Fine Art

Fine art is the practice of making work, and the serious intellectual and critical engagement with what it means to make work in the contemporary world. It differs from commercial art and design in that it begins from the artist's own questions and concerns rather than from a client brief or a functional requirement, and it asks students to develop a practice that is genuinely their own. The discipline is not a single medium or style but an open invitation to work across painting, sculpture, installation, performance, lens-based media, print and digital forms in pursuit of ideas and ways of seeing that matter.

This three-year full-time degree at the University of Dundee includes a foundation year and a year abroad, providing both a structured beginning and an international period of study. The foundation year gives you the grounding in studio practice, critical thinking and contextual knowledge needed before you progress into the main degree. The year abroad allows you to experience fine art education in a different cultural and institutional environment, which can be transformative for developing artists.

Throughout the programme the emphasis is on making and critical thinking, with the option to concentrate on a single discipline or to work across media. Your practical work will be supported by a growing engagement with the theory and history of art and culture, developing the ability to situate your own practice in relation to the broader field.

Graduates from fine art programmes pursue careers as practising artists, often alongside work in arts education, community art, arts administration, gallery and museum work, art therapy and the broader creative industries. The critical thinking, self-direction, visual communication and project management skills that a fine art degree develops are also valued in design, media, advertising and many other fields. Postgraduate study in fine art practice or theory is a common route for those who wish to develop their practice and engage with the academic dimension of contemporary art.