Art and Design at university; for past, present, and future students and parents

[PhotoDad]

I've been on a wonderful thread about applications for art/design applications for the coming academic year, and I thought it might be useful to have a more general place for people at different stages of the process to share advice and hints. The normal MN advice about universities is often not applicable to these subjects!

I'll keep this short because I personally don't like huge posts that appear at the top of each page, but I'll add some starting thoughts below. I know that there's a huge range of experience here and a lot of support, so please do ask questions, or share triumphs and disasters.

The original thread is here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4626697-2023-uni-applications-for-those-pursuing-art-and-creative-routes

Really exciting to think about degree shows. As DD1 has been doing her industry year her finals aren't until next year. She's just had her evaluation at work and it was great, so hopefully it will help when she applies for graduate jobs.

So exciting to hear about students approaching the ends of their courses and preparing for shows. Dd has firmed her offer for Edinburgh College of Art so hopefully should be starting there in September. If anyone has a dc who’s on the Fine Art course there, feel free to advise on anything you think would be useful, ie we’re thinking about getting her a new iPad,,,

So that's it for DS! Last submission made last week, degree show installed, awaiting 2 final marks to see what class degree he has achieved.
Today he sent their 'year book' publication to the printers. 5 of them have fund raised a grand, organised a head shot photo shoot, collated a double page spread of each student's art, designed the overall look and done the IT to get it to the printers, ensured deadlines were hit. They are super proud of it, and what a momento to have.
They got 60 entries from a year group of 86, which is pretty good going.
My boy has project managed the whole thing.
And people say Fine Art doesn't set people up for the working world!
He has also won 3 scholarship awards to help pay to set up a not for profit to help young artists in our home town, with the aim for an exhibition which he will curate before xmas. He will start this in the summer and carry it on alongside his grad job.
Hope everyone else's DC are enjoying whatever stage they are at. I cannot believe 4 years has gone so fast. My DS os unrecognisable from the lad who went off to his FAD!

DD finally firmed Model making at AUB but was also very impressed with Model making at Herts. Wimbledon fell out of the final choice due to the cost of London really.

Thanks again to this thread, and to @Soma for the useful questions to think about. In going to the parents' talks everywhere, I met a lot of parents who didn't know about other courses or whose DC's schools hadn't mentioned the existence of Foundation years and I'm grateful I came across this thread back when it first started.

@Lottsbiffandsmudge Your ds sounds amazing! Best of luck to him in all his endeavours.

Dd has crazily won a huge art prize of £7,500 in a really prestigious Open Exhibition! She’ll need to pay tax this year! She’s now finished her A level art too and is already painting what she wants - the freedom of it is wonderful for her!

@FriendlyLaundryMonster how amazing, well done to her!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge it’s long been said that you can always tell when someone’s had an art school education and it’s because of that ability to just go ahead and get stuff done which it sounds like your son has definitely developed. He’s clearly gained a lot more than the ability to make art!

And huge congrats to your daughter @FriendlyLaundryMonster - what a great achievement!

Mine didn’t want to do foundation either or art even though she loves it and has got an A* in what’s been assessed so far and has won several competitions which has given her some money she has saved towards uni . I think lately she’s been thinking maybe she should have gone for a foundation but has chosen media production at ljmu which she’s really looking forward to doing .
i love reading about the successes here of all the wonderfully talented yp .

FriendlyLaundryMonster
that’s amazing ! Lottsbiffandsmudge wow!

What talented offspring there are on this thread 😀

Hello I wonder if anyone could advise on any illustration courses for my quiet, introverted asd daughter please
She doesn't want to study in London so far we've booked open days for

ARU
Norwich University of the Arts
Leeds Arts University

She was originally interested in games/concept art so we visited Staffordshire University which actually was really nice and we also had Abertay pencilled in for a visit. But now she's decided she wants to do Illustration but not sure where we should be looking.

If anyone has any hidden gems they could share please 😊

UWE in Bristol. My DS GF has done illustration there. Lovely studio space at Bower Ashton, which feels quite rural but is v close to city.
Bristol is a fab city but expensive accomodation. She has enjoyed the course and is well on her way to making money out of her practice.

Consider the University of Huddersfield. It's smaller as well so would suit someone who wants to avoid a big, bustling city.

Look at Hereford College of Arts. Totally unexpected choice for us and the course is amazing. DC just finishing their first year there having also done Foundation year there too. PM if you want other details, but can hugely recommend.

