Course summary

Transform and refine your fine art or printmaking practice and professional approach as an artist. Extend your practical, contextual and research skills in a constructive, discursive and critical environment. Our Master of Fine Arts is an intensive studio-based full year (or two years if part time) of contemporary arts practice. The program reflects the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary art practice/s, facilitating the exploration of a range of approaches, including, but not limited to: drawing; painting; printmaking; sculpture; photography; moving image; digital media; installation; sound; performance; social and collaborative practice. You may choose to work across these media, or to specialise within a particular discipline, supported by our dedicated facilities in the Printroom, 3D/sculpture workshops and Futures Lab. You will also have access to photography darkrooms, digital computer suites and media resources for video production and digital imaging. By engaging with contemporary critical issues and with how artistic practices are understood in the 21st century and across different contexts, you will be encouraged to experiment, take risks, shift expectations and to strengthen the motivation, direction and ambition of your practice. Full-time students are normally offered a dedicated studio space, while part-timers can access the studios as a shared work-base. All students can access all our facilities as outlined above. The facilities within our specialist Printmaking Workshop in particular, along with those in the new Futures Lab, offer access to both traditional and emerging processes, including: relief and intaglio printing; screen-printing; plate lithography; photo-based, digital media and 3D printing. These will enable you to engage with the histories of information and technological media as well as with contemporary approaches to reproducibility and the mediated image within the expanded field of print. Similarly, our facilities in the 3D workshop and Annexe support traditional and new directions in contemporary artistic approaches in the uses of different materials, including wood, metals, clay, plaster, mould-making, laser cutting and related machinery, equipment and hand tools. Technical demonstrations and refresher sessions are offered in both traditional and emerging processes and you are encouraged to experiment with these in your creative work, supported by staff who are experienced artists working across disciplines. Teaching times 2023-24 (subject to change for 2024-5): Full-time - Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Part-time Year 1 - Wednesdays; Year 2: Tuesdays. You will be expected to attend for the full day in order to use other resources such as the studios, library, and workshops, and attend extra-curricular events such as talks and inductions. Teaching is primarily through one-to-one and group tutorials, seminars, workshops and studio critiques, in which you will learn about recent theories, contexts and practices. You are also encouraged and expected to develop your work and research independently. You will be supported by teaching staff who are themselves experienced artists, working across different disciplines including print and fine art. Our studio-based MA Fine Art course provides an opportunity for you to further explore, test and challenge your creative ideas in a supportive, professional environment. You will benefit from links we have with external arts organisations in Cambridge, including Curwen Print Study, Cambridge Artworks, Wysing Art Centre and galleries and exhibition spaces, both in Cambridge and further afield. This postgraduate degree in Fine Art will further prepare you for life as a practising artist and develop important transferable skills in writing proposals, exhibition practice, curating, research and critical writing. These will be invaluable skills for alternative arts careers in curating, museum and gallery education or management, or teaching.