Course summary

Plymouth College of Art has been granted full university status and formally recognised with the new title of Arts University Plymouth, following approval by the Privy Council. This makes us the City of Plymouth’s first specialist arts university. The title of Arts University Plymouth signifies a change to the way that the world will see us, our position within the sector and the mobility of our graduates; but not a change in the way that we see ourselves or what we do. Arts University Plymouth will build upon the existing strength of our unique culture and incredible community; we have no plans to change the specialist focus of the work we do together. The name Arts University Plymouth will appear on our qualifications, making it easier for employers and peers to recognise that our students were taught at a leading specialist arts university. In May 2022 we were awarded the Best Small or Specialist University at the 2022 WhatUni Student Choice Awards, coming top in a list of well-respected specialist UK universities, based on unbiased and honest reviews from students across the UK, in a category that highlights the quality of our provision as a specialist creative university. Our BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices course will provide you with a specialist foundation in the making of objects using both traditional and modern techniques. A vibrant mix of designing and making gives you the chance to explore a diversity of materials including clay, textiles, fibers, wood, metals, glass, and new synthetic matter while developing a cohesive, forward-thinking and sustainable contemporary practice. With almost 150,000 people employed in the UK’s craft industry, skilled crafts-people are putting the country on the map for original, forward-thinking contemporary design. The relationship between designing and making is ever-evolving, with experimentation and innovation seeing a new wave of makers take their craft profession in fresh and original directions, often looking to develop methods in which we can live harmoniously within natural and fabricated environments. You’ll study specialist ceramics techniques such as throwing, slip casting, hand-building, coiling, glazing, and raku firing. Working with glass will include hot glass making, kiln-formed glass, coldworking and lampworking. Working with metals will see you casting, welding, and grinding. If you’re looking to specialise in wood-working, you’ll have the opportunity to learn woodturning, vacuum forming, CNC fabrication, laser cutting, and 3D printing. Through the use of traditional materials like clay, wood, textiles and glass, as well as explorations in smart and adaptive materials, you’ll develop new modes of creative authorship through experimentation, research and invention. Our spacious Materials Lab includes specialist facilities for ceramics, glass, metal and wood, encouraging you to explore traditional making alongside the rapid digital prototyping facilities in our Fab Lab, giving you the opportunity to reinvent craft for the 21st century. You will also meet some of the UK’s most inventive and entrepreneurial contemporary makers and thinkers through studio visits, demonstrations, and presentations. Our ambition is that your material practice develops in an international context, and you’ll be given the opportunity to visit a number of current events such as Sieraad in Amsterdam, Collect at the Saatchi Gallery, British Ceramics Biennial, the Contemporary Craft Festival and London Design Fair. Recent contributors to the course include Steve Dixon, Pr Neil Brownsword, Caroline Broadhead, Dr Erin Dickson, Dr Wendy Gers, Sam Photic, Nuala Clooney, Mount Edgecumbe and Eden Project. Graduates can become:

• Ceramicists

• Glass artists

• Prop designers,

• Ornament/wearables designers

• Sculptors

• Architectural surface designers

• Textile designers

• Fine artists

• Gallery and museum professionals