Study Abroad at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford

Art installation in the Ruskin School of Art

(Prototype Credit: Ruskin School of Fine art)

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Primary of Fine Art (MFA)

• Nigh
• Entry requirements
• Resources
• Funding and Costs
• College preference
• How to Use

About this course

The Ruskin Master of Fine Art (MFA) degree is an intensive one year studio-based programme in the do of gimmicky art. You volition be part of a small cohort on a course designed to direct and develop your artistic practice and theoretical knowledge in a supportive environment.

The program encompasses a multifariousness of disciplines including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, art writing, installation, video, sound, operation and other expanded and experimental forms in contemporary art. It aims to encourage experimentation while supporting the development of a disquisitional focus for the piece of work.

The MFA is located on i flooring with a series of individual studio spaces, alongside shared and open up spaces, all of which contribute to an intimate surroundings of self-directed peer learning, supported by permanent and visiting staff of the highest calibre. It is an exceptional artistic environment, singled-out from larger art schools in the UK.

The grade encompasses regular i-to-i tutorials and weekly studio seminars, focused on your art-making, your key concerns and ideas, and inter-dependent development. A programme of dedicated masterclasses and skill-based workshops, designed specifically for the MFA, is available alongside a weekly schoolhouse-broad loftier profile and diverse Visiting Speakers Program.

Our studio-based learning programme is facilitated through a regular seminar series characterised past a collective dynamic of mutual participation in generous and robust discussion; engaging with what it ways to work as an artist today and considering how an creative person'south work and ideas are understood in and across dissimilar social, creative and intellectual contexts. As role of this holistic approach to practice and theory, dissertation tutorials with specifically allocated tutors take place on a regular basis in the studios. You are encouraged to empathise your work contextually and to discuss it in relation to gimmicky, theoretical and historical discourse. Your personal artistic interests, and those of the cohort every bit a whole, are embedded into tutorials, seminars and presentations, determining the direction of your artistic evolution, guided past the Ruskin faculty.

You lot will also have access to humanities and sciences lectures and seminars in affiliated departments and colleges across a earth-leading Academy. The Academy's specialised libraries are open up to Ruskin students every bit are activities generated by the colleges. Oxford offers a wide range of cultural engagements, including the Ashmolean Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum besides as Mod Art Oxford.

When starting at the School y'all will be allocated a exercise tutor who will oversee your creative development and a dissertation tutor who will back up your academic writing. Elective tutorials with visiting tutors and speakers are also bachelor which will help strengthen your fine art do.

Two programmes of weekly seminars are held throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Term. The offset plan allows students to present their studio work for group analysis whilst the second programme is defended to the reading and discussion of contemporary fine art and its associated history and theories.

Ruskin'southward technical staff are on site to offer both technical training and support when required. They too run a series of specialised workshops.

A variety of masterclasses, including simply not limited to writing practice, performance and research methodologies, are held regularly throughout each term.

Supervision

The allotment of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Ruskin School of Art and information technology is not always possible to adjust the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a item member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may exist found outside the Ruskin Schoolhouse of Art.

Cess

The MFA will have 3 main modes of assessment:

• an exhibition or other presentation of a fully realised artwork or body of artworks fabricated by you during the MFA plan. This will require y'all to develop, create and present a coherent, thoughtful exhibition, or other presentation as appropriate, of artwork. Other presentations may include websites, live performances, etc;
• an extended written text of 4,000 to 6,000 words. This piece of written work will require you to reflect upon your studio practice, cartoon together aspects of the technical and formal processes of art making and considering them in relation to fine art-historical contexts and theoretical debates; and
• a portfolio of documentation of studio work. Throughout the programme, yous will be required to make thorough, scholarly documentation of your work, to be submitted at the conclusion of the program. This supports the assessment of the final exhibition or presentation in demonstrating the provenance of the processes, strategies and ideas manifest in that location.

Graduate destinations

Many alumni from the Ruskin accept pursued careers in the fine arts as practising artists, teachers, curators and gallery professionals in both public and private galleries. Others accept gone on to pursue careers in various areas such as education, finance, architecture and the film industry.

All graduate courses offered by the Ruskin Schoolhouse of Art

Entry requirements for entry in 2022-23

• a kickoff-class or potent upper 2d-class undergraduate degree with honours in fine art or a related subject field.

Notwithstanding, entrance is very competitive and most successful applicants have a good starting time-class degree or the equivalent.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA generally sought is 3.75 out of 4.0.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Test (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Details of any publications and/or exhibitions y'all have held that would exist of involvement to the assessors should be included in the application.

Interviews are normally held as part of the admissions procedure.

Although the department prefers to conduct interviews in person, overseas candidates or applicants unable to attend are offered the pick of Skype or telephone interviews. In all cases, there volition exist a minimum of two interviewers. Additional supporting material (such as a more extensive portfolio) may be requested before the interview.

Resource

Intellectual life and customs

The Ruskin Schoolhouse of Art is home to a closely-integrated creative and intellectual culture between graduate and undergraduate programmes, students and staff. Its intimate scale fosters highly productive, informal collaborations across all parts of the schoolhouse, allowing you lot to work closely with some of the UK's leading contemporary artists, writers and art historians. Students and researchers at the Ruskin are also able to draw upon the expertise of staff, resource and facilities across the residual of the Academy of Oxford, including the extraordinary collections in its world-famous museums and libraries.

