Masters Degrees in Fabric & Leather Crafts, United Kingdom

If you are a scientist or technologist wanting transition into an industry with exciting career opportunities or are already involved in the leather industry but wanting to increase your knowledge and skills, this is an ideal course for you.

Here at the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT), you will cover the science and technology of leather manufacture in a way designed to suit graduates for senior tannery positions. Whilst developing the critical mind it provides an excellent base for a move into Research and Development departments within chemical companies, tanneries and brands or into academic careers.

Leather is returning to prominence as nearly all alternatives require using up non-renewable carbon-based materials. Scientific advances in conjunction with environmental responsibility have transformed the leather manufacture industry into a modern scientific process, creating a highly sustainable material with high value in many sectors such as sports, automobiles, luxury goods and fashion.

Northampton graduates have been at the forefront of these changes making our leather alumni one of the best bodies in the industry to be associated with. Successful graduates from this course can expect easy access into senior industry positions.

This course is ideal for embedding into corporate continuing personal development (CPD) programmes. Taking this into account, ICLT delivers the course in a way that enables employees to only be away from their place of work for three months between September and December. During this period the theoretical and practical elements of the course are delivered in an intensive manner, after which the employees are able to return to their workplace to continue with their assessments and research elements of the programme. The course also enables students to study in the traditional manner where they stay at University for the whole academic year if desired.

As one of the foremost centres for leather education in the world, ICLT is dedicated to providing cutting edge education and training in the theory and practice of leather technology at the highest level.

If you do not meet our standard entry requirements, it is possible to undertake a single or a number of modules. The non-credit bearing course is called ‘Professional Leather Development’ Course, for further information about this course please visit the Professional Leather Development Course page: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/study/courses/professional-leather-development-course/

Course content

The MSc Leather Technology (Professional) course is unique in that it aims to provide the opportunity to acquire and/or enhance technical skills within the subject of leather technology. Students will study within an environment that encourages the development of intellectual creativity as well as providing transferable skills to undertake research with respect to advanced technologies, developing skills and flexibility necessary to discriminate between technical and entrepreneurial issues and relating these to the needs of the leather industry such as successful management of the commercial operations.

This course offers students the opportunity to work and learn in a state-of-the-art teaching tannery for some of the modules, and will also be working with staff with a mix of academic and industrial experience. Many of the staff carry out research in various leather subjects and over the last 20 years Northampton leather research has built a leading world-wide reputation.

Industry leaders are frequent visitors to meet students and provide knowledge on current technical and commercial aspects of leather and its fascinating chain from farm to fashion or one of its many other end uses.

The MSc Leather Technology (Professional) course is delivered to meet student flexibility. In order for you to complete Master’s level qualification, you must complete up to seven modules and an independent research dissertation. During the course, you will complete six compulsory modules and choose up to two optional modules. This ensures that you have a basic understanding of principles pertinent to the leather industry with an added advantage in that you are able tailor the course to meet your particular needs and career aspirations.

Further information on the indicative content of the leather modules is available through the module catalogue for Leather Technology (Level 7).

Course modules (16/17)

-Leather Process Operations
-Performance Leather Process Operations
-Quality Evaluation and Systematic Problem Solving
-Sustainable Manufacture within the Leather Industry
-Research and Analytical Methods
-Dissertation
-From Hide to High Street
-Leather Science
-Marketing: Principles and Management
-International Marketing Strategy
-Managing Operations
-Podiatry: Applied to the Footwear Industry
-Wastes Management

Methods of Learning

Theoretical lectures and seminars are reinforced by practical examples, case studies and site visits. Our virtual learning environment allows you and course tutors to exchange ideas as well as submit assignments.

Assessments

A variety of approaches to teaching is used such as lectures, seminars, workshops, practical sessions with course teaching materials made available through our virtual learning environment. Modules are assessed by a wide range of methods and include the following: practical reports, seminar files, reflective portfolios, presentations and dissertation.

Facilities and Special Features

As the UK’s only university to integrate leather technology with subjects such as fashion, marketing, business and the environment, we are proud to house an on campus working tannery for practical leather making as well as laboratories to enable leather testing.
-100% employment of graduates in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
-This course is unique to the University of Northampton and not offered anywhere else in the UK or Europe.
-The University has an on campus tannery and laboratories for teaching.
-Modules to cater for leather career choices in practical leather making and testing.
-Industry-led practical workshops and seminars in technology and supply chain knowledge delivered by international experts.
-Continual networking with potential employers within the industry.
-Opportunities to attend international leather fairs in Hong Kong, Milan and Shanghai.
-Bursaries and scholarships available for leather students.

