Fine Art

Entry requirements

• Provide a portfolio
• Take part in an interview

Months of entry

October

Course content

Why Lancaster?

Our Fine Art MA is unique, because combines the experience of studying at the North West’s top art school with a ‘residency’ component where you develop your practice at a leading organisation or festival in the region.

• Gain valuable insights and direction about your work from our expert team of practising artists
• Tailor your own residency and learn with curators and experts at Brantwood, National Trust, Eden Project North, Liverpool Biennial, Open Eye Gallery, Morecambe Bay Triennial, Abandon Normal Devices, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Wordsworth Trust, The Woodland Trust, Lakeland Arts, and many more
• Enjoy your own studio space with access to well-equipped workshop facilities and expert technical support
• Launch your career in art practice by making professional contacts and developing key transferable skills

Want to develop an understanding of fine art through your own lens? Our programme gives you the opportunity to re-evaluate and develop your practice while working with internationally acclaimed artists.

Residency, studio practice and theory

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your research for your own art practice through a specialised residency at a professional organisation. Choose from galleries, festivals, archives or sites in line with your interests. If your work relates to history and nature, for example, you could study the collections at Brantwood (Ruskin Museum). During your residency, you’ll develop a body of artwork in preparation for your final major project.

At Lancaster, you’ll also have access to your own studio space 24/7. You’ll be encouraged to underpin the practical side with theory through reading group sessions, discussions and visiting artist talks. Want to continue working while studying? Consider our part-time option.

Tailored to suit you

As well as the residency, you’ll study some core modules and one optional module in line with your interests and expertise. From drawing and painting to new media and installation, we have a wide range of experts to mentor you. They also cover a diverse selection of subject areas. For example, you could focus on art in relation to the environment and climate change or mobilities and migration.

To add even greater breadth, you’ll have access to modules run by other departments across the University such as sociology, film and creative writing.

Careers

Our MA Fine Art will equip you for a career in art practice at a professional level. Through the combination of practice, theory and research, you’ll also have gained the skills you need to apply to study at PhD level.

However, you might want to pursue a career in another area of the arts and your Master’s degree will give you the transferrable skills to do that.

You may be interested in working in one of these areas:

• Curating
• Arts education
• Public arts administration and management
• Art and design
• Creative industries

Whatever path you choose, you can be confident you’ll have developed a thorough understanding of how your specific area of the arts fits in the real world.

Information for international students

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 7.0, and a minimum of 6.5 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Fees and funding

Find out more on our fees and funding page.