Our BA (Hons) Fine Art programme takes you on a comprehensive, immersive and transformative journey into the world of creativity.
Our program combines traditional art techniques with contemporary practices, allowing you to explore and experiment with a wide range of artistic mediums and styles. The course is designed to nurture your creative spirit, expand your artistic horizons, and prepare you for a successful career in your artistic practice.
Why study this subject?
This field offers a remarkable opportunity to embark on a global journey, from art galleries and exhibitions to immersive experiences and commissioned projects. Regardless of where you envision your artistic endeavours taking you, with BNU guidance, you can transform your creative ideas and concepts into a thriving career.
Our program empowers you to become a versatile artist, cultivating a distinct artistic identity and honing the research methods that best align with your unique creative vision.
This course is also offered as a four-year programme, including an initial Foundation Year. The Foundation Year is a valuable stepping-stone, enabling you to enhance your academic study skills, bolster your confidence, and identify your individual strengths and areas for growth as you prepare for progression into the undergraduate program.
Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?
Being a part of the Art, Design and Performance School at BNU means you'll benefit from a hands-on course grounded in practical experience and complemented by contextual studies. You'll have the opportunity to engage with various courses across the university in collaborative projects. This will enable you to establish a diverse network, reflecting the realities of the real world.
With a history of delivering expert craft, art and design education for more than 130 years, Buckinghamshire New University is the perfect launchpad for your creative career.
Our dedicated and supportive teaching team will guide you through your time with us. You'll benefit from their vast knowledge and the extensive network of industry professionals they bring to the program.
You’ll have access to cutting-edge facilities, including specialized workshops and equipment that encompass woodwork, metalwork, 3D printing, dye labs, and screen printing – providing you with a multitude of avenues to express your creativity.
Throughout your course, you'll have the chance to participate in competitions, exhibitions, and our celebrated BNU Summer Show, showcasing your talents and accomplishments.
Additionally, our proximity to London, just a 30-minute train ride away, grants you easy access to the vibrant cultural scene of the city. You can explore world-class exhibitions, museums, and galleries, drawing inspiration from one of the most innovative capitals.
Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.
What facilities can I use?
As a Fine Art Student, you’ll be homed in a dedicated studio space. This will serve a space where you can explore your craft and cultivate your artistic practice. In addition, you'll enjoy access to a wide array of Art & Design resources, enhancing your creative journey.
You can take advantage of our Fashion and Textile workshops, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities including screen printing, and letterpress equipment, knit machines and Dye Lab. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to explore your creativity in our 3D design workshops, where you can work with various materials such as ceramics, metalwork, and woodworking.
You'll also be supported to develop your photographic, as well as moving image techniques, in our industry-standard photography studios and wet darkroom. Additionally, you’ll be able to edit any video and photographic work with the latest Adobe Creative software in our dedicated Mac media suites.
You can also access software remotely through our BucksAnywhere platform.
Our team of specialized technicians and demonstrators are readily available on-site to provide support and share their expertise whenever you require assistance.
What will I study?
Whether your passion lies in ceramics, woodwork, metalwork, sculpture, photography, video, painting, drawing, or any other artistic medium, your degree empowers you to craft compelling pieces that transcend individual media. As an artist, you are encouraged to flourish through collaborative projects with your fellow students, actively engage with the community, and partner with external organizations to expand and share your creative practice.
During your time studying this degree you’ll engage with cutting edge approaches to material and visual practices, as well as those that challenge the boundaries of the field. This is done through conceptual, theoretical, cultural, and ethical frameworks that underpin the contemporary arts, through practical workshops, studio-based practice and self-managed projects.
The curriculum for this course has been specifically designed to help you develop your knowledge of Fine Art through experimentation, investigation, interdisciplinary practices, collaboration, socially engaged practice, and draw from the intersections between analogue and digital approaches to making.
Reinforcing the University’s ambition to provide an inclusive educational experience for our learners, regardless of background or circumstance, you will have opportunities to drive or be involved in projects that embrace diversity and that are socially driven.
Due to connections with the Buckinghamshire Cultural Strategy Group, you could have access to involvement with professional exhibition or curatorial projects in collaboration with some of the county’s galleries and museums.
How will I be taught and assessed?
At the centre of this course is studio-based activity. You’ll spend a significant amount of time in the studio working on both individual study and group tuition. On the course you are pushed to explore your own style, which you’ll build into your own distinctive portfolio that demonstrates your unique strengths and interests for prospective work opportunities after graduation.
Our experienced teaching team of practicing artists, art professionals and researchers, provides a supportive environment to help you reach your full potential during this formative stage of your career and boost your confidence. During your time with us you’ll benefit from a close-knit community with your fellow students, as well as tutors who are made up of practicing artists and researchers.
Your lecturers will provide you with current insight into the subject, as well as develop your learning through research, collaborative projects, industry briefs and external opportunities. This will help you refine your new skills, methods and knowledge to become critically engaged with your practice.
There will be clear emphasis on arts-based practice, where you will develop projects from concept to exhibition outcomes and be encouraged to adopt experimental approaches and methods. Exhibiting, networking and developing as a practicing artist is central to the course. Alongside this, you will be offered access to networks and opportunities for collaboration in a range of contexts, in order to develop transferable and entrepreneurial skills and experience of a range of environments, further extending your career options.
As well as this, due to the University’s connections with local and regional arts and cultural organisations, you will have access to involvement with projects in collaboration with some of the county’s galleries and museums, as well as other creative opportunities.
You’ll also be assessed though; 1:1 or small group tutorials, seminars and lectures, portfolio and presentations, written assessments, sketchbooks, group critiques and self-directed study.
At the end of your course, you’ll exhibit your artwork as part of our popular Art and Design Summer Show. It’s a chance to showcase your talents and potentially catch the attention of future employers and talent scouts.
What are my career prospects?
Throughout your time with us we’ll support you on the route to your chosen career. We’ll help you to develop crucial skills, encouraging you to become enterprising, employable and good leaders. Our Careers and Employability Team also help you find employment after graduation.
On graduating from the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree, you will be equipped to apply for jobs that demand well-developed creative skills across the arts and creative industries, or become self-employed/freelance and undertake work across a range of specialisms including:
- Visual artist
- Interdisciplinary arts practitioner
- Illustrator
- Photographer
- Digital artist
- Animator
- Printmaker
- Designer
- Artworker
- Image researcher
- Visual Consultant
- Technician
- Curation
- Exhibition designer
You may also wish to stay on at Buckinghamshire New University and study a full-time or part-time postgraduate course.
