Fine Art / Art History at Aberystwyth University

Fine Art at Aberystwyth University will allow you to develop new or broaden and deepen your skills in painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, book illustration, experimental film, installation and site-specific performance. Your Art History studies will be concerned with research as well as the critical understanding, interpretation and display of visual culture delivered through core modules as well as specialised or interdisciplinary history and curating modules.

In choosing our Fine Art and Art History degree, you will join one of the best art departments in the UK. On completion of this degree, you will emerge with real-world capabilities, enabling you to pursue careers as artists, art historians, curators and/or educators.

Why study Fine Art and Art History at Aberystwyth?

• Benefit from the disciplined acquisition of technical expertise, and the formation of creative intelligence, combined in equal measures with an historical, critical, theoretical and contemporary awareness of art history and visual culture.
• Make a valued contribution to a close community of students and staff within a well-respected School of Art that was established in 1917.
• Gain access to excellent teaching facilities that include well-lit studios for painting, darkrooms, print workshops, a MacSuite, seminar rooms, lecture theatre, galleries and a museum all housed in a magnificent Grade II* listed building.
• Explore our internationally significant collection of fine and decorative art. As an Accredited Museum, the School runs its own galleries with some 20,000 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs dating from the fifteenth century to the present day.
• Learn from experienced staff who are internationally renowned artists, curators and art historians.
• Enjoy our close association with the university Arts Centre, that is one of the largest in the UK and a major venue for exhibitions by contemporary artists and designers.
• Benefit from unrivalled access to the nearby National Library of Wales, one of only five copyright libraries in the United Kingdom, with over six million books, maps, prints and manuscripts, and a fine collection of paintings and works on paper.
• Participate in our study visits within the UK or abroad (destinations have included Madrid, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, New York, Vienna, Barcelona, Venice, Moscow, St Petersburg, Florence, Budapest and Lisbon).
• Enter the degree scheme directly from school or from a foundation course.

What career opportunities are there for me on completion of this degree?

As well as establishing careers as professional practicing artists, with significant exhibition profiles, our graduates have become employees of:

• Design Council;
• Arts Council;
• Tate Gallery;
• Victoria and Albert Museum;
• Royal Academy of Arts;
• Carlton Television;
• The Observer;
• Saachi Gallery;
• Damien Hirst;
• BBC;
• Viz magazine;
• Royal Collections Trust.

Some of our graduates are, for example, currently:

• University Professors;
• Secondary school teachers;
• Art gallery managers;
• Museum or exhibition curators;
• Arts journalists and researchers;
• Children’s book illustrators;
• Photographers;
• Portrait painters;
• Graphic designers;
• Art directors in publishing;
• Television presenters;
• Medical illustrators;
• Art therapists;
• Animators;
• Easel painting and works on paper conservators;
• Postgraduate study can lead to further career options in teaching and lecturing. Each year a significant number of our graduates enrol on a Master of Arts degree scheme.

How does the degree prepare me for my career?

You will gain skills that are highly valued by employers, preparing you to:

• Conceive creative solutions for specific problems;
• Research, evaluate and organise information;
• Clearly communicate both in writing and verbally;
• Work independently and with others;
• Manage your time;
• Become self-motivated and disciplined.