“Through the degree students engage with drawing, painting, book arts and print, photography, performance and installation, art history, and the links between art, science and philosophy”

Entry requirements

Minimum Tariff: 300 UCAS tariff points from at least two A-levels (or equivalent), plus portfolio
UCAS Code: W100
Admissions Tutor: David Fitzjohn
Email: dfitzjohn@cardiffmet.ac.uk

About the course

Students begin by exploring the materials of the contemporary fine artist from paint, wood and metal to photography, video-installation, performance or print and all points in between. They can also elect to study techniques employed by other disciplines, such as digital design methods and our music studio. Equipped with a range of valuable skills, students work with the academic staff in specific studio areas, in the defining and development of their interests and practices. We put an especial emphasis on drawing as a means of questioning and engaging.

Year One and Two: Challenge your ideas

In year one and year two, equipped with the ideas and skills achieved in their subject module, students choose a further module where they can employ, extend and challenge those ideas and skills. The modules on offer will include ones where students will work alongside leading researchers on an enquiry based project, and others which involve them in an exploration of a challenging subject. These include modules on: the figure in art; creative strategies, drawing and visual studies: advanced material investigation; the physical and the virtual; and narrative.

” The course gives you freedom to explore your work and challenge yourself to come out of the ordinary!” – Tiff Howe, 1st year Fine Art

Some of the modules on offer might involve a period abroad, studying in Venice or the States, or might be an Erasmus exchange. There are also opportunities to undertake a work placement or study how to set up your own business. In all of these modules, students respond to the challenges through their own practices, employing the skills and ideas from Fine Art, informed and stimulated by the challenge of the module itself and by the opportunity to work with fellow students from across the School.

Year Three: Explore your own questions

In the third year, students devote themselves to the exploration of their own questions, within the area of practice that they have elected through the support and advice of the academic team. In this year and especially within the dissertation and the work prepared for the final show, the artist emerges into something unique to them and to the practice of Fine Art.

“I have a lot that I would like to achieve and I feel that Cardiff Met has given me a great platform to do this from.” – Florence Walkey, MA Printmaking

All students undertake modules that develop critical and sometimes radical approaches to how we see and construct the world. These modules provide some of the tools that can be employed to question through creative practice how meaning is made as well as why meaning is a contested area. These will also equip students for the preparation of their final dissertation. Taught on a cross-disciplinary basis, the content of these modules will draw on anything and everything, from Constable to cosmetic surgery, from Bernard Leach to Elvis Presley impersonators, and from aesthetics to punk rock.

Manifesto: debate and constructive dialogue

Twice yearly Fine Art at CSAD runs MANIFESTO, a weeklong symposium where the discrete studios present their research to the whole body of Fine Art students and staff, in the form of a seminar, film, exhibition, performance, or other innovative means of delivery. The aim is to engage all Fine Art students, in all its awards, in debate and constructive dialogue.

“You’re given a lot of freedom to explore the ideas in your art” – Matthew Hemmings, Year 2, Printmaking

Fine Art graduates are equipped to pursue their artistic ambitions. Many carry on and study with us for an MFA or an MA. Others undertake further training, such as a PGCE or Gallery Management. Many of our students elect to take employment in a range of industries, including banking, insurance, media and public relations. Most, if not all, in whatever they choose to do, continue to practice Fine Art….because it is a way of life.