The BA in Art & Design at the University of Leeds puts contemporary studio practice at the centre of its teaching and research. The School of Design offers an unique creative environemnt, spanning the arts and the sciences. In all areas the emphasis is on creative problem-solving and inventiveness. Tutors are all art practitioners and/or theorists with national and international exhibition and publication profiles. Staff research in contemporary art and design underpins and informs all our teaching, which takes place in new, well-equipped studios, with specialist faciliities for painting, printmaking, sculpture and digital media including video and digital photography. There is an extensive international programme of visiting artists and speakers and overseas study programme. In the School, teaching takes a variety of forms dependent upon your programme and study focus. It ranges from large lectures to smaller, focused seminars and tutorials, including group critiques involving peer discussion and feedback. Independent study underpins learning across all modules within the School and is fundamental in supporting your knowledge and understanding of the subject. Practical tutorials, demonstrations and workshops aim to develop subject-specific skills and are integral to the production and presentation of your studio practice. Assessment methods range from written exams and essays, individual and group presentations, to a range of coursework activities (including project briefs, dissertation and portfolio preparation) and the formal submission of studio practice. Projects look to test your critical and creative capabilities, together with the technical skills necessary to effectively implement your ideas.

Some BA Art and Design students go directly on to postgraduate courses; these include MAs in art or design practice and related theory and also PGCE courses. Our students have had recent success in gaining places on MA Fine Art, Advertising and Architecture courses. Recent examples include courses here at the University of Leeds and also at University of the Arts, London, Valand School of Fine Art, Sweden, Newcastle University, University of Northumbria, Leeds Metropolitan University, Kingston University. There is regular achievement in gaining places for PGCE courses in London, Manchester, Leeds, Plymouth and Sheffield and success in finding posts afterwards. Many of our graduates continue their own practice after graduation. A selection of exhibitions by recent graduates includes the following: Jerwood Drawing Prize, the London Original Print Fair – Royal Academy of Art, London Saatchi’s New Sensations, Solo show at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale, Arts at Trinity Leeds and Art in Unusual Places, Leeds. Other of our students go on to have an Art and Design related careers these include art gallery manager, artist and artist’s technician, curatorial assistant, editorial assistant, gallery assistant, graphic designer, art journalist, learning support worker, lecturer, resident artist and study centre assistant. Specific recent examples include: working in Berlin as an art journalist for a European journal, artist in residence in Romania, artist in residence at Yorkshire Quarry Arts, working in Damien Hirst’s studio, freelance portrait painter printmaking at Thumbprint Editions in Camberwell, assisting artists such as Tracey Emin, Ian Davenport and Gillian Ayres, theatre prop designer, gallery assistant at the Henry Moore Institute, Hepworth Gallery and Leeds Art Gallery and at a West End gallery in the commercial sector, Web designer at Yell Adworks, and freelance web designer and designer at SportsShoes. Since undergraduate courses in the School of Design at the University of Leeds have quite an emphasis on developing academic skills in tandem with the studio work many BA Art and Design students go on to use the skills they have developed during their degree in destinations that might not relate directly to the subject studied. Some enter graduate schemes. Other examples of recent graduates’ destinations include marketing at Selfridges, editor of a music journal, working at Jigsaw Visitor’s Centre offering ‘play visits’ to families visiting HMP Leeds.