20 Jul 2010

Cyprus College of Art: MA Fine Art

From September 2010 the Cyprus College of Art is teaming up with the University of Northampton to offer the first MA Fine Art programme in Cyprus.

The MA Fine Art will be a unique opportunity for graduates of BA Fine Art, BFA Fine Arts, and other studio art degrees to undertake in a substantial period of study in Cyprus during which they can develop and strengthen their abilities in art, and fully identify their identities as artists.

As this is the first year of the new course we are particularly keen to encourage ambitious, talented and interesting students to take part in the programme. Your ambition should be to become a professional practising artist, and you should show a strong bias towards the hands-on making of art.

The College is very different to any university or art college you might find in Western Europe or North America. Being a small institution means you will get to know your tutors and the other students very well. Unlike many large institutions, those tutors will also have time to talk to you, and help you to develop your work.

Our facilities are very simple and we expect students to develop hands-on skills to make works of art. This is what we mean by creativity, and it means you must develop an ability to improvise solutions to problems in a creative way and not expect everything
to be done for you.

At the start of the MA course you will be invited to reflect on your previous art practice, and to identify your future ambition. These two processes of reflection and ambition then become the watchwords for the remainder of the course, with each student developing and undertaking an individual programme built around their own art practice.

The MA Fine Art programme consists of two elements. For the first eight months you will be a student on the Postgraduate Diploma Course in Fine Art at the Cyprus College of Art in either Larnaca or Lempa (Paphos). During this phase you will undertake studio practice and cultural studies under the guidance of tutors from the College, and be encouraged to consider the impact being in Cyprus has on your work.

For the remaining four months (the MA) you become a student of the University of Northampton, either in Larnaca at the Cyprus College of Art as a distant learning student, or in the UK at the University of Northampton.

If you remain in Cyprus, you will continue to have the guidance and advice of tutors from the Cyprus College of Art, but also support from visiting tutors from the University of Northampton. If you transfer to study in the UK you will have access to all the facilities and tutorial support offered by the University of Northampton at its art and design campus.

All tuition is in English, and the MA Fine Art qualification is awarded by the University of Northampton.

Most people taking part in the course are painters and sculptors, although other types of practitioner are welcome to apply. Students on the course come from many different countries.