MA Craft & Material Practices
MA Craft & Material Practices is a course that takes craft as a starting point rather than a destination. Steeped in tacit knowledge often transmitted through hands-on skills and heritage traditions, you will be guided in material-led research processes in clay, glass, wood, biomaterials, metals, fibre or other materials that lead to personal discovery and future-oriented, contemporary professional practice.
Through instruction that takes place in our spacious, highly resourced material labs, workshops and studios, you will be encouraged to expand your knowledge of materials and traditional methods of making into new territories of practice open to alternative materials, conceptual frameworks and cross-sector understanding of how materially led innovation is shaping the world.
Award: MA Craft & Material Practices
Approach: practice-led, materials-focused curriculum
Postgraduate structure: shared units with MA students in other disciplines (critiques, seminars, research intensives, external site visits and lectures)
Vortex Whiskey Tumblers, Laura Quinn
Your creative study will bring you into contact with the ideas and professional practices of artisans, artists, designers, material researchers, product designers, urban planners, architects and others who are working directly with the behaviour and potential of materials in both expressive and applied design.
You will have access to specialist studios and resources including:
Hot glass
Kiln-formed glass
Ceramics
3D clay-printing
Biomaterials
Wood-working
Small metals
Fab Lab South West digital tools (open-source, digital and distributed fabrication)
Your materials exploration in craft is guided by the interdisciplinary structure of the postgraduate course. You will share a common series of units with MA students in other disciplines for critiques, seminars, research intensives, external site visits and lectures.
Specialist instruction in craft and other material practices is taught through smaller seminars where you will concentrate on contemporary ideas and models of practice.
You will broaden your understanding of craft to see its relationship to current debates in art theory, design-thinking, materials science and engineering, social or community-based making, climate change, and sustainability.
Deepen your knowledge and experience of your craft in a practice-led, materials-focused curriculum that provides unique opportunities for personal and professional development.
Discover new and emerging methods of making within a vast, purpose-built studio building that unites material exploration in ceramics, glass, wood, metals and biomaterials with state-of-the-art digital fabrication.
Explore the cultural and community-based traditions of craft through a contemporary and critical lens, aligning your practice to relevant theories, research methods and professional opportunities for exhibition.
Career opportunities include: Designers, Makers, Craftspeople, Artisans, Craft Entrepreneurs, Materials Specialists, Artists and Crafts Educators.
It takes craft as a starting point rather than a destination, guiding you in material-led research processes that support personal discovery and future-oriented, contemporary professional practice.
You can explore material-led research processes in clay, glass, wood, biomaterials, metals, fibre or other materials.
You will have access to specialist studios and resources in hot glass, kiln-formed glass, ceramics, 3D clay-printing, biomaterials, wood-working, small metals, and Fab Lab South West digital tools.
You will share units with MA students in other disciplines for critiques, seminars, research intensives, external site visits and lectures, alongside smaller specialist seminars in craft and material practices.
You will connect craft practice to current debates in art theory, design-thinking, materials science and engineering, social or community-based making, climate change, and sustainability.
Career opportunities include Designers, Makers, Craftspeople, Artisans, Craft Entrepreneurs, Materials Specialists, Artists and Crafts Educators.
Crafts student Renovat Moody takes us on a tour through the university's breathtaking glass workshop.
Arts University Plymouth graduates are offered a discount of 15% on Masters programme fees, regardless of when they studied with us previously. The discount applies if you studied on one of our pre-degree, foundation or undergraduate programmes.
MA applicants are normally expected to have an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above. However, the strength of your creative practice and other forms of experience will be taken into account at the interview stage and we encourage you to start a conversation with us.
Your portfolio should give us an indication of the work that you have made, organised or been involved in. For our postgraduate arts, craft and design courses, we expect to see examples of work you have created.
For our MA by Research and MA Museum Studies courses, we don't expect you to have traditional artworks; instead you can share examples of projects you have worked on, classroom experiences you have created, and so on. Please ensure that your portfolio includes descriptions, website links and visuals if they are available.
The best deadline to submit your MA application by is 1 July, however please be reassured that we can take late applications until the start of the course if places are still available.
- Email: admissions@aup.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1752 203434
If you'd like to speak about Postgraduate study, you can book an informal online chat with a member of our academic team:
- Associate Professor Stephanie Owens, our Dean of Arts, Design and Media
- Becky Dodman Wainwright, Co-Course Leader for Postgraduate Studies
- Jason Hirons, Co-Course Leader for Postgraduate Studies
Click the button below to book an informal discussion with a member of our academic team.
