Fine Art | BA (Hons) | University of Lincoln

Dr Steve Fossey - Programme Leader

Dr Steve Fossey leads a team of interdisciplinary academics on BA (Hons) Fine Art. Steve specialises in site-specific performance and teaches across all three levels of the programme. His interdisciplinary arts practice spans performance, drawing, video, art-writing, and sound, speaking to his interests in dialogic art and social space. He has had work published in books and journals including Ways to Wander, Triarchy Press (2015) and Leap Into Action (2019) and has shown work in prestigious arts spaces including Bristol's Arnolfini and the Nottingham Contemporary.

Academic Staff List

Welcome to BA (Hons) Fine Art

Fine Art focuses on the artist as a socially responsive, publicly-aware practitioner, operating within physical, intellectual, and digital networks and referencing local, national, and global artistic platforms.

At Lincoln, the Fine Art programme offers the expertise and environment to nurture students' creative development and expression. It aims to enable students to extend their creative work and ideas into new areas, including publicly engaged art.

Students on the course are introduced to a range of professional and transferable skills. Academic staff are often practising artists and writers with national and international reputations, such as Dr Steve Klee whose work has been shown at LAM Gallery, Los Angeles, and Dr Alice Bell who has collaborated on projects with Damien Hirst and Sir Peter Blake among others.

A range of artists and professionals are also invited to deliver guest lectures and tutorials as part of the School's visiting artists' programme. Recent speakers include Assemble (2015 Turner Prize Winners), Mark Titchner, Jordan Baseman, Cath Keay, and Joshua Sofaer.

The programme explores contemporary art that moves within and beyond the traditional gallery to embrace a range of non-traditional sites, with assessments designed to prepare students for professional life. The course emphasises individual creativity and artistic intelligence, and aims to introduce students to the fields of Live Art, installation and digital media, as well as catering for painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking.

At Lincoln, students have the opportunity to work both with and beyond a dynamic studio culture. The course aims to enable students to extend their creative work and ideas into new areas, including publicly engaged art. Students can choose to join study trips, which introduce significant artworks and the ideas behind them. Previous study trips have visited destinations in the UK and overseas.

This programme is also available with an Arts Foundation Year, which can provide an alternative route of entry onto the full degree programme. Find out more at https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/course/afyafyub/.

How You Study

In the first year, students are encouraged to experiment with traditional media, digital practices, and live art in order to identify key areas of personal interest.

The second year aims to guide students in the development of their individual practices and there are also opportunities to exhibit work outside of the University.

In the third year, professional practice modules offer students the ability to refine their individual development and reflective practice, culminating in their final-year degree shows.

Methods of delivery on the Fine Art programme vary from module to module and may include lectures to larger cohorts, seminars with smaller groups, guided workshops across the University's facilities, and focused studio tutoring in both group and one-to-one situations.

What You Need to Know

We want you to have all the information you need to make an informed decision on where and what you want to study. To help you choose the course that’s right for you, we aim to bring to your attention all the important information you may need. Our What You Need to Know page offers detailed information on key areas including contact hours, assessment, optional modules, and additional costs.

Find out More

An Introduction to Your Modules

† Some courses may offer optional modules. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed. Optional module selection may also be affected by staff availability.

