Portfolio requirements
We’ll invite you to an informal interview to talk about your work, where we would like to see evidence of your creative potential. Previous experience in glass, ceramics or making is not essential.
Please prepare a portfolio of work you have completed so far. We are not looking for perfection as we appreciate you are still developing work. Your portfolio should be simply mounted and include:
If you are an international applicant, please send a link to your online portfolio.
This exciting new course embraces the possibilities of making for both art and design. Glass and Ceramics are a focus but you can work in other materials, for example, wood, metal and plastic - as well as digital media. You will work in excellent individual student workspaces in studios in National Glass Centre and FabLab, bringing you into contact with professionals in the field as well as opportunities such as external competitions and exhibitions.
More info: Click here
Year 1 (national level 4):
Focus on skill acquisition to introduce a broad base of techniques:
Core modules:
Explore a variety of processes in glassmaking, ceramics, wood, metal and digital fabrication. Experience the value of team-work in shared studio spaces. Organise schedules for different making processes and accomplish new tasks to deadline. Learn traditional making techniques, as well as more recent developments such as waterjet cutting, 3D printing and laser cutting. Enhance your knowledge by researching technical processes used by other artists, designers and makers.
Gain the ability to use 3D design software and traditional drawing as tools to develop, research and design ideas. Explore the basic aspects of both traditional and digital drawing. Investigate processes of model making, testing of materials, and thinking skills to generate two bodies of work in response to a project brief. Gain a greater understanding of what different material processes have to offer you and advance your technical and manipulative skills.
Develop your knowledge and understanding of the historical and contemporary contexts of art, design and making. Explore the work of significant key practitioners - artists, designers and makers. Understand the development of Modernism, Abstraction and Post Modernism and their relationship to movements in contemporary art, craft and design. Learn how to communicate your understanding and build your confidence in research skills, writing and presentations.
Year 2 (national level 5):
Focus on development of professional transferable skills, understanding of contexts of practice and broader cultural issues, and of independent study and skills acquisition:
Core modules:
Develop a project that investigates space, place, context and audience. Explore different modes of practice including socially engaged, site-specific and site-sensitive and working to commission for clients. Identify and use appropriate skills and techniques in the manipulation of materials for a particular place, space, or context. Learn analogue and digital (Rhino) model-making skills and develop testing methodologies to explore your ideas at smaller scale. Develop confidence to pitch your ideas to intended audience and potential clients and learn how to use analogue and digital skills (Illustrator) to create a design board that charts your ideas visually.
Exhibit your work in a professional gallery (either online or in the gallery). Explore your creative potential and extend your technical abilities through the creation of a body of work. Develop, implement and reflect upon your own work, and exhibit as part of a group show hosted by Shipley Art Gallery and Museum in Gateshead. Expand your knowledge of project management through helping to organise and curate the exhibition.
Develop your academic skills, including researching, reading and writing. Build on your writing skills and plan a written argument. Hear from professional artists through the weekly 'Creative Lives' programme. Gain a unique insight into professional artists' practice and possible career pathways.
Negotiate a relevant placement where you will position your practical and creative skills, build networks and begin to identify relevant professional pathways. Alternatively, work with fellow students from across our different Arts disciplines to create a group negotiated creative outcome.
Final year (national level 6):
The final year is geared towards the exhibition of a professional body of work at National Glass Centre:
Core modules:
Experiment with a range of materials and processes. Make a body of test pieces while developing a specialised understanding of your materials and the technologies required to develop your ideas into an object. Record your research and experimentation in a testing folder to provide a solid reference for future work. Explore how to realise your ideas in two dimensions through drawing and other image making processes, and through computer aided modelling. Produce a professionally presented portfolio of images and design proposals to display a clear narrative on the development of your ideas. Present a prototype artwork or object.
Explore your creative potential and extend your technical abilities to a professional level. Create work with a high degree of sophistication and conceptual rigor for online exhibition. Benefit from further opportunities to exhibit within the National Glass Centre and elsewhere. Plan a scheme of work and manage your personal project. Set and achieve goals, culminating in the production of a body of work with a personal creative identity.
Research and write a dissertation of 3500-4500 words that relates to themes and issues relevant to your studio practice or your career ambitions. Demonstrate coherent specialist knowledge and understanding of the historical and contemporary themes/practices relevant to artists, designers and makers and how these relate to your own independent work. Evaluate the creative context in which you hope to work in the future and develop your understanding of the professional world in which you hope to work.
Develop a career planning portfolio which will help you launch your professional career on graduation. Understand where your practice is placed within the creative industries and prepare yourself to enter your chosen sector. Research the requirements and principles of self-employment and graduate employment. Explore methods of recording and promoting your work and understand the principles of how to cost work realistically. Learn how to produce a range of presentation and communication materials appropriate to present your practice in a professional manner to your intended audience.
A key difference between University lecturers and school or college teachers is that university academics undertake research, as well as teaching, in order to advance knowledge in their subjects. Your lecturers will use the experience and knowledge that they gain from this in order to support you to achieve your goals. You are likely to benefit from research in a number of ways including:
Insurance-Single: 300 GBP/year
