Program Overview
The Fine Art with History of Art BA program at University of Leeds combines practical studio work with a comprehensive exploration of art history. It fosters artistic development and critical thinking, preparing students for diverse careers as artists, art historians, and creative professionals, equipped to engage with social and cultural issues through their work.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
This program offers a unique blend of fine art practice and art history, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of art across cultures and periods. The program aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge to become socially conscious artists and creative global citizens, capable of contributing to the creative community and innovating in their respective fields.
Objectives:
- Explore practices and interpretations of art across diverse cultures and periods.
- Develop personal creativity and artistic style through experimentation with various techniques and materials.
- Gain skills in curating, event production, critical thinking, writing, researching, publishing, and media content production.
- Investigate the interconnections between art and social dynamics like ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and environmental issues.
- Prepare students for careers as artists, art historians, and creative practitioners.
Outline:
The program is structured across three years, with a focus on creative practice within a historical continuum. Students are encouraged to find their own artistic direction and develop a strong body of work.
Year 1:
- Compulsory Modules:
- Introduction to Practice (40 credits): Introduces students to fine art practice and history of art, exploring contemporary and traditional approaches across various disciplines. Students will engage with artists, tutors, and curators through practical workshops, live projects, and exhibition opportunities.
- Practice [2] (40 credits): Continues the development of independent studio work and practice-based research. Students will engage with lectures, seminars, tutorials, and visiting speakers to discuss contemporary art practice and professional development.
- Art History as Practice (20 credits): Introduces students to the dynamic and inclusive practices of art-historical research, focusing on understanding past cultures, engaging with current issues, and developing independent research.
- From Art History’s Myths to Critical Art History (20 credits): Explores a broad range of art-historical topics, with a focus on modernity and the contemporary, critically engaging with prevailing myths of the discipline.
Year 2:
- Compulsory Modules:
- Practice [3] (20 credits): Builds on Year 1 achievements, focusing on independent, self-directed, practice-based research and its dissemination. Students will develop their work through individual tutorials, group crits, and technical workshops.
- Practice [4] (40 credits): Students will develop a body of work exploring ideas of audience in relation to appropriate methods of display. They will work in small collaborative research clusters, supported by individual tutorials, group crits, and technical workshops.
- Optional Modules:
- The New York School (20 credits): Examines the shift of the avant-garde from Paris to New York in the late 1930s, focusing on artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Rauschenberg.
- Seeing in Asia (20 credits): Explores how cultural and historical values shape the act of seeing and interpreting images in an Asian context.
- Variant Modernism (20 credits): Examines different definitions of "modern" or "contemporary" art in 20th-century England, studying underlying critical ideologies.
- The Grand Tour: Travels, Excavations, Collections (20 credits): Follows a typical Grand Tour itinerary, assessing the importance of travelers, guides, artists, and dealers, and analyzing major Grand Tour collections.
- The Art Market: Moments, Methodologies, Meanings (20 credits): Introduces key themes in the history of the art market, including the primary and secondary markets, key institutions, and agents.
- Renaissance / Anti-Renaissance: Critical Approaches to Early Modern Art in Europe (20 credits): Engages with fundamental questions about Renaissance art, exploring the Renaissance as a dynamic site of conflict, contestation, and experiment.
Year 3:
- Compulsory Modules:
- Practice [5] (20 credits): Students consolidate their creative practice through individual tutorials with professional artists, curators, and writers, and group crits. They will create work for a group exhibition project in The Project Space.
- Practice, towards exhibition (40 credits): Students develop their research-driven creative practice to produce a consolidated body of work for the public platform of the degree show exhibition. They will also have the opportunity to gain experience in curating and planning a large-scale group exhibition.
- Dissertation (40 credits): Students undertake substantial independent research in a topic of particular interest, supported by a dedicated dissertation supervisor.
- Optional Modules:
- From Trauma to Cultural Memory: The Unfinished Business of Representation and the Holocaust (20 credits): Addresses debates about the representation of the Holocaust, considering its continuing significance in the larger context of European history.
- Cultural Diversity in Museum and Material Culture - Case Study (20 credits): Examines how museums have integrated (or failed to do so) the artefacts of Jewish minorities in Europe and the USA.
- Anthropology, Art and Representation (20 credits): Examines the anthropology of art, focusing on cultural value, cross-cultural relationships, and the issue of cultural representation.
- Unmaking Things: Materials and Ideas in the European Renaissance (20 credits): Attends to questions generated by historical consideration of the materials from which Renaissance artworks and objects were made.
- Critical Approaches to Photography (20 credits): Excavates the philosophical issues embedded in concepts like "truth," "reality," and "mediation" in thinking about and writing about photographic images.
- Postcolonial Feminisms (20 credits): Examines feminist theory and politics in the context of decolonization, focusing on theoretical formulations concerning sexual difference and the social division of gender.
- Antique Dealers: The Market for 'Decorative Art' from Curiosities to Retro (20 credits): Pays critical attention to the history of the "modern" antiques trade, from its development in the early 19th century to the present day.
- Africa and the Atlantic World: History, Historiography and the Visual Arts (20 credits): Explores aspects of the visual arts of sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the relationship between antiquity and the modern world, "tradition" and the 20th/21st century, and the African diasporas.
Assessment:
The program utilizes a combination of assessment methods, including:
- Studio work: Submission of a single PDF portfolio and supporting statement at the end of each practice module.
- Essays: Written assignments to demonstrate critical thinking and analytical skills.
- Exams: Written assessments to evaluate knowledge and understanding of key concepts and theories.
Teaching:
- Teaching Methods: The program combines studio, exhibition, and curatorial work with traditional teaching and learning methods such as lectures, seminars, studio crits, tutorials, and workshops.
- Faculty: Students are taught by expert academics, including lecturers, professors, industry professionals, and trained postgraduate researchers.
- Unique Approaches: The program emphasizes a collective community environment, encouraging mutual support and collaboration. Students are also encouraged to carry out small research projects, individually or as part of a group.
Careers:
Graduates of this program pursue a wide range of careers, including:
- Artists: Working across various creative fields, including fine art, design, and performance.
- Curators: Working in museums, galleries, and art spaces.
- Critics: Writing for art publications and journals.
- Journalists: Reporting on art and culture for various media outlets.
- Educators: Teaching art and art history in schools and universities.
- Art Therapists: Using art as a therapeutic tool.
- Cultural Entrepreneurs: Establishing new cultural enterprises.
- Other Fields: Utilizing their knowledge and skills in fields like journalism, broadcasting, marketing, technology, business, and design.
Other:
- The program offers opportunities for students to contribute to the creative community, build networks in the city, and exhibit their work regularly.
- The program also offers opportunities for students to participate in field trips to art fairs, exhibitions, festivals, regional museums, and galleries.
- The University of Leeds has a strong commitment to enhancing student employability and embedding transferrable skills.
- The program offers optional Study Abroad and Year in Industry opportunities, providing students with valuable experience and skills development.
Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2024/25 Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students are set by the UK Government and will be £9,250 for students starting in 2024/25. The fee may increase in future years of your course in line with inflation only, as a consequence of future changes in Government legislation and as permitted by law. Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 have not yet been confirmed by the UK government. When the fee is available we will update individual course pages. Tuition fees for international undergraduate students starting in 2024/25 and 2025/26 Fees for students starting in 2025/26 will be available from September 2024. Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year If you take a study abroad or work placement year, you’ll pay a reduced tuition fee during this period. Read more about paying fees and charges.
