Contemporary Art Waikato Institute of Technology

Overview

Students will develop and gain a deep understanding of creativity in art and use this to respond to situations that demand combinations of ideas, technologies and techniques that result in new forms of knowledge and making. Such knowledge is powerful in the careers that will sustain and transform our world.

With 24-hour access to studios and workshops, students will have the opportunity to develop their own personal art practice, as well as undertake real-world projects both with students from other disciplines, and with industry.

How you will learn

Project-based learning is at the heart of what students will do. Each term students will do a bunch of structured learning with their tutors and in the last four weeks of the term they'll get to apply your learning to a project, we call this time ‘project zones’. The project zones also provide opportunities for you to collaborate with students across the creative disciplines of Media Arts: Music and Performing Arts, Design (Visual Communication), Design (Fashion) and Contemporary Art.   

Students will be with us Monday-Thursday, spending the majority of their time in a studio environment, alongside their peers. This time is structured so students can find their rōpū and build a creative network, replicating the environment they’ll work in post-study but also allowing students the time and space to explore and make a mess. Students will also have 24-hour access to our studios and workshops, so they can work whenever inspiration hits.

Students will get a backstage pass to our events, industry talks, gallery exhibitions, festival week and performances. These enhance our teaching programme and provide conversations to provoke challenge and inspire, that will not only fuel students' progress, but will connect them with experts that will help launch a creative career. 

By the time students reach third year, they will be able to take their developing specialised skills, springboard off our connections, and be ready to move into a robust internship program that takes up the last half of the final year with us. This sets students up with real on-the-job experiences as they prepare for life beyond study. 

In the first year of the Bachelor of Contemporary Art at Waikato Institute of Technology, students will take three core modules:

• Contemporary Art craft: Develop your specialised skills 
• Critical methods: Understand the arts and cultural word
• Professional practice: Learn the ways of industry

To complement, students will add two electives of their choice so they can broaden their creative toolkit, such as the fundamentals in sound, storytelling, and moving image, with more options to choose from.