Fine Art - MPhil

The department offers supervision in an impressive range of contemporary art practices, as well as in Art History. Our staff's internationally significant research profiles, our excellent facilities and diverse cohort of postgraduate researchers has created a stimulating environment for you to undertake your practical or theoretical research.

We offer the expertise to support you in producing work that makes an important contribution to your field of practice, including:

-Painting

-Sculpture

-Digital media

-Drawing

-Performance

-Photography

-Printmaking

-Installation

-Video

You will be encouraged to take advantage of the specific research and practice expertise of our fine art staff . We also have a fantastic range of resources and opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative research across the University. Review our fine art academic staff research interests to ensure your research proposal is compatible with our expertise.

Newcastle is one of the best cities in the UK in which to study contemporary visual art. Its diverse and lively arts scene goes hand-in-hand with our long and distinguished history in the research, practice and teaching of fine art.

Quality and Ranking

We rank in the top 150 for Art and Design - QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019.

Delivery

The Fine Art MPhil can be practice-led or theoretical, with a final text submission of 50,000 words, or an equivalent combination of studio practice and text. You are expected to complete your submission within two years full-time or four years part time.

The Fine Art PhD can be practice-led or solely text based. The final submission for a practice-led PhD is a combination of an exhibition of creative work made over the period of study and a thesis. The thesis would typically be 30,000 words, which constitutes approximately 30% of the degree. A text based PhD is submitted as a thesis of 80,000 - 100,000 words. The submission is expected to take place between three or four years of study full time, or six years part time.

For both research degrees you will be supported by a supervisory team, comprising at least two members of staff with expertise in your area. Your supervisory team can include expertise from across a wide range of disciplines within the School.

School of Arts and Cultures

Being part of the School of Arts and Cultures means that you will have the opportunity to engage and collaborate with a broad range of theorists and practitioners from disciplines including:

• music
• digital media
• museum and heritage studies
• media and cultural studies

Interdisciplinary and cross-media activity is core to much of the research within the School. The Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NICAP) fosters and supports these activities. Central to NICAP is encouraging and enabling interdisciplinary practice-led support amongst our postgraduate community.

Fine art staff will encourage and support you to present at national and international conferences. You will also be able to maintain and develop your professional career through exhibiting, networking and other activities.

You will be encouraged to attend and make presentations at our regular fine art postgraduate seminars. These sessions aim to enhance research skills and encourage intellectual and practical exchange between you and our academic staff and visiting artists. You can also engage with research across the University to increase your awareness of cross-disciplinary potential and impact potential of your own research.

Facilities

We provide well-resourced workshops and student studios, from the open-plan first year studios designed for project work to purpose-built painting, sculpture, printmaking and digital media studios, all with full technical support. You will have 24 hour access to your studio space. Our facilities also include designated gallery spaces, seminar rooms, and a large lecture theatre.

We are based in the same building as the Hatton Gallery, one of the largest exhibition spaces in North East England. This accommodates both student shows and large touring exhibitions. The Hatton's permanent collection consists of works of art from five centuries and includes the Elterwater Merzbarn construction by Kurt Schwitters.

All students have the use of the award winning Philip Robinson Library and computer clusters around the University.

Visit the Fine Art - MPhil page on the Newcastle University website for more details!