BA Honours Fine Art Degree

Overview & facilities

The Enquiry
How do you perceive the world in a visual sense? On this BA Fine Art Degree with Honours in London,you will learn to equip your visual comment critically so that it communicates clearly to the outside world. Part of this process is gaining an understanding of what is contemporary and what is historical.

Our Philosophy
The BA Fine Art Degree with Honours is based on a philosophy that embraces Fine Art as a single discipline constructed of many different studio practices. Through these you will discover how to make a critical comment alongside the work's material qualities by being involved in installation, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, digital arts, performance, film and video.

How the Philosophy is applied
As a student, you will be able to work independently within the tutorial framework, so that you can acquire self-discipline and confidence to comment critically. This leads to many student-led initiatives and collaborations, which all contribute to the collective ethos of the course. Initiatives have included exhibitions and events, and many collaborative groups have continued beyond Middlesex.

Individual teaching
Specific teaching takes place within the tutorial groups, and this will enable you to benefit from having an individual tutor, as well as being part of a small peer group. More general teaching comes from tutorial contact with other staff, project space discussions and seminars. In addition, there is a regular Fine Art lecture series from visiting artists and curators, which gives you an insight into their professional experience.

Theory and Practice
We place emphasis on the importance of art history and theory in a critical studio practice. You will gain a specific knowledge of theory and practice through studio based tutorial teaching.

At the end of your degree you will exhibit your work at the Middlesex University Art and Design Degree Show.  The show is a celebration of the end of your studies and the start of your creative career, it's a great opportunity to show off your talents to friends, family and creative industry employers. 

Take a look at the Fine Art Degree Show 2010 micro-site to see our current final year students' work.

Programme flyer

You might also be interested in the two 12-week long Foundation courses, which run three times a year, successful completion of which will guarantee a place on a nominated BA Honours programme.

Foundation in Art and Design, Intensive Short Course

Foundation in Digital Arts, Intensive Short Course

NEWS

Recent Middlesex BA Fine Art graduate with first-class honours, Elizabeth Klanga has progressed to postgraduate study and is now an artist and director who presented The Wind Peformances, filmed as  part of the BBC2  doocumentary The Private  Life  Of  A Christmas  Masterpiece. The Wind Performances are part of a series of performances and photographs inspired by Sandro Botticelli's ‘Mystic Nativity’ 1500. To find out more, visit her website.

Content & modules

Level One students are introduced to the field of contemporary art practice and theory

• The first term introduces students to concepts of Time and Action - Space and Object, plus Image and Index in their studio practice, through a rotation of three projects
  
• In the second and third terms studio practice develops more individually
  
• Introduction to Contemporary Fine Art Practice and its history, with short written assignments culminating in a 2,000 word written submission.

Level Two students develop a deeper awareness of the critical demands of contemporary art

• Tutorials in Level Two help to develop a student's visual language as they experiment in their studio practice
• Students study issues within Visual Culture, Art and Philosophy, Art and the Community, with a concluding written submission of 2,500 words
• Students have an option of studying on the international exchange programme
• Art Practice in the Community option
• Level two culminates in an exhibition.

Level Three students are expected to develop their studio practice to a professional level

• Tutorial contact in Level Three changes the focus to how clearly an individual's visual language communicates
• 5,000 word research essay supported by a tutor
• Professional practice seminar series
• Art Practice in the Community option
• The second and third terms focus on bringing work to a professional level for a public exhibition (recently this has been at Truman Brewery, Brick Lane).

Modules

• Year 1

  Fine Art Practice: Beginnings and Directions (60 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to: Enable the initiation and development of individual practice through a process of material and conceptual exploration. Establish and develop an awareness of the breadth of Fine Art practices and current/historical discourses. Develop a students understanding of the relationship between media, material processes and ideas, theories and concepts. Establish and develop the experience and understanding a range of forms of research as the basis for practice. Develop an imaginative and adventurous approach to materials, ideas and process relevant to art practice. Develop the use of the range of available workshop practices.

  Formations of Fine Art Practice (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to: Develop a range of skills required to establish independent learning for undergraduate studies, in studio, and workshop time planning, research, technical, communication Develop an understanding of subject specific knowledge and skills and understand their transferability . Develop an awareness of professional practice in the field of contemporary art research, knowledge of field, exhibition, and awareness of criticism/journalism . Develop an understanding, through experience, of different forms of artistic practice and their contexts Develop skills in collaborative practice and team working

  Starting Out: Art Education and Educating Art (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to provide an introduction to the historical and theoretical frameworks informing contemporary art practice. It seeks to enable students to orient themselves with the extraordinarily expanded, complex and contested field of art today, exploring key questions, ideas and movements, and how they might answer, respond or use them. The module aims to engage students in the disciplines and pleasures of historical and theoretical research and writing, enabling students to comprehend a spectrum of practices from their most personal notes and notions, to highly specialized academic conventions enabling them to engage creatively in talking and writing about their interests and practices. The module exposes students to the highly expansive parameters of contemporary art practice, and covers a number of decisive topics, but since this expansiveness prevents comprehensiveness the emphasis is on the student s active engagement with the histories and theories that are of most consequence for their practice, and the modules seeks to enable students to explore and demonstrate these in contrast to received or canonical stories about what art is or should be.

