Fine Art

Arts University Plymouth is an arts university for the 21st century, preparing students who are uniquely placed to provide creative solutions to the complex global challenges of a changing world. We are the city of Plymouth’s first and only specialist arts university, allowing us to offer our students a dynamic and unique learning experience.

The university was recently voted 2nd in the UK for Facilities in the annual Whatuni Student Choice Awards, 3rd in the UK for Student Support, and 4th in the UK for Lecturers & Teaching Quality. Arts University Plymouth was crowned the 2024 Winner in South West England for the categories of University of the Year, Facilities, Student Support, and Learning & Teaching Quality.

Why choose MA Fine Art at Arts University Plymouth?

We place you at the crossroad of material traditions and futures. You can learn to take risks, be imaginative, and develop your critical and analytical skills. You can learn to research, interpret, and analyse artistic work, and develop your cultural and visual awareness as a practitioner. MA Fine Art places you at the overlap of these creative forces to consider where you can imagine new, unrealised forms and practices.

A pro-active, Interdisciplinary community. New ideas and material practices do not develop in isolation. You come to university to be challenged, supported and to take risks in a context that will inspire you to innovate and understand Fine Art as an active process of inquiry into material and cultural behaviours, possibilities and interdisciplinary forms. The course encourages conceptual exploration and transformation whether you work with painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, moving image, performance, social practice or installation.

Accelerated personal development through guided, practice-led research. We believe fine art practice is a starting point rather than a destination. As a practice steeped in tacit knowledge that is often transmitted through hands-on skills and customs, the power of the direct creativity that it offers is aligned to your personal transformation. You will be trained to carry out practice-led research processes and explore conceptual and theoretical frameworks that lead to personal discovery and future-oriented, contemporary professional options.

World-class workshops and facilities: During your time on the course, you will have access to one of the most diverse and spacious ecosystems of workshops, studios and labs known in a contemporary art and design school. Based primarily in our Postgraduate Studios, you are immersed in facilities across the University that allow you to hone your existing skills and be introduced to novel processes. Our approach is to support the full range of analogue and digital processes where you can play and experiment with where the material meets the technological in your practice.

Sustainable ethos and specialist knowledge: Part of the value of creative practice is the fact that many traditional methods and techniques take into account the cycles, ecology and biodiversity of nature. Built into our MA courses is an emphasis on the sustainable, ethical, non-extractive and regenerative approaches to working with materials, which not only provides a meaningful link between the past and the future, but puts you at the forefront of knowing the alternative ways of making that support new, more sustainable industries and give rise to material innovations that better serve the environment and planet.