Fine Art MA

Course overview

Expand and deepen your artistic practice while you immerse yourself in a vibrant community of artists, theorists, researchers, and art historians.

With this MA Fine Art programme, you’ll enter a supportive environment designed to inspire and enhance your personal growth, technical skills and critical investigation. While you expand your professional relationships into a thriving network, you’ll experiment, collaborate and share ideas as you work towards cultivating an ambitious portfolio.

As you develop your practice in our purpose-built studios, you’ll receive support from our diverse seminars, tutorials, and group critiques. You will show your work via public presentation, engagement, and curated approaches relevant to your position as an artist and researcher. This will give you the confidence and experience to strengthen your employability.

You’ll engage in learning from practising artists, writers and theorists, supported by internationally recognised resources local to Leeds. You can also choose from a range of optional modules, allowing you to lean into our specialisms in art history, cultural theory, museum and gallery practices, arts management and heritage studies.

Upon graduation, you’ll be a confident artist, with a clear vision for further study, practice in the professional arts, or a place in the wider arts sector.

Ongoing tutorials and crits mean I have had to think deeply and communicate about my practice in a way that has breathed renewed confidence into my work.

Helen Collett, MA Fine Art

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Course details and modules

Throughout your course, you’ll adopt an artist-researcher ethos. You’ll combine the production of work in an active studio and workshop environment with a programme of academic research and study. Our aim is to ensure that you are well-equipped for your chosen career pathway, whether as a practising artist, an arts professional, or a researcher. We’ll also prepare you for the challenges of a career in the visual arts.  

The curriculum is built around three interrelated components: art practice, collaborative approaches, and public-facing outcomes. You’ll be supported to take full responsibility for your own programme of work, engaging with contemporary issues in art, developing relationships across the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, and working with local partners. 

You’ll study compulsory modules and choose from a range of optional modules to develop knowledge in areas that interest you. Our range of optional modules explores critical and theoretical issues such as aesthetics, deconstruction, and feminist studies. We champion a School-based artist community ethos by providing shared studio space with extended hours access, regular open studios, practice dissemination events, informal learning groups, opportunities for student-led social events, and access to the city’s artistic scene. 

If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year. 

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.

Compulsory Modules 

Expanding Practice (30 credits) 
A studio-based module where you will examine your artistic work and begin to crystallise ideas through the exploration of processes, materials and methods. Through a mixture of one-to-one tutorials, crit groups and seminars, you are encouraged to analyse your process of making and examine the diverse ways in which artists operate and situate their practice in contemporary art.  

Practice in Public (60 credits) 
You’ll be encouraged to think about how you might expand your practice to new audiences and contexts. You will test your work beyond the studio into the public domain, building a partnership or collaboration with an organisation, individual, or peer, as appropriate to your developing practice. You will be supported in the production and documentation of a public facing outcome.  

Research Study  (30 credits) 
You will produce an extended piece of writing, which explores an element of your practice that informs your work. The module allows time for immersion in a subject area close to your practice and provides scope for a rich, detailed investigation.  

Optional Modules 

You will study two optional modules, one in each term. These vary year on year, but may include: 

Aesthetic and Politics (30 credits) 
Dive into the debates around aesthetics and politics that continue to resonate through many creative practices. What is it to understand aesthetics politically while disputing the aestheticisation of politics? Why do aesthetics and politics also entail the critique of aesthetic ideology? How are aesthetic concepts such as form and poetics reconceived to become socially emancipatory? How do these debates negotiate the structures of capitalism, or the critical impetus of decolonialisation? 

Art, Ecology and Empire (30 credits)
Explore the emergence of an ecological imagination in 19th-century British art and visual culture, including in its Imperial contexts. This period, marked by anti-ecological processes of both industrial revolution and colonial expansion, also gave rise to new knowledge in natural science. We will trace how art and science mutually informed, unsettling and upending anthropocentric beliefs in the pre-eminence of human life and generating innovative and prescient visions of the natural world. 

