HONOURS DEGREES
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours)
Melbourne City
The honours program supports and develops your capacity as a practicing artist and active researcher in the field of contemporary art.
This program is designed for students who have successfully completed a three-year degree in contemporary art or craft, or an equivalent field, and who wish to undertake a further year of study to focus exclusively on an individual project.
At this level of study, you will engage within a high-level intensive program, deepening and enriching your practice through expertise, knowledge and criticality.
You will be guided through personalised mentorship and individual supervision, as you are introduced to practice-led research and research methodologies.
A flexible curriculum provides opportunities for you to develop an individual project and to further your knowledge and capability for professional or highly skilled art practice, and/or further learning at a postgraduate level.
Study streams
There are five study streams to choose from:
- Contemporary art practices involves an individual contemporary art project within any medium, method or strategy, including painting, drawing, installation practices, moving image, photography, spatial practices, print image practices, or conceptual and post-object based art practices.
- Sound art practices allows you to focus on the development of a contemporary sonic art project, interrogating themes and practices derived from composition, performance, exhibition and audio-vision.
- Contemporary art and craft practices leads you to produce an individual contemporary art and/or craft project, with emphasis on object-based practices. This may include ceramics or gold and silversmithing, but may equally include other fields of craft related practice.
- Photographic practices focuses on photographic explorations that interrogate your practice, whether your practice concentrates on ideas of documentary photography, photojournalism, fashion photography, advertising, a photographic art practice or a hybrid practice.
- Curatorial practices allows you to develop your curatorial practice, investigating the discourses and hybridised spaces between art practice and curatorship. Applicants are required to have undertaken prior studies in the field of contemporary art or craft.
A project may be solo or collaborative, specialised or transdisciplinary, in which multiple art forms and practices may converge.
Focus of the program
The program provides a supportive and consultative environment, emphasising independent practice, research and development, where you will form your own project and personal course of study through consultation with academic staff.
All academic staff within the program are artists, theorists or curators with local, national and, in most instances, international experience.
The program is designed as a full-year course of study to build upon your previous undergraduate studies, with a refined contemporary art project as a final outcome. Consequently, having devised an informed and rigorous contemporary art practice, our alumni are ready for high levels of practice and are regularly involved in local, national and international art events, or in undertaking a postgraduate research degree.
International student visa holders can only study full-time.
This program is centred in practical studio-based learning, supported by a focused academic research culture.
The study structure consists of lectures, seminars, reading groups, individual and group critique sessions, personal guidance through individual supervision, and group workshops. This set of experiences provides a framework in which to contextualise and develop an informed and specialised contemporary art practice.
Our academic staff within the Honours Program have many years of professional experience, shared through their expertise in the learning environment.
Students are provided with individual supervision by our academic staff through the duration of their Honours project.
Assessment comprises presentations and installations of creative artistic works, an exegetical research text, written reflections and seminar presentations.
All programs are delivered in English, and you will have access to online resources through the myRMIT student portal.
The arts and creative industries continue to grow in Australia, and particularly within Melbourne. This is due to increased interest, along with government support and a longstanding cultural focus across the arts in general.
Funding opportunities remain ample and established institutions – including the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Heide Museum of Modern Art and RMIT Gallery, combined with artist-run spaces and many commercial galleries – provide an exciting environment and many opportunities for our graduates.
Multi-skilled and employable in a range of creative industries, our graduates continue to make significant contributions to contemporary art and culture, nationally and internationally.
Many of our graduates have continued on to become:
- artists in every field of art or craft
- photographers
- sound engineers
- musicians and sound performers
- teachers, academics and researchers
- curators and museum personnel
- arts writers and theorists
- arts administrators and cultural officers
- technical specialists within a wide range of creative and cultural fields
- moving image practitioners, including filmmaking.
The School of Art has a long tradition in and focus on international engagement. The awards available assist graduates to build international experiences into their practice and emerging careers. The following awards are conferred on those students who demonstrate outstanding art practices and academic achievement.
The School of Art Honours Travelling Grants
During Semester Two, our honours students are able to apply for The RMIT Foundation School of Art Honours Travelling Grants. These awards were established to support honours graduates from the School to continue their research overseas, following the completion of an honours degree.
Zara Stanhope, Principal Curator at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, assessed the 2016 awards.
The School of Art Honours International Residencies
- The Leipzig International Art Program, German Arts Residency
A three-month artist residency, with accompanying individual exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Berlin, will be awarded through the renowned Spinnerei Arts Complex in Leipzig. This award includes airfares.
- The Seoul Arts Residency, Korea
A three-month artist residency with accompanying individual exhibition (TBA) in Seoul. This award includes airfares.
- A new overseas residency will be introduced in 2017.
This award will also include airfares.
Hannah Matthews (Senior curator at MUMA) and Dr Quentin Sprague (independent curator and academic) assessed the 2016 awards.
More international artist residencies available to honours students and graduates
SITUATE
SITUATE is a residency program in the School for artists, curators and researchers, and honours students (along with postgraduate students) may apply for this program. SITUATE connects people through art by creating onsite real-time opportunities for creative experimentation, cross-cultural dialogue and global mobility. SITUATE manages a series of Reciprocal Residencies where we send RMIT affiliated and Australian artists overseas and receive artists from the partner organisations. Exchanges include:
- The Austrian Arts Residency Exchange
- The Canadian Indigenous Arts Residency Exchange
- The Taiwanese Arts Residency Exchange
- The Japanese Arts Residency Exchange
iAIR
The School of Art has a longstanding global focus provided through many activities, but particularly the iAIR Program, which provides students with access to international artists and academics who often feature as guest lecturers throughout the year.
Other opportunities
RMIT’s Global Mobility also supports students to develop and undertake an exchange or a short-term mobility activity during their Honours study through our network of 165 partner universities worldwide.
Info Corner
330 Swanston Street (cnr La Trobe Street)
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel. +61 3 9925 2260
Make an enquiry
Program and course information
Key content
Take your art to the next level.
Create your own project, and refine your processes and techniques through research and critical practice.