Visual Art and Creative Practice

This unique program allows you to build your creative practice in your chosen specialisation, while developing business management skills to succeed as a professional artist. 

This program allows you to work on innovative, contemporary, individual and collaborative studio practices within an academic context, while also developing important skills in business and financial management to ensure you can succeed in your chosen fields across visual arts and creative practice.

These fields include:

• photo, digital and graphic media;
• curatorship and arts writing;
• painting and drawing;
• spatial studies involving public art, sculpture, textiles, glass, ceramics, jewellery and metal.

Features of this program include:

• A mentorship scheme allowing you to network with industry.
• Individualised programs helping you develop and enrich creativity, research and innovation through intensive studio practice.
• Opportunities to develop business knowledge and skills with the community-focused matchstudio, an interdisciplinary research and professional practice studio where you can participate in projects for real clients.
• Development of professional skills linked to marketing yourself and your work within the context of self-employment, public funding regimes, commercial galleries and expanding creative industries.

This program is for emerging and continuing visual art and creative media professionals who have already completed a recognised undergraduate degree and who want to enrich and experience the academic, theoretical and professional skills necessary for career development.

Graduates of the Master of Visual Art and Creative Practice will have knowledge of research methodologies tied to focussed discipline specific creative studio practices, advanced knowledge of the discipline specific creative professional fields either as a self-employed professional or as an employee, applied research and technical skills interpreted through visual art and design practice and an advanced understanding of reflective practice and critical analysis contextualised in an academic and professional/industry visual art and design setting.

Graduates of the Master of Visual Art and Creative Practice will have high level applied skills both in studio and in marketing the artist/designer in a professional context, professional skills in producing, presenting and marketing an exhibition, high level skills and knowledge in applying for public grants and private funding and high level skills and knowledge in practice led research producing creative and innovative texts and artefacts through intensive studio practice