Qualification gained:
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) research-level degree, Diplôme National Supérieur d'Expression Plastique (DNSEP)
Entry Requirement:
BA(Hons) or relevant experience, portfolio and interview
Duration:
Full-time October 2025 to June 2027
Taught sessions on:
Tuesday and Wednesday with occasional optional workshops on other days
Cohort size:
Up to 15 places
The European Fine Art Masters at The Margate School is a unique programme that nurtures emerging artists and fosters their development in the field of fine art. The course provides a platform for students to engage in intensive studio practice, theoretical discourse and critical thinking. Led by accomplished faculty members and visiting artists, the programme offers a diverse range of techniques, materials, and concepts, promoting interdisciplinary exploration.
Through rigorous mentorship and collaborative learning, it cultivates a vibrant artistic community, encouraging students to push boundaries and create meaningful contemporary artworks that reflect their individual vision and engage with the wider art world.
 Fine Art Masters Student Alex experimenting with using charcoal as a medium |
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 Fine Art Masters Studios at The Margate School |
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 Fine Art Masters Studios at The Margate School |
Offering an alternative approach to higher education, you will explore how art can be used to benefit, protect and sustain the world through a series of practical and critical modules.
The first of its kind in the UK, this Master’s qualification is part of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and is recognised across Europe, creating opportunities to work in the EU, including teaching at EU higher education institutions.
Art Society Nature will give you the tools to develop a unique and personal approach in the field of contemporary creative and intellectual practice.
The course concludes with a presentation of the student’s final work and examination held at the Esä campus in Dunkerque, France.
This practical and dynamic full-time two year course will introduce you to, or build on, your current knowledge of:
• Inclusive and sustainable approaches to material investigation
• Enhanced critical enquiry
• Open and all-encompassing approaches to fine art practice
What you get
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Ongoing cumulative modules, practical workshops with world-class tutors and practitioners
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Tutorial support - regular one-to-ones with tutors, peer review and expert critique
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In-demand skills including research and analysis, entrepreneurial experience and a portfolio to take into employment or further research and practice in your field
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Guest lectures and gallery visits
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Collaborative opportunities within TMS and Esä
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Internship to undertake professional development
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French Language sessions
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Self-led practice time
Cost
£7,500 per academic year, including studio and access to TMS facilities (reduced to £5,100 per academic year, if you have your own studio facilities)
An annual registration fee of €800 and an annual €100 fee for ësa registration and CVEC (student life and campus contribution)
We believe that your financial situation should not be a barrier to education, please get in touch by email for a conversation to discuss how we can assist - info@themargateschool.com
Why study with us?
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The MA degree qualification is recognised across Europe and opens up opportunities for graduates to teach at EU universities
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Promotes sustainable practice
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Ideal course to build your portfolio or network
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The schedule allows you to work part time alongside study
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Small student numbers means more individual attention
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Outstanding roster of visiting professionals
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Stunning location, a stones throw from the beach
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A pioneering liberal arts school
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Monthly Community Lunches
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Community Workshops, Inductions and Events
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Involvement with the Community Garden
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Discounts to public workshops, facilities and local businesses
Course Modules
Core Module
01
Mémoire
This module adds creative response to the traditional model of a written dissertation. Working across both years of study, students undertake a body of research that identifies, articulates and contextualises the themes within their work. Theoretical contexts and the material influence of artists are considered as case studies with the Mémoire including creative responses where written outcomes can take many different approaches and be presented in different forms.
Progression accumulates through lectures, introductions to research and practice based arts, group discussions, creation of a blog and seminars.
Core Module
02
History & Philosophy of Art
Providing a basis for research into critical discourse, this module runs across both years of study. Students are introduced to a wide range of theory related to contemporary practice including embodied learning, intersectionality, permaculture and transition arts, meta narratives, storytelling, and more. Social, cultural and environmental issues are also considered through the consideration of discourse addressing the rise of production, exchange and values, new materiality, thing theory, consumerism and ethics.
The module take a discursive approach through regular tutor presentations, group seminars and tutorials.
These practice-based modules each run across eight weekly sessions and are based on the premise of making.
Practice Module
01
Maker & Object
In this module, we will forge narrative networks through dialogue between maker, object and environment. Drawing on the etymology of the word ‘symbol’, from the Greek symballein – ‘to put together or unite’, we will consider the ‘ancient practice of breaking a single piece of pottery in two so that a traveller, carrying one part, might be recognised on his/her return’ (Pollock, 2013, p. 22). Through making, fragments of our psychic realms are made tangible. In iterating these fragments through sculptural processes, we can begin to translate them into new wholes, allowing the objects themselves to forge networks of narrative possibilities with fellow makers, objects, environments, ready to be absorbed and retold by audiences.
Practice Module
02
Maker & Body
Where creative themes include embodied and haptic drawing as movement, memory and presence. Sessions are based on themes of the body as societal, other, subverted, fragmented, watched, medicalised and fictionalised.
Practice Module
03
Maker & Print
In this module students explore the medium of print through theory and practice. Students engage in a series of specialist print-making workshops, including mono-printing, photograms and cyanotype printing as they develop their practice. You will explore the historical contexts of printmaking as a medium for artistic expression and mass communication and the decisive role printmaking has had in social criticism, community organising and activism. Students are invited to experiment with print-making techniques as a response to a critical inquiry of their choice.
Practice Module
04
Making Visible
This considers the expanded field of photography through the exploration of digital and analogue approaches to photographic materiality, apparatus and language leading to the production of artist's books and zines.
Practice Module
05
Making Digital
Where students investigate the use of digital media to create short film works. Module elements include the use of software, stop motion, compositing and computer graphics and considers speculative disciplines such as science fiction, epistemology and new writing of the image.
Practice Module
06
Maker of Sound
Which introduces students to sound technology, sound art, experimental music, sound and public space, sound sculpture and practices of listening. The module includes improvised and performed approaches to sound-making and listening as practice and includes practical workshops on editing, composition, ways of combining sound and soundscape recording.
Additional Units
These run across both years of study and include:
Guest Lectures where practicing artists and researchers introduce the wider context of making in the UK and Europe.
French Language where students are invited to play with words, rules and structures to assess the possibility of translating and reflecting on their practice in another language. Students analyse their own artefacts, created or otherwise, articulating the layers within their work and the possible words associated with it.
Internship where, with the support of TMS, students negotiate a period of professional development in their field of study at the end of their first year.
Tutorial support with each student allocated 5 tutorials per semester in addition to regular taught modules and workshops.