Has anyone done art foundation?

[BreezySwan]

My daughter is potentially interested in art foundation, has anyone done it, is it useful and what have they gone on to do afterwards, thanks

Yes. DD did one last year. She was thinking of a degree in animation but had actually decided not to by the time her FAD started, but enjoyed the year as a sort of bridge between school and going away to uni (she’s at Durham now).
She made some great friends and was able to do a month work experience with an art collective in Lisbon during her year. Her friends from her FAD are now doing architecture (Liverpool), fine art (Goldsmith), theatrical design (UAL Wimbledon). One already had a place at Cambridge to do architecture but was unsure about it so did the foundation year anyway.
If your YP has a definite idea what discipline they’d like to do and their portfolio is really good they don’t have to do a Foundation year, though most art students still do one I think. I know UAL encourages it and guarantees a degree place if you pass their FAD (though not necessarily on the course applied to). Conversely I know that some Foundation courses are so competitive that you are more likely to get a place on the degree program at the same uni (this happened at Kingston).
It’s free if under 19 at the start (some places do charge so be sure to check). It should be accredited by UAL or Pearson and it’s the same criteria so a local one at an FE college will do.

My daughter is due to start one in September at a local FE college. She wants to try new art disciplines, having done Graphics at GCSE and A Level but not sure that's the degree for her. She is a young 18, so we think it will give her a year to make a decision, and as PP has said, it's free.

DC about to finish their Foundation year, and will then be doing an Art degree. They’ve absolutely loved it. It’s also been a gentle introduction to living independently as they’re in student accommodation (ie it’s only really 9 months away if it had been a disaster). We found that a lot of the most sought after art degrees (graphics, illustration etc) require you to have a stand alone Foundation year.

I did a part-time art foundation course as an adult at an adult education college in London and then I went on to do a fine art degree at Central Saint Martins part time as well.

The art foundation gave me a good grounding and helped me decide what medium I wanted to pursue further.

I also got help from the tutors with putting my portfolio together and filling in my application when I decided to apply to St Martins.

My son did it few years ago, he loved it, it helped him to decide what to study at Uni. He highly recommends it. Each course has different specialities. Worth checking what is hers about.

Thanks that's really helpful, she doesn't really know what to do

It's very useful if she wants to study some kind of art but isn't sure what kind. A foundation course lets you try out lots of different things, and lets you build up a portfolio which is usually necessary for Art and Design type degrees. I did a BTEC ND in Graphic Design which they said was equivalent to A Levels in terms of UCAS points but also an Art Foundation course, so I could skip the foundation year.

Echoing what others have said. DD1 did an art foundation two years ago. She needed a pause between school and going away to university as she was a young 18. She's doing a degree in which it is useful and lots but not all on her course did art foundation. It pushed her out of her comfort zone in art terms which was useful. We were lucky to have a university nearby where it was a stand alone course and thus free. If it's part of a degree you have to pay fees. Hoping it will still be free in a year or so as DD2 also wants to do an art foundation year.