Careers

Graduates of this course are in high demand and are able to secure suitable posts in leather making or associated industries, including technical management, research and development, technical services, higher education and government bodies. When it comes to jobs in the leather industry, demand exceeds supply and opportunities are available worldwide with excellent progression prospects. Employment opportunities can also be found in other materials production or chemical industries. Successful graduates from this course can also proceed to undertake MPhil or PhD studies with us.

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Students on this course cultivate an innovative view of surface design. They are challenged to ruthlessly explore pattern and decoration, reflecting on the social, cultural and aesthetic context for surface pattern design in the 21st century. New relationships like that of surfaces and light are being investigated, while new materials and technologies continually challenge designers to develop fresh ideas and methods. Students get to research and experiment with lots of materials and new technology to decorate ceramics, plastics, cloth, glass, wood, metal and paper. They use our cutting edge digital equipment to develop designs for wallpaper, tableware, floor coverings, interior products, garments and jewellery. We help our students find their own creative process and to develop their own direction and style which enables them to choose a rewarding career.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND ASSESSMENT

Practical work is carried out within our extensive and very well equipped studios and workshops. A programme of guest lecturers and visits to exhibitions, workshops, manufacturers, etc. further supports study.

A special feature of this course is the blend of practice and theory which underpins the student projects. As a student on a MA course in the School of Art, Design and Performance you will belong to a postgraduate design community. You will study some modules alongside students from other design disciplines. Through participation in a common programme, you will experience a strong sense of community, sharing of knowledge and access to a wide range of staff skills and resources.

Practical and theoretical elements will be assessed both during and at the end of each module. Assessment strategies for the Practice modules will usually involve portfolio assessment, presentations, summaries of reflective journals and the learning agreement. There are intermediate exit awards at appropriate stages.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Surface pattern designers work with many different products, processes and materials. They may practice within conventional design studios in traditional industries as well as in the smaller creative industries. The student will be expected to develop a personal focus of research and design or craft practice, which should lead to a package of research activities (live projects, placements, competitions, attendance at exhibitions and trade fairs, etc.) appropriate to their field of study. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to pursue a critical enquiry alongside the physical development of work. They should move toward developing concepts and understanding context.

The core belief of the MA degree is that understanding for the Design Practitioner can only be achieved through doing, making and creating. Thus a central theme of the course is that of 'Reflective Practice' where academic and theoretical issues arise out of Practice itself and where the Practice is informed by the theoretical considerations. Students will be asked to keep a reflective journal to record their thoughts, ideas and discoveries.

The MA exists in the framework of the University modular scheme. The first step for every new student is a two to three week induction block in which the student's proposed area of study is discussed, negotiated and formulated with their supervisor into a learning agreement. Following this induction and diagnostic phase, students continue to develop their physical work in Surface Pattern Practice 1. In Semester 2, they undertake Practice 2, which involves the opportunity for field study or external placement. Running parallel with, and complementary to the practice modules, are two Research for Creative Design Practice modules, one studied in semester 1 and the other in Semester 2.

The course is concluded in Semester 3 with the Postgraduate Project/Dissertation and Surface Pattern Practice 3 modules. In the Practice module, students continue their investigation into a particular personal area of study, leading to a final assessment presentation or public body of work.

Fundamental to the philosophy of the course is providing the opportunity for students to explore and realise their individual aspirations and potential, creating a framework for developing as skilled and informed professional practitioners.

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The MA Embroidery course will provide you with an opportunity to specialise in stitch, in the broadest sense of the word. Embroidery has vast potential as a creative medium and can be used within art, craft and design outcomes. You will be expected to have an understanding of the context for your work and undertake appropriate visual research. Both traditional and digital technological processes are available in specialist workshops, including Cornely, Irish, domestic, and single head computerised machines. The studios and workshops offer a lively and supportive place to test out and visualise ideas.

Design Network

Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Embroidery is part of an innovative design network — a community of staff and students exploring design ideas in a discursive, cross-disciplinary studio environment. Critically informed practical designers, the group works experimentally, inspired by new insights and possibilities.

While studying towards a particular qualification at MA/MFA level, students experience their subject in the broader context of contemporary design practice.

Specialist Environment

Dedicated spaces for the postgraduate community have been developed to enable the postgraduate community to flourish. These spaces, for thinking and practice, are located centrally within the School of Art, allowing easy access to an extensive range of workshops where the combination of traditional and state of the art equipment opens up a world of exciting possibilities.