The Cultural Politics of Artificial Intelligence (30 credits) 
What does intelligence mean? Can it ever be artificial? This module examines key cultural debates in AI that shape the utopic and dystopic imaginaries of the future. Through analysing relevant case studies and scholarship from historians, philosophers, computer scientists, and artists, among others, you'll learn to critically evaluate how the physical infrastructures enabling the benefits of big data and machine learning intersect with the harms and biases of an algorithm-driven world. 

Jewish Museums and the Display of Cultural Difference (30 credits) 
Museums are increasingly conscious of the need to be socially inclusive. Traditional models of privileging high art and 'white Western' art have come under sharp criticism. On this module, you will examine how museums have integrated (or failed to do so) the artefacts of the Jewish minorities in Europe and the USA. We will look at the historical reasons for the omission of Jewish culture from many museums, and the particularities of the models adopted for Jewish museums and Jewish exhibits in ethnographic and local history contexts. 

Derrida and Deconstruction (30 credits)
Explore an introduction to deconstruction through a close consideration of a series of texts (interviews and essays) by French philosopher and cultural critic Jacques Derrida, covering a broad range of his work. You'll explore deconstructive approaches to the analysis of cultural forms, institutions and artefacts, beginning with Derrida’s critique of Western metaphysics, and focusing on several deconstructive figures. 

 
Intersecting Practices: Questioning the Intersection of Contemporary Art and Heritage (30 credits) 
Artist's 'interventions' in museums and heritage spaces are a significant form of interpretive practice in the contemporary visitor 'offer' at many museums and heritage sites. However, the role of artists within heritage interpretation needs critical attention to understand the benefits and challenges implicit within this practice. This module challenges the notion of the 'stable' heritage site and 'temporary' intervention to enable you to understand the complexity which exists at the intersection of contemporary art and heritage, particularly in relation to interpretive methodologies and visitor experience. 

Postcolonial Feminisms (30 credits)  
Investigate feminist theory and politics as they have developed in the context of the period of decolonisation and its wake. Emphasis will fall on theoretical formulations concerning sexual difference and the social division of gender as these have been produced by women writing to or from former European colonies. 

Anthropology, Art and Representation (30 credits) 
Acquire a solid grasp of anthropological perspectives on the category of art. The course avoids the common view that the anthropology of art is only concerned with tribal or ethnographic art. Rather, it uses anthropological and cultural theory to introduce you to a comparative perspective on cultural representation. You'll be introduced to several case studies ranging from postcolonial cinema to audience perspectives on African masquerades, via the global marketing of world music. 

Unmaking Things: Materials and Ideas in the European Renaissance (30 credits) 
Attend to a series of questions generated by historical consideration of the materials from which Renaissance artworks and objects were made. 

Learning and teaching

You’ll benefit from a mixture of seminars, lectures, group crits, one-to-one tutorials and workshops, all carefully aligned to support your attainment of the learning outcomes. Peer learning is also an essential part of the course’s culture and is embedded into the programme.     

You’ll develop your critical and technical skills and methodologies continuously throughout the course, as you engage in discussion and critique of your own practice and projects with other students, staff and visiting artists. You will be embedded in a large community of artists, art theorists, historians, and museum professionals, in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies (FAHACS), one of the largest British graduate schools for art and art theory outside of London. Your learning is also supported by our strong links with regional galleries, museums and artist initiatives such as The Hepworth Wakefield, Leeds City Art Gallery, Pavilion, Henry Moore Institute and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 

You will be expanding your practice as part of a community of practice-research approaches and developing and honing your professional relationships. 

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

The assessment methods may vary depending on the modules you choose. However, they are likely to include your practice and its dissemination, as well as written work, in-course assessment, essays and presentations. The assessment strategies recognise work that is process driven or that takes place outside gallery or studio spaces – such as site-specific and durational projects, outlining the integrity of the body of work as a whole. The assessment is designed to help you collate, present, document, and show the work you produced throughout the course in an effective and clear way.

Applying

Entry requirements

You’ll need a bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) or equivalent qualification, preferably in a Fine Art related degree.

