PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION
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SECTION APROGRAMME SPECIFICATION

AWARD and ROUTE TITLE / BA (Hons) Creative Art Practice
INTERMEDIATE AWARD TITLES / Certificate in Higher Education
Diploma in Higher Education
Ordinary Degree in Fine Art
Name of the Teaching Institution / Sheffield Hallam University
Mode(s) of Attendance
(eg. FT/PT/SW/DL) / FT/PT
UCAS CODE / W102
Professional/Statutory/Regulatory Body Recognising this Programme / None
QAA Subject Benchmark Statement or other relevant external reference point / Art & Design UG
Date of Validation / 18th May 2010

1PROGRAMME AIMS

A studio based making programme supported by workshops and contextual study forms the core of the Creative Art Practice degree at Sheffield Hallam University. We understand Creative Art Practitioners to be those artists interested primarily, but not exclusively, in visual articulacy and a materials-led approach to art making, often blurring the boundaries between art and design practice.

You will be interested in using established processes in the realisation of your practice whilst applying contemporary thinking to its meaning. This overall course philosophy provides a common framework of study yet allows you to develop your own position and priorities within it.

There is no house-style: Aspects of the curriculum allow you some freedom in the types of mediums you use, the types of art you create and flexibility in your choices of practical and theoretical study options. The course ensures that through engagement with historical and contextual debates your studio work is contemporary in nature whilst grounded in tradition. We expect the development of your practice to be driven by personal research and innovation. You are encouraged to develop critical and intuitive aptitudes in order to support your practical work so that, by the end of the course, you have identified your own informed position as a creative art practitioner.

To compliment your studio related learning you will also gain professional skills required to work as an independent art practitioner upon graduation or in other related cultural industries.

The programme aims to:

  • Provide an intellectually stimulating and challenging approach to a materials-led art practice.
  • Facilitate the acquisition of appropriate knowledge and understanding, the development of necessary personal attributes, and the mastery of essential skills in order to equip you to achieve your creative potential through art making.
  • Foster levels of innovation, visual articulacy and ambition to enable you to develop independent thinking and creativity in the field of creative art practice.
  • Equip you with the technical knowledge, practical skills and the self–confidence relevant to employment in the creative industries or for further advanced study in the arts and beyond.

2PROGRAMME LEARNING OUTCOMES

2.1Knowledge and understanding covered within the Programme. By the end of the programme you will be able to demonstrate through written analyses, oral presentations, exhibition and portfolio:

  1. A thorough understanding of the critical, contextual, historical, conceptual and ethical dimensions of creative art practice in particular, and art in general.
  1. An extensive knowledge of the artist's relationship with audiences, clients, markets, users, consumers, participants, co-workers and co-creators.
  1. An applied and resourceful creative art practice that uses developments in current and emerging thinking and processes, whilst employing more traditional media and technologies.

2.2.1 Intellectual skills covered within the Programme. By the end of the programme you will be able to:

  1. Apply, consolidate and extend your learning in different contextual frameworks and situations, both within and beyond the field of art.
  1. Employ both convergent and divergent thinking in the processes of observation, investigation, speculative enquiry, visualisation and/or making.
  1. Anticipate and accommodate change, and work within contexts of ambiguity, uncertainty and unfamiliarity.
  1. Formulate reasoned responses to the critical judgments of others.
  1. Use the views of others in the development or enhancement of your work.
  1. Analyse information and experiences, formulate independent judgments, and articulate reasoned arguments through reflection, review and evaluation.

2.2.2 Subject and professional skills covered within the Programme. By the end of the programme you will be able to:

  1. Articulate and synthesise your knowledge and understanding, attributes and skills in effective ways in the contexts of creative practice, employment, further study, research and self-fulfillment.
  1. Generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions or arguments independently and/or collaboratively in response to set briefs and/or as self-initiated activity.
  1. Select, test and make appropriate use of materials, processes and environments.
  1. Develop ideas through to outcomes, for example images, artifacts, environments, products, systems and processes, or texts.
  1. Manage and make appropriate use of the interaction between intention, process, outcome, context, and the methods of dissemination.
  1. Be resourceful and entrepreneurial.
  1. Use group/team working and social skills through collaboration, collective endeavour and negotiation in the realisation of an exhibition.