Course Content

The MA Design: Embroidery is made up of four units totalling 180 credits.

The programme is designed to help you acclimatise to the challenges of MA level research and practice, enabling you to identify and describe a clear direction for your postgraduate design study.

You will be encouraged to develop design propositions that encompass key design issues and have complexity and ambition, taking full consideration of the relative contextual drivers.

You will also be encouraged and supported to extend your experience in the professional sphere either through a practical project, research context, exchange, work experience, or other negotiated professional set of interactions with an external partner, groups of students and creative industry.

Towards the end of the programme you will undertake a major project to consolidate your past research and practice into fully realised collections, pieces, proposals, business plans, or exhibitions – what ever means is appropriate to the work. You will also have developed a strategy for the continuation of your practice located and contextualised to the profession or discipline.

If you choose to progress to MFA Design: Embroidery award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.

This award is focused on the continuation of your practice aligned to the research and selection of appropriate public or professional venues and platforms to disseminate a significant body of work. You will be required to produce work for a public audience in the most relevant and appropriate form along with any implicit publicity and dissemination material.

Resources

We have developed a dedicated postgraduate area occupying an entire floor of the main School of Art building, offering an exciting space to be, both intellectually and practically. The centre is located in the newly refurbished Chatham Tower with studios, design laboratories, seminar rooms and extensive workshops that form the nucleus of this vibrant, cross-disciplinary learning environment.

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Our MA Textiles course is constructed around the development of individual research into textile culture, craft and design. It will enable you to combine previous experience of textiles practice with a personal project.

As a student on our course, you'll be encouraged and supported through the process of exploration, interrogation, transformation and resolution. You'll question your own conventions of making, challenge your own assumptions about your work, innovate with materials, processes, techniques and ideas, and emerge from the postgraduate experience with a renewed sense of personal vision.

Our course team are practising researchers, involved in a range of textile practices, exhibiting and publishing internationally, including Professor Lesley Millar MBE. You'll benefit from our links with established artists and designers drawn from an international cohort, studio-workshops and galleries, as well as with the Craft Study Centre. This is a purpose-built museum, research centre and gallery dedicated to crafts based at our Farnham campus.

On this course you'll be taught through tutorials, lecturers, seminars and critiques support the development of your research and practice. As part of the course you're expected to undertake some form of professional practice, such as a live brief, competition, application for a residency, funding or a work placement.

Industry Partners

As part of this course, you'll have access to well-established industry connections. These include:

-The Crafts Council

-Royal School of Needlework

-Farnham Maltings

-Selvedge Magazine

-Nuno Corporation

-The New Ashgate Gallery

-Melin Tregwynt Woollen Mill

Recent guest lecturers include:

-Rachel Kelly, wallpaper designer

-Yosi Anaya, textiles designer

-Dr Jane Harris, textiles designer.

Careers

Our course will equip you with a host of valuable and transferable skills. Upon successful completion, you may decide to become self-employed, or forge a career within the craft and design industries. These offer a variety of career opportunities, including:

-Freelance design professionals

-Self-employed designer-makers

-Textile designers

-Public art practitioners

-Textile conservationists and curators

-Arts educators and teachers

-Textile stylists

-Fashion buyers and retailers

-Gallery directors.

Virtual Media Space

Visit our Postgraduate Virtual Media Space to find out more about our courses, see what it's like to study at UCA and gain access to our campus virtual tours.

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The course philosophy is that of experimentation, offering a challenge to conventional notions of medium - specificity in order to properly facilitate your ‘style' of expression and your inherent interests.

Course Overview

MA Textiles within the Contemporary Dialogues portfolio offers an exciting and innovative re-thinking of Postgraduate provision that reflects the strategic thinking of Swansea College of Art. The portfolio facilitates migration between diverse thematic disciplines, exploring new ideas and conceptual approaches to allow young artists and designers to confront the issues that face society today and into the future.

The portfolio’s ethos of collaborative dialogues through material practices provides an innovative model of design, fine and applied arts education. This development allows students from all pathways to experience and share creative practices and innovative mind-sets through inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary dialogues. This ethos is enhanced within each programme to stimulate ‘collaborative’ practices and experimentation across a broader spectrum of specialist fields, developing graduates with the contextual awareness, creative thinking and technical skills to operate at the forefront of their discipline.

