Transform your creative practice by engaging with print media on our Master’s course at Cambridge School of Art. Using the latest techniques, you'll work on your own projects in our world-class facilities, and get invaluable experience of exhibiting, curating and collaborating.
Course duration: 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time.
Trimesters 1-3: Tuesdays and Wednesdays (full-time); Wednesdays (part-time)
*Please note: In addition, you will be expected to work independently outside taught times for at least the equivalent amount of time.
Discover the vital contribution that printmaking has made to the language of contemporary art practice, and how recent technological advances have broadened its definition.
Much of your time will be spent independently researching and undertaking your own practice-based projects. You’ll receive technical inductions for the use of both traditional and emerging processes (including relief printing and intaglio, screen print, lithography, photo-based and digital media) and be free to experiment with, and combine, them in your creative work.
Throughout the course you’ll have support from experienced print and fine art practitioners, and benefit from working in a supportive and critically informed art school. Our connection with the MA Printmaking course at Camberwell College of Art creates opportunities for exchange crits and gives you the chance to build networks with fellow artists. And you'll get a window onto the professional art world through our visiting lecturers, field trips and links to galleries.
Our series of workshops, tutorials, seminars, critiques, presentations and lectures, will allow you to develop research skills that you’ll use on this course and in your future career. In addition, you’ll gain experience of other areas of professional practice including curating and critical writing.
Our links with local printmaking and art organisations, such as Cambridge Original Printmakers, the Curwen Print Study Centre, Aid & Abet, Changing Spaces, Wysing Arts Centre and Cambridge Artworks, will give you the chance to take part in portfolio reviews, live projects and professional exhibitions.
As well as preparing you for a successful career in creative practice, our course will equip you for many other roles. Our past students enjoy careers in further and higher education, professional print workshops, museum and gallery management, public arts projects, artist in residence schemes and fellowship opportunities, in the UK and overseas.
Or you might decide to continue on to a research degree, like our PhD Fine Art.
You’ll have access to events such as Creative Front Futures, which will give you a taste of different creative industries, and be able to take part in Fine Art Professional Practice and networking initiatives for our students and alumni.
Fortnightly lectures run by our Fine Art Research Unit (FARU) will give you a chance to hear artists and staff talk about their work, and engage in debates about art practice. Our recent speakers have included Phillip Allen, Juan Bolivar, Rebecca Fortnum, Danny Rolph, Hayley Newman, Günter Herbst, David Kefford, Cally Spooner, Tim Ellis, Andrew Grassie, Lilah Fowler, Jemima Brown, Caroline Wright and Matthew Derbyshire.
Visiting printmaking professionals have included Katherine Jones, Stephen Chambers, Sean Rorke, Rebecca Salter, Penny Brewill, Mike Taylor, Kate Palmer, Jo Love and Jane Dixon, Leo Brook and Amanda Couch.
On our core modules you’ll demonstrate your progress through your visual research outcomes and supporting evaluative statements, except for the Master’s Dissertation, for which you’ll submit a 6,000-word contextual essay.
You’ll work in our fully equipped print studios, with industry-standard facilities including intaglio, screen, relief, litho and photo print processes. You’ll also have access to our 3D workshops, laser cutting facilities, large format digital printer, photography studios and dark rooms, and computer suites for video production and digital imaging.
Studio teaching takes places in our print studio and MA Fine Art studios, which also act as lively hubs for our full- and part-time students in printmaking and fine art.
MA Visual Arts: Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts encourages students to reflect on printmaking in its many contexts. The international success of our MA in Printmaking is due to how we explore this medium in its own right, as well as its relationship to wider contemporary practices. We respond to current debates about the role of skill and authorship in the creation of artworks, as well as the notion of the unique work of art.
What students can expect from the course:
- To take an innovative approach, using all forms of autographic printmaking; these include intaglio, lithographic, relief print, screen-printing, letterpress and computer generated processes
- To investigate and reconsider assumptions underlying the applications of autographic processes and new technologies
- Their programmes of study to place the practice of printmaking in both a contemporary critical context as well as a wider, historical perspective
- To research the content, materials and technical skills appropriate to their projects, and produce written as well as practical work exploring their chosen subject area and relationship to contemporary practice
- Visits to important print collections and participate in symposiums and talks with curators and international artist.
