Course summary

If you love making your own work and using new mediums to express yourself, and feel more at home in an art gallery than a design studio, Fibre Arts might be the right option for you. You will develop and broaden your skills using mixed media, and might choose to engage with traditional techniques such as weaving, dying, macramé, felting, paper-making, or take a more unconventional approach. Throughout the course, you will explore the full breadth, developing a clear personal identity to creative work and an understanding of where it sits within the artistic field. You will develop the skills and confidence to apply for funding, residency and exhibition opportunities with which to build a career. Our students secure placements with arts organisations, styling companies, galleries and within education. They go on to find employment as Textile Artists, Creative Facilitators, Arts Coordinators, Designer Makers and Curators. About foundation courses This four year programme has been specifically designed to allow students who do not initially meet the entry requirements for a three year degree, to undertake additional level 3 study designed to ensure they are successful on their chosen degree programme. After successful completion of your foundation year, you will have the flexibility to switch (should you wish to change direction) onto a number of related undergraduate degree programmes within the School of Fashion and Textiles. What's covered in the course? The programme reflects the diversity of contemporary textile practice. We pride ourselves not only on the quality of our graduates, but also the diversity of their work. We want you to be you! Find your direction With creativity at the heart of learning, you will develop core design and technical skills while gaining vital professional and industry awareness. The course is brimming with choice points to help you focus your experience as you clarify your personal interests. You will be introduced to wide-ranging textile processes within the core technical areas of print, weave, knit and embroidery and embrace both digital technologies and traditional craft skills. The exciting potential of cross-disciplinary practice is supported and encouraged, giving you the option to either specialise or combine disciplines to take forward as your means of expression. Career-focused teaching is designed to support you in identifying professional aspirations from the breadth of opportunity within textile design, and help you to further tailor your learning and portfolio towards them. Having developed a distinctive and career-focused portfolio through the course, our unique Next Step module at the end of the final year bridges the gap between study and industry, allowing you time to put relevant strategies in place to help you achieve your ambitions with the support of the university network.

Course details