2.2.3 Key Skills covered within the Programme. By the end of the programme you will be able to:

  1. Study independently, set goals, manage your own workloads and meet deadlines.
  1. Source and research relevant material, assimilating and articulating relevant findings.
  1. Identify personal strengths and needs, and reflect on your personal development.
  1. Articulate ideas and information comprehensibly in visual, oral and written forms.
  1. Present ideas and work to audiences in a range of situations.
  1. Source, navigate, select, retrieve, evaluate, manipulate and manage information from a variety of sources.
  1. Select and employ appropriate communication and information technologies.

3LEARNING, TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT

3.1The approach to Learning and Teaching within the Programme

Increasingly autonomous studio-based working forms the core of the Creative Art Practice degree course. This studio-based learning is augmented with practical skills workshops, contextual/theoretical lectures (with attending debate) and professional practice studies. You are encouraged to develop your own creative understanding of the relationship between theory and practice, between established art world example and personally emerging meaning. Group critiques support the integration of all the above elements providing an open forum with other students from across the years for the discussion and development of your knowledge and understanding of the issues relating toCreative Art Practice. Tutorials allow for deep personalised development through one-to-one engagement with a member of staff.

Studio Practice

In Level 4 you will be inducted into the student artist community via a series of tailored workshops and events. You will also be introduced to the notion of independent student-led studio practice and engage in group projects and practical workshops that aim incrementally to prepare you for autonomous studio practice. By the end of Level 4 you should be able to organize and direct your own practice and will have devised a basic working model for studio work. As you progress through the course in Levels 5 and 6 you will gradually take greater responsibility for the development and direction of studio practice whilst increasingly integrating practice and theory.

Atelier System

Within the studio, the student body is divided up into smaller groups known as an ‘atelier.’ Each atelier forms a discrete learning community and is headed by a member of staff providing a regular teaching and pastoral relationship throughout the academic year and may comprise students from different years of study. It is expected that the atelier will provide you with a progressively challenging critical forum as you progress through your study.

Group Critiques

Critiques Crits are an established and fundamental aspect of art and design education. They take place weekly with a set group of students and their atelier head (see above). Typically crits are held in studios in front of your work and are the focus of debate among your group facilitated by the member of staff. Crits can also focus on the work of other artists, and can therefore also take place in galleries, seminar rooms and so on. Crits form a very important aspect of the learning and teaching in creative art practice as they provide opportunities for a range of assessment strategies, including both peer and self, in addition to a charged public platform for critical review. Crits also promote a community among students who belong to the same atelier and provide continuity with a single member of staff. Group crits are used as communication hubs and for the management and monitoring of the running of the course.

Tutorial support

Tutorial Support is an important aspect of teaching methodology in Creative Art Practicethroughout the academic year. During tutorials you discuss your progress with a single member of staff. This discussion focuses on your individual progress and encourages a wider understanding of the contexts for practice, critical reflection and suggestions for further research and possible routes for the progression of your enquiry. You will fill in a feedback sheet to encourage self-reflection and to enable you to action plan. These sheets will contribute to your Personal Development Portfolio, which is where you will document your personal and professional development as you progress through the course.

Practical and Professional Practice Workshops

Creative Art Practice encompasses a broad range of more traditional practical skills. No single set of skills and ideas can be isolated from this broad field, you will therefore be offered a range of practical workshops from which you choose the most relevant in order to develop your own independent enquiry.

In practical workshops you will be introduced to appropriate levels of making based skills, as well as studio community related activities and exercises to help you challenge and broaden your practice. You will be offered workshops at Level 4 that extend and diversify existing skills, move onto choosing the most relevant specialised workshops selected from a range offered throughout Level 5 and supported by drop in specialist advice surgeries that help develop your autonomous practice at Level 6.

Professional practice workshops will develop your communication, presentation, and documentation skills. You will also gain all the necessary experience of exhibition set up, health and safety procedures and impact assessment of your work. Professional practice workshops compliment the professional practice lecture program and ensure you have a personal plan for professional practice and employment upon graduation.

Theoretician & Visiting Artists Lecture Programmes

A series of lectures and seminars provide historical contextualisation for understanding and critically engaging with the contemporary situation of art making and contemporary culture generally. From the outset you will be encouraged to regard the lecture and seminar programmes as a means to better understand and situate your practice within the professional field of creative art. You will gain core skills such as the ability to interpret works of art and the analysis of texts. Lectures and seminars are led by the Art staff and visiting artists of the highest international calibre. You will study an overview of art historical perspectives and art theoretical concerns in Level 4. At Level 5 you will choose to specialise in a focused area. A range of these options will be available and in many cases these specialisms reflect staffs’ own active research concerns.