- To develop a project from proposal to final exhibition
Unit One – Research, Development and Practice
Students will explore, experiment and research to further develop their Project Proposals. This unit introduces students to pathway specific issues and topics, research methodologies and techniques. It aims to orientate students and their practice within the course, and develop their contextual, critical and research skills at the onset of their MA learning.
Unit Two – Reflection and Presentation
Resolution and presentation of students' work according to their Project Proposal. A symposium will provide the opportunity to present their research and provide further peer feedback. Students' practice at this stage should synthesise their practical, conceptual and professional abilities and they will be expected to consider their future practice, audience and context of their work in contemporary practice.
The intention and context of students' work will inform their decisions they will take regarding a final exhibition. Students' will also be expected to work collaboratively with their peers to actively plan, organise and install an exhibition as part of their continued Personal and Professional Development.
Led by Professor Jo Stockham, the Print programme is a two-year specialist MA course. Renamed from Printmaking in 2015, this change signals that the study of the expanded field of Print is equal to the making of prints as a series of medium specific choices. We explore the mediated image approached through a range of intellectual approaches provided by a diverse team of tutors, all practicing artists.
Access to world-class technical facilities in all print media means that we are able to both explore and expand the field of Print addressing the constant interplay between thinking and making, the image and technology. Students from a wide variety of backgrounds choose to study with us because of their interest in questions, which include, the nature of the copy, diagramming, appropriation, materiality of the image, the politics of print and print as a collaborative practice.
Artists’ books and web based work as forms of distribution and explorations of narrative structures are a growing aspect of the course. We are benefiting from the renewed interest in the circulation, reception and creation of multiple images due to the ubiquity of digital images and computing.
We are embedded in a network of international print publishers, archives and galleries. A publishing project and exhibiting work are an integral part of the course. The potential for collaboration and residency situations where making work is a form of exchange is core to many students and we help them prepare for making applications to such opportunities.
The aim of the programme is to enable students to work across a broad platform of media appropriate to their self defined ambitions and interests. By equipping graduates with experience of exhibiting, collaboration, editioning, lecturing, curating and a thorough critical engagement with a self defined body of work we aim to develop artists who understand the expressive nuances of different materials and forms of distribution in the expanded field of print. Evidence suggests they will be able to sustain themselves on graduation as exhibiting artists often engaged in related fields such as, teaching, publishing, curating and research.
An active research culture of staff, visiting artists, MPhil and PhD students is a core part of the programme and is shared through lectures, seminars, publications, presentations and exhibitions.
Alumni include, Andrea Buettner, Adam Dant, Mabe Bethonico, William Latham, Haris Epaminonda, Daniel Gustav Cramer, Christiane Baumgartner and Katsutoshi Yuasa.
The programme offers:
The MA Fine Art is a broad, studio-based programme with an open and inclusive approach to fine art practice. The programme encourages both specialist and cross-disciplinary approaches enabling students to extend and deepen their knowledge and application of fine art practice.
The curriculum is structured on Practice as Research, through which specialist studio disciplines are developed within cultural, aesthetic and socio-political contexts supporting the creative exploration of ideas through practical skills, research methodologies, theoretical and analytical frameworks. This places individual practice at the centre of the programme. Studio-based modules run throughout the programme and maintain the dynamic interrelation between visual research, concepts and theory. Studio research can be developed within: painting, textiles, sculpture (including ceramics), printmaking and digital media.
Over the past few years, we’ve redeveloped both of our campuses so that you have the best facilities available for your degree. We pride ourselves on the quality of the learning environment we can offer our students.
The Art department are situated in the dedicated artOne building comprising outstanding studio and workshop facilities. It is an exciting place to study, providing a dynamic and supportive learning environment for the production of original new art work.
The well-equipped workshops and studios provide environments for you to create experimental, inventive and ambitious work. The main studio space in the purpose built artOne building provides individual studio spaces for all students as well as bookable spaces for installation, performance and projection work. If you are doing studio practice modules, you will be allocated a personal studio base in which you can carry out your self-directed projects and art work.
All students also have access to workshop areas and technical support in the key disciplines of the Fine Art programmes. The workshops reflect the range of options across the various degree programmes. A distinctive aspect of the department is that of individualized working areas in the studio space.
You will become part of a network of artists that will offer support and a challenging context in which to develop your work. Key to this community are fine art staff who, as practising artists, bring their knowledge and experience of a range of professional arts environments to the programme.
The staff team are linked to local, regional and national networks including galleries, museums, regional funding agencies and community based projects. Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes have strong connections with Pallant House Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre, Goodwood Sculpture Park and galleries in Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton and London.
