About the course

The course allows a wide range of creative fine arts practice, and is multi-disciplinary in its approach. You can opt to pursue a specialised route in a medium such as painting or sculpture, or more often develop additional skills in areas such as photography or ceramics, and bring these skills to your area of specialism. The programme has also developed strong links to arts organisations and local authority arts groups, allowing you to work on 'live' projects if you choose. Excellent facilities allow for a high level of presentation and development of specialist skills.

 

What you will learn

The course is primarily intended to equip you with a professional level of understanding in fine arts practice. You will learn new skills to a high standard in a number of core specialisms, and be able to make links between these specialisms in order to develop a substantial and high standard body of creative art works. You will become increasingly independent in your thinking, and confident in your ability to apply your knowledge to your practical work.

 

What you will study

• Level 1 gives you an opportunity to learn new skills and develop a critical and informed view of the visual arts. Exploration and experimentation is encouraged in this intensive year of discovery.
• Level 2 is where you will begin to establish your personal direction and begin to make use of the many different specialisms available to you. Students often make links between their own projects in the core module, and the electives that develop specialist skills. You will be given a personal studio space at the outset of the year, and here you will undertake most of the studio activity of your own projects.
• Level 3 allows you to become more independent where you can organise your time to suit your work pattern. Most of the year will be spent developing a major "Personal Project". Your final exhibition will take place at the end of the year, and will be backed up with a detailed journal that establishes your ideas firmly in sound research and a critical appraisal of your ideas. The Degree Show Exhibition, open to the public, is the most important event of the year.

Special features

The Fine Arts programme at Bolton has maintained its traditional approach to fine art, allowing you to develop specific skills across the spectrum of fine art, whilst using advances in digital technology to enhance and keep up-to-date with new practices. You can apply a multi-disciplinary approach to your work, because of the open nature of the department, making use of the high-level facilities available.

• The Fine Arts programme offers a broad fine art practical experience, with a traditional core encompassing drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, digital media and ceramics.
• Excellent facilities, including 3D wood and metal workshops, and dedicated studio provision.
• Strong links with arts groups in the region enable students to work on 'live' projects.
  

Careers and professional development

Fine Arts graduates are highly regarded for their abilities to visualise, think creatively 'outside the box', and for their acquisition of specialist skills in both 2D and 3D areas. Fine Arts graduates can apply their skills to a whole range of different careers, from self-employed artists, public art practitioners, and curatorial positions in galleries and museums, to art therapists, illustrators, and freelance designers (spatially, time-based, and 2D).
Students from the course have moved on to further study at postgraduate and Masters level including the MA in Public Art at the university, set up their own studio spaces, and obtained positions within local arts groups, such as Hospital Arts, Percent for Housing and Artists in Schools. Others have become freelance illustrators, and artists working for commission.