Frameworks 2023-24ART1016MLevel 42023-24Frameworks is a practical module that aims to introduce students to a range of approaches to making artwork in dialogue with others. It highlights the programme's technical facilities and offers professional skills in the capture, composition and formatting of digital documentation. The module is partly based in the studio but also operates across the wider University campus in order to engage with its diverse publics. Students are expected to experiment with making artwork in response to a Live Brief on the theme of 'the public', while also receiving training in technical equipment and software through demonstrations, and take part in seminar discussions on art made in dialogue with others. Students have the opportunity to develop digital documentation skills in order to highlight the process behind their practice.CoreProvocations and Imaginations 2023-24ART1015MLevel 42023-24Provocations and Imaginations introduces students to their roles as producers of public knowledge and aims to expand their understanding of the key principles behind their social engagement, and explore the relevance of these to their own practices. This module introduces three pivotal artistic periods that have provoked, challenged or collaborated with publics in order to widen the discussion of art's role in society and society's role in the production of, responses to and reception of contemporary art. It is also designed to equip students with the skills required to succeed in an academic environment, including the written, conceptual and presentational skills to formulate, communicate, contextualise and explain their work to critics, curators and academics, using an appropriate critical-theoretical framework.CoreThe Fine Art Body 2023-24ART1017MLevel 42023-24This module focuses on the subject and roles of the body in contemporary art practice. Students will have the opportunity to work with a range of media, materials and practices, provocations, processes and potential outcomes to produce their own Finished Artworks focusing on the body as subject or object. The module will study bodily precedents in art practice and focus on the body and its image/performance through a series of skills workshops underpinned by a contextual element exploring the body's identity in contemporary art. Workshops will include The Performing Body, Composing the Mediated Body and Dirty Bodies: the abject body in contemporary art.CoreThe Gallery 2023-24ART1018MLevel 42023-24The Gallery is examined as a culturally constructed and contested institution and asks students to propose and explore its physical and virtual alternatives. Focusing on artists and theorists who foreground the gallery as a subject for enquiry, students will be expected to respond to a Live Brief to produce Finished Artworks for public, campus or virtual spaces.CoreBodies of Practice 2024-25ART2018MLevel 52024-25This module constitutes the whole of the first semester of the second year, in which students can concentrate on developing their artistic practice to produce artwork while broadening and strengthening the documentation of their art. The module concludes with a large exhibition and marks the half-way point of the programme. The module continues the dialogue between identity and practice begun in The Fine Art Body in year 1. Examining the impact of politics, environment and social change, it asks how these public dialogues can influence the bodies and identities of artists, and how artists are able to make use of these impacts in their art. The module also engages with modes of exchange, current climates and artistic identities within global contemporary art.CoreCultures and Atmospheres 2024-25ART2019MLevel 52024-25This module aims to support students in their development as producers of public knowledge. Dialogic artistic methodologies are examined through cultural, critical, philosophical and ethical frameworks. Small groups of students choose an aspect of contemporary art from which to generate a public Seminar, as well as individual Proposals for their Level 3 Critical Report (Ingenuities and Originalities). The module makes vital connections between theorists, ideas and practices, enabling students to continue their skills development in order to become imaginative, reflexive, and creative thinkers and practitioners.CoreBeyond the Gallery 2024-25ART2017MLevel 52024-25Beyond the Gallery is a live brief project that offers all students the opportunity to produce Finished Artworks for a public, off-campus venue. Working with collaborative partners to provide site-specific exhibition/commission experience, the module is also assessed by a Catalogue in which students document and critically position their art, process and contexts.OptionalFine Art Study Abroad 2024-25ART2022MLevel 52024-25The Fine Art Study Abroad programme is an optional module of study involving a Semester-long exchange with a partner institution overseas. During the Semester abroad (in the second half of the second year of study) students will share classes with local students. Not only will Study Abroad students be living and socialising in another culture, they will also have an opportunity to examine international Fine Art practices through attending exhibitions and events as part of modules and participating in extra-curricular activities.OptionalPublic Project 1 2024-25ART2021MLevel 52024-25Public Project 1, an optional 30 credit module in Semester B, is a live brief project that offers students the opportunity to facilitate artwork with Lincoln service users of Addaction. Addaction is a national drug and alcohol charity offering support to people to be able to make positive behavioural change. Addactions work encompasses community support, education, help for those in the criminal justice system, mental health services, family and employment support. Students considering a career in arts-led intervention will gain invaluable experience of planning, training for, delivering and evaluating a participatory art process with vulnerable adults.OptionalIlluminations: Public Practice and Exhibition 2025-26ART3015MLevel 62025-26In this module students are expected to develop, finish and exhibit signature artworks in a gallery or negotiated venue appropriate to their practice. Supervision of a Producer's Portfolio aims to support the student in creating professional representation of their practice in the media of their choice. Refining and consolidating students' practical specialisms, the module situates individual practice at its core, and supervises the fundamentals of making in terms of criticality, process and materials to produce Finished Artworks for a professional, Public Exhibition.CoreIngenuities and Originalities 2025-26ART3016MLevel 62025-26Ingenuities and Originalities asks students to develop the individual research project they proposed at the culmination of the Level 2 research module Cultures and Atmospheres. Assessed through a digital-only submission of 5,000 words, it allows students the freedom to experiment with the visual and artistic form of the critical page by including and treating text, image (moving and still) and audio. Exploring the art of criticism and how to market their critical outputs as well as the traditional skills of writing for critically engaged readers the module expands students' subject-specific and transferable skills. The module will allow students whose practices operate solely in digital forms to continue experimenting and developing their repertoire of artefacts. Students who wish to produce a more traditional academic thesis (for instance, those who might be planning to continue their studies at postgraduate level) will be able to embrace this form with equal support, while continuing to innovate with the presentational style of their Critical Report.CoreLocating Practice 2025-26ART3017MLevel 62025-26Locating Practice is an exploration of site-based approaches to Fine Art delivered in the City of Lincoln and its immediate surroundings. This Module develops the practical and theoretical dialogues in The Gallery and Beyond The Gallery and reframes them in the context of the wider physical world outside the traditional Gallery. The module aims to prepare students for the demands and timescales of independent practice and its professional evaluation. Subjects include Audio, Art and The City, Walking and Performance as Art, Pervasive Media and Digital Practices, the Located Body and Evaluating Practice.Core

How you are assessed

Assessment will include finished artworks and documentation, presentations, essays, catalogues, and evaluations.

Fees and Scholarships

Going to university is a life-changing step and it's important to understand the costs involved and the funding options available before you start. A full breakdown of the fees associated with this programme can be found on our course fees pages.

Course Fees

For eligible undergraduate students going to university for the first time, scholarships and bursaries are available to help cover costs. The University of Lincoln offers a variety of merit-based and subject-specific bursaries and scholarships. For full details and information about eligibility, visit our scholarships and bursaries pages.

