Master of Fine Art

Welcome to the Master of Fine Art

Are you a visual artist or cultural worker? Perhaps you’ve completed a Bachelor’s degree in another discipline? Are you interested in cultural work and its sociocultural context? In the Master of Fine Art, you delve more deeply into the making and perception of different artistic expressions. These cultural expressions are never neutral. Both cultural and everyday practices always arise from their own perspective, including a social perspective. And artistic expressions play a major role in how these cultural practices are experienced.

In brief

• A two-year full-time English-taught Master's programme
• A deeper exploration of contemporary visual art in the sociocultural domain and how it is perceived
• Developing, recognising and communicating your own position
• A focus on making, thinking and sharing
• Four interrelated practices: studio, transdisciplinary, curatorial and exhibition
• Graduating with your own work and collective work, plus a research report
• International environment: students from 42 different countries have taken part in the programme
• High-quality: the course was awarded with a golden medal by 'EW best studies 2022’

How do you know the Master of Fine Art is right for you?

• The Master of Fine Art is the programme for you if:
• You have completed a Bachelor of Fine Art or related discipline
• You have experience in the cultural domain and you dare to look critically at the sociopolitical field of the arts
• You like to experiment with different approaches to art and to look for relationships between things, expressions and practices through learning by doing
• You want to develop your own artistic practice and research, in which you respond to and work with the input, collaborative methodologies and support structures from the Master’s programme
• You want to reflect on your own practice and on society: you seek your own position, wishing to see your own complicity in terms of capitalist, colonial, heteronormative and patriarchal structures, and to translate this into your own practice
• You’re interested in and challenged by the institutional context in which you’ll study
• You like to share your knowledge and ideas with others: you enjoy collaborating, for example, by developing student-teacher led seminars and joint work sessions

Why choose the Master of Fine Art at HKU?

The Master of Fine Art is a versatile and varied programme, consisting of:

• seminars
• short and long-term workshops
• guided walking sessions and communal meals
• collaborations within HKU and with other institutions, collectives and (art) communities
• excursions
• face-to-face discussions
• tutorials

The Master’s programme has a lively exchange with our sister programme, the Master of Scenography. Various artists, cultural practitioners, activists, curators, designers and theorists share their knowledge, and their way of observing and working.

Excited? Apply now!

The course in figures

The course was awarded with a golden medal by 'EW best studies 2022’. Want to know how the Master of Fine Art scores compared to other courses?

Go to the course in figures (in Dutch)

In the MA programme, you will experiment with artistic approaches that are anchored in the sociocultural domain. You’ll look with a critical eye at questions relating to the making, sharing and perception of artistic expressions. These include:

• How do you redefine perceptions and descriptions of ‘objects’?
• How do artistic expressions lead to a connection between things, ideas and people and how do they undo other connections in a world we will never fully grasp?
• How do we focus on what’s really important?
• How do we connect to today’s sociopolitical struggles?
• How do our background and personal experience affect our perceptions? How can we look at things from a different perspective? And how do we communicate this picture?
• What does it mean to shape artistic expressions with a clear focus on difference and sociocultural context?
• What can we learn from feminist, queer, decolonial and postcolonial, Black and indigenous, and disability studies and practices, while acknowledging their specific cultural expressions and struggles?
• What are the conditions for imagining a different order of things, while practising a close involvement with (artistic) communities?

• Making. You experiment and work critically, based on transdisciplinary practices. You hone your skills, immerse yourself in different themes and discuss visual art and its context.
• Thinking. You develop a critical attitude towards artistic practice and research. You learn how to write a research report in which, while founded in your own domain, you reflect within a broader sociocultural context, drawing inspiration from other disciplines as well.
• Sharing. We believe in the importance of continual open dialogue about what we create, how we create and why we create. Interaction is a key part of the programme. You work together with others, present your work and conduct discussions in various public and semi-public forums with your fellow students, professionals and institutions

View and experience student examination work at Exposure 2020. And, on Instagram, view artistic expressions and collaborations that emerged from the Master’s programme:

• HKU MA Fine Arts
• HKU Ma Fine Arts Graduation
• Tools For The Times HKU
• No More Later

MAFA community

Together with current students and alumni, the team of the MAFA is developing formats of exchange and mutual support that go beyond the two years study of the Master. An open student-teacher-alumni led initiative called Mutual Support Platform meets regularly to exchange and work on projects that emerge from the necessities of this group. These meetings entail sharing artistic practices, exchanging life and work experiences, peer reviewing funding proposals, other economies, etc. Twice a year, alumni share their experiences and work after the Master with a bigger audience in more public setting of the HKU-Alumni-Café during the HKU Open Day.

If you studied at the HKU Master Fine Art and want to reconnect, write an email to ma.fineart@hku.nl

Professions

What are your options when you graduate? There’s a host of possibilities, including:

• starting your own artistic, curatorial or spatial practice
• going on to further study, such as PhD research
• becoming a visual arts teacher
• a combination of the above

Location: HKU Loods building

The Master of Fine Art is taught in the HKU Loods building, a unique location with bright, roomy spaces in a studio building. Although the programmes in HKU Loods are taught in English, many different languages are spoken among students and staff.

You can apply for the Master of Fine Art programme if you have completed a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as Fine Art or Design.

Admission data 2023

The upload deadlines are:

• 6 February 2023
• 3 April 2023
• 5 June 2023 (for candidates from EU/EEA countries only!)

We always recommend that you register in good time as you may need more time to organise visa and money matters.

Apply via Studielink

Can you still apply?

Prior education

To do this course, you must have completed a Bachelor’s degree or have already been working as a professional for several years at Bachelor’s level.
Please note: the programme is taught in English. You must therefore demonstrate that you have sufficient proficiency in English. We ask you to submit an official International ELTS or TOEFL test certificate.

Assessment criteria

Find out more?

First, read the frequently asked questions. Haven't found your answer yet? Get in contact with the Student Affairs Service Desk. They will help you with questions about (almost) everything that has to do with studying at HKU.

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