Course summary

Plymouth College of Art has been granted full university status and formally recognised with the new title of Arts University Plymouth, following approval by the Privy Council. This makes us the City of Plymouth’s first specialist arts university. The title of Arts University Plymouth signifies a change to the way that the world will see us, our position within the sector and the mobility of our graduates; but not a change in the way that we see ourselves or what we do. Arts University Plymouth will build upon the existing strength of our unique culture and incredible community; we have no plans to change the specialist focus of the work we do together. The name Arts University Plymouth will appear on our qualifications, making it easier for employers and peers to recognise that our students were taught at a leading specialist arts university. In May 2022 we were awarded the Best Small or Specialist University at the 2022 WhatUni Student Choice Awards, coming top in a list of well-respected specialist UK universities, based on unbiased and honest reviews from students across the UK, in a category that highlights the quality of our provision as a specialist creative university. Our MA Fine Art offers you an intensive personal programme of creative study informed by debates in contemporary art and critical theory. Ethos The MA Fine Art encourages diverse approaches to the relationship between theory and practice, emphasising material exploration, collaborative working and the cross-fertilisation of disciplines to open new conceptual spaces. Our programme encourages you to develop hybrid approaches to investigating your experience, while responding to the rapidly changing social contexts that are reshaping contemporary art. Critical enquiry and practice-based exploration are central to the programme, helping you to make dynamic and challenging artwork that is sensitive to new approaches to display. Outline You will be encouraged to develop a personal methodology for drawing, while exploring a range of strategies, materials and technologies. The programme will stimulate connections, debates and new approaches to drawing across varied disciplines in a dynamic studio setting, with access to workshop areas across the college. Throughout the programme, we will support you to seek opportunities to extend your practice, both nationally and internationally. Taught delivery within the programme provides a mix of discipline-specific methods and cross-disciplinary approaches that can be applied across creative and commercial sectors. Our shared module structure allows you to develop a dialogue with creative practitioners across the Graduate School. Supported practices This programme supports ambitious practices that explore a range of contexts across 2D, 3D and 4D media, including works created for gallery display, site-specific installation and digital distribution.