During the course of your studies you will be supported by specialist staff, leading professionals and practicing artists through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. We have exceptional traditional and digital facilities, housed in spacious purpose-build workshops. Through these, we encourage creative freedom within all of our students and support you in challenging conventional thinking and established practices and facilitate new technological advances across a broad range of disciplines. We have found that through collaborative experimentation and innovative design thinking our students are able to produce work that meets the challenges and respond to the demands of the 21st century.

Facilities include:
-Firing kilns for glass and ceramics
-Printmaking, Screen Printing and Digital Textile Technologies
-Traditional and Digital Stitch
-Wood, Metal, Clay
-Cutting Etching and Engraving Technologies - Waterjet, Laser, Plotter
-3D Printing and CNC
-Chemical and Digital Darkrooms
-Specialist computer facilities with commercial standard software

Modules

-Collaborative Dialogues (20 credits)
-Co-Existent Perspectives (20 credits)
-The Thought Experiment (20 credits)
-Explorative Research Praxis (60 credits)
-Confirmative Praxis (60 credits)

Key Features

Students use the Masters Programme for all kinds of reasons; to gain an extra qualification, to achieve a higher and more sophisticated level of practice, as well as to have supported research and development time in order to elevate themselves to a more professional plateau with their artwork. Students from the Masters Programme have gone on to many varied careers in teaching and lecturing positions, in community arts and the cultural industries in general. Lots have continued to practice as artists and some have progressed to PhD study.

The programme has access to well equipped workshops including a resin, plaster, wood, metal and ceramic.
Beyond this specialist equipment, you will also have access to an extensive range of facilities including an excellent library, open-access computer suits and workshops in other areas within the art school. 
We currently have two research centres within the faculty.These research centres provide staff with research opportunities and access to high technology resources, they provide students with placement opportunity whilst also developing the creative industries infrastructure in the region, which will benefit graduating students.

CIRIC The Creative Industries Research and Innovation Centre was established in 2005 and is a knowledge transfer centre for projects that support the creative industries in Wales.

Current projects include Moving Image Wales, which supports the digital media industry, the Textiles Technologies Project, which supports the textiles and apparel industries, CIME, which supports business through creative intervention and SATnet, which provides a link between artists and businesses in the science and technology sectors. In addition, IPCRES is also based in CIRIC and is developing and disseminating research about durational and event based practices.

Alongside the numerous projects operating within CIRIC, there is also a Design Bureau, with water jet cutting, laser cutting and fabric printing services.

 The Centre for Lens Arts and Science Interaction is a research centre based within The Dynevor Centre for Art, Design, and Media at Swansea Metropolitan University. CLASI aims to encourage and promote interdisciplinary research projects, which stimulate research, innovation, and experimentation across photographic, digital and electronic arts. A strong emphasis is placed on research strands where the histories, philosophies and practices of art and science intersect. The definition of art and science is intentionally broad and the centre is aligned with SATnet and CIRIC.

Assessment

Our students have access to a diverse range of equipment and resources, which in most cases are sufficient to complete their programme of study. We provide the basic materials necessary for students to develop their practical work within our extensive workshop and studio facilities. However, it is likely that art and design students will incur some additional costs to extend their investigation of their personal practice. For example, purchasing their own specialised materials and equipment, joining in optional study trips, and printing.

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Introduction

A highly regarded postgraduate level course for designers, graduates and practising pattern cutters.

Content

In response to a significant industry need, this course provides an innovative and relevant training programme for potential and practising pattern cutters and designers who need to expand their experience. It is designed to enhance creativity and provide a supportive postgraduate learning environment for personal and professional development.

Emphasis is placed on exploratory and versatile approaches to this craft through practical work carried out both as a group and independently. You will build your knowledge by being encouraged to unlock the potential of your existing pattern cutting skills. You will discover the creativity of your own discipline by developing new practical, analytical and interpretative skills. The course normally features two or three 'master classes' given by highly regarded specialists who have reputations for working in particularly creative ways. Attendance is 5 days per week.

Structure

Innovative Pattern Cutting framework comprises a full time mode of study with a single exit point.

The course has been structured to attract recent graduates and practising professionals and offers a ten-week full time mode of study. It runs during the summer months and is led by Patrick Lee Yow a respected Associate Lecturer on the BA Fashion at Central Saint Martins College and supported by experienced designers and pattern cutters from industry.

The course will develop your knowledge of the interdependence that exists between the designer and pattern cutter in translating innovative design into finished garments. The course is mainly delivered through practical workshop sessions, specialist demonstrations and studio critiques. The aims and objective of this course is to help you develop the creative problem solving and practical skills required by pattern cutters today. You will also be expected to develop your skills further through self-directed study as well as through studio supervision.

