The Bachelor of Fine Arts is a studio-based degree that will develop your creative and professional skills and contemporary artistic practice. The forward-looking degree will connect you with the latest artistic ideas, processes and technologies to help you to shape the future of contemporary art, culture and ideas.
Duration: 3 years full-time (+1 year Honours option)
2020 Guaranteed Entry Rank: 80
Degree Overview
The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree will encourage you to develop your creative practices by exploring a wide range of artistic processes, techniques and media. You will be immersed in the creatively and intellectually stimulating contexts of contemporary art and culture, joining Australia’s largest community of art and design practitioners, students, educators and researchers.
You will be guided by our dedicated, nationally and internationally recognised staff of artists, through structured learning pathways to develop an independent creative practice. With complementary studies in art history and theory, and opportunities for elective study, the degree is embedded with real world and professional skills. You will graduate prepared for a successful career in the contemporary art world and related creative fields throughout Australia and internationally.
Degree Structure
The Bachelor of Fine Arts is comprised of three year levels that help incrementally develop your artistic skills and knowledge. Our innovative structure will allow you to develop depth, specialising in two or more artistic disciplines, while also crossing boundaries in a series of core studios.
In your first year, you will gain the foundational practical and conceptual skills necessary to initiate creative learning.
In your second year, you will build on these fundamentals and further explore and expand your capabilities in studio and scholarly contexts.
In your third year, you will then have the opportunity to synthesise your skills and knowledge and develop a more sophisticated, self-directed artistic practice.
While studying at UNSW Art & Design, you will have access to an unmatched range of studio facilities and workshops with both cutting edge and traditional equipment available as well as the expert knowledge of technical and support staff. You will also have opportunities to exhibit your work in our network of student-led galleries, performance and exhibition spaces.
Our studio-centred teaching environment emphasises learning through experimenting and creating. As a forum for critical discussion, learning in the studio also enables students to articulate and debate the big ideas and questions emerging from contemporary art practice.
Upon completion of the Bachelor of Fine Arts, you will demonstrate a high degree of creative ingenuity and versatility, as well as critical awareness and independent judgement applicable to a wide variety of professional contexts.
Studio Specialisations
Throughout the Bachelor of Fine Arts, you will utilise world-class facilities, workshops and equipment to make and exhibit your work.
The degree features six disciplinary studio areas, from which you will choose at least two.
Drawing
In the drawing studio, you will develop understandings of the formal, material and conceptual possibilities of contemporary drawing practice. You will work from the human figure, experiment with a range of traditional and contemporary materials and extend your individual practice through rigorous creative and experimental approaches.Painting
In the painting studio, you will engage with painting as a formal, material and conceptual practice. Exploring connections between conceptual and material enquiry, you will develop an individual practice by testing ideas and techniques in a critically-informed studio environment.Printmaking
In the printmaking studio, you will acquire diverse technical skills in traditional and contemporary print methods including digital imaging, etching, lithography, relief printing and screen-printing. You will use collaborative enquiry, analysis, critique and reflection to generate ideas and artworks in a contemporary printmaking environment.Photography
In the photography studio, you will develop diverse and transferable photographic skills, supporting you to become artists and practitioners in a variety of fields. The studio fosters critical enquiry and experimentation to explore the material and conceptual possibilities of photography in contemporary contexts.Sculpture
In the sculpture studio, you will develop artworks by engaging with sculptural, spatial and social possibilities of contemporary art. The studio fosters a collaborative and critically-informed approach to support students in developing their artistic practice.Moving Image
In the moving image studio, you will explore contemporary approaches to video art, short film, audio-visual composition and installation. You will develop understandings and skills in a variety of creative contexts for moving image practice including gallery, screen, virtual and public spaces.
In addition, you will have the opportunity to broaden your skills and knowledge by selecting from a wide range of elective courses from across our art, design and media programs.
Double Degree Options
UNSW offers a comprehensive suite of career-enhancing double degree options. The Bachelor of Fine Arts can be combined in the following double degrees:
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Education (Secondary)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Laws
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Science
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Bachelor of Advanced Science
Honours
Fine Arts (Honours) is a one-year program intended for high achieving students who have completed an undergraduate degree in fine arts (or similar area), either from UNSW Sydney or another university. The degree allows you to advance your artistic practice by developing a significant practice-led research project in a rigorous and supportive community of artists.
Career Opportunities
UNSW’s Bachelor of Fine Arts prepares students for a range of professional careers in contemporary art and related creative fields.
Our graduates are exhibited and collected widely in Australia and internationally, including in many of the world’s leading art museums, galleries and major biennales.
Our graduates consistently achieve national recognition by winning Australia’s most prestigious art prizes including the Archibald and Blake prizes, the NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship, as well as other notable prizes, scholarships and residencies.
Many of our graduates are practising contemporary artists in their fields of expertise. The Bachelor of Fine Arts also equips graduates with the transferable skills and insights that secure employment across the creative and cultural industries including:
- Art direction, advertising and communications
- Arts and cultural administration and policy making
- Arts education and training
- Arts writing, publishing and criticism
- Commercial photography and photojournalism
- Curating and program management in festivals, museums, galleries and public spaces
- Exhibition planning, design and installation
- Entertainment, media and technology industries
- Theatre, film and television production
- Urban planning, site activation and public art
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