The wider arts community at the University of Chichester includes postgraduate and research students in MA Dance, Performance and Music and you will be able to experience the breadth of these practice based disciplines, and other academic research through research seminar programmes, presentations, theatre events and visiting speakers.
The course provides the opportunity to concentrate on a specific area of research.
Potential Careers
Recent students have worked on site-specific commissions, community arts projects, and work placements with local galleries and museums, residencies in schools, and even creating their own virtual gallery. The experience is invaluable in terms of working to time and budgetary constraints, and in dealing with the public.
Distinctive features of the course:
Optional modules:
To gain an MA students need to complete four out of five modules plus the Independent Exhibition. This is an independent research project, and is largely practical, culminating in a professional context exhibition.
All sessions are held at the University of Chichester’s Bishop Otter Campus. Full time students are given a studio space, and full and part time students have access to workshop facilities. All students benefit from access to large studio spaces during the summer months. Study contact sessions take place on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s across Semester 1 and 2 and the summer period.
Full time – 12 months (September to September).
Part time – 24 months (September to September)
The curriculum of this programme is under review for the 2018/19 academic year. Programme structure and course availability is subject to change.
This programme encourages practices that are speculative and reflective, supporting work in a range of media. It is concerned with ways of learning that are experiential – embodied through and understood by the acquisition of a practice.
During the late 20th century, developments within visual art introduced new processes and situations, which resulted in an expanded concept of artistic practice.
Media-related disciplines supported by the programme include sculpture, painting and printmaking, photography, audio-visual and new media. The programme also encompasses approaches to practice that are non media-specific, including intermedia, time-based arts, performance, installation, public art and art writing.
You may complete the MA in one year, or continue on to the MFA. You will have access to a designated studio space and a wide range of studio equipment, technicians and resources, including printmaking, metal, wood, casting, painting, photography, reprographic and digital facilities.
Our students often work in groups across subject areas in the School of Art and collaborate throughout the year on critical, creative and curatorial projects. This gives you a unique opportunity to integrate the fields of art practice, art writing and curating, culminating in an exhibition of your own work or in a research project of your own design.
We regularly organise field trips and offer short residency and project opportunities with our local and international partners.
The programme also involves the theoretical study of this family of media and approaches, drawing on related fields and methods.
Students on this programme will benefit from studio-based learning in Edinburgh College of Art's (ECA) historic Lauriston Place campus, along with the exhibitions and events associated with a vibrant art college. The art college experience will be complemented by the University's extensive range of student support facilities, its libraries, student societies, and student accommodation.
Our purpose-built studios are adaptable, serving both as working studios and project and exhibition spaces. Our workshops and foundry provide excellent accommodation for working in wood, metal, mould-making, casting and carving and there are facilities for working with sound, digital imaging and video editing.
The programme develops from a broad to a specialist understanding of the technical resources and validating contexts in which artists work today, drawing inspiration and nourishment from the experience of our international student cohort.
This programme enables you to develop an ambitious art practice as well as providing you with the organisational and economic knowledge required to thrive as a self-employed artist. You will also be qualified to teach studio art in higher education and to work in the contemporary art sector.
The Master of Fine Art in Fine Art (MFA) provides postgraduate studio-based arts practice, critical theory in fine arts and access to the professional skills and knowledge to succeed in a career in the fine arts. The programme will appeal to independent artists wanting to extend their practice within a critical research framework supported by practicing tutors. Artists looking to extend their career path into curatorial practice in the contemporary arts, collaborative projects with arts organisations, arts in socially engaged practices and/or further research will find support for this trajectory in this broad-based programme. Teaching involves lectures, seminars, and group and individual tutorials from active artists with research profiles. The programme will equip you with creative, interpretive, critical and analytical skills to develop an advanced understanding of contemporary art and its social, cultural and historical contexts.
The image above shows a close up of the work Nova by Saad Querishi, a former student of Fine Art at Oxford Brookes. Saad has been commissioned to produce a piece of work for the new areas of the campus and will be acting as a resource for the students on the programme.
Your artistic practice – An independent studio environment enables you to further your work within a supported critical framework. Through group and individual tutorials, staff/peer critique and presentations, an incremental approach is applied whereby you will confidently develop your work towards public exhibition/dissemination. There are two formal exhibitions during the MFA programme.