Studio and technical resources

The Ruskin has defended studio space for all students to piece of work together or individually, likewise as workshops for specialist grooming by Ruskin tutors in digital, 2D and 3D media. A new projection infinite at the Ruskin's redeveloped Bullingdon Route site is equipped for the total breadth of contemporary art practices, from performance and digital installations to painting and sculptural work. The project space opens to the street for maximum public engagement with new work by students and staff. There are also communal spaces to foster dialogue and collaboration across all levels of the Ruskin's undergraduate and graduate programmes.

Museums and galleries

Oxford holds some of the earth'due south richest collections of art and artefacts. The Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers Museum and Museum of Natural History are important centres for the research and display of artefacts and artworks within the Academy of Oxford and the Ruskin has excellent connections with the museums' network of curators, facilities and holdings.

Oxford likewise hosts important exhibitions of mod and contemporary art. Modernistic Art Oxford has a national and international reputation for the quality of its exhibitions of contemporary art, and for its accompanying community and education programmes. The Ruskin works closely with Modern Art Oxford in the provision of its undergraduate and graduate courses, and Ruskin students and staff have participated in exhibitions and public presentations at Modernistic Art Oxford.

Libraries and archives

The University of Oxford's libraries, centred on the Bodleian, are the Britain's largest bookish collection. The University'south integrated library service comprises nearly 40 libraries, many offering borrowing rights. The Bodleian Library is a copyright library and every bit such it has long nerveless copies of all works published in the United Kingdom, in improver to an extensive range of foreign publications. Since it is not a lending library, its holdings are immediately bachelor on asking.

A main point of reference for nigh Ruskin graduate students is the Sackler Library, one of the principal enquiry libraries of the university, which has incorporated the collections of the old Ashmolean Library (Western art), history of fine art, Eastern art and Classics. Its holdings are in backlog of 200,000 volumes, and include monographs, catalogues, periodicals on fine and decorative art, theory, criticism, historiography, as well equally the collections of Edgar Air current and Francis Haskell. All books and periodicals are open access.

The Ruskin has its ain specialised in-house library of more than six,500 volumes, which has been entirely reconfigured over the past three years. Since summertime 2004 the Ruskin has evolved fully functioning lending and reference collections. Both collections include written material on art history, art theory, art techniques, exhibition catalogues and artists' monographs. The Ruskin holds around 20 sets of art journals and more 2,000 fine art-related pamphlets. The library is fully integrated into the University'south electronic circulation system and a digital archive of the slide collection, comprising 15,000 images, is available on the departmental server. Ruskin library terminals offer total admission to the electronic resources of the Academy of Oxford.

The Oxford Centre for Enquiry in the Humanities (TORCH) offers a stimulating range of interdisciplinary activities.

Further data about funding opportunities for this course tin be found on the schoolhouse'due south website.

Annual fees for entry in 2022-23

The fees do non include the costs of materials that yous may use equally role of your course. Each MFA student receives a materials grant of £500 from the Ruskin School of Art, shortly after inflow. On application to the Ruskin Schoolhouse of Fine art Graduate Studies Commission upward to a farther £150 is available for preparing and installing work for the final show. The school stocks a wide range of materials, which y'all can buy at cost, and students are able to borrow an extensive selection of equipment on a sign-up footing. In that location is no expectation for students to arrive with any boosted equipment or materials beyond those they may already possess. Some basic materials with very depression unit costs - eg basic ironware for fixtures and fittings, glue, etc. - are available without accuse. Yous will demand to meet any course-related costs incurred in excess of the £500 plus £150 grants. In the first calendar week of the get-go term, all students pay an equipment deposit of £100. The deposit system is to secure confronting the borrowing of departmental equipment and the eolith is returned to the student, less whatsoever costs incurred by the Schoolhouse for loss or damage, at the end of the form. MFA students stage a public exhibition of their work post-obit the final exam and they collectively raise funds for this through sponsorship, drawing sales, and other activities.

Higher preference

The following colleges accept students for the Master of Fine Art:

How to utilize

Queries about the MFA tin be directed to the Ruskin's Graduate Ambassador. It is not necessary to contact a member of bookish staff earlier yous apply.

Official transcript(south)

CV/résumé

Statement of purpose/personal statement:
A maximum of 1,000 words

Your statement should exist written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the class at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, and the specific areas that interest you and/or you lot intend to specialise in.

This will be assessed for:

• your reasons for applying
• an understanding of your creative work within broader contexts of contemporary art practice and discourse
• bear witness of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of written report
• commitment to the subject, beyond the requirements of the degree form
• capacity for sustained and intense work
• reasoning ability.

Portfolio:
Up to xv images and/or 12 minutes of moving image or sound work

A digital portfolio of recently completed studio work documented through images or other mode of documentation is required.

Your portfolio should be provided in digital format with your application, although you may be asked to bring along originals at the interview. Portfolios should be hosted on a website or service that is publicly attainable via the net, eg via Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr or your ain website.

A PDF document comprising the URL (and password, if necessary) for your portfolio should be uploaded to your awarding every bit written work.

The department will not accept portfolios submitted via email. If y'all cannot provide a web-based portfolio, delight send an email to graduate@rsa.ox.ac.united kingdom to talk over alternative arrangements.

Portfolios volition be assessed for testify of creative thinking and artistic achievement, and clarity in the exposition of ideas.

References/letters of recommendation:
Three overall, of which at to the lowest degree two must mostly be academic

Ideally, you lot should provide at to the lowest degree two academic references. If you lot accept been out of education for a substantial period of fourth dimension, you may use up to ii professional person references relevant to the class.

Your references will support artistic achievement and creativity, intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation and your ability to work individually and in a group.

Awarding GuideApply

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Source: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/mfa-fine-art