Progression Review

I applied for Fine Art last year and received places at Newcastle University, Manchester School of Art and Nottingham Trent however decided to do this Foundation Diploma to confirm this was definitely the route I wanted to take. I also wanted to build an even stronger portfolio and explore the areas of art and design I had never done before.

When researching universities last year I didn’t really explore locations far from home and looking back I realise I probably wasn’t ready to move away from home just yet. This limited my options and disregarded many of the top art schools around the country. I believe if I had accepted an offer at Newcastle university last year I would be regretting that decision. I have also researched a broader range of courses and the places that stand out to me are :

• Glasgow School of Art
• UAL: Chelsea College of Arts
• UAL: Central Saint Martins
• Goldsmiths

I also think I could use Nottingham Trent and Manchester School of Art as backup options as these institutions still very much appealed to me.

I have already visited open days for all of these institutions apart from central saint martins however I have looked around the college at the facilities and have read into the course in some depth.

The courses I viewed at Glasgow School of Art were: Sculpture & Environmental Art, Interactive design, and Communication Design. Before the open day I thought the course that would be most appealing would be the Sculpture & Environmental Art course however I couldn’t see myself studying it when I went to the talk and I wasn’t very inspired. Unexpectedly the course that did stand out was the communication design talk. It was a much broader and conceptual discipline than I expected it to be and the past work was very interesting and somewhat similar to my practices.

I visited the Chelsea College of Arts open day for BA (Hons) Interior and Spatial Design on the 2nd November and have an open day booked for the BA (Hons) Fine Art course on the 16th November. The college has a great atmosphere and I would like to be in an art school environment surrounded by like minded people. At the moment I also think London would be a great place to study. There is inspiration everywhere and you’re on the doorstep to some of the greatest art galleries in the world; Chelsea College of Arts is next door to Tate Britain.

As I previously mentioned I haven’t formally visited an open day for Central Saint Martins; I may try to visit on the 15th of November for BA (Hons) Fine Art however it is fully booked. Despite this I have visited the college and the facilities are very impressive. They also cover a wide variety of disciplines so there is a wide variety of inspiration from everywhere. Again I love the art school environment and the location and building are amazing.

I visited the Goldsmiths open day for BA (Hons) Fine Art on the 8th October and although it is a train journey from central London you still reap all the benefits and opportunities of a London location. They have 2 Fine Art courses; one has more studio practice and one focuses more on theory. I think I would prefer the studio practice course as this still integrates contextual/theory studies within the course which is important however if I was doing a fine art degree I would like to focus on developing my studio practice.

Open days that I still have planned are ,as i previously mentioned, BA (Hons) Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts and also UCL: Slade School of Fine Art.

When I started visiting open days I thought Fine Art would be the direction I would take however I am starting to believe a design based practice would be beneficial and interesting to do a degree in. I have looked into Communication design at Glasgow and also Graphic Communication Design at Chelsea College of Arts and Central Saint Martins. At the moment I am unsure which course I wish to pursue as a degree and I may apply for multiple courses depending on what work I can gather for my portfolio.

I did create a portfolio of work to apply to institutions last year however it wasn’t as formal as it could have been and certainly needs updating as I have stronger pieces of work that can be added now. With this foundation diploma I will be able to create a professional looking, stronger portfolio that will enable me to get into the places I want. I had very little portfolio guidance last year in regards to how to set it out and choosing appropriate pieces. I also had never done life drawing before I started this course which will be hugely beneficial especially if applying to Fine Art courses.