We will also consider applicants with relevant experience, an interest in Fine Art, or coming from an area of expertise to which Fine Art is complementary such as the ones listed under 'Art, Design, Humanities and Other related subjects'.

We welcome applicants from a diverse range of subject disciplines so please do not hesitate to apply if your subject is not listed.

All applicants will be required to respond to the questions in the supporting statement section of the online application form to explain why you wish to study this particular course and your career plans. Relevant professional experience may also be considered. We may request additional documentation to inform our decision.

You will be required to submit a portfolio of recent artwork in one or more media which highlights your interest and understanding of global contemporary art practice.

Art, Design, Humanities and other related subjects

• Design
• Photography
• Film
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Performing Arts
• Humanities
• Media
• Music
• Architecture
• Theatre
• Engineering
• Languages
• Law
• English
• Languages and Linguistics
• Media and Journalism
• Education
• Fashion
• Religions and Theology
• History
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Psychology

International

Our admissions team are experienced in considering a wide range of international qualifications. If you wish to discuss whether your qualifications will meet the necessary entry criteria, contact the School’s admissions team.

You can also check the accepted qualifications for your country or region.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Arts and Humanities (6 weeks) and Language for Social Science and Arts: Arts and Humanities (10 weeks).

We also offer online pre-sessionals alongside our on-campus pre-sessionals. Find out more about our six week online pre-sessional and our 10 week online pre-sessional. 

You can also study pre-sessionals for longer periods – read about our postgraduate pre-sessional English courses.

How to apply

Please see our How to Apply page for information about application deadlines

The ‘Apply’ link at the top of this page will take you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you intend to apply for funding, we advise you to submit an application for your chosen course as early as possible and at least one month before any scholarship deadline.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Documents and information you'll need

• A copy of your degree certificate and transcripts, or a partial transcript if you’re still studying (please submit an official English translation where the original is not in English)
• Your approved English Language test* (if applicable)
• A personal statement in response to the questions asked in the supporting statement section of the application form
• A full up-to-date CV
• Any previous UK CAS, visa and BRP documents if you’re an international applicant who has previously studied in the UK on a Tier 4/ Student Visa.

* Applicants who have not yet completed an approved English language test may apply for a Masters course prior to taking a test.

Personal Statement Requirements

Please summarise your reasons for applying to this particular programme of study. Your response can include details of your previous study/work experience relevant to the programme and career ambitions. Your response can provide us with important information on your suitability for the course, so please complete carefully.

Please explain why you have chosen to apply for this Masters course at the University of Leeds by answering the following questions in separate numbered paragraphs:

• What areas of this course particularly interest you and why? Have you studied these before? Please explain your reasons for applying to this particular Masters course
• Why do you want to study this course at Leeds? Please comment on aspects such as available resources at the University and in the city, research specialisms within the school or academics you would like to work with.
• What potential themes have you considered for dissertation research?
• How will studying for this course help you to achieve your longer term goals?
• Why do you see this course as a particularly valuable subject to study?
• What skills and experience do you have that have prepared you for this course? You may like to give details of any final year work/projects you have previously undertaken, relevant work experience etc.

Relevant work experience might include: Creative Industries, Cultural Industries, Galleries, Museums, Heritage, Fashion Design, Research, Film and TV Production, Community and Outreach, Project Management, Set Design, Sound Design, Costume Making, Volunteering.

Next Steps

You will be required to submit a portfolio of recent artwork in one or more media which highlights your interest and understanding of global contemporary art practice. This should contain a maximum of 15 images in digital format.

Where further information to support the assessment of your application is needed, we may ask for a recent sample of written work.

We do not generally request references, unless further information is required to support the assessment of your application.

Support for part-time and mature learners

The Lifelong Learning Centre provides support for mature and part-time learners across the University, including advice on how to apply to university and support throughout your studies.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2027

This course is taught by

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Contact us

Taught Postgraduate Team

Email: finpg@leeds.ac.uk

Fees

UK: £12,400 (Total)

International: £27,300 (Total)

Read more about paying fees and charges.

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.

Part-time fees
Fees for part-time courses are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.

Additional cost information

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Learn more about Masters funding. 

