Everything you need to know...
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What is the fee?
Home: £10,620 for the course
International/EU: £17,725 for the course -
How long will I study?
1 Year
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Where will I study?
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When do I start?
September 2025
1. Course summary
- Immerse yourself in a course that reflects the experience of an artist’s residency.
- Pursue creative ideas through a variety of media, approaches and forms.
- Evolve your creative thinking, studio work and professional ambitions.
- Develop visual media research skills for potential PhD study.
MA Fine Art cultivates your work and ideas while building your career as an artist. The course is designed as an artist’s residency to support you as you develop an individual artistic identity. You’ll have the opportunity to hone your existing skills and also to try new forms, all within a professional studio environment.
Come to an open day
Find out more at our postgraduate open days. Book now for your place.
2. How you learn
You’ll pursue your creative ideas through a variety of approaches. You’ll work with sculpture, painting, photography, film, video, performance, text, sound, installation, drawing and printmaking – plus all manner of object and image making or combinations of media. There’s no limit or expectation as to the media or form you use.
You’ll actively explore your artistic research methods beyond the studio through presentations, exhibitions and textual outputs. These include writing artist’s statements, reviewing your practice throughout the module, presentations and an exhibition to showcase your practice.
You’re taught by experienced artists and academics with a background in internationally recognised research. The curriculum is underpinned by self-directed study, designed to support the independent research that can emerge from the making of art.
You learn through:
- seminars, lectures and workshops
- individual tutorials
- group critiques and peer discussion
- guest lectures and seminars
- collaborative projects
- exhibition making and public dissemination
- presentations of work such as exhibitions, books and magazines
- statements of practice
- digital, billboard or sound assessment
Key themes
Through seminars and lectures with art professionals, you’ll consider the wider global contexts in which art practice operates. You’ll explore the environment, gender, identity and the role of art in culture today – thinking about how your work will speak to global audiences and perspectives. The course engages you with the diversity of thought and practice that characterise the fine art world, while debating the place of art within the globalised world.
Central to the course is the ongoing development of a studio ethos. You’ll have the opportunity to reconfigure, unravel and rebuild the concerns and research that underpin your experimentation with materials. Reading groups offer fresh and timely ideas by sharing the works of others to encourage thinking in new territories. This includes student-led screenings to discuss works so you can develop your skills in talking about fine art.
In the context of a shifting contemporary art world, you’ll engage with changing ideas of what it is to be an artist, maker, curator or art writer. You’ll consider the art market itself by examining and critiquing the forces that shape artmaking, art writing and artistic engagement with the public and public spaces.
Course support
You’ll be supported by both academic and technical staff with a high level of expertise and experience. You’ll work with staff to develop an inclusive atmosphere which accommodates a plurality of voices, critical opinions and material expressions. These will both critique and discuss the expanded contexts of fine art and their contemporary manifestations.
We aim for a globalised curriculum which broadens our understanding of art today – with culturally diverse students as ‘artists-in-residence’ who produce art and share their processes and contextual approaches.
The diverse background of students makes for a dynamic studio environment that encourages an informed and supportive working atmosphere. The importance of the transcultural is now widely acknowledged as being central to the development of contemporary art practices.
Course leaders and tutors
Penny McCarthy
Reader in Fine ArtPenny is a Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Her work has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and AHRC and exhibited extensiv … Read more
Applied learning
Live projects
We have close links with professional arts organisations. You’ll have opportunities to work with artist's studio groups, Museums Sheffield and the galleries and visual art networks in the city. You may be set tasks such as finding materials around the city and making art from them – working with Yorkshire Art Space, the Millennium Gallery and the Site Gallery.
Field trips
You’ll have the chance to organise your own independent field trips to art destinations of your choice.
Networking opportunities
In seminars and guest lectures, professional artists share artistic, critical, curatorial and public opportunities to help you understand how the art world operates. Networking with artists will help you to figure out your own place in the art world.
You’ll be based in studios integrated with a professional artists studio group. This gives you valuable direct experience to prepare you for your future career, engaging with the professional networks of expert researchers, active artists and galleries within Sheffield.You’ll also reach out yourself to build the skills to network and the relationships that will help you advance your career. You’ll gain a hands-on understanding of the skills required to sustain a career – from marketing and selling your work to displaying your work in public.
Competitions
We’ll encourage you to showcase your work in competitions, and let you know where to find them.
