As well as studio practice, the BA Fine Art programme takes the form of lectures, seminars and assignments undertaken in a sequence of distinct Units. Your study of fine art follows one of four broad pathways, described below. All pathways involve studio practice, critical and theoretical studies, and personal and professional development. For all pathways and practice, students develop appropriate levels of research, initiative and responsibility in order to propose and implement their own programme of study.

The BA Fine Art programme is practice-based and focuses on making and the development of ideas that constitute your artistic production. 'Production' takes place in many ways and places, including studios, workshops and off-site locations. In participating you benefit not only from the formal input of tutors but also from an informal interaction with peers, and an awareness of their development, within a shared environment. 'Studio practice' can mean site-specific work, film and video, live performance or installation as well as work actually made in 'a studio'.

2D pathway (art practice in two dimensions, for example - painting, printmaking and photography)

2D explores how making is informed by contemporary culture, politics and social forms as much as by questions of the image and abstraction. It considers the screen, the picture plane and surface as fundamental aspects of visual production. Technical inductions are positioned in terms of these questions. In the studio we discuss how diverse disciplines, practices and forms of thought can be mixed.

3D pathway (art practice in three dimensions, for example - sculpture, installation and performance)

3D explores matter, scale, production, material and immaterial form in relation to place and  audience. Students are inducted into a range of traditional and new 3D technologies, and to the debates surrounding hybrid production processes. The studio is a place where the reading and writing of space can take place and be questioned. 3D challenges a conventional understanding of the studio, the exhibition and institutional spaces.

4D pathway (art practice in four dimensions, for example - film, video, art writing, performance and sound)

4D explores time-based, durational performative, and interdisciplinary practices. Critical and philosophical positions are explored in relation to practice and current ideas such as the post-medium condition, the apparatus of technology and temporality are considered. The Pathway has an experimental approach to the studio and explores how this might challenge conventions of practice. In this context, the ‘open work’ is engaged as a site where collaboration and production take place.

XD (art practice across dimensions, practices, locations and situations)

XD explores the possibilities of not only ‘what does art mean?’ but also ‘what can art do?’ and ‘where can art be?’ The implications of working across different platforms and placing art in particular situations and communities throws into question the rights and responsibilities of the artist in relation to the audience and the environment. The studio is considered as a laboratory where ideas for interventions in the practice of everyday life can be generated.

Critical studies

The Critical studies tutors are fundamental in the delivery of theory within the course. Writing and presentation skills and the ability to articulate practice.

Critical studies supports a student’s theoretical exploration and provides the methodologies and a conceptual framework for developing practice. This takes the form of lectures, seminars tutorials and presentations. The Critical Studies tutors are fundamental in the delivery of Theory within the course. Writing and presentation skills and the ability to articulate practice.

Through stage one and two there are a number of different forms of written submission leading up to the dissertation in stage 3. Teams of critical studies and studio tutors jointly supervise this. The final degree classification is based on the assessment of the stage three units (unit eight dissertation 40 credits and unit nine continuing practice and degree show 80 credits).

Introductory reading suggestions:

Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook byPablo Helguera, Jorge Pinto Books 2011

Situation by Clare Doherty, Whitechapel Art Gallery 2009

Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art 1965-1975 by Carter Ratcliff, Allworth Press 2001

Programme stages

Stage one (level four) provides an introduction from the perspective of your pathway. From the beginning you are introduced to practical skills and processes, research and study skills, critical and discursive approaches. It is diagnostic and exploratory.

Stage two (level five) is a pivotal period of development in which you begin to take increased responsibility for your learning and for self-directed work. There's more emphasis on experiment and risk in developing your ideas, conceptual strategies, research and means of production. This stage also sees a honing of technical skills.

Between stage two and stage three of the BA Fine Art programme there's an option to take a Diploma in Professional Studies. This separate qualification (rated at 120 credits) involves researching, undertaking and reflecting on a 20-week (minimum) placement related to your professional interests and aspirations (e.g. in gallery or educational contexts or working as an artist's assistant). The Diploma provides a valuable opportunity to make professional contacts and to develop your personal employability skills.

Stage three (level six) is a period of realisation that brings together your learning during the degree course as a whole. As well as reflecting your development as a contemporary practitioner it engages you as far as possible with the challenges of personal responsibility and development that a career in the creative professions or further study at Masters level involves.

Critical Studies are embedded into the Units with studio practice and involve investigations into historical and contemporary critical theory through lectures, seminars, tutorials and independent research. You consider the historical and contemporary contexts of art and a broad range of critical debates relating to the form, content, value and meaning of art practices, and produce written assignments, leading to a dissertation in stage three. Balanced with your studio practice, your dissertation focuses on an individual chosen topic and field of research that relates to your practice and locates it within a theoretical framework. It involves the development of a piece of documented research.

Personal and Professional Development is also embedded into the units with studio practice and critical and theoretical studies, helping you focus on generic study skills and orientation and becoming more closely related to your professional direction.

Developing your skills - external activities

Active collaborations involving staff and students embrace key cultural institutions, venues, commercial enterprises and alternative spaces to introduce you to London's varied networks of creative practice. Teaching frequently targets major and specialist galleries and museums in London as research bases.

External projects bring students into collaborative relationships with outside agencies and provide experience and awareness of art practice beyond the college. Recent external projects include work with the Camden Art Centre, The Freud Museum, Tate Modern, The Welcome Foundation, British Library and the British Museum.

There are many collaborative exhibition and project opportunities across the Pathways, within the College and the University and a well-established international study exchange.

Industry collaborations

Working with paying clients on live briefs will give you valuable commercial experience which may mean your work being taken forward for production or, if so desired, in the purchase of your intellectual property. All paid projects are conducted within a carefully developed legal framework, which includes student agreements to protect your work and help you realise its commercial value.

Recent client projects in the Art programme include: Red Mansion Foundation.

Once you’ve graduated, you may be picked as part of a small team to work on a live creative brief, organised by our Business and Innovation department, under the supervision of an experienced tutor. This can be a valuable first step in working professionally in a chosen discipline and has resulted in graduates being hired by clients.