Fine Art – BA (Honours)

At a glance

Learn how to develop exciting approaches to your fine art practice, as well as the ability to operate as a professional artist, on a course with a reputation for graduates who are successful in the cultural industries. You can take advantage of the latest creative facilities, studios and workshops and learn from fine art tutors who are nationally and internationally renowned artists.

Key points
• Develop an art practice that is exciting, current and critically aware. • Benefit from tutors who are practising artists of national and international renown.
• Develop skills using the excellent range of workshops, studios and facilities available.
• Prepare for an artistic career within the cultural industries with practical, theoretical and professional modules.

What is fine art?
Fine art is a subject that forms relationships with many different areas of knowledge including making technologies, media (for example painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance), research practices and arenas of dissemination (such as exhibiting), while maintaining an essential relationship to fine art as an historic and contemporary discourse. Critically engaged with the world, fine art asks questions without a need to provide answers.

This course

Explore all aspects of contemporary art practice on this dynamic and exciting course, with its long history of producing students who are successful within the cultural industries.

We encourage you to consider and question existing art practices while developing your own approaches, helping you to quickly become self-directed and independent. You are encouraged to take creative risks and to experiment with different media, all within the context of the contemporary art world.

You develop your understanding of the relationship between the process of making and the context of showing by exhibiting your work and reflecting on your own and others’ work. The study of art context and theory constitutes a key part of the course, as does developing your ability to operate as a professional artist.

Our dedicated team of fine art tutors are all practising artists of national and international repute. Academic excellence is also supported by a large team of experienced technical specialists.

As a student at the Sheffield Institute of Arts, you have access to a huge range of creative resources to experiment and engage with. You can take advantage of facilities such as • dedicated studios • state-of-the-art hardware and software • TV, film and photography studios • a creative media centre • performance spaces • a gallery • well-equipped workshops • 3D printing for rapid prototyping.

The course has a simple structure with three modules a year. These are developed at each level, offering increasing levels of challenge as the course progresses.

The studio module asks that you spend the majority of your time devoted to making and developing work in our dedicated studios.

The art context and theory module supports this by developing your critical understanding and awareness.

The professional art practice module supports and develops your professional skills to help you operate within the cultural industries.

Throughout the course there are field trips to galleries and events nationally and internationally. Year two also offers the opportunity of an exchange with an institution in Europe, America or Australia under the Erasmus scheme.

We also run a weekly lecture programme showcasing invited artists of international standing.

Key areas of study
Practical workshops can include • drawing • installation • painting • performance • photography • printmaking • sculpture • artists publications • film and video • electronic and digital media • sound.