View our students' work
View our gallery of student work and learn more about the exciting projects they've been working on this year.
3. Future careers
The course prepares you for a career in:
- fine art
- curation
- arts management
- education
- studio management
- making
- arts writing
- exhibition making
- public arts
- socially engaged practice
- researcher or doctorates
Our graduates include high-profile artists and prize winners such as:
- Jamie Crewe, Turner prize bursary winner
- George Shaw and Roslind Nashashibi, Turner Prize winners and short-listed
- Oreet Ashery, Turner prize bursary winner and Derek Jarman Award
- Rosalind Nashashibi, National Gallery Artist in Residence
- Dawn Shadforth, director of His Dark Materials
- Conor Rogers, Young Artist Award’, First Prize Saatchi Gallery
Our recent graduates, including Kedisha Coakley and Ami Horrocks, have won prestigious residencies and exhibitions at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
A number of our graduates gain places to take up doctoral study (PhD).
4. Where will I study?
You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
City Campus
City Campus is located in the heart of Sheffield, within minutes of the train and bus stations.
City Campus map | City Campus tour
Adsetts library
Adsetts Library is located on our City Campus. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn more5. Equipment and facilities
You'll have access to a wide variety of facilities across Hallam campuses – including a 24-hour learning centre, Students’ Union, cafés and eateries, lecture theatres, exhibition spaces and more.
We have links with artist’s studio groups, galleries and cultural institutions, art networks, collections and archives in Sheffield and beyond. You'll be based in a fully equipped and purpose-designed studio, with state-of-the-art facilities including:
- painting and sculpture facilities
- dedicated TV, film and photography studios
- industry-relevant hardware and software
- performance spaces
- a creative media centre
- professional galleries
- print, wood, metal and ceramic workshops
- 3D printing
We’ve also invested over £100m in new facilities, to help you study how and when you want. This means 24-hour libraries and study spaces designed by our students.
6. Entry requirements
All students
Normally an honours degree in an Art and Design subject at 2:1 standard (2:2 may be accepted in exceptional circumstances such as related experience and/or high standard of portfolio).
You will have to submit evidence, in the form of an identifiable body of work, of significant creative ability and a commitment to theoretical issues in fine art. This should include:
CV
Detailing your experience, including your education, your participation in exhibitions and events, and relevant work experience.
Portfolio
Either a link to your website or a pdf of a maximum of ten A4 pages of images as supporting documentation of your art work. Please supply dates, media and dimensions. If your work is time-based, you may wish to provide a link to moving image documentation. Projects should be presented in chronological order with student work and any independent or professional projects clearly identified.
Artist Statement
Describing the research and process that developed the work. Your statement should refer to the fine art context in which your work takes place, including reference to artists and exhibitions that have had an impact on your practice.
If you do not have such academic qualifications we may consider your application individually, based on your personal, professional and work experience, and other formal qualifications. You may also be able to claim credit points which can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete your qualification at Sheffield Hallam. Find out more.
Overseas applicants from countries whose first language is not English must normally produce evidence of competence in English. An IELTS score of 6.0 with 5.5 in all skills (or equivalent) is the standard for non-native speakers of English. If your English language skill is currently below an IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills we recommend you consider a Sheffield Hallam University Pre-sessional English course which will enable you to achieve an equivalent English level.
Additional information for EU/International students
If you are an International or non-UK European student, you can find out more about the country specific qualifications we accept on our international qualifications page.
For details of English language entry requirements (IELTS), please see the information for 'All students'.
Modules
Module and assessment information for future years is displayed as currently validated and may be liable to change. When selecting electives, your choices will be subject to the core requirements of the course. As a result, selections may be limited to a choice between one of two or more specified electives in some instances.
Compulsory modules
Thinking And Form: Establishing Ecologies Of Practice In Residence
When Ideas Become Form: Art Attitudes, Sites Of Practice And Research
Your Work In Public: Realisation, Expanded Exhibition And Dissemination
8. Fees and funding
Home students
Our tuition fee for UK students starting full-time study in 2025/26 is £10,620 for the course.
If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
International students
Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2025/26 is £17,725 for the course.
Postgraduate student loans
Up to £12,858 is available in 2025/26 for home students on most masters courses.
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Sheffield Creative Industries Institute (PDF, 268.6KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