Flexible studio options – Students may select to locate their studio either at Oxford Brookes or elsewhere. Students working from their own studios will be eligible for a reduced tuition fee.
Technical resources – The School of Arts’ workshops offer supported working environments in a range of specialist areas including: sculpture, photography, video, sound, printmaking and book-works. All our workshops are staffed by highly skilled and creative Technical Specialists.
Extra-curricular activities – You will gain exposure to a range of contemporary artistic practice through the thriving creative student community in the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes. You will participate in the lectures and film screenings set up by the Fine Art Research (FAR) Group. These include visiting contemporary artists, critics, curators and notable alumni. Free life drawing classes extend your drawing skills and optional local, regional and international field trips provide further stimulus.
Theoretical framework – Your ability to articulate your own creative position is enabled through a critical engagement with a range of scholarship informed by diverse practices by nationally and internationally recognised artists, collectives and movements. An early theoretical module explores contemporary art discourse through seminars informed by selected readings and in a later module you develop a more intense involvement with theory related to your individual research interests.
Professional development – The programme enables you to identify a professional focus which is likely to inform your subsequent career trajectory. This might involve research preparation, a placement, a collaborative project or exhibition management/curatorial practice. With the guided experience in this module our graduates are better prepared for a successful career as a professional artist.
Careers and professional development
In addition to the support, teaching and development opportunities afforded by the curriculum, as a student you will be immersed in the active arts environment of the School. During your studies with us you will have access to the visiting speakers arranged for this and for other arts programmes, for the seminars and conferences in diverse fields, including publishing, film, music and digital production in the School. The field trips, visiting artists, PhD students and opportunities in the programme’s Professional Experience module offer a rich network of individuals and organisations that enable you to make useful contacts for your future career.
Careers
Graduates from this programme will be well equipped to pursue their practice as independent artists who have a well-developed understanding of the theoretical and professional contexts of the current and contemporary landscape of the arts and creative industries.
This programme is delivered within the School of Arts, which offers a vibrant environment for the creative industries including film, photography, music and publishing. Through the modules, which address practice, theory and professional experience, students are provided with links to engage with employment and further study opportunities, either as independent practitioners, facilitators or participants within a range of group and collaborative practices and contexts.
Free language courses for students - the Open Module
Free language courses are available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.
Please note that the free language courses are not available if you are:
Our MA Fine Art degree enables graduates to develop the skills, critical understanding and specialist knowledge required to follow a rewarding career as an independent artist or to work within a related creative industries perspective.
This course provides a tailored learning environment that encourages and supports your creative development, your independence in creativity, imagination and ideas, from the individual perspective of the student. The course seeks to support and develop new interdisciplinary practices, conceptual skills and a broader understanding of the debates informing Art & Design practices, which are a fundamental aspect of the programme.
The course is delivered by an experienced team of recognised artists, critical theorists and curators who encourage and support a diversity of approaches within Fine Art and its expanded field. The course actively supports and creates opportunities to explore collaborative and interdisciplinary practices, which challenge subject norms and areas of expertise. It is ideal for students who have an undergraduate honours degree in Fine Art, Painting, Printmaking, Contemporary Art Practice or Photography.
Please visit the website to find out how to apply.
Want to develop your artistic practice to a higher level? Building on your previous studies, our Fine Art Master’s degree aims to develop and broaden your knowledge and skills using new and alternative media. External partners and arts-based agencies provide opportunities to engage directly with the world of contemporary fine art.
Our MA in Fine Art offers an exciting opportunity to explore, develop and create. This course gives you the freedom to enhance your practical and creative skills, underpinned by a contextual research-based programme of critical studies. You’ll have a personal supervisor and work in the studio alongside your fellow MA Fine Art students. In addition, sessions focusing on entrepreneurial and contemporary exhibition/curatorial skills will help to extend your understanding of current practice and business management.
During your studies, you’ll develop a body of work for exhibition in the purpose-built fine art studio/exhibition area, to be held at the end of the course. You’ll have the chance to apply for commissions and work for external agencies, and be encouraged to make external links through exhibition or artist-in-residency opportunities.
Former Fine Art students were instrumental in founding Neo:artists Studios, a Bolton-based internationally-recognised contemporary art group with a dynamic exhibition programme. As an MA student you’ll have opportunities to access the facilities and mentoring at Neo:artists, in addition to the tuition and guidance you receive at the University.