Course-Specific Additional Costs

Most students will need to buy materials appropriate to their practice. These might include (but are not limited to): paint, wood, and other relevant materials. Materials costs for this course will depend on the medium you choose to work in, but will typically range from between £100 and £500 per year.

Students may benefit from a range of subsidised study trips (which include transport, accommodation and admission charges as appropriate), activities, and events which aim to benefit and enhance their studies and practices.

Optional study trips may also be available, and the full costs of these will be incurred by the student where offered. These range from approximately £20 for a day trip to £400 for an international trip of between three and five days. All costs incurred need to be paid upfront. Participation in study trips is not graded.

Entry Requirements 2023-24

United Kingdom

A Level: BBC (112 UCAS Tariff points from a minimum of 3 A levels or equivalent qualifications).

International Baccalaureate: 29 points overall.

BTEC Extended Diploma: Distinction, Merit, Merit or equivalent.

T Level: Merit

Access to Higher Education Diploma: 45 Level 3 credits with a minimum of 112 UCAS Tariff points.

A combination of qualifications which may include A Levels, BTEC, EPQ, etc.

Applicants will also need at least three GCSEs at grade 4 (C) or above, which must include English. Equivalent Level 2 qualifications may be considered.

The University accepts a wide range of qualifications as the basis for entry. We will also consider applicants with extensive and relevant work experience and will give special individual consideration to those who do not meet the standard entry qualifications.

International

Non UK Qualifications:

If you have studied outside of the UK, and are unsure whether your qualification meets the above requirements, please visit our country pages https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/studywithus/internationalstudents/entryrequirementsandyourcountry/ for information on equivalent qualifications.

EU and Overseas students will be required to demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each element. For information regarding other English language qualifications we accept, please visit the English Requirements page https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/studywithus/internationalstudents/englishlanguagerequirementsandsupport/englishlanguagerequirements/

If you do not meet the above IELTS requirements, you may be able to take part in one of our Pre-sessional English and Academic Study Skills courses.

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/studywithus/internationalstudents/englishlanguagerequirementsandsupport/pre-sessionalenglishandacademicstudyskills/

For applicants who do not meet our standard entry requirements, our Arts Foundation Year can provide an alternative route of entry onto our full degree programmes:
https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/course/afyafyub/

If you would like further information about entry requirements, or would like to discuss whether the qualifications you are currently studying are acceptable, please contact the Admissions team on 01522 886097, or email admissions@lincoln.ac.uk

Facilities

All Fine Art students have access to studios and workshops, as well as the University’s on-campus public gallery, Project Space Plus, where students regularly exhibit their work. Students can make use of software that supports their documentation and practice, and have access to photography, video, and audio facilities; acrylic resist etching, digital imagery, and screen printing equipment; and facilities for wood, metal, plaster, plastics, and resin work.

Features

Visiting Experts

A range of artists and professionals are invited to deliver guest lectures and tutorials as part of the Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts’ visiting artists’ programme. Recent speakers include Assemble (2015 Turner Prize winners), Ming Wong, Mark Titchner, Cath Keay, Jordan Baseman, and Joshua Sofaer.

Field Trips

Mandatory field trip costs are covered by the University but optional study visits, to locations such as Venice, are at the student’s own expense. Please be aware that there may be additional costs for Fine Art students relating to study trips. In the past, students have enjoyed a fully-funded trip to Dartington to work collaboratively with other students from the School of Fine and Performing Arts.

Networking

Students are encouraged to take advantage of the networks and connections that they may be brought into contact with during their studies. Recent successes as a consequence of Fine Art's networks have seen students gain residencies at the Art House in Wakefield, Mansions of the Future in Lincoln, and the Surface Gallery in Nottingham.

Portfolio and Interviews

Successful applicants will be invited to an interview, where they will have the opportunity to go through their portfolio with a member of the academic team.

If you are invited for an interview you will have the opportunity to show a traditional and/or digital portfolio with you. This will form the basis for a discussion of your current interests in Fine Art and how you would like to develop your ideas and practice at Lincoln. You will need to clearly describe and explain the work you bring with you. Interviews are designed to make sure we're right for you, and you are right for us. We understand they can be daunting, but try not to worry.

A range of work is useful, but as a guide we would recommend that your portfolio should consist of no more than 10 to 15 pieces. We'd like to see a range of images and examples of video, audio or photographic work as applicable to the work you have made.

"Throughout my three years, I was challenged, supported, and believed in. This course has an equal balance in educating you within the arts while developing your practice as an artist. The support and the design of the course makes the idea of working professionally as an artist a reality."

Sophie Baker, BA (Hons) Fine Art graduate

Career Opportunities

Lincoln’s Fine Art degree aims to empower students to develop technical, critical, and professional skills. It aims to prepare students to enter careers throughout the creative industries. This may include working as freelance artists, curators, administrators, and writers, as well as roles in art therapy and teaching.

Visit Us in Person

The best way to find out what it is really like to live and learn at Lincoln is to join us for one of our Open Days. Visiting us in person is important and will help you to get a real feel for what it might be like to study here.

Book Your Place

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Key Information

BA (Hons) Fine Art