History and Theory of Art
This component of the course provides students with grounding in the history and theory of art and an awareness of the relevance of these critical studies to the contemporary practising artist. The knowledge gained contributes to your overall development as artists. The programme helps you to place your studio work into context and to understand and negotiate the complex relationships between making art and the ways in which contemporary and historical art is understood, interpreted, displayed and discussed.
The Preliminary Studies course in the First Year introduces you to some of the essentials of the study of the History of Art, including key aspects of chronology, methodology and approaches to looking at artefacts and objects. In subsequent years you can select from a range of specialist modules on offer and in the third and fourth years you have the option to adjust the ratio of Art History to Studio Practice credits.
The range of teaching methods: lectures, seminars, individual tutorials, presentations, reading lists, gallery and museum visits, are designed to develop your ability to articulate your ideas both verbally and through text. The production of written work is an integral part of these studies and modules are assessed through the presentation of essays and exam papers and the requirement to research and present a dissertation in your third year.
In years 1-3 the Studio Practice modules constitute two thirds of the course. There is however an option to take extra Art history modules in years three and four, or alternatively, to take no Art history Modules in Year four and specialise in Studio Practice only.
Marks for the Stage three dissertation contribute a total of 25% towards the final degree classification calculated at the end of Stage Four.
