Deadline for applications:
20 May 2011
Both programmes offer a grant for oversea students.
Master of Fine Art at Belfast
The two-year MFA at the University of Ulster seeks to attract outstanding and highly motivated applicants. Based in the centre of Belfast the programme has a long established and proven track record of providing a rigorous studio-based programme delivered by a core staff of nationally and internationally recognised artists. The diversity of teaching inputs by staff and visiting artists reflects the range of approaches employed and their application in the studio context.
Development of committed, sustainable professional practice is a firm aim. The 2010 Turner Prize was won by MFA graduate Susan Philipsz (1994). Other nominated graduates include Phil Collins, Cathy Wilkes and Christine Borland. Graduates of the MFA have been substantially represented over the years in other high profile events and prizes, including the Venice Biennale, Becks Futures and the Glenn Dimplex award (IMMA, Dublin). Two graduates have been awarded the highly competitive Paul Hamlyn Award. Film production, gallery management and curation are allied areas where graduates have also been internationally successful.
The course recognises contemporary Fine Art Practice as being open and pluralistic and encourage dialogue between diverse disciplines. A multi-disciplinary/ inter-media approach enables students to work in a flexible manner, which offers the maximum opportunity for individual development. Students are asked to engage with systems of enquiry that embrace traditional exhibition formats and explore more innovative models of distribution and dissemination. The critical discourse around studio practice is emphasised through analysis and self-reflection. This contributes to an engagement with contemporary art situated within a larger cultural, social and political context.
The core team comprises: Willie Doherty (Professor of Video Art), Mary McIntyre (Reader in Fine Art, Photography) and Alistair Wilson (Reader in Fine Art, Sculpture/Installation). Supported by a programme of nationally and internationally recognised visiting artists, curators and theorists.
Course Director: Alistair Wilson
E-mail: [email protected]
Student Website:
www.mfabelfast.com
MA Art in Public
The MA Art in Public was established in 2007 in recognition of emerging fundamental challenges and changes to models of art practice that seek to engage wider art and non-art public dimensions. The programme seeks to develop testing modes of working that are dialogic, participatory, interventionist or collaborative in intention and structure.
The programme recognises the importance of location in art in terms of its public territory – its cultural, social, economic, historical, political or psychological situatedness. Based in and responding to Belfast, where engaged art practices have been developed in various “contested spaces” for many years, the programme engages wide and diverse sets of contexts, themes and issues.
The diversity of teaching activities, many of them off-campus, along with input by staff and visiting artists emphasizes the range of approaches and situations developed and encountered within art in the public realm. Students are offered studio space, have access to a wide range of equipment and facilities and have regular peer and tutor support. Students are encouraged to develop a self-initiated, sustainable and innovative practice.
Course co-directors are Susanne Bosch and Dan Shipsides. Past guests include: Walid Raad, Alfredo Jaar, Douglas Scholes, finger, Monica Nunez, Guerilla Girls, Locus+, Sean Miller / JEMA, Anne Douglas, Shelley Sacks, Doina Petrescu, Anthony Haughey, Wendy Ewald, Faisal Abdu’Allah, Daniel Jewesbury, Sharon Lifschitz, Carmen Mörsch, Sarah Pierce, Bbeyond, Cathal McLaughlin and John Johnston.
Within its teaching remit the course actively attends external events, talks and discussions and has been invited to take part in projects such as: re;public (TBG, Dublin), FIX 07 and FIX 09 Live Art Biennial (Catalyst Arts, Belfast) and Policing Dialogues (LAB, Dublin).
Qualification awarded: Master in Art in Public (MA)
Duration: 18 months full-time, 30 months part-time
Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
Further information: masterartinpublic.wordpress.com
School of Art and Design
University of Ulster
Yorkstreet
Belfast BT15 1ED
Northern Ireland
www.ulster.ac.uk