Art and Film & Theatre

This joint art degree enables you to develop a critical understanding of contemporary art, film and modern theatre. You will have the opportunity to complement your art practice with elements of practical work in film and theatre.

You will join a lively community and explore a vast range of media and experiment with emerging art forms. Alongside your practical art you will study contemporary art theory and the history of art. You will receive a dedicated studio space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and a studio tutor to help develop your individual and professional practice.

Your teaching staff are all artists, curators and researchers of international standing and will encourage regular exhibitions and open debate. Trips to museums and art galleries will help prompt thoughts on how art is displayed and received. You will gain professional experience by taking part in your own exhibitions, public art commissions and events.

In film and theatre you can choose from a range of modules covering world cinema, avant-garde and experimental film-making, or the cinema of classical and contemporary Hollywood, such as musicals, melodrama, action cinema and the films of Alfred Hitchcock; study theatre from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, covering the work of playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane; together with a range of practices from verbatim to immersive, from site specific work to digital technology in performance; and investigate television from soap opera to sitcom to sci-fi.

Practical work complements your critical and theoretical study allowing you to apply what you learn through practice – drawing on the market-leading facilities of the £11.4-million Minghella Studios, including a film and television studio, cutting rooms and audio post-production facilities, three theatre spaces, and a digital cinema

**Placement**

You are encouraged to work with different artists and designers in hosting events and exhibitions and you will be expected to undertake placement opportunities Past students have enjoyed internships at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair. Others have performed at The Institute of Contemporary Arts, taken part in an Arts Council-supported film project at the Museum of Rural Life and participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea.

Regular field trips to national and international museums, art institutions and galleries allow you to consider the diverse conditions in which art is displayed and received. There are also many opportunities for you to apply to study abroad: Reading School of Art has links with universities in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, France, Switzerland and Finland.

**Careers**

As well as the practical competences gained our students graduate with a range of transferable skills such as self-motivation, time management and strategic thinking. They have greater self-confidence and are better able to express themselves. Overall, 96% of our Film, Theatre and Television graduates are in work or further study within six months of graduating (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey, 2016–17).

Many of our graduates develop successful careers as artists, writers and curators. These include a number of famous alumni, such as Turner Prize-nominated artists, and PhD students who are award-winning artists and curators at influential museums.

Others have found employment in galleries, education, art therapy, film and video production, journalism, advertising and teaching. Recent employers include Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, Christies, Microsoft, the BBC, Victoria & Albert Museum, Manolo Blahnik.

A great deal of our film and theatre alumni work in the creative industries and their roles include theatre directors, actors, playwrights, film producers and directors, visual FX experts and critics. Other have found employment in journalism, advertising and teaching.