What is Visual Arts Practice at IADT like?

rebeccadeegan

Can somebody please tell me the layout and modules of the Visual Arts Practice course at IADT? The description on the website is extremely vague.. Can any past or present students answer these questions for me..

What modules do you study?

How is the week laid out? What classes do you have each day?

How much practical classes do you get, or how much time do you spend actually drawing,painting etc in the college?

Do you get taught painting and drawing techniques, or is it more concept based?

What happens after first year? Do you get to choose one discipline to stay in?

Any help at all is appreciated!

Rhyme

A way to sum up the coordination of the course is that the further into the course you get, the more control over your time you have.

First year has a large amount of small projects, mostly open-ended on how you want to approach them eg. medium, concept etc. These projects thin out and lengthen as you get into the further years until you get into fourth year and you have one year-long project and one other. There's more hand-holding in the earlier years but it gets very independent later on as the tutors understand that people work at different paces and in different ways.

The course diversifies as you progress as well so painting workshops start happening, for example, which change focus as you go. It'll be skill-orientated first teaching you brush techniques, approaches to the canvas then there'll be chemical techniques such as mixing paints etc. The conceptual edge to things is covered separately from the craft end of things. This also means that you can sharpen your skills alongside sharpening your criticality rather than trying to cobble them together. This applies to all disciplines and can have a great deal of crossover as well, I studied photography and performance and used them both in my work. I did just enough video to allow me to use those skills elsewhere.

You split into 2D (painting, drawing) 3D (sculpture (metal, wood, clay etc) and 4D (video, photography, performance) and your workshops are laid out like that in future years. You're free to attend all classes though as long as you have time as some overlap.

I've said a lot there but if you have any more questions, ask away. I really enjoyed the course. It's a course where you get out what you put in, so if you pour your heart and soul into your work the tutors and staff will bend over backwards to help you out.

rebeccadeegan

Rhyme - thank you so much for that! It's so hard to find info about it anywhere but that answered a lot.
I don't know how long ago you done the course but can you remember how the week was laid about? Like would you have full studio days where you just work on your own stuff and then other days with different subjects?
I just want to find out as much as I can about it
Thanks for your help!

Rhyme

rebeccadeegan wrote: »

Rhyme - thank you so much for that! It's so hard to find info about it anywhere but that answered a lot.
I don't know how long ago you done the course but can you remember how the week was laid about? Like would you have full studio days where you just work on your own stuff and then other days with different subjects?
I just want to find out as much as I can about it
Thanks for your help!

You will have time to work on your own stuff. There is studio space set aside for each years students which you can use to make work, write, document work etc. It's typically the space the tutors will come look for you if they want a chat and you can grab them for a tutorial if you feel you want to talk to them about how your work is progressing or any ideas you have about pushing your project forward. You rarely have a day full of classes/workshops so there's time you can spend in the studio every day.

You'll have set time for tutorials as well (this eases off a little as the years progress) so you'll be able to prepare material beforehand. From looking at your early work, you'll be assigned tutors according to who they think best suits your skillset/mindset. I know in my first year there was one tutor who specialised in photography/performance, one for painting, one for drawing/sculpture and one for video though you were free to request time from any of the others. The tutors understand that every student is different but they're not psychic so if you think you want something, you've got to go and ask for it rather than stew and get frustrated.

A word on academic material; there is an academic side to the course as well which mostly consist of lectures and essays. They'll try and cram anything like that into the one day (it was Fridays for us) so you can attend those lectures without having workshops afterwards forcing you to switch your brain from academic-mode to practical-mode.

rebeccadeegan

Rhyme wrote: »

You will have time to work on your own stuff. There is studio space set aside for each years students which you can use to make work, write, document work etc. It's typically the space the tutors will come look for you if they want a chat and you can grab them for a tutorial if you feel you want to talk to them about how your work is progressing or any ideas you have about pushing your project forward. You rarely have a day full of classes/workshops so there's time you can spend in the studio every day.

You'll have set time for tutorials as well (this eases off a little as the years progress) so you'll be able to prepare material beforehand. From looking at your early work, you'll be assigned tutors according to who they think best suits your skillset/mindset. I know in my first year there was one tutor who specialised in photography/performance, one for painting, one for drawing/sculpture and one for video though you were free to request time from any of the others. The tutors understand that every student is different but they're not psychic so if you think you want something, you've got to go and ask for it rather than stew and get frustrated.

A word on academic material; there is an academic side to the course as well which mostly consist of lectures and essays. They'll try and cram anything like that into the one day (it was Fridays for us) so you can attend those lectures without having workshops afterwards forcing you to switch your brain from academic-mode to practical-mode.

Sounds great, that's pretty much what I wanted to hear! Was there anything you didn't like about the course, any bad points about it or anything?

Rhyme

rebeccadeegan wrote: »

Sounds great, that's pretty much what I wanted to hear! Was there anything you didn't like about the course, any bad points about it or anything?

The only two things that spring to mind aren't really all that bad. One was people complaining about how the course comply to their needs specifically and then doing nothing about it. If you're assigned a tutor who isn't good for you or are having difficulties with some other aspect of the course, you approach a tutor or another member of the faculty and talk about it. IADT is a third-level institution for adults and you'll be treated as such. So, in that, my gripe wasn't with the course, it was with immature students. Since a lot of people will come straight from 2nd-level colleges, you'll have to put up with some of that.

The other was a tutor who wasn't particularly helpful to me. They were a somewhat established artist in their own right and their approach to tutoring and the processes involved with making art just didn't sync with me. So, in that, my gripe was with a member of staff who I didn't recognise as being 'not for me' until I was well into the year. So, again, not really a gripe with the course at all.

There were two things that didn't click with a lot of people until 2nd or 3rd year in the course. The first being that you being a paid student there entitles you to an education and if you're not getting the education you think the course should be offering you (within reason), query your tutor so they know what your needs are. Do you need to access equipment or spaces? Do you need to get an additional opinion on your work? Do you want to get answers to questions that aren't being tackled in the curriculum? Ask your tutor or the head of your year to query about getting your hands on what you need.

The second thing is that your tutors are just that, tutors, not teachers. Their job is to tutor you and to facilitate your learning. You're well within your rights to disagree with them and question their logic in tutorials, but be able to back up your ideas and theories if you do. They'd much appreciate dialogue between student and tutor rather than them just speaking and you taking notes. There's no 'textbook' that can be learned off to get through the year, you pass by working hard, producing good work, being critical and always seeking to better your thinking and working processes.

You'll be told the importance of notebooks as well and they're not kidding. Some people lug around huge tomes to fill with notes, photos and inspirations and some people have little A6 pocket notebooks that they scribble into (I'm the latter), find what suits you and stick with it.

rebeccadeegan

Thank you so much for taking the time to fill me in, you have been so helpful, I have a deferred place on this course and am definitely going to go for it now, just needed to make sure the course was right for me and by the sounds of it, it is.
Thanks a lot you actually have no idea how much this helped!!

Rhyme

No problem, if you've any further questions now or in the future, fire them off here.

rebeccadeegan

Will do, cheers