• Year 2

  Art Practice and the Community: Placement (30 Credits) - Optional

  This module aims to enable a student to: Take the opportunity to undertake projects or placements with a community context. Develop an informed insight into the significance and value of art practice within a social context at either the level of the community, the group or the individual. Develop students understanding of the relevance of current/historical discourses to their own practice, concerns and interests. Develop a professional and able use of relevant workshops and technical resources. Produce a body of art work through and relevant to the collaborative community context. Prepare and make presentations of work and ideas based on research and practice both verbally and in a journal.

  Fine Art Practice and Development (60 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to enable a student to: Continue to develop a full understanding of the importance of an imaginative and adventurous approach to materials, ideas and processes relevant to art practice. Foster the awareness of the value and productiveness of risk taking as central to artistic and creative processes. Develop an understanding of the current or historical discourses to their practices, its concerns and directions. Establish a clear understanding of the appropriate research and sources as the basis for individual development of practice. Development a professional and able use of all workshop and tools appropriate to the individuals programme. Understand the critical and theory area applied, area of interest and work of the individual student. Create and produce a full body of work and plan and present this though exhibition.

  Fine Art Practice, Research and Reflection (30 Credits) - Optional

  This module aims to enable a student to: Develop relevant research relating studio practice to ideas, materials, processes, sources, history and context. Develop their understanding of the relevant current or historical discourses to their practice, its concerns and direction. Produce evidence of focused research in notebook, through documentation and studio work. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of an imaginative, risk-taking and adventurous approach to the understanding of practice, use of material processes, and the undertaking of research. Establish a clear and appropriate form and level of research understanding of sources and references use in the development of studio work. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between critical and theory area applied to the area of interest and artwork of the student. Prepare and make presentations based on ongoing research, work and ideas.

  Fine Art Theories and Practices (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  To set out paradigms for an understanding of the theoretical, critical and social contexts of fine art practice. To build on the learning processes developed in level 1 to further develop the habits of research, enquiry and writing in relation to individual practice and its global context. To develop an understanding of how fine art practices address diverse publics and institutions. To integrate the diverse methodologies and media of contemporary art practice in a general understanding of what it means to be an artist in the contemporary world.

• Year 3

  Art Practice, Collaborations, Community Participation and Exhibition (60 Credits) - Optional

  This module aims to enable a student to: Develop self-reliance, professionalism and use of initiative when developing art practice within a social context. Further develop an informed insight into the significance and value of art practice at either the level of the community, the group or the individual. Take up the opportunity to initiate or further develop work within a community or collaborative context which has a clear focus upon the needs or potential of a particular client group, host agency or issue. Continue engaging with an ambitious level of practice that is informed by an appropriate level of knowledge and research and that forms the content of a final exhibition of work. The practice must demonstrate a clear conceptual ground that is realised through critical and analytical processes and technical skills. Present coherently the development of research and practice through the form of an on-going journal.

  Critical and Contextual Proposition (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to enable students to identify and deliver a research project that is the product of sustained and creative engagement both with a range of research resources and an area of studio-practice. The module will consolidate skills of project identification, research organisation and development, time management, written and visual analysis and the presentation of a critical argument/thesis. The module further consolidates the development of skills required for autonomous learning.

  Professional Awareness, Peer Critique and Curatorial Practice (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to enable a student to: Prepare and make presentations on research, practice, work and ideas to and lead discuss of the peer group . Demonstrate through presentations the thinking though of the relation between studio , theory and/or history in the context of the field of contemporary art. Demonstrate skills in the use of appropriate technology/IT for the purposes of presentation. Demonstrate the relevance of chosen research topics/subjects to studio practice. Demonstrate knowledge of professional practice and career option though the field of Fine Art and the Creative Industries, an imaginative and adventurous approach to materials, ideas and process relevant to art practice. Make appropriate use of the range of available workshops. Establish a professional understanding of the field of contemporary art.

  Specialist Development, Practice and Exhibition (60 Credits) - Optional

  This module aims to enable a student to: Develop, analyse and reflect upon an ambitious level of individual practice that is informed by an appropriate level of knowledge and research and that forms the content of a final exhibition of work. The practice must demonstrate a clear conceptual ground that is realised though critical and analytical processes and technical skills. This understanding of practice must also be articulated through a written statement that accompanies the final exhibition. Be able to imaginatively work with and through materials and outcomes in relation to ideas, theories and concepts in relation to other practices in the field of contemporary art. Be able to work productively with uncertainty, ambiguity and the limits of knowledge . Demonstrate a focused understanding of the relevance of current/historical discourses to their own practice, concerns and interests. To develop a deep understanding of the relationship between practice and ideas, theories and concepts as related to the forming of a dissertation subject. To continue the gathering of appropriate research to support the development of practice and dissertation. Demonstrate an imaginative and adventurous approach to materials, ideas and process relevant to art practice. Make appropriate use of the range of available workshops. Establish a professional understanding of the field of contemporary art.

