BA (Fine Arts) Purpose of Qualification, Careers in Visual Arts

BA Fine ARtS

the Purpose of the Qualification

You have registered for a BA (FA) degree, which covers four years of intensive study. The purpose of the qualification is to produce a graduate who is academically qualified for entry into the professional field of contemporary art. Broadly, the degree aims to equip you with the specialised skill sets, qualifications and knowledge relevant to contemporary art practices, art critical discourses and further studies in the broader humanities. Furthermore, the qualification aims to generate graduates and artists who contribute critically to culture, society, and the creative economy both nationally and globally.

Careers in Art and Culture

The BA (Fine Arts) degree provides qualifications for a career in any field requiring practical and theoretical expertise in visual arts and culture. Since 1992, our graduates and alumni have made careers nationally and internationally as artists; curators; creative public practitioners; gallerists; arts collectives,museum and arts managers and administrators; art educators at primary, secondary and tertiary level; researchers and creative workers in the theatre, digital media and film, as well as the special needs settings and art publishing.

BA (FA) programme

Art practice, history, writing and theory form part of the BA FA programme and are integrated into different course streams of your degree.

The studio-based component involves a wide range of contemporary practices including Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking, Photography, Performance, Installation, Video, Curatorial Practice, Spatial Practices, and Digital Media.

In addition to learning specific skills, methods and research in art, we actively encourage an interdisciplinary approach to art making and peer-to-peer learning. In the first two years, you will be exposed to an intensive series of discipline specific processes and media, assignments and workshops. From First Year you are asked to test and explore different modes of working, building a portfolio, material knowledge and exercising a sense of artistic trajectory. In the final two years, you are required to work increasingly independently, with the focus on more personal creative and intellectual development, guided by consultations with assigned supervisors and studio ‘crits’.

The lecture-and tutorial based component consists of four consecutive years of art history and cultural theory. The first year program, Film, Visual and Performing Arts (FVPA) is a broad introductory program for all first years in the School of Arts, and this is followed by History of Art in the Second and Third Year, concluding with Critical Theories and Visual Cultures (CTVC) in Fourth Year. CTVC is taught at Honours level, focuses on contemporary art theory and practice and involves a long Research Essay. Professional Practice and the graduate NEWWORK exhibition round off your final year of the degree.

Outside of your courses, we welcome student-led exchanges, exhibitions, events and collaborations on and off campus and expect you to activly pursue your knowledge, research base and exposure within the arts. This includes attending exhibitions, studio reviews, concerts, project spaces, openings at TPO and the city, obviously within Covid 19 guidelines. As well as expanding your sense of critical reviews, publications, collectives, biennales and projects across online networks. You will be notified of seminars and conferences, exchanges and partnerships that the Fine Arts department is involved in (Including Nirox Sculpture Park, Tierney Fellowship Program and the annual AFEMS African Feminisms Conference). Staff members are participating this year in various international programmes, including documenta15 in Kassel, the Casablanca Biennale and Kochi-Muziris Biennale. In your courses you will be exposed in different ways to some of the networks we form part of, through guest lectures, seminars, open calls or exchanges.