Course details

Summary

Explore and develop your personal art practice within this multidisciplinary, studio-based programme at Elam School of Fine Arts. Designed to cater for all creative backgrounds, this programme is suited to those with or without previous experience in an art studio.

Programme overview

The BFA studio programme will challenge and nurture your talent as a maker. We’ll help you gain flexibility, confidence and the edge needed to enter the art world.

We’ll challenge you to think critically and creatively in our unique interdisciplinary studio environment and offer the opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with other Elam students. You’ll be able to use our extensive workshops and facilities, and have the chance to exhibit your work at our student-run galleries.

Programme structure

In your first year, you’ll study a range of art practices and media, learning to realise your ideas, engage in problem solving and expand your conceptual thinking. You’ll be able to research topics of interest to you, and two General Education courses will give you the chance to supplement your studies in subject areas of your choice.

In second year and beyond, you will hone your creative practice through studio-based instruction and engagement with our critical studies programme.

Your making, thinking, writing, practical and conceptual skills will advance as you and your practice are continually challenged and encouraged. You will engage with current ideas in local and international contemporary art and find your place within the field.

At the end of Part III of the BFA, you may be offered a place in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) programme.

Where could this programme take you?

Elam graduates commonly find employment in the public sector and private organisations. They also work as practising artists or entrepreneurial creatives. As the business world looks to innovators, the capabilities developed through a creative education are becoming highly sought-after.

Jobs related to this programme

• Animator
• Art curator
• Art director (TV/film)
• Art writer or critic
• Artist
• Creative director in an agency
• Designer
• Educator

Further study options

• Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts
• Master of Fine Arts
• Doctor of Fine Arts
• Doctor of Philosophy
• Creative practice

Entry criteria

Secondary school qualifications

You need to have one of the following:

International Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum total score of 24.

General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level. You must have completed a minimum of three A-Level subjects with at least a 'C' grade or higher. General Studies or similar general papers cannot be included.

GCE ‘A’ Level requirements apply to ‘A’ Level qualifications examined by bodies such as AQA, OCR, Edexcel, WJEC, CCEA, Pearson Education Limited and CIE taken outside of New Zealand.

English language requirements:

IELTS 6.0; TOEFL (iBT) 80; TOEFL (paper-based) 550; CAE or CPE 169; PTE 50; MELAB 80.