  Specialist Development, Practice and Exhibition (60 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module aims to enable a student to: Develop, analyse and reflect upon an ambitious level of individual practice that is informed by an appropriate level of knowledge and research and that forms the content of a final exhibition of work. The practice must demonstrate a clear conceptual ground that is realised though critical and analytical processes and technical skills. This understanding of practice must also be articulated through a written statement that accompanies the final exhibition. Be able to imaginatively work with and through materials and outcomes in relation to ideas, theories and concepts in relation to other practices in the field of contemporary art. Be able to work productively with uncertainty, ambiguity and the limits of knowledge . Demonstrate a focused understanding of the relevance of current/historical discourses to their own practice, concerns and interests. To develop a deep understanding of the relationship between practice and ideas, theories and concepts as related to the forming of a dissertation subject. To continue the gathering of appropriate research to support the development of practice and dissertation. Demonstrate an imaginative and adventurous approach to materials, ideas and process relevant to art practice. Make appropriate use of the range of available workshops. Establish a professional understanding of the field of contemporary art.

Entry & applying

A minimum 220 Ucas tariff points and Foundation Diploma in Art and Design is desirable also GCSE grade C in English Language Applicants will be invited to attend portfolio interview.

Apply now

Qualifications accepted

For a comprehensive list of qualifications accepted by Middlesex, see further information under entry requirements

English language requirements

You must have competence in English language and we normally require Grade C GCSE or an equivalent qualification. The most common English Language requirements for international students are IELTS 6.0 (with minimum 5.5 in all four components) or TOEFL internet based 72 (with at least 17 in listening & writing, 20 in speaking and 18 in reading).

Middlesex also offers an Intensive Academic English course (Pre-Sessional) that ranges from 5-17 weeks depending on your level of English. Successful completion of this course would meet English language entry requirements. For more information on applying for the pre-sessional please email english@mdx.ac.uk.

Entry into year two or three (transfer students)

If you have achieved a qualification such as a foundation degree or HND, or have gained credit at another university, you may be able to enter a Middlesex course in year two or three. For full details of how this works see transfer students

UK/EU applicants with existing higher education qualifications

If you have already been awarded a qualification at the same level as the course you are applying for, you may not be eligible for a tuition fee loan, see fees and funding for more information.

Applying

Applications for UK and EU students should be made to UCAS – the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. The institution code for Middlesex is M80, and the code name is MIDDX. You also need the code for the course you wish to apply for – this is found in the 'at a glance' box above.

International students from outside the EU can make a direct application.  We have a network of regional offices across the world to assist you with your application.  They have worked with people from your region coming to Middlesex before and can help. Read more on international applications

You might also be interested in the two 12-week long Foundation courses, which run three times a year, successful completion of which will guarantee a place on a nominated BA Honours programme.

Foundation in Art and Design, Intensive Short Course

Foundation in Digital Arts, Intensive Short Course

Fees & funding

The tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for UK/EU students is £9,000.
The tuition fee for the 2012/2013 academic year for International students is £10,400.

Click here to find out more about fees, funding and our scholarships in 2012.

Careers & placements

In addition to the rewards and challenges of becoming a professional artist, in the course of their studies Fine Art graduates are helped to develop an extensive range of transferrable skills which are highly valued by most quality employers who seek to employ graduates from the Arts and Humanities initiative, self motivation, resourcefulness, excellent written and verbal communications skills, ability to work both alone and in groups, and the ability to be reflective and constructively self-critical about projects one has initiated. In a highly crowded field, Fine Art graduates are taught to think strategically and work flexibly, so that whether success in their chosen vocation comes quickly or slowly, they can be a valued member of the workforce in the meantime.

Middlesex has strong links with art and design employers. Our industry partners sponsor final year students, give visiting lectures and hundreds of art and design agencies, organisations and other employers attend our final year degree show each year.

Our Careers Service offers you a range of support both while you’re studying with us – and after you’ve graduated.

Placements

Work placements are proven to increase your success in the job market – as well as being a fantastic experience. We encourage as many students as possible to grasp this opportunity. As part of your second year you will have the opportunity to carry out a placement of a minimum of 2 days a week.  This will provide you with first-hand experience of art practice in the community organisation. We have a Placement Office which will support you through the placement process.

Past students (alumni)

Past students include Anish Kapoor, Turner Prize winner, as well as Hayley Newman (1988-92), Siobhán Hapaska, Bethan Huws and Alison Goldfrapp, lead singer and musician with Goldfrapp.

Recent Middlesex BA Fine Art graduate with first-class honours, Elizabeth Klanga has progressed to postgraduate study and is now an artist and director who presented The Wind Peformances, filmed as  part of the BBC2  doocumentary The Private  Life  Of  A Christmas  Masterpiece. The Wind Performances are part of a series of performances and photographs inspired by Sandro Botticelli's ‘Mystic Nativity’ 1500. To find out more, visit her website.