Thank you for all these suggestions we'll try and visit these if we can it's just so expensive but hopefully she'll find somewhere she falls in love with and is happy to be for 3 years fingers crossed

Has anyone looked at Worcester? The previous mention of Hereford made me think of it.

https://www.worcester.ac.uk/courses/illustration-ba-hons?option=c19c24f4-f8ac-5e7e-9bc7-b5d57e53c9ae

I think someone I used to work with is now teaching Illustration at Worcester (he certainly was there and as far as I know hasn’t moved on). He’s great (both as a teacher and as an artist); just the sort of person you’d want to be taught by.

Wonderful, thanks Artant

I have never heard bad thing about the University of Worcester, but it doesn’t crop up in the Oxbridge circles of my child’s 6th form!

Take a look at Brighton - their Illustration course is considered to be one of the best in the UK.

Arts University Bournemouth? My dc goes there for Animation, and has been happy. As it’s a small, specialist University could be good for your dd as it’s not as overwhelming as a large Uni.

Goodness lots of news to catch up on! As for those asking about Morley: it was a level 4 post A level course. The best part was she got on to the Turing Scheme trip to Lisbon for a month working at a woman’s art cooperative. Amazing experience and all paid for. Her mates from Morley (who she still sees - very noisy sleepover at Easter break) are doing Architecture at Liverpool, was Architecture now English at Cambridge, Fine Art at Goldsmiths and one of the theatrical courses at Wimbledon. Agree about UAL being unimpressive at the open day we attended and though she got an offer (it would have been at Camberwell back then) felt Morley better fit. But our big surprise during our open day tours was how amazing the fashion was at Ravensbourne! Much more impressive than what we saw at UAL if any are thinking of a fashion degree.
My DD is finishing her second year studying Sociology at Durham, pivoting after researching employment opportunities for animation and fearing AI and the entry level jobs market. But she has not let her creativity disappear and is about to start a paid internship at Durham that was quite loose in its parameters so is doing an exhibit about a famous female professor who has a wing dedicated to her but the current info is poor - like you know when you go to an exhibit at a museum and they have a room with illustrations, artefacts and info about the artist? She’s doing something like that, which will likely go far beyond her contracted hours but she’s fine with that. She’s back home end of June but has less than a week before she goes off to yet another paid educational internship in Columbia for six weeks. She still is an editor on the student newspaper and has resurrected her college’s academic journal which she is designing and editing. So very busy still (she also volunteers at the Cathedral) and so far her MS has been in remission with just a few niggles (though fatigue is ever present). @PhotoDadshe is also learning to drive - very very nervous driving in London and failed her first test and it’s taken nine months to get her another. She has no confidence and if she fails this one she’ll have to redo her theory! Surprised she wanted to do it as none of her friends are learning.

Thanks for the tag, @mondaytosunday! I have rather fallen off Mumsnet lately, and will catch up a bit.

DD is living at home, still. She's applied for literally dozens of jobs and has sometimes reached interview stages, but has so far only found some part-time piecework (which all helps). She's resilient and upbeat, and spends all her free time volunteering, or working on her own art projects. It's been useful to figure out what she does and doesn't want to do. She's also got her (second) driving test next week, so... best of luck!

@TwoOpenOneClosed Oh! DD did Illustration at ARU, and loved every moment. She's shy and slightly neurodivergent, and came out with a million skills and a first-class degree. She liked the structure, the lovely studios, the emphasis on traditional drawing, and the tiny course size. The only downside was that Cambridge is a very expensive city. (Also, she has failed to find work as an illustrator... but to be fair, that's as much the job-market as her, I think.) If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me or post here.

Hi @PhotoDad dd just finished concept art at Herts. Yes the graduate job market is generally grim and somewhat super-grim for arts grads. They may all have to have plan Bs while they work on that. Very little we parents can do about it 😕

Popped back on here to see all the lovely updates. It’s so good to hear about all your DCs and how they’ve enjoyed their degrees and now are navigating the world of work.
DC2 is just finishing a year working for Primark on their placement programme so will go back for 3rd year at NTU in Sept. It’s been an amazing experience and has really helped with future career decisions.
DC1 who didn’t do a creative degree is on the JET program working in Japan for at least 2 years.
if anyone wants to know about either scheme I’d be happy to share
x

A friend of dd2 did the primark placement and loved it ( did fashion design and technology at mmu ) and now works for m
and s.
I worry about jobs too but they need to do what they love too. Mine pivoted from illustration to graphic design to media production, with a view to still draw and create on the side . She would never consider studying anything that wasn’t creative .