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Wearable Futures is a cross-disciplinary umbrella programme for designers who are interested in the cluster of technologies and experiences that have the human body and its covering as their centre of focus.

The course offers a holistic environment based on the integration of creative computing, digital craftsmanship and material cultures, while also incorporating the technologies and advances in hardware that are impacting on manufacturing techniques and associated applications. Wearable futures has come about as part of Ravensbourne’s current commitment to become creative leader in the field of wearable applications and body-centric design. Ravensbourne's digital research culture is contributing significantly in this context.

The main conceptual framework for the course will be provided by theories of digital craftsmanship, body-centric technologies and phenomenological readings and speculative philosophy. These will form an important research foundation for building Ravensbourne’s critical reach and will assist in helping you to sift and prioritise the current trends and thought relating to fashion and discussion around the body within data informed spaces. An interdisciplinary field of study will include interaction and experience design (UX), “making” and open source culture, design innovation and applied philosophy. You will be introduced to philosophical trends and these will tie in with your practice and help you to develop a critical view incorporating design fiction and other emerging theories. You will engage with research methods such as participatory, user study and user-centered design.

"One of the exciting things about the design industries today is that boundaries of former categories such as fashion, product or experience design have been broken down" - Alexa Pollman, Subject leader, MA Wearable Futures.

The course is a platform for investigation, dissemination and analysis around contemporary theory and practice in the wearable industries. The course’s core role will be to foster your understanding of this market and to identify latent demand within the commercial sphere and to highlight future applications and directions. The aim will be to help you to influence the decision makers so that wearable solutions will be accepted and meet the cultural and ethical expectations when designing for the human body and the garment-industry. You are expected to consider the cultural and social role inherent to fashion as a part of wearable futures.

Wearable futures students will focus their investigations on the key flashpoints of the body as an interface for what is a symbiotic, physical and digital exchange. As part of the design methodology of the course, you will be asked to develop future scenarios and narratives in order to help you and your clientele to understand the concomitant social, environmental or cultural challenges of designing for a matter as delicate as the human body.

"At the moment we’re still very much in the “task” piece of wearable computing, not in the symbolic “how do we make sense of it” piece. I think in the wearable space we are still bringing all the old metaphors of computation with us and still interpreting them in a somewhat literal way—that they are a smaller smartphone, or a little computer. It will become much more interesting when we let go of that and work out the promise that wearable computing will make to us." Genevieve Bell, Anthropologist at Intel

Get to know the subject leader: Alexa Pollman

- Tell us about yourself

For me, garments are social reactors and I like to challenge the current notion of ‘wear’. I have experienced the industry from different angles: my original profession was in fashion design, but I have also worked as a creative consultant and spent my fair share of time in showrooms, for both – big and small brands.

I completed the Design Interactions Programme at the Royal College of Art, and collaborating with various disciplines has enriched my perspective as a designer.

Luckily, I have been awarded different grants that have allowed me to pursue my own work - Peut-Porter is my design consultancy agency and platform which researches and provides forecasts on wear and fashion. Currently, I am Designer in Residence at the Design Museum London and will have new work on show from September 2015.

- What's your opinion on the current state of wearable futures?

We currently find a variety of opinions on wearables and truthfully spoken, I see a lot of problems occurring with their application. This is why it is important to train specialists who can engage with the topic in a much broader sense than is currently being done by the industry. Our wearable futures students will be asked to be highly innovative but at the same time engage with the cultural and social impacts of body-centric design. We need them to bridge the gap between artisans and material or textile specialists and the tech world.

The fashion system successfully uses technology in many experience-based ways and this seems like a very natural process to me as the narrative, experience-based aspect seems inherent to fashion. Wearable futures will not only produce gadgets and devices, it will help to define our relationship to technology when it enters our personal spheres, it will look at the moral and ethical side of data-capturing as well as its technological possibilities and ask students to research and design future aspects and needs of wear.

- Is this course right for me?

This course will focus on body-centric design – a topic which is currently being explored in a massive range of disciplines. We will ask for an extremely flexible mind, someone who is eager to work with various media and collaborate with science, engineers and artists to create their own definition of wearables.

Studying an MA should allow a student to find his or her very own position, strength and reason to design. Whether their work will have a technological, experiential , future or fashion focus will in the end be very much up to what they have decided to explore in the process. We want students to become ambassadors who understand not only the technological aspects and applications of wear but the medium that they will most closely be working with – the human body.

