Fine Art - BA (Hons) Degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University

Course Overview

It takes a rare and special ability to become a fine artist. You need both technical skill and creative insight to produce work that conveys an original perspective.

Our BA Fine Art degree course gives you the space, freedom and support to fully express your artistic vision. Choose your own journey - define your interests and practices and immerse yourself in exploration.

You will develop skills through an engagement with traditional materials and contemporary technologies within a studio practice culture. Both a strong art historical and broader contextual view of your work is a crucial as part of your evolution as an artist.

Through blending material exploration, practice and philosophy, you will explore the intricate connections between theoretical and conceptual ideas and artistic intention. You will gain insights from diverse interdisciplinary contexts, engage with critical theory and learn to apply them through your work.

Be ambitious, disciplined and motivated in your practice and you'll graduate with the skills, confidence and critical ability to continue your journey as a professional artist.

​Course Content​

As you progress through the course you'll develop both your technical and creative skills through a range of material exploration and use of media. You'll have access to your own studio space and will work with the academic staff in defining and developing your interests and practices in numerous capacities, including:

• Critical thinking / critical judgement (Immersion in both the historical and contemporary art practice / thinking)
• Process & Material Based Learning: (painting, video, animation, printmaking, photography, drawing, performance, plaster, robotics, public art, participatory and inclusive practices, woodwork, metal work, ceramics, product design, bronze casting, sewing)
• Individual Responsibility / Self Motivation
• Independence / Confidence / Imagination/ Play
• Enquiry driven speculative practice

There are frequent opportunities to interact with practitioners and external partners. You can choose to learn how professional practices operate through industry placements. Explore what entrepreneurship has to offer the contemporary artist. Or study abroad – taking inspiration from different cultures and people.

Your final year is spent producing work for exhibition. You'll also complete a business plan, dissertation, or critical review – it's your choice, depending on where you want to take your artistic career next.

Employability & Careers​

Whilst your learning is designed to develop you into a rounded and capable artist and intellectual, your curriculum is similarly structured with your potential in mind.

As such, the emphasis that will have been placed upon your work ethic, both creatively and academically, is matched with significant focus on real world experience; from building contacts and undertaking placements to live briefs and, should you choose so, support in forming your own business.

You can elect to tak​e a route through your second and final years of studies where you can engage with businesses or prepare to launch your own for the moment you graduate. In your final year, rather than submit a dissertation, you have the option of devising a detailed business plan.

Throughout your time at CSAD, you will be meeting and hearing from professionals within your industry, honing your skills and ideas for commercial and professional advantage. Cross-disciplinary projects will prepare you for teamwork later on, whilst live briefs will prepare you for deadlines and the demands of tight specifications.