Scholarships are also available to help fund your Masters. Find out more and check your eligibility below:

Career opportunities

The MA course aims to support you in your journey towards professional arts practice or advanced arts research. Upon completing the course, our graduates go on to develop successful careers as visual artists or arts professionals. Many have won prizes, shown their work in international exhibitions, and continue to contribute to contemporary art production in a diverse range of settings. Our Fine Art graduates have gone on to develop artist-led studios and galleries, work in curatorial and educational roles around the world – both on a freelance basis and for major art institutions. The MA programme is also an excellent stepping stone to continue further study towards a PhD qualification in fine art or related fields at Leeds or at another institution. You could also choose to enter education-related roles and pursue teaching in the subject area of your interest.    

I have a competitive blend of practical and academic skills, which means I can apply for a wide range of jobs. In terms of networking, I've met a lot of people at Leeds, and having a good circle of people around you means lots of opportunities to exhibit and work. 

George Storm Fletcher, MA Fine Art

Careers support

At Leeds, we help you to prepare for your future from day one.

Our Careers Service has the global expertise and sector-spanning industry partnerships that, combined, go way beyond simply helping you get a job. They provide you with the resources you need to upskill and achieve the future you aspire towards – even in the face of lightning-paced change.

• Dedicated Employability Team: Meet with our qualified careers consultants and specialist employability and placements officers, on hand to help you choose the right path and develop the skills to get there. They can support with CV and cover letter writing, LinkedIn profile building, mock interviews and navigating AI: get confident with tailored advice and techniques.
• Employability and networking events: Get involved in a full range of events, including careers fairs and specialist industry talks with employers who are actively recruiting. You’ll also benefit from mentoring and a supportive careers community, helping you make connections, build your network, and shape your journey as a future professional.
• Skills training: We embed transferable skills training in all our programmes to support your transition to the workplace. Gain expertise employers value, such as communication, problem-solving and research and data analysis.
• MyCareer system: Access a dedicated portal where you can book careers appointments, view helpful resources and browse vacancies and events. Access digital tools, including LinkedIn support, video‑interview preparation, plus global job market and visa guidance. We also offer pre‑arrival support to help you prepare for career planning in the UK and make the most of your time with us.
• Exclusive opportunities: Bring your enterprise to market with our award-winning business advice service, Spark. Apply for vacancies only available to our students. Plus, hone your skills further with Leeds University Union, home to volunteering opportunities and over 300 clubs and societies.

Work placements and industry experience

In the School, the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies, and MA Arts Management and Heritage Studies offer an optional module called Placements in Context: Policy, Organisations and Practice, which you may potentially join at the discretion of the module leader. If you choose this module in Semester 2, you will undertake a negotiated work placement to gain first-hand experience of contemporary museum and gallery practice.  

We have close links with many of the major cultural institutions and organisations in the region, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for you to explore. If you have a particular ambition in mind for your placement, we usually try to find a role that suits you.  

Students have completed placements in organisations such as Leeds Museum and Art Gallery, Harewood House, the Henry Moore Institute, National Media Museum, York City Art Gallery, National Railway Museum, Impressions Gallery, Fairfax House, Lotherton Hall, Abbey House Museum and the Royal Armouries. 

Global Industry Programme

As a Masters student at Leeds, you’ll have the unique opportunity to gain real-world industry experience with our Global Industry Programme.

You’ll develop key professional skills and gain invaluable insight into working in your chosen field, helping to solve a real business problem from a live company brief.

This experience will enhance your CV, helping you stand out in the competitive graduate jobs market and improving your chances of securing the career you want.

Benefits of the Global Industry Programme:

• Fully online and designed to fit around your studies.
• Opportunities to make professional networks in areas such as digital marketing, business growth, sustainability and funding strategy.
• Gain valuable insight and build consultancy experience with a UK or international organisation, working on a time limited brief.
• Work as part of a team across disciplines to tackle real business needs.
• Advance your experience and hands-on skills by putting the course teachings into practice.
• Improve your employability prospects.
• Make new friends, build confidence and consider your future plans.