Fine Art

Fine art is the practice and study of art-making understood as an intellectual and creative discipline in its own right, not simply as the production of attractive objects but as a form of critical enquiry into the world. Contemporary fine art encompasses an extraordinarily diverse range of approaches, materials, and contexts, from painting, drawing, and sculpture through to performance, video, installation, and digital practice. What unites these varied forms is a commitment to thinking rigorously about what art is, what it can do, and how it relates to culture, society, history, and the viewer's experience.

At Arts University Plymouth, this three-year BA (Hons) is rigorous and questioning, encouraging an ambitious diversity of approaches in thinking and making. You will be challenged to develop your own artistic position through sustained studio practice, critical reflection, and engagement with the history and theory of contemporary art. The interdisciplinary environment of a specialist arts university supports you to work across media and to question received ideas about what art can and should be.

The degree includes a sandwich year in industry and work placement opportunities, giving you direct exposure to professional artistic and creative contexts before your final year, which is particularly valuable in a field where professional networks and real-world experience shape your subsequent practice. The combination of studio practice, critical study, and professional engagement produces graduates who are both technically able and conceptually confident.

Fine art graduates develop careers as practising artists, exhibiting their work through galleries, artist-led spaces, residencies, and public commissions. Many combine practice with teaching in schools, colleges, or community settings, or with work in arts organisations, galleries, and cultural institutions. The conceptual and creative skills of the degree are also valued in design, advertising, film and television, and arts journalism.

Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in fine art or related practice-based disciplines, developing their work and extending their professional networks through MFA programmes and residencies.