitions and the off-site live project exhibition offer valuable opportunities for you to develop as a professional artist.

In addition to the structured classes, the Drawing Studio offers opportunities to join workshops and free evening classes.

THIRD YEAR

The Third year is a focused and intense period for research and studio practice development. You will set out your own programme of study with two key outputs: the production of a substantial body of work towards an end of year exhibition and the writing of a dissertation exploring a theme you have chosen that closely relates to your studio practice research.

Throughout the year you will benefit from regular discussion and feedback from tutors, visitors and your peers. The Professional Practice Programme is expanded to expose you to a range of art world professions and activities in private, public and corporate contexts. Seminars and workshops continue during the year and you will be encouraged to research and test out approaches to showing your work in preparation for the Degree Show exhibition at the end of the course.

The Degree Show is one of the key highlights of the Art School calendar with a large number of visitors from members of the general public to art professionals including gallerists and curators. Graduates have gone on to receive commissions and solo shows based on connections made during the exhibition.

Entry Requirements

Applicants for BA (Hons) Fine Art are normally expected to have achieved, or be expected to achieve, the equivalent to 280 UCAS points, for example:

• A pass in 3 GCE A-levels with one at grade A OR
• A pass at Foundation Diploma in Art and Design and 2 passes in GCE A-levels This educational level may also be demonstrated by possession of a combination of other qualifications, for example, the International Baccalaureate or High School Diploma. Applicants who can demonstrate equivalent prior professional experience will also be considered through a process called Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning (AP(E)L), which involves a judgment of various work-life and formal educational experiences against the selection criteria.

Applicants who do not speak English as a first language will be required to provide evidence of achieving the equivalent of the International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) score of 6.0 or above, with a minimum of 5.0 in all four areas.

Selection criteria

We select applicants according to their potential and current ability to:

• fulfil the entry requirements;
• demonstrate commitment and motivation for the subject and the course
• explore, articulate and develop their ideas as visual and material outcomes;
• creatively research information and visual material to support the development of their ideas;
• demonstrate a range of skills and technical abilities appropriate to their developing art practice;
• communicate ideas visually, verbally and in writing;
• self direct and evaluate their own work.

For more information, please visit our website.

Welcome to City & Guilds of London Art School, a not-for-profit, specialist higher education institution dedicated to teaching and inspiring the next generation of creative professionals. We provide an important alternative to other models of art and craft higher education in the UK.

All of our courses have a proven track record and are widely respected. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in contemporary Fine Art (BA (Hons) and MA), Conservation of cultural objects (BA (Hons) and MA), and Historic Carving (Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma), as well as a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. Please visit the individual programme pages to find out more about our courses.

While our fees are in line with standard UK degrees, we have a commitment to high levels of contact time with tutors, all of whom are active professionals. We also offer a significant number of bursaries and scholarships to help students fund their studies, thanks to a wide range of generous benefactors who recognise the Art School’s commitment to excellence. Students on our BA (Hons) course may be eligible for government-funded student loans.

TEACHING

Our staff to student ratios are generous, and teaching on all courses takes place across the week. Teaching is conducted by artists and practitioners at the top of their professional fields, who collectively provide a varied and dynamic range of expertise and viewpoints. The specialist nature of the Art School means we can focus on excellence and provide the one-to-one attention our subjects require. We believe in curiosity, ambition and learning through making. Every student is encouraged and supported to exceed their own expectations.

The education we offer is both broad and deep. We combine skills-based teaching with contextual Art Histories lectures and seminars that employ London’s museums and galleries as a crucial resource for regular targeted study trips. Drawing is fundamental to all of our courses with a dedicated Drawing Studio open to all, while the fruitful cross-pollination of subjects helps students to develop a profound understanding of their practice.

LOCATION AND FACILITIES

We have been at our Kennington site since 1879, which now comprises a Georgian terrace and purpose-built Victorian studios located opposite Kennington Tube station, together with large flexible studio spaces for the Foundation Diploma in a neighbouring 1930s ex-warehouse building. We have London’s galleries and museums within easy reach, with the National Gallery just a few stops away and both the East End galleries and South Kensington museums just a 20-minute tube journey away. This area of South London is fast becoming a cultural quarter with Damian Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, Gasworks, Beaconsfield and numerous other galleries within a short walk. Our relationship network with cultural organisations, museums and galleries is extensive and both local (London) and global, including partnerships in Venice, Tokyo and Berlin.

We recognise the centrality of the studio as a space for creative endeavour, analysis and experimentation, and students are allocated dedicated workspaces which support their intensive, focused and full-time practice. Each area of workspace is devised with the student’s practice in mind whether that is a high ceilinged artists’ studio with natural north light, or a conservation research lab. In addition, students have access to expert- run specialist resources and workshops, including the drawing studio, print room, wood workshop, casting workshop, glass workshop, Sackler Library and IT studio, as well as access to smaller specialist facilities such as a foundry, ceramics kilns and a photographic darkroom.

SUPPORT AND COMMUNITY

We operate on a human scale with approximately 230 students and 80+ teaching staff. This enables us to work with our students as distinct and important members of our lively and engaging creative community. We care about individual progress and stay in active communication with our alumni, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Students also benefit from collaborations with leading heritage, creative and art-related institutions and initiatives, which provide opportunities for voluntary work experience, commissioning and showcasing student work.

For more information, please visit our website.