BA (Hons) Fine Art (Top-up)
- Study Mode: Full Time
- Location: High Wycombe
- Duration: One Year
- Start Date: September 2024
Turn your passion into a future career, inspire others with your ideas and creations, change how we see the world, and help mould the future through your artistic practice. If you have completed a foundation-level degree, HND, or equivalent qualifications in a relevant Art and Design subject, you can choose to top-up your studies to gain a full bachelor’s degree.
Explore art practices as a multidisciplinary subject, and fuel creativity and experimentation whilst define your artistic practice.
Why study this subject?
This sector is one that could take you world-wide from galleries and exhibitions to experiential stunts and commissions, wherever you see you work ending up, with the right teaching you’ll discover how to turn ideas and concepts into a career.
On this top-up you’ll become a well-rounded practitioner, develop a unique style, and research methodologies as you find best expresses your creative vision.
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 facilities can I use?
Fine Art students will have their dedicated studio spaces to work in, where you will set up a ‘home away from home’, a critical and developmental space for you to make your work and grow your practice. You will also have access to Art & Design resources.
You’ll be able to benefit from our Fashion and Textile workshops, which homes our textiles and fashion, screen printing and letterpress equipment. As well as this you’ll also have access to 3D design workshops where you can experiment with mixed media, ceramics, metalwork and woodwork.
You'll also be supported to develop your photographic as well as moving image techniques in our industry-standard Photography studios and wet darkroom and edit any video work with the latest Adobe Creative software in our dedicated Mac media suites. You can also access software remotely through our BucksAnywhere platform.
We also have specialist technicians and demonstrators on site to support and share their knowledge with you, when and if you need it.
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.
This course offers you the opportunity to engage with cutting edge approaches to material and visual practices, as well as those that challenge the boundaries of the field. This is done through conceptual, theoretical, cultural, and ethical frameworks that underpin the contemporary arts, through practical workshops, studio-based practice and self-managed projects.
The curriculum for this course has been designed to help you develop your knowledge of Fine Art through experimentation, investigation, interdisciplinary practices, collaboration, socially engaged practice, and draw from the intersections between analogue and digital approaches to making.
To achieve the full BA (Hons) in Fine Art you will need to complete a major project, contextual report as well as complete the Professional Practice module.
The major project and contextual report will allow you to investigate an area of interested to you within photography. You will cover the whole research process, undertaking critical and contextual investigation and reflective analysis of your practice. You will be allocated a supervisor, who will offer support and advice.
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.
What are the course entry requirements?
A typical offer will require a UCAS tariff score of: 88 - 112
UCAS points can be obtained through qualifications such as A levels, T levels, BTEC or an Access to Higher Education course in a relevant subject. Please list all your qualifications on the application form as you will be asked to provide copies when we receive your application.
Applicants will need to complete an interview and/or demonstrate portfolio work, further guidance is given on the interview and portfolio advice section.
For further details of our international English entry requirements, please visit our international pages.
Modules
This provides a guide of the modules that make up your course. You can find more information about how your course is structured on our Academic Advice section.
What are the tuition fees
Home
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Home, Academic Year 2024 - 2025: £9,250 per year
International
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Overseas/International, Academic Year 2024 - 2025: £15,150 per year
What are my career prospects?
Throughout your time with us we’ll support you on the route to your chosen career. We’ll help you to develop crucial skills, encouraging you to become enterprising, employable and good leaders. Our Careers and Employability Team also help you find employment after graduation.
On graduating from the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree, you will be equipped to apply for jobs that demand well-developed creative skills across the arts and creative industries, or become self-employed/freelance and undertake work across a range of specialisms including:
- Visual artist
- Interdisciplinary arts practitioner
- Illustrator
- Photographer
- Digital artist
- Animator
- Printmaker
- Designer
- Artworker
- Image researcher
- Visual Consultant
- Technician
- Curation
- Exhibition designer
You may also wish to stay on at Buckinghamshire New University and study a full-time or part-time postgraduate course.
Course leader