For more information please visit http://www.bolton.ac.uk/postgrad
The Course aims to:
This course draws on the School’s considerable research reputation and professional expertise in the areas of painting, photography, performance, film and video, sculpture, installations, public art and print-making. This fascinating programme provides highly focused teaching, alongside a critical lecture series within an intellectually supportive environment.
You will be supported by some of the most dynamic artists and researchers in the School. You get the chance to benefit from field trips and gallery visits. Alongside the development of your creative studio work you will gain an understanding of key aspects of art history and theory, as well as an awareness of the social and institutional context within which artworks exist. On completion of the course, your practical work will be exhibited and publicised in a group MA exhibition.
Take a look at some examples of work produced by students for MA Fine Art.
Typical modules include:
The Fine Art Course provides a studio intensive programme supported through theoretical and contextual lecture series, studio based seminar critique and individual tutorials. The ethos of the course is to provide students with the time and space to develop ideas and practice towards the final off-site MA exhibition; this includes the structure of personal research and the development of the critical and/or theoretical emphasis behind your work in order to understand the methodological framework of your working practice.
You will have time to reappraise and analyse previous work, develop new ideas in relation to your practice and it’s theoretical underpinning then consolidate those ideas practically. Finally you will bring those ideas and your work to resolution and focus towards the MA exhibition. The course provides students with the knowledge, ambition and structure in order to proceed towards their future career ambitions. Within the programme you will have the opportunity to develop your awareness of exhibition and the display of your work as well as the audiences for that work. The MA Fine Art course will support you in structuring an advanced independent practice, underpinned by sustained critical engagement.
Matthew Evans MA Fine Art
Matthew Evans completed his MA Fine Art with distinction and has since received several commissions for his innovative new approach; creating bespoke modern-day coat of arms, including a £10k commission for the The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham. He has also been selectedfor the New Art West Midlands 2013 Exhibition at Birmingham Art Gallery Museum which showcases the best of West Midland’s graduates.
"As a result of studying the MA course I have grown professionally as an artist. By adopting a ‘take a risk’ attitude I have been able to further refine my artistic practice and anchor it within the most critically interesting areas. By embracing the challenge of diversification, and enjoying the critical dialogue embedded within the course, I have resolved a number of sticking points, and identified areas for future development.
I chose to study my MA at the University of Wolverhampton as I felt I needed to breathe new life into my practise and relished the challenge of experiencing a new exciting creative environment. The artistic facilities on offer to students and the glowing reputations of the SAD staff and support technicians also played a key role in my decision.
What particularly impressed me about the course was not only the availability and approachability of the lecturers but the general sense of cohesion felt as a student. As well as extensive access to lecturers, and the intensively taught aspects of the course, there are many MA excursions that are incredibly beneficial.
As a positive side note, my affinity with the University has continued this September, with me becoming the Fine Art Artist in Residence for this year."
Other student comments:
“The MA has greatly expanded my knowledge of Fine Art.”
“I feel that I’m being supported in my work and that the best of my talent is being encouraged.”
“The lecturers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic and I’m grateful for both their input and the input of the other students”.
“I’m confident it’s setting me up with the right skills and knowledge to succeed in a career within the arts”.
“I’m glad that I made the decision to do the MA; it’s been a positive turning point in my life”.
MA Fine Art is an opportunity to look at the familiar with a fresh, perhaps oblique perspective in order to explore how “detour” permits “access”(Jullien 2004) to more subtle yet more complex interpretations. What constitutes a meaningful and useful research methodology in one culture may be considered unknown, unnecessary or redundant in another. These differences are at the very fabric of the Fine Art course; establishing deliberate cross-cultural dialogues with students from International and UK backgrounds and providing a vehicle for highlighting differences in working practices and methodologies.
Recognising the individual and their aspirations, and celebrating ideas and risk-taking, our approach and experience of encouraging inter-disciplinary and collaborative activity lies with the provision of a meaningful journey for our students beyond the obvious.
They meet the fresh, often unpredictable and certainly challenging possibilities that are offered as they test, develop, progress, interrogate, ‘make’ and confidently reflect on their practice.
Our guiding principle is to offer distinctive and exciting opportunities for students to engage in their respective subject discipline in order to redefine their particular individual approach to their practice and position it within their chosen external creative economic and cultural environment.
Crucial to the course is that each student demonstrates a passion for their practice within their chosen medium and subject discipline.
See our online student gallery for examples of our student's work.
Edinburgh College of Art: Postgrad study in Art, Design, Architecture, Music, History of Art
