A year and a half ago I was belwildered about making one of the biggest decisions in my life. I was completing my Art and Design A-Level at Greenhead College in Huddersfield. This college has a wonderful Art A-Level, and is well known for being one of the best in the country. Because the students are of a high quality, the tutors encourage applications to Universities through UCAS, instead of, or in addition to applications to foundation courses. I applied to both, and got accepted at 4 universities, and also was offered a place at Leeds College of Art and Design to do the foundation course. I was literally torn between both options. I had managed to whittle it down to a chioce between 1 particular university and the foundation, but the advantages and disadvantages of both seemed to be equal. As you may have gathered, I was in a real pickle! My tutor thought I was good enough to go straight to University without the foundation, but my parents thought I should do the foundation. I really didnt know what to do. In the end I opted to do the Edexcel Level 3 Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art and Design) at Leeds College of Art and Design, and AM SO GLAD I MADE THAT DECISION.
Before I talk about the Leeds course in particular, I will just give you a brief overview of what a foundation course actually is. The normal route for creative people to take is to do an Art and Design foundation before specialising in a particular aspect at degree level. The foundation gives an insight into all areas of Art and Design, and there is usually the option to specialise in a specific area after you have had a taster of the different areas. This enables you to choose the right area for you. Art is so broad that many A Level courses cannot be specific enough, so the foundation is a perfect opportunity to experience the different creative areas (Fine Art, Fashion, Textiles, 3D and Craft, Design for Comunication), and then decide which you are most suited to. Experiencing what it is like to do Art and Design full time for 5 days a week without any free sessions in between will really test whether this really is the career path you want to take. If by any chance you find that this area is not for you, then only a year has passed by, rather than 3 on a degree.
I am now going to talk more specifically about the Art and Design foundation course at Leeds College of Art and Design, but again, this is well known as being one of the best of its kind in the country, so my experiences cannot be generalised beyond this course.
Students can either commute from home (as I did), or move away and stay in student accommodation. Because the college is not very large, halls of residence are not provided, but the student services do provide help with accommodation, and there is a house hunting day organised for people who need help. In my year about 50% commuted and 50% lived in student accommodation. I did not really feel as though I missed out by commuting because there are plenty of other people doing so, but the people living in Leeds did seem to have more of a social life!
The course begins in August (early I know!), and this can be a bit of a bummer when you have friends going to University in October and still have loads of holiday left. But you finish in early June, before most Universities, so you benefit from a long summer then!
The beginning of the course is not very exciting, and people are put off by it. Inductions into the facilities (printmaking workshop, wood/metal workshop, computer suites, library, video editing suite, and photography) take place at the beginning, and although you do get an information overload, and there is an awful lot to take in, it is useful stuff, and helps you when you get further into the course. As they say, 'things can only get better!'
In about the next 6-8 weeks, you go through the 'exploratory phase'. Again, this is incredibly intense and tiring, and is like nothing else you have done before. It does get tedious and sometimes you can see no point to what you are doing, but later in the course you can see why you did what you did, and it helps you develop important skills that you regularly use. More people drop out during this phase, but my advice would be, stick with it and you will reap the benefits! It is also a great chance to meet loads of people, and meet all the different tutors who then get split up into different specialist areas. The kinds of activites you do in this initial stage are varied, but all involve experimenting with creative thinking and introduce the idea of visual language in the development of ideas. Drawing plays a major part in this, and you learn new ways of thinking about drawing, and engage in some challenging tasks. We had to form a collection of objects over the summer, and used this collection throughout the exploratory phase. Drawing in different media, using different types of line, approaching drawing from different perspecives and angles, and experimenting with composition was all contained within the exploratory phase. An introduction into colour theory is also given, as well as doing some 3-dimensional activities. At first there is a real emphasis on individual work, but later in this stage there are some group tasks to participate in, and by this time you have developed a strong bond with your peers, so this works well. All the tasks are given in properly written brief format, so you know what is required and how to go about it.
At the end of this stage, an individual project is set. The tutors give an open brief that can be interpreted however you want. They tend to chose a word, and everyone has to respond to this word in their own, individual way. Our project revolved around 'time'. This is immensly broad, and can be taken in many different directions. This 2 week project is the first real time that you can do your own self directed work. The purpose is to give you and the tutors an idea of how you work, and help you decide which specialist area you want to chose. During this part of the course the tutors run 'crit' groups, which involve a group of perhaps 10 students and a couple of tutors talking about their work and giving feedback to each other. This is a valauble experience, and really helps you develop your ideas. It is also good to practice talking about your own work to a group of people. A number of lectures also take place throughout this period. These inform you about each of the specialist areas, such as what each entails, what careers each area leads to, the kind of briefs that are set, the ways of working in each area, examples of contemporary practice from that area, references for research into each area, and past students work from each area. The tutors give a lot of individual support and help when you are deciding which specialist area to choose.
The choices are:
FINE ART - (art that is shown in a gallery situation and is not brief -led) VISUAL COMMUNICATION / DESIGN FOR COMMUNICATION - (Graphic Design, Illustration, Advertising, Packaging Design etc) FASHION AND TEXTILES - (Surface Design, Wallpaper Design, Fahion Design etc) 3D AND CRAFT ( Architecture, Jewellery Design, Product Design, Spatial Design etc)
You have an individual assessment with your personal tutor and another tutor before you enter specialist area. Here they look at all the work from the course so far, give you feedback, ask about how you are finding the course so far, and give a final bit of advice about whether you have chosen the right area.
During specialist area you develop your own individual practice, and work in your own way. Each specialist area is very different , and the ways of working vary accordingly, but there is the opportunity to use all the facilities whatever area you are in. Technicians are helpful and although the facilities are shared with the rest of the college (other courses include A-Levels, AVCE, and degrees), if you organise your time and find out when the workshops are open for foundation use, you should not have many problems. The tutors teaching in each specialist area have their own experience in that area, and many continue their practice in any spare time. They can therefore give advice about how to survive in the 'real world'! Much of the specialist area is spent in preparation for interviews at Universities. Again, there is plenty of advice available about choices, and some areas have special relationships with Universities so they come into college to give talks about the courses. There are sometimes trips to look round specific Universities and go to the UCAS convention. The careers library at college has all the necessary information.
Historical and Contextual Studies lectures take place every Wednesday afternoon until Christmas, and you can then use knowledge gained from these along with individual research to write a major essay which is assessed. The lectures are interesting and relevant to all of the specialist areas.
Students learn through crit sessions, tutorials with individual tutors, discussions with peers, individual research, lectures and seminars (small group discussions about relevant contemporary art practice issues).
The course is ended with a Final Major Project that is finalised in an exhibition. The exhibition is open to the public, and is an excellent opportunity to gain the experience of producing and installing work for exhibition.
There is a college shop selling a wide range of art materials at fair prices. In general, students hould expect to pay on average about £10 per week on materials. There is the option to go on a number of study visits to major art centres such as New York and Paris, and these cost around £200-£500.
I have tried to be as informative as possible in this review, and am conscious that I have written a lot, but I want to pass on my positive experiences to people, and beleive that Art and Design Foundation at Leeds College of Art and Design is the way forward! If anyone wants any additional information please don't hesitate to ask me!
Happy creating.
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