At Level 6 creative industry professional deliver lectures that provide knowledge and understanding of the attributed required for varied careers in the arts and beyond.

A visiting artist lecture programme provides you with direct access to some of the country’s leading creative art practitioners. Occasionally all course will come together to attend one of the ‘Transmission’ lectures delivered by some of the country’s leading artists.

Field Trips and International Exchange

During Levels 4 and 5, there will be guided trips to museums and galleries in the UK and abroad. These visits contribute to the development of a contextual and professional understanding of creative art practice. During these field trips, you will visit museums and galleries of the highest international standing. Field trips are valuable for the experience of works and also for the sense of engagement with the professional world of creative art practice that it promotes in the students. If circumstances preclude you from taking part in a particular field trip, alternative venues and/or dates will be suggested for you. It is expected that you will independently visit exhibitions throughout your study.

International exchange links offer the opportunity for study abroad during Level 5 and this, coupled with the influence of students visiting from foreign institutions, encourages an international perspective for work in Creative Art Practice. You may apply to either study for a semester or an academic year at a host from a list of universities we have active partnership agreements with. As part of the exchange preparation we will draw up an individual learning plan to ensure the learning, teaching and assessment you receive at your host is equivalent to that achieved at SHU. A named academic will support you with guidance and advice before, during and after your exchange. If going on exchange for a semester this must take place in semester two and you will be required to enrol on the 60 credit Fine Art Practice and Context module in semester one. Assessment takes place at your host university and your mark/score/grade will be transferred to SHU and will form part of your record.

Exhibition

In Level 5 you will curate and contribute to the staging of group exhibitions, often held outside the campus, introducing you to the skills needed to approach, manage and promote a professional art exhibition or commission. In Level 6 the final degree show exhibition is also organized professionally, and you will engage in fundraising, the design of marketing material and the curating of the show.

Reading Groups

In Level 4 you will join a reading group where you learn skills of interpretation and analysis using a range of approaches to images, objects and texts. Reading groups are seminar sessions in which you compare and develop critical frameworks for interpreting and analyzing cultural material. Skills and knowledge gained in reading groups are then applied in both studio practice (where you are able to interpret and analyse your own work more effectively) and in theoretical studies (where you can approach the work of others with more confidence and in more depth).

Study Groups

In the later half of Level 5 you will be formed into study groups that provide a supported forum for discussion and development of your art context specialism. The Study Group will be comprised of peers who are studying similar subject matters or are taking a similar approach and will provide you with a supportive environment for knowledge exchange and critique.

Placement

At Level 6 you will have the choice of studying the Art Context 3 Placement module. For this option an appropriate placement must be set up between your placement organisation, the academic Placement Coordinator and yourself before you can be start the module. Placement opportunities will be sought by you, however the appropriateness or otherwise of a particular placement rests with the academic co-ordinating placements. A named academic will support you throughout your placement via visit and/or phone call. Your will be expected to meet costs associated with your placement.

3.2The approach to Assessment and Feedback within the Programme

Assessment strategies support your understanding of your learning processes and are designed to foster a deep approach to learning e.g. they seek to engage you as an active participant in the development of all aspects of your own learning. These strategies help to promote autonomous learning, critical reflection and self-evaluation as vital elements of the overall learning process. Assessment criteria accommodate and encourage the speculative and expansive inquiry inherent in Creative Art Practice.

Assessment methods, scheduling and criteria are all explained during the initial staff/student induction for each module. They are also printed in the student handbook, available through the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment, reinforced in discussions during tutorials/crits. One common assessment matrix, with clear guidelines and criteria for assessment, will be used for all modules. Formative and summative assessments are regarded as positive learning tools, and feedback from all assessments provide you with clear guidance regarding your attainment and, where appropriate, incorporate targets for further development.

Formal summative assessment of your self-directed studio practice modules is conducted through viva, portfolio presentations and exhibition at predetermined assessment points. When you are present at viva assessments, you will have the opportunity to contextualise the work verbally and engage in critical discourse with staff. When you are not present you will provide a written statement contextualising your work. These assessments aid your verbal and written presentation skills.