BA (Hons) Fine Art

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?

With a history of delivering expert craft, art and design education for more than 130 years, Buckinghamshire New University is the perfect place to start your creative career.

As part of the Art, Design and Performance School at BNU, you’ll benefit from a practiced-based course, supported by contextual studies. You’ll also have the opportunity to work collaboratively across the school with other courses, ensuring during your studies you are building a varied network, like you would in the real world.

Led by a dedicated and experienced course team, you’ll benefit from their industry knowledge and the industry links they bring to the course. You’ll get direct access to guest lectures, who are specialists in the sector, and can benefit from live project briefs, master classes, and networking opportunities.

You’ll have access to a range of our state-of-the-art facilities where we have our specialist workshops and equipment, from wood and metal work to 3D printing, dye labs, and screen printing; there are many ways for you to express your creativity.

We’re proud of the many achievements of our students and staff and throughout your course you will have the opportunity to take part in competitions, exhibitions and the BNU Summer Show.

We’re also only 30 minutes by train into London, enabling you to visit exhibitions, museums, and galleries, finding inspiration from one of the world’s most innovative capitals.

Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.

What will I study?

Whether you have a keen interest in ceramics, woodwork, metalwork, sculpture, photography, video or painting and drawing, or any other medium, you can use your degree to create thought-provoking pieces that transcend individual media. As an artist, you should thrive on collaborative projects with your peers, and engage with the community and external bodies to grow and disseminate your practice.

Due to connections with the Buckinghamshire Cultural Strategy Group, you will have access to involvement with professional exhibition or curatorial projects in collaboration with some of the county’s galleries and museums.

Reinforcing the University’s ambition to provide an inclusive educational experience for our learners, regardless of background or circumstance, you will have opportunities to drive or be involved in projects that embrace diversity and that are socially- driven.

How will I be taught and assessed?

At the centre of this course is studio-based activity. You’ll spend a significant amount of time in the studio working on both individual study and group tuition. On the course you are pushed to explore your own style, which you’ll build into your own distinctive portfolio that demonstrates your unique strengths and interests for prospective work opportunities after graduation.

Our experienced teaching team of practicing artists, art professionals and researchers, provides a supportive environment to help you reach your full potential during this formative stage of your career and boost your confidence. During your time with us you’ll benefit from a close-knit community with your fellow students, as well as tutors who are made up of practicing artists and researchers.

Your lecturers will provide you with current insight into the subject, as well as develop your learning through research, collaborative projects, industry briefs and external opportunities. This will help you refine your new skills, methods and knowledge to become critically engaged with your practice.

There will be clear emphasis on arts-based practice, where you will develop projects from concept to exhibition outcomes and be encouraged to adopt experimental approaches and methods. Exhibiting, networking and developing as a practicing artist is central to the course. Alongside this, you will be offered access to networks and opportunities for collaboration in a range of contexts, in order to develop transferable and entrepreneurial skills and experience of a range of environments, further extending your career options

As well as this, due to the University’s connections with local and regional arts and cultural organisations, you will have access to involvement with projects in collaboration with some of the county’s galleries and museums, as well as other creative opportunities.

You’ll also be assessed though; 1:1 or small group tutorials, seminars and lectures, portfolio and presentations, written assessments, sketchbooks, group critiques and self-directed study.

At the end of your course, you’ll exhibit your artwork as part of our popular Art and Design Summer Show. It’s a chance to showcase your talents and potentially catch the attention of future employers and talent scouts.