- Why are you so passionate about this course subject?

I think the course has potential to become a wake-up call – what are we doing to ourselves and our bodies? How much more obsessed with data capturing and monitoring will we become? We can’t ignore the trends and tendencies but we need to discuss and open up the field, get some creative minds together and talk about the cultural meaning of ‘wear’ and how that can work intriguingly when paired with technology.

For me, one of the big pluses of Ravensbourne is the fact that it doesn’t have a ‘traditional’ fashion orientation but instead is very interested in the digital and technological aspects of education. I especially feel that our MA courses have a lot to offer in terms of a general interdisciplinary approach, more so because they take in a small amount of people. Designers need one another to work and explore their role and as the MA’s share the same space, we will surely see a lot of cross overs with the other courses. Also, we have had quite some interest from big industries and I think we will see some exciting collaborations happening here in the future.

Course structure

1. Technology Issues – will ask you to engage and experiment with technologies used in the body-centric design sector. The three provided project briefs will explore such fields as data-capturing, 3D Printing and alternative production methods or sensory technology. You will work with fellow students and develop quick mock-ups to understand the mediums at hand and create wear with a focus on experiences.

2. Business and Innovation – will help you understand the business and innovative practices used in the creative industries. Could your idea become a successful product and how can you find a niche to place yourself in? Wearable Technology is one of the quickest growing markets of the industry and your contribution to the field could have manifold impacts.

3. Concept & Prototyping – will allow you to develop your personal design method and introduce you to an holistic design-strategy. You will be asked to present your concepts employing various media and design speculative, narrative and plausible futures in order to challenge and understand the needs, hopes and dreams related to wearables.

4. The Research Process – will help you to investigate and strengthen your concepts and ideas by teaching you the skills and methods needed to ground you personal project in an academic context.

5. The Major Project – represents the culmination of the design work and the research you conducted in your studies. In this unit, you will forge a specialist project and work self-managed and practice-based, seek advise from specialists outside the college and present your personal take on the future of wearables.

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Over the last 15 years, art practice across the globe has experienced a significant shift as artists have sought to work in the wider public sphere in support of social and environmental change. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory engagement, this course will support you in forging your own artistic route built around your interests, networks and communities. New creative and social skills together with enhanced critical understanding will help you develop a practice that is effective, meaningful and relevant for your society.

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Our approach to Visual Cultures frames it in terms of what it can do alongside what it can know. Be inspired by a team of world-renowned teaching and research staff, who will challenge you to explore existing paradigms, develop an individual approach to visual culture research, and articulate your thinking as you develop your 'manifesto' and portfolio.

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This is an intensive, vocational course with strong professional links to the industry, offering a maximum of four students, with high levels of painting and drawing skills, the opportunity to develop their careers as scenic artists. The skills and techniques acquired on this course are to the level necessary for theatre, television, film and animation industries..

During the year students acquire an understanding of professional practice and standards, and gain in-depth skills and experience in scenic art techniques and their application, combined with the practice of managing a scenic art department.

The Course has 3 very intensive terms during which students paint the sets for the School’s six main house public productions, offering them the opportunity to see their finished work used on stage in a wide range of public performances and venues. Teaching is led by the School’s Head of Scenic Art in collaboration with visiting industry professionals who provide master-classes in a range of skills and techniques that include; life drawing, portraiture, perspective, marbling, wood-graining, polystyrene carving and painting for animation. The scenic art students work collaboratively with the School’s other production departments, and most especially with design students. Furthering their introduction to the industry, work placements with principal companies are arranged during the course; particular attention is placed on students developing their own professional portfolio. Upon graduation students will showcase their work in a public exhibition and be interviewed by some of the UK’s leading industry practitioners. In a freelance industry most of our graduates begin working as assistants for scenic artists, scenic workshops and large theatre companies, eventually becoming supervising scenic artists themselves.

Recent graduate employment; The Royal Opera House, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Cardiff Theatrical Services, The Royal National Theatre, Northern Ballet, TR2 Plymouth, Richard Nutbourne - Cool Flight Ltd, Cameron Macintosh's National Tour of ‘Mary Poppins’, Disney's ‘Aladdin’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ for Warner Brothers. Film work includes; Wes Anderson's ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ and ‘Isle of Dogs’ (still in production) Tim Burton's ‘Frankenweenie’, Aardman Animations' ‘Shaun the Sheep’, ‘Pirates’ and ‘Early Man’ (still in production). TV work includes 'Will' for TNT and ‘Crazy Face’ for Netflix.

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