Course summary

This Foundation Degree is awarded by the University of Gloucestershire, based at Bristol School of Art. You will be able to develop and extend your fine art skills, alongside engaging with a range of fundamental principles and expectations relating to contemporary Fine Art practice, globally and into local cultural life.  You will engage with current debates, research and historical precedent in order to come to a personal position as an artist -your ambitions and how you choose to define your practice.  Alongside the continuing development of your own studio work, you will undertake modules that require you to research and engage with examples of practice within social, community and other contexts.   This degree offers students the chance to engage with contemporary fine art practice and its relationship to the broader cultural and creative industries. You will engage with taught workshops, independent studio/workshop activities, seminars, tutorials and lectures. Students will have the opportunity to experiment and specialise in a range of different media including printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, lens-based processes, installation, 3D processes, performance, photography and digital processes. You will identify primary and supporting focus areas within Fine Art, although this will not limit opportunities for you to work outside of these areas. It is hoped that this will contribute to your own sense of an individual creative identity.  Later studio practice modules will build upon your skills encouraging you to be increasingly autonomous and independent. In contextual studies modules you will make links between your own practice, art history and theory, and encountering Fine Art practice and practitioners in social, community, and/or commercial contexts. You will research the ways in which Fine Artists, both in the past and now, contribute to the wider cultural, commercial, and social environments.  You will learn to use high levels of creative thinking, technical, intellectual and communication skills, as well as developing your individual creative identity as a Fine Art practitioner.  During year two, you will be required to undertake work-related learning in conjunction with your studio practice by undertaking a work placement and participating in an off-site exhibition with your student colleagues. The intention is to apply your skills in vocationally relevant ways, for engaging with public audiences through community arts, Professional Practice and exhibiting work.  It is a very practical degree and your work is assessed via both practical and written coursework. The Foundation Degree is a qualification in its own right and is equivalent to the first 2 years of a degree. You may wish to progress onto our 1-year BA (Hons) Fine Art (Level 6) programme. Part time routes are available. For more information, please email [email protected] GRADUATE OPPORTUNITIES: • Fine Artist • Curator • Museum/Gallery work • Artist Residencies • Education • Postgraduate • Further studies ​