Master of Fine Art

Our Master of Fine Art (MFA) course will provide you with a specialist and in-depth postgraduate course of study incorporating flexible study routes in order to cater for your individual needs and career trajectories. It is a practice-based course which embraces a variety of creative attitudes and established practices ranging from painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, photography, film, sound and experimental music to intermedia.

It will enable you to focus on your given practice through core modules as well as interconnected critical theory and exhibition-practice modules. The interplay of this provision will enable you to locate your practices at the forefront of contemporary fine art practice developing both critical and creative dialogues with staff and fellow students, and providing the opportunity to test out your ideas within a professional environment and context.

Our MFA consists of five semesters (two in year one and three in year two), which are defined by a spine of core practice modules consisting of 60 credits. In the first year the intensive and investigative core module is complemented and offset by two 30-credit strands exploring, respectively, critical theory in relation to practice, and the development of various approaches to contemporary exhibition practices for various media. In year two (semesters three-five) you will have a choice of three study routes relevant to the practices you have initiated in semesters one and two and informed by your choice of career: a practice or theory route; or an arts management route; an education route. Each of these reflects and complements the core practice-based 60-credit module in semesters three and four. In semester five you will embark on an final Major Project, the summation of your studies.

Additional course information
Teaching takes place in seminars, individual tutorials and lecture-based sessions. There is a balance between various modes of discourse, interaction and instruction on the course, as well as between both the larger and smaller modules and the available study routes.

Study Route 1: Practice/Theory Modules.

(1) Critical Writing within Contemporary Art Practice.This module provides the opportunity to develop critical writing skills in the context of a 'live situation'.

(2) Curating and Exhibiting: Acts and Discourses. This module looks at the rich field of the contemporary curator, both from an institutional perspective and as an independent.

Study Route 2: Arts Management Modules.

(1) Arts Environment. This lecture-based module provides a reflective, practical, theoretical and methodological framework for investigating institutions, cultural and political processes that inform and frame the arts environment.

(2) Arts Financial Management. This lecture-based module develops the tools and conceptual apparatus to map out the demands and implications of financial management.

(3) Fundraising and Sources of income. This module will look at ways in which we can develop a more focused and complete approach to developing projects that are realistically funded.

(4) Event Management. This module aims to equip you with the skills to negotiate event management in today's competitive environment.

Study Route 3: Education modules.

(1) Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Reflective Practice. This module introduces the knowledge and skills necessary to plan, deliver, and evaluate learning in various Higher Education contexts.

(2) Developing Assessment for Learning. This module provides the opportunity for practitioners to examine the use of assessment through theoretical frameworks, particularly in relation to formative assessment as a means of enhancing the learning experience.