Course summary
The Contemporary Art Practice MA is designed to prepare you for continuous artistic, professional and academic development. We will support you to develop research methods and personal goals tailored to your creative practice and professional ambitions. You’ll be introduced to emerging trends in contemporary practice including presentation, installation, curatorial and representational issues, and learn how to develop research methods to inform your creative decisions. You will be encouraged to ask questions and take a personal and critical position in the globalised creative world, equipped with the skills to produce and exhibit your work, to embrace change in the fast-evolving creative industries and challenge artistic conventions. Teaching takes place in our creative studio environment with support from a highly skilled team of technicians, and you will have access to a range of workshops to experiment and innovate with materials and processes. Our exhibiting artists and research-active academics have interdisciplinary expertise in drawing, painting, sculpture, analogue and digital photography, digital media, printmaking, public art, installation and relational practice. You will build important professional practice skills throughout the course with opportunities to curate and exhibit your work. Develop a dialogue around your work by participating in discussion groups and seminars and be part of a dynamic cohort of visual arts students, from BA to PhD. Key features
- You can exit the course with a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate award depending on the credits you have successfully achieved.
- Through bold experimentation we will encourage you to forge your own path in the globalised creative world.
- Benefit from collaborative learning in studio groups alongside personalised teaching experiences.
- Our team of exhibiting artists and research-active academics will ensure that your teaching is informed by current research and the latest technologies.
- Our partnerships with the city’s creative and cultural centres, including Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, Curve, Embrace Arts and Leicester Print Workshop offer opportunities to promote your work and provide access to professionals in the creative industries.
- Our award-winning Vijay Patel building has been designed to provide the space and facilities where all of our art and design students can develop their ideas and flourish.
- You will be supported by a highly skilled team of technicians with access to a range of workshops including metal, wood, plaster, resin and other processes, as well as CAD facilities, photographic darkrooms, studios and editing suites.
Modules
Block 1: Research Lab 1 This creative research module is designed to initiate you into creative research methods and enables you to develop your own reflective and critical methodology. You will learn via a combination of workshops and lectures about existing artistic methodologies and then develop your own research that utilises a wide range of contextual and theoretical sources. You will be encouraged to develop personal philosophies with regard to your own creative practice and the ways in which you might seek to find creative solutions within your work. You will be supported in developing an understanding of the precedents, frameworks and debates that form the nature of the context for your discipline/s. A series of structured learning activities provide a multi-disciplinary platform that will support you in extending and developing your portfolio of creative research skills. Block 2: Experimental and Curatorial Practice This module supports you to develop and evaluate a contemporary art practice, and the production of an individual body of work, as a means to a tacit and articulate understanding of the contemporary subject at an advanced level. You are encouraged to extend the learning of Research Lab 1 and demonstrate creative strategies relevant to the context of contemporary fine art. The module supports you in the production and articulation of a peer exhibition that employs the use of critical reflection in the editing and selecting of work in the context of contemporary debates and strategies of display. At the end of the module, you will collaborate with your fellow students in the production of a group show in a gallery space. Block 3: Research Lab 2 This module follows on from Research Lab 1 and develops the ideas you have initiated into an extended piece of critical writing. The aim of the module is to support you in critical research and developing and refining writing for a targeted audience and platform. You will learn about a variety of potential locations for your written work and will use a variety of different forms of writing which could include a journal article, a review, an essay, a piece of art writing or critical creative text. You will gain an in-depth theoretical insight into your practice and its contexts. Block 4: Research Residency In this module you will negotiate a project with an external partner, understand how a residency functions and learn how to set up a project independently. Putting into practice you research objectives from previous modules, you are encouraged to engage with the site in conceptual and material processes. You will be required to do research on the site to situate your response. You will produce both a project outline that demonstrates the research done prior to the residency and the work you set out to make. The exhibition should evidence a genuine engagement with site and situational specificity. Blocks 5 and 6: Exhibitionary Practice This practice-based module considers the practical, conceptual, theoretical, and perceptual processes of Fine Art. The module is the culmination of a sequence of practical modules designed to support you through the establishment, development and evaluation of a contemporary art practice, and the production of an individual body of work, as a means to a tacit and articulate understanding of the contemporary subject at an advanced level. The module supports you in the independent development, refinement, and evaluation of a body of experimental work and culminates in the curation of a major professional exhibition. Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.
Assessment method
Teaching is delivered through a combination of one-to-one tutorials, group seminars, lectures, workshops, field-trips, and artists’ talks. We have dedicated studio spaces, and all students have a space in which to work. You will be introduced to contemporary debates relating to presentation, installation, curatorial and representational issues, and assessed on your independent and creative response to these issues. Assessment tasks include portfolios, a written reflection, presentation, and exhibitions. You will learn how to develop appropriate research methods in order to inform your creative decisions and written work will develop you as an art-writer, with specific skills that are tailored to your practice. You will build significant professional practice skills throughout the course and exhibit your work to the public three times, both individually and in groups, gaining first-hand professional experience in the art world. The teaching team is comprised of practicing artists. This ensures that you will learn real-world skills that are in touch with the commercial sector, the latest technologies and current thinking. You will be supported by a highly skilled team of technical demonstrators with access to a range of workshops including metal, wood, plaster, resin, and other processes, as well as CAD facilities, photographic darkrooms, studios and editing suites. Contact hours In your first two terms you will normally attend around 4 hours of timetabled taught sessions including lectures, tutorials and workshop and studio sessions each week, and be expected to undertake at least 31 hours of independent study each week. Your third term will be pre-dominantly self-directed (including meetings with your tutor), during which you can expect to undertake 35 hours of independent study each week.
Entry requirements
You should have the equivalent or above of a 2:2 UK bachelor’s honours degree in Fine Art or a related subject. If you have other professional qualifications or industry experience we will consider your application on an individual basis.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
| England | £9435 | Year 1 |
| Northern Ireland | £9435 | Year 1 |
| Scotland | £9435 | Year 1 |
| Wales | £9435 | Year 1 |
| International | £15800 | Year 1 |
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.
Provider information
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH