Masters Degrees in Glass Crafts, United Kingdom

Our MA Jewellery course gives design professionals and graduates the opportunity to deepen their skills and experience in the areas of jewellery, to refine specific areas of research.

This course is suited to highly motivated and talented people who wish to work at the forefront of their creative discipline. It's a project-led and studio-based course with close tutorial guidance.

Rigorous research will encourage you to explore a wide range of approaches, from traditional to contemporary influences of art, craft, design and technology.

As a student on MA Jewellery, you'll benefit from teaching by leading specialist designers, artists and crafts people. You'll get to create a range of objects and experiment with different materials and processes, to develop your creative thinking.

Throughout the course, you'll work closely alongside students from other fields such as textiles, ceramics, metalwork and glass. This will enable you to broaden your knowledge and incorporate elements from various disciplines into your own practice.

Our Farnham campus offers extraordinary facilities with extensive workshops and equipment to support your study. It's also home to the Crafts Study Centre - a purpose-built museum, research centre and gallery dedicated to crafts.

Facilities

UCA Farnham provides first-rate facilities with extensive workshops and equipment to support your study. It's also home to the Crafts Study Centre - a purpose-built museum, research centre and gallery dedicated to crafts.

Industry Partners

This course has excellent support from:

-Worshipful Company of Ironmongers

-The Goldsmiths' Company

-The Worshipful Company of Pewterers

-Association of Contemporary Jewellery

-Jewellers and Silversmiths Network

-The New Ashgate Trust.

Careers

Our course will equip you with a host of valuable and transferable skills. Upon successful completion, you might decide to become a self-employed artist, or forge a career within the craft and design industries, for example.

Recent graduates work as:

-Artists

-Designers

-Makers

-Arts administrators

-Gallery curators

-Teachers

-Writers.

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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Glass has remarkable properties; its transparency, durability and versatility have been explored in architectural and artistic contexts for thousands of years. Recent technological advances provide continuing opportunities for creative application. Its unique properties of transparency and interaction with light gives MA Glass students the opportunity to explore new possibilities and build specialist knowledge as a material for the future.

Course Overview

The MA Glass programme 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 Master's 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.

In this century, glass as a material offers a unique place in design and architecture and there are very few institutions that offer the opportunity to explore this material, with particular reference to its applications in architecture. Swansea glass department has a long established reputation for glass and strong industrial links help underpin the educational experience for students. The history of the department enables a broad spectrum of approaches that draw on the historical, cultural and technological uses of this material. Glass in its many forms; mosaic, glaze, enamel and window façade covers a broad association of surfaces, which offers for the maker a rich and varied pallet. This is a hands-on course!

The main strands of the programme are: design and philosophy, material innovation and glass design. These themes are considered in the context of glass for the environment, to fulfill the need to develop innovative, sustainable and possibly universal solutions for a variety of architectural, public and private spaces.

The programme prides itself in newly equipped workshops that provide excellent specialist facilities including sandblasters, acid etching bay, cold working machinery, screen printing facilities for glass and an extensive range of glass and ceramic kilns for casting and decorative processing. Beyond this specialist equipment, you will also have access to an extensive range of facilities including an excellent library, open-access computer suites and workshops in other areas within the art school such as wood, metal, ceramics, 3D printing and water jet and laser cutting.

The teaching team consists of highly experienced glass artists and designers who are either engaged in professional practice or are research active, supported by industrially trained technical staff. This ensures that the course delivers a qualification and experience that is highly relevant to the changing needs of the industry and wider architectural glass community.

The department works closely with the Architectural Glass Centre, which often supports and advises the students on live commissions and commercial work. We also work with the CIRIC research centre within the faculty, with 2 members of this research centre specialising in glass. This provides research opportunities and access to high technology resources giving the students opportunities to link with creative industries infrastructure in the region as a potential starting point for future employment.

With an eighty year history the glass department benefits from strong support from Alumni and the local glass community as well as networks and connections from world-renowned glass artists.

Assessment

The main modes of assessment used on this programme are; studio projects, written assignments and seminar presentations.

Assessment at postgraduate level is reflected by your ability to reformulate and use relevant methodologies and approaches to address problematic situations that involve many interacting factors. It includes taking responsibility for planning and developing courses of action that initiate or underpin substantial change or development, as well as exercising broad autonomy and judgement. It should also reflect an understanding of the relevant theoretical and methodological perspectives and how they affect your area of study or work.

Career Opportunities

Students from the Master's Programme have gone on to many varied careers within the Architectural Glass Industry, Glass Studios, teaching and lecturing positions, in community arts and the cultural industries in general. Many have continued to practice as designers and artists and some have progressed to PhD study.

Possible career pathways have included:
-Establishing yourself as an artist, designer or maker
-Setting up a studio as a sole supplier or in a partnership with others
-Employed in specialist glass studios
-Engaging in freelance work on architectural and interiors projects
-Designing for industry or working in the glass industry
-Working on private and public commissions
-Working on art projects and community projects
-Other opportunities include arts administration, curating, teaching and mentoring, community work and arts editorial
-Continuation of studies to postgraduate level on our MA programme
-Further academic research leading to MPhil, or PhD is available

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The University of Sunderland has the largest glass and ceramics department in Europe.

Course overview

This programme is for individuals who wish to develop both their practice and critical understanding with regards to glass and ceramics. The subject is explored and contextualized in its widest sense through both practical and theoretical investigation and application.

We do not have a ‘house style’, instead you will be encouraged and supported to develop your own focus, independent creativity, improve your technical skills through expert support, and develop academic skills in research and communication.

You’ll be joining the largest glass and ceramics department in Europe, made up of an international team of creative and experienced educators and practitioners. All academic staff on this course are engaged in professional practice or research and are at the forefront of their discipline.

Sunderland is a thriving research hub and hosts the Ceramics Arts Research Centre (CARCuos), which aims to develop, support and disseminate new knowledge and scholarly activity whilst also providing a platform both practically and theoretically for discussion aligned to the ceramic arts.

Graduates from Sunderland have gone on to work throughout the creative industries. MA graduates have also wished to extend their work through a research degree either at MPhil or PhD level and continue studies within CARCuos the ceramic arts research centre at the University.

This course can also be taken part time - for more information, please view this web-page: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/courses/artsdesignandmedia/postgraduate/ceramics-part-time/

Course content

The content of the course is shaped by your personal interests with guidance and inspiration from Sunderland's supportive tutors.

Modules on this course include:
Stage 1 (60 Credits)
-Contextual Studies: Critical and Professional Contexts in Contemporary Art and Design (30 credits)
-Experimentation in Glass and Ceramics (30 credits)

Stage 2 (60 Credits)
-Contextual Studies: Professional Practice in Glass and Ceramics (30 credits)
-Developing Practice in Glass and Ceramics (30 credits)

Stage 3 (60 Credits)
-Contextual Studies: Research Project in Glass and Ceramics (30 credits)
-Synthesis in Glass and Ceramics Practice (30 credits)

Teaching and assessment

Compared to an undergraduate course, you will find that this Masters requires a higher level of independent working. The course aims to stretch your creativity and maximise your sense of personal fulfilment.

We use a wide variety of teaching and learning methods which include lectures, seminars, critiques, workshops and practical demonstrations. These are supported by a range of guest speakers from diverse academic and industry backgrounds. You will also have high levels of contact with tutors who give regular feedback and support.

Facilities & location

Facilities for this course include:
-26 glass kilns, including a large glass casting kiln
-13 ceramic kilns and two large gas kilns
-Ceramics mould-making and glaze workshops
-Hot glass workshop with international-quality equipment
-Two cold working studios (sandblasting, cutting, grinding and polishing)
-Printing facility for ceramics, glass and other surfaces
-Architectural glass studio
-Decal printer
-3D MakerBot Printer
-Water-jet machine/Computer Aided Design
-Project and exhibition space
-Multi-function creative and social space
-Lampworking and future light workshop
-Computer suite and project space
-Arts and Design Library
-Journals and research

We subscribe to a comprehensive range of print and electronic journals so you can access the most reliable and up-to-date articles. Some of the most important sources for your course are:
-Key Glass and Ceramics magazines and journals
-Art Full Text + Art Abstracts, which is a major resource for arts information
-Design and Applied Arts Index, which covers journals featuring both new designers and the development of design and the applied arts since the mid-19th century
-JSTOR (short for ‘Journal Storage’), which provides access to important journals across the humanities, social sciences and sciences

National Glass Centre
The Glass and Ceramics Department is based in National Glass Centre, a nationally recognised glass production and exhibition centre with a world-class programme of creative projects.

Studying here puts you at the heart of an international network of professionals in the ceramics sector. You will be exposed to the latest ways of working through visiting artists and designers, and you can become involved in exhibitions that help launch your career.

Employment & careers

Postgraduates are highly employable and, on average, earn more than individuals whose highest qualification is an undergraduate degree. On completing this course you will be equipped for roles throughout the creative industries.

Recent Sunderland graduates are now working as self-employed practitioners as well as being employed in arts administration and education.

During the course we encourage you to gain professional industry experience which will enhance your skills, build up a valuable network of contacts and boost your employability.

The University has close links with arts organisations including Arts Council England, the BALTIC, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tyne and Wear Museums Service and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. We also have international links in USA, China and Czech Republic.

A Masters degree will also enhance career opportunities within Higher Education and prepare you for further postgraduate studies.

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The Ceramics and Glasses research degrees are part of a progressive research area within the school; we have close links with industry and research councils and we work collaboratively with them on many areas of research within the subject.

Industrial application

Our research is concerned with the processing, characterisation and applications of structural and functional ceramic materials. Structural ceramics are used in engineering applications due to a combination of high strength, chemical / thermal resistance and extreme hardness. In contrast, functional ceramics exhibit unique electrical, magnetic and optical properties, which lead to applications in a diverse range of electronic components - filters in mobile telecommunications, exhaust gas sensors and pyroelectric thermal imaging cameras.

We are engaged in research to understand the structure-property relationships in a wide range of ceramic materials and to develop materials / components with enhanced properties. Materials are developed by conventional powder processing methods and by novel processing procedures.

Research projects

Active projects in this area involve a wide range of processing techniques for functional and structural materials - these techniques are employed in industries as diverse as power generation, mobile telecommunications, aerospace and medical implants. To understand the microstructure-property relationships for the ceramics, we make extensive use of specialist characterisation facilities available in the school and in partner institutions nationally and internationally.

Industrial links

Through our close relationship with industry, we ensure that the research we carry out is relevant and focused on the requirements of new technology. We currently collaborate on research with, amongst others, Rolls-Royce, British Nuclear Fuel, Xaar Printing Technology, Powerwave, Morgan Electroceramics, and BAE Systems. We are also supported by EPSRC, the European Commission, and British Energy.

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The Ceramics and Glasses research degrees are part of a progressive research area within the school; we have close links with industry and research councils and we work collaboratively with them on many areas of research within the subject.

Industrial application

Our research is concerned with the processing, characterisation and applications of structural and functional ceramic materials. Structural ceramics are used in engineering applications due to a combination of high strength, chemical / thermal resistance and extreme hardness. In contrast, functional ceramics exhibit unique electrical, magnetic and optical properties, which lead to applications in a diverse range of electronic components - filters in mobile telecommunications, exhaust gas sensors and pyroelectric thermal imaging cameras.

We are engaged in research to understand the structure-property relationships in a wide range of ceramic materials and to develop materials / components with enhanced properties. Materials are developed by conventional powder processing methods and by novel processing procedures.

Research projects

Active projects in this area involve a wide range of processing techniques for functional and structural materials - these techniques are employed in industries as diverse as power generation, mobile telecommunications, aerospace and medical implants. To understand the microstructure-property relationships for the ceramics, we make extensive use of specialist characterisation facilities available in the school and in partner institutions nationally and internationally.

Industrial links

Through our close relationship with industry, we ensure that the research we carry out is relevant and focused on the requirements of new technology. We currently collaborate on research with, amongst others, Rolls-Royce, British Nuclear Fuel, Xaar Printing Technology, Powerwave, Morgan Electroceramics, and BAE Systems. We are also supported by EPSRC, the European Commission, and British Energy.

Facilities

To underpin the research and teaching activities, we have established state-of-the-art laboratories, which allow comprehensive characterisation and development of materials. These facilities range from synthetic/textile fibre chemistry to materials processing and materials testing.

To complement our teaching resources, there is a comprehensive range of electrochemical, electronoptical imaging and surface and bulk analytical facilities and techniques.

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Our MA Contemporary Jewellery course celebrates the contribution of individual artists and designer-makers. It enables you to extend the boundaries of your practice by examining cutting edge ideas in jewellery which you've not been exposed to before.

As a student on this course, you'll be free to explore a variety of materials and to experiment with scale, form, ornament and body adornment in our dedicated facilities.

Our course is responsive to a wide range of topics and creative disciplines, including fine art, fashion, design and photography. It's designed to encourage you to explore the relationship between jewellery and other related disciplines.

Conceived as a breeding ground for experimentation and innovation, this MA is an excellent opportunity for you to develop cutting edge work and develop your individual style.

Working alongside creative practitioners from a variety of different design backgrounds, you'll receive specialist tuition through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. You'll be expected to present your work-in-progress regularly at formal reviews.

Emphasis will be placed on your personal development through the production of your individual jewellery project.

Facilities

At UCA Rochester we have dedicated workspaces for postgraduate students, as well as an extensive range of books, journals, special collections and online resources.

Industry Partners

The course is based at UCA Rochester, and our jewellery courses at this campus have strong industry links.

You're encouraged to build personal contacts and networks through competitions, exhibitions and publishing.

Careers

There are numerous potential career options for graduates of this course.

Our alumni work as:

-Practising jewellers

-Artists

-Designers/makers

-Arts administrators or in design consultancies, galleries and designer outlets.

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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This innovative programme, the first of its kind in the English-speaking world, offers an integrated study of stained glass and its conservation, meeting a perceived need internationally for a qualification in this field. Our graduates are now leading figures in the discipline in the UK, Germany, Belgium and the USA.

The programme is taught in partnership with the Department of Archaeology.

Aims

Our aim is to offer training for a variety of employment in stained glass conservation, but also in cultural heritage management, arts administration, museums, and the administration of historic buildings.

The programme may also be preparation for higher research degrees.

Curriculum

This is a two-year programme, including four terms of taught courses, with two modules per term, a sixteen-week placement, and a five-month dissertation. Modules are devoted to basic and advanced techniques of glass conservation. Other fields of study include the history, ethics and the philosophy of conservation, international issues in conservation, art and architectural history, archaeology, conservation and the impact of climate change, and heritage and business administration. There will be a free choice of art-historical or archaeological modules in the spring term of the second year. In each taught term a masterclass addressing current issues and new research will be conducted by a visiting lecturer.

Placements

Leading conservation studios, museums and heritage institutions in Britain, Europe and the United States host placements, providing invaluable work experience, and networks for future careers.

Study tour

Every other year, usually in the Easter vacation, students will have the chance to join a European study tour, visiting major stained glass sites, and leading conservation practices.

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Glass is a medium that crosses a range of disciplines and is used by artists, craftspeople and designers alike. This award-winning programme explores glass as a design tool that encourages process-led risk and play, in parallel with the prototyping and resolution of designed objects.

Courses cover contemporary design issues including material narratives, interdisciplinary crossover and post-digital practices, as well as studio and client-based projects.

You will focus on the materiality of glass, explore new boundaries through the integrated relationship between process and theory, and be encouraged to position yourself within and beyond the disciplines of glass.

This programme is unique in Scotland and ECA is one of the few centres of excellence in this discipline in the UK. Comprehensive glass and plaster workshops are complemented by state-of-the-art digital fabrication labs, woodwork, metalwork and bronze foundry, enabling you to experience the complete design journey from conception to the production of glass at the highest level.

You will benefit from visiting professional practitioners and lecturers and will have the opportunity to participate in live projects and competitions. The curriculum combines programme and student-led activity, delivered through workshops, group seminars and individual tutorials.

You will negotiate and develop a programme of study based on personal areas of practice-based research. We foster interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments creating a unique student experience and rich opportunities for learning.

Programme structure

This programme combines directed and self-directed practice-based studio projects with theoretical and written studies, including professional practice elements to prepare you for employment in the industry, and a lecture/seminar series to examine the wider context of your studies.

The programme focuses on providing the tools of craft and design through comprehensive professional practice workshops, focused on the specific requirements of the designer maker. You will produce a body of practical and written work on an agreed, self-initiated project. MFA students produce an additional extended body of work.

Career opportunities

As a graduate you will discover a diverse range of career opportunities. Alumni have worked within the production of individual designed objects, as lead designers within industry, as gallery representation, on commissioned major public artworks, and in teaching and leading positions within creative practices.

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This course is concerned with the development of advanced craft and design practice. In essence, the course combines the handmade and digital approaches, which highlights and encourages new methods of practice being used with glass.

We seek to maintain and develop time-honoured glass processes in kiln work and glassblowing - skills that take many years to accomplish. We equally encourage the pursuit of the creative opportunities that new digital technologies provide.

There is access to a range of glass facilities and to a broad range of other 3D design and craft cultures, including those related to the design and/or making of domestic products, furniture, ceramics and jewellery.

Design Network

Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Glass 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: Glass 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: Glass award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.

This route 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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This course asks you to question not only your own practice, but also the essence of what we understand as jewellery itself. Jewellery’s function is diverse and complex, from personal adornment to political statement, and the materials and processes that reflect this are as equally diverse.

The wearable object, perhaps more than any other, has manifold relationships with people, its rich history is loaded with social significance and visual language. This route calls students to question the ways in which, jewellery communicates, and the role the wearable plays in contemporary society.

Exploration of both hands-on and digital innovation is encouraged in the development of design, making and communication practices. There is access to an extensive range of material and CAD/CAM workshop facilities and opportunities to experience a diverse range of creative cultures, including related design and craft disciplines such as Graphic and Fashion Design.

Design Network

Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Jewellery 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: Jewellery 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 – whatever 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: Jewellery award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.

This route 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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The focus of postgraduate study in Design and Applied Arts is to consider your current and past practice and recognise the opportunities that exist for research, material investigation and professional development.

The aim is to provide a framework that will guide your enquiry within your subject specialism.

Subject specialisms:

Ceramics

Glass

Interior Design

Fashion

Textiles

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First Year

The first year consists of three main projects, one per term that will explore different intellectual themes and contexts in which you might work.

During the autumn term, students work from the collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum to explore the notion of the role that an object might fulfil. It lays the foundations of the research skills associated with developing material and process understanding and the cultural and social history imbedded in an object.

The spring term presents students with the opportunity to explore the theme of ‘Food’: its cultural significance, presentation and consumption.

The summer term is concerned wit the terrain of Wall, Floor, Window.

During the first two terms alongside the projects, a series of short course/workshops/masterclasses will be offered to widen students skill base and material/process understanding. These cover such topics as:

- Plaster making
- Print
- Glass – hot working
- Glass – cold working
- Glass – casting
- Jigger/jolley
- Decorative processes – ceramics
- Hand forming processes
- Basic glaze technology
- Rubber moulds
- Digital Design
- Digital Manufacture
- 3D Print
- Laser Cutting

Second Year

Through the second year, individual programmes of study will be negotiated with Personal Tutors exploring the context and working methods that will inform an individual’s future practice. There are opportunities to engage with a range of staff and visiting lecturers, and student led discussions and seminars are encouraged to promote independent thinking.

Critical & Historical Studies

The RCA provides a unique environment for postgraduate art and design students to reflect upon their own practice, and to engage with students from their own and other disciplines. The role of Critical & Historical Studies (CHS) is to support the studio programmes in enabling these critical engagements to take place. The courses offered by CHS to first year studio-based MA students propose an intellectual framework within which they can begin to establish a coherent relationship between theory and practice.

In the autumn and spring terms there are a series of College-wide seminars and lectures. The autumn term series will relate to your particular discipline (though it is possible to elect to join a series being offered to students on other programmes) whereas the spring term series will be more broad-based and cross-disciplinary in nature.

In the spring and summer terms, a CHS tutor will give you individual tutorials to support the development of a dissertation which is submitted at the start of the second year. The dissertation should be between 6,000–10,000 words in length – this is a major piece of work and you will be not be able to submit for the Final Examination until you have passed this assessment.

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First Year

The key emphasis of the Jewellery & Metal programme in the first year is on establishing a personal creative mindset. This happens through set projects and seminars. The ideas and work are supported by individual tutorials and progress is evaluated at set formal points. additional course components are designed to complement and underpin this work, developing and deepening students’ understanding of their chosen subject and strengthening their confidence in their own creative language.

During the first year there are set projects running alongside the Personal Projects that address and explore design methodologies, context, presentation skills, technical and digital inductions, introduction to emerging technologies, visits, seminars and group crits as well as visits and live projects.

Students are expected to explore and develop ideas for their Personal Project on an individual basis during the first year, using time between common elements and course project requirements. By the end of the year students should have developed a clear direction for their second-year Personal Project.

Second Year

During the second year students are expected to pursue their Personal Projects and produce work that will reflect the context of their anticipated professional practice.

The major part of the second year is devoted to the Personal Project. The student is responsible for progressing the work, according to a schedule of development that is subject to a timetable of deadlines for delivery and review throughout the second year. Completed work is presented in the RCA Show.

Critical & Historical Studies

The RCA provides a unique environment for postgraduate art and design students to reflect upon their own practice, and to engage with students from their own and other disciplines. The role of Critical & Historical Studies (CHS) is to support the studio programmes in enabling these critical engagements to take place. The courses offered by CHS to first year studio-based MA students propose an intellectual framework within which they can begin to establish a coherent relationship between theory and practice.

In the autumn and spring terms there are a series of College-wide seminars and lectures. The autumn term series will relate to your particular discipline (though it is possible to elect to join a series being offered to students on other programmes) whereas the spring term series will be more broad-based and cross-disciplinary in nature.

In the spring and summer terms, a CHS tutor will give you individual tutorials to support the development of a dissertation which is submitted at the start of the second year. The dissertation should be between 6,000–10,000 words in length – this is a major piece of work and you will be not be able to submit for the Final Examination until you have passed this assessment.

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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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