Master of Fine Art
Oxford Brookes University
Key Information
Campus location
Headington, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
12 - 24 months
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 15,900 / per year *
Application deadline
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Earliest start date
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* UK students full-time: £7,800 | International/EU students full-time: £15,900
Scholarships
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Introduction
Our Master of Fine Art in Fine Art (MFA) equips you to succeed in a career in the fine arts. It is ideal for independent artists who want to extend their practice with support from practising tutors. As well as artists looking to extend their career path into:
- curatorial practice in the contemporary arts
- collaborative projects with arts organisations
- arts in socially engaged practices and/or further research.
The course provides:
- postgraduate studio-based arts practice
- critical theory in fine arts
- development of your professional skills and knowledge.
Our School of Arts’ workshops is run by highly-skilled, creative Technical Specialists. And offer supported working environments in a range of specialist areas including:
- sculpture
- photography
- video
- sound
- printmaking
- book-works.
You will finish the course with the creative, interpretive, critical and analytical skills to develop an advanced understanding of contemporary art and its social, cultural and historical contexts.
Gallery
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
Study modules
Compulsory modules
- Professional Experience (30 credits)
This professional experience module delivers preparation for a future career in the creative industries in a number of ways. The teaching, learning and assessment strategy is designed to build upon previous professional experience and expertise by providing opportunities in bridging the gap between practice and academia, or working in the creative industries through placement, or exploring and implementing different modes of collaborative, social or participatory practices within a project, or increasing exhibition management and curatorial skills. Essentially, the module provides a platform of experiences that will support your understanding of development as an arts academic, creative industries employee or an independent professional artist. - Fine Art Practice I: Outcomes of Research in Practice (40 credits)
In this module you pursue rigorous and sustained research, exploring and investigating your own concerns out of which resolved outcomes emerge. The module provides a supportive context within which you initiate and establish a self-directed project. This process will enable you to re-evaluate, extend and challenge the strategies, techniques and motivations that underpin your existing practice, professional experience and prior learning. The emphasis is placed upon the generation of independent/collaborative/participatory practice-based work with materials, processes and contexts as well as engagement with theoretical ideas and concerns. This module gives you an opportunity to evolve a confident and intellectually stimulating working process as an artist and demands intensive, creative engagement coupled with sustained reflection. You will work with a nominated supervisor. Developed work in progress will be shown publicly at the end of this module. - Fine Art Theory I: Topics in Contemporary Fine Art Culture (20 credits)
This module develops your theoretical understanding of fine art and encourages you to critically engage with key topics from modern and contemporary art and culture. It provides you with opportunities to develop knowledge and understanding of fine art, as well as an ability to analyse the range of critical discourses that frame and inform contemporary practice. In this module, you will attend seminars, with sessions dedicated to the introduction of selected topics in modern and contemporary art and culture. Emphasis will be placed on your close reading and analysis of texts and will examine a range of critical forms of engagement, and critical positions taken on these. You will work independently and in groups, contributing to the discussion and making presentations where required. - Fine Art Theory II: Extended Critical Essay (30 credits)
In this module, research and carry out an independent critical investigation of a topic of your choice. This topic may relate directly or indirectly to your own practice. The module provides the opportunity to develop a sustained and critical theoretical position on any aspect of modern and contemporary art or visual culture, which may act to inform your subsequent practice-based work. The module spans the process of proposing an appropriate topic, researching it, developing and defending a position or argument in relation to the chosen subject and producing a critical essay. It is focused on your own learning throughout and is taught through seminars and individual tutorials.
Final project
- Fine Art Practice II: Major Project (60 credits)
This module represents the culmination of your learning throughout the course. You will work with a nominated supervisor to produce a work or body of work that is presented during the Fine Art Postgraduate Exhibition (MFA Show). The module extends the independent process of your development begun earlier in the programme and provides the opportunity to further develop and realise intellectually challenging and imaginative work through fine art practice to an advanced academic and professional standard. The module represents the culmination of your contemporary fine art practice at taught postgraduate level and provides a platform from which further career pathways can develop.
Learning and teaching
Teaching methods and approaches include:
- formal lectures
- seminars
- tutorials
- workshops.
There are three main parts to the course. The largest of these develops your individual practice as a contemporary artist. The second develops your understanding of historical and theoretical frameworks and contexts. The third enables your development as a functioning and contributing member of broader local, national and international arts communities.
You will develop as a reflective, practising artist. And you will have a robust and critical understanding of your own work. You will apply current theoretical frameworks of contemporary art practice.
You’ll be informed by the diverse and often challenging practices of nationally and internationally recognised artists, collectives and movements. And pursue specific interests to a greater depth through a process of independent learning.
There is an optional field trip as part of the programme.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Graduates from this programme will be well equipped to pursue their practice as independent artists who have a well-developed understanding of the theoretical and professional contexts of the current and contemporary landscape of the arts and creative industries.
This programme is delivered within the School of Arts, which offers a vibrant environment for the creative industries including film, photography, music and publishing. Through the modules, which address practice, theory and professional experience, students are provided with links to engage with employment and further study opportunities, either as independent practitioners, facilitators or participants within a range of group and collaborative practices and contexts.