Fine Art BA (Hons)

Course overview

A fine art degree course at Teesside University provides studio-based learning that allows you to specialise in painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and/or new media. You have open access to all media workshops to develop your personally defined project themes.

What makes our fine art degree stand out?

Your own studio space, lectures with established artists, art form specialisms, technical workshops and an international art gallery.

What you learn

Develop your work as an artist from drawing to digital media, bookbinding to printmaking, screens to sculpture, canvases to community projects. We support all art forms – you have access to industry-standard technical workshops and are taught by practising artists and curators.

By studying a fine art degree here at Teesside University, you have your own studio for the duration of your course - a personal space to make, experiment and think critically about your work in a supportive environment with your peer community. Working both on your own and in teams, you can specialise or cultivate multimedia exhibitions. You gain insight from visiting international artists, and learn effective research and reflection techniques.

Career opportunities

This fine art degree develops your artistic and professional skills, preparing you for a career as an artist, curator, primary or secondary teacher, or art therapist. You can work in roles across the cultural sector – museums and galleries, community wellbeing and education projects, creatives businesses of all kinds.

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

You study at MIMA School of Art & Design, an art school led by Teesside University and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), an international contemporary museum and gallery. You gain a full artistic experience, learning in a social space that inspires dynamic ideas, fuels collaboration and allows you to build local, national and international networks with industry professionals for your future fine art career. An optional work placement year is included, at no extra cost.

Top three reasons to study fine art at Teesside University

1. As an art gallery and a university, our students contribute to making a museum, not just taking a degree course.
2. You are taught by accomplished and award-winning practising artists, writers and curators.
3. You work in your own individual studio with lots of space to develop your ideas.

Career opportunities

Fine art graduates move forward into an increasingly broad range of professional futures including postgraduate study in visual art at Teesside University (MA Fine Art) and education through Graduate Teacher Training and Recruitment, acquire sponsored fellowships and arts-based residencies (facilitated by DigitalCity and Tees Valley Arts), develop independent practice through locally based studio groups (Saltburn Artist Projects, Navigator North and Platform Arts), work as curators for gallery-based exhibitions (The Heritage Gallery and Python Gallery), take advantage of local and regional opportunities for additional professional development (a-n and Arts Council England, North East) and, as self-employed artists, become professional cultural practitioners.