Fine Art

Through the skilful manipulation of materials, processes, and ideas, you, as an artist, will be able to offer creative insights that shape who you are and how you exist in the world around you. These are valuable skills in the fast-changing and interconnected web of ecological, political, socio-economic, and philosophical contexts.

The BA (Hons) Fine Art course will help you embrace important traditional making skills such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, digital media, and performance, while also encouraging you to fuse these with new developments in creative practice. This will be framed within a professional working context to improve your employability. This hybrid approach, along with discipline-specific studios and specialist workshops, will equip you to navigate the evolving landscape of the Creative Industries into the future.

What's covered in this course?
The course is based on four key principles: Making Skills, Making Public, Making Communities, and Making a Living.

• Making Skills will be developed through purpose-built studio spaces, allowing you to explore materials and processes in painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, digital media, and performance. You’ll acquire and apply technical skills in workshops and through collaboration with fabricators from across Birmingham and beyond. These skills will become the foundation for you to test, interrogate, and transform your art practice both conceptually and aesthetically.

• Making Public will encourage you to explore art practice in the public realm. This includes expanded ideas of exhibiting and sharing your outcomes in ways that generate participation with broad audiences. You’ll benefit from live projects and our close links with high-profile establishments, including Eastside Projects, Grand Union, Ikon Gallery, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. These opportunities will help you develop your thinking about the process of making your work public.

• Making with Communities will ask you to consider ways to build and sustain meaningful relationships between your art practice and society. You will form Communities of Practice through studio groups and engage with local, national, and international organisations, gaining cultural and global perspectives and experiences. This valuable experience will help you define the future direction of your practice.

• Making a Living will focus on your personal development and the various ways you can build and grow a successful creative career. You’ll establish a professional context for your work by gaining a situated knowledge of the art sector. The advancement of the digital world has provided artists with numerous opportunities to thrive in a creative environment.

Professional Placement Year
This course offers an optional professional placement year. This allows you to spend a whole year with an employer, following successful completion of your second year, and is a great way to find out more about your chosen career. Some students even return to the same employers after completing their studies.

If you choose to pursue a placement year, you will need to find a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will be able to draw on the University’s extensive network of local, regional, and national employers, and the support of our Careers teams. If you are able to secure a placement, you can request to be transferred to the placement version of the course.

Please note that fees are payable during your placement year, equivalent to 20% of the total full-time course fee for that year.