Fine Art
Newcastle is one of the best cities in the UK in which to study contemporary visual art. Its diverse and lively arts scene goes hand in hand with the University’s long and distinguished history in the research, practice and teaching of fine art. The University was ranked 2nd in the UK for Fine Art in the Sunday Times and 3rd in The Guardian University Guide 2012.
At Newcastle you will have access to some of the best-resourced and most spacious studio, workshop and gallery facilities in Britain. You will be taught by internationally recognised artists and researchers, all of whom are creating leading-edge exhibitions, installations, videos, films and publications. You will be working in the centre of what is a large, culturally and technologically rich University, in the centre of an exciting and vibrant city. Whether your practice involves painting, sculpture, technology/digital media, drawing, performance, photography, printmaking, installation or video art, we offer the facilities and expertise to ensure that you can pursue professionalism and excellence in your work.
We offer two types of postgraduate degrees in fine art. The taught MFA, is a two-year, studio-based programme that enables you to establish or extend your position as a practitioner in the contemporary art world, and will culminate in a substantial public exhibition and a dissertation. The research degrees of MPhil and PhD can be practice-led or theoretical, and enable you to carry out in-depth research and practice in a particular area of art practice, history or theory. Your final submission for the degree can be a research-based thesis or a combination of studio practice and thesis.
Our staff have international profiles, earned through excellence in practice and in academic exploration of practice. Our research excellence was confirmed by the (RAE) 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, which classed 85 per cent of our research in art and design as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, placing us in the top five universities in the UK for research quality. Many of our staff have their studios on campus, which means that you will have the opportunity to work alongside a range of leading artists.
You will have 24-hour access to excellent purpose-built studio spaces and our sculpture, printmaking and IT workshops are all supported by full-time technicians. As a contemporary artist or researcher working in an increasingly interdisciplinary subject, you will also be actively encouraged to take advantage of and pursue opportunities for interdisciplinary projects, and to use our specialist research facilities, such as Culture Lab.
The weekly Visiting Artist programme enables you to meet and engage with a range of invited national and international artists, curators and art theorists. We also support your professional practice through ‘LifeWorkArt’, a specialist professional training scheme for artists, and there are opportunities for you to study abroad through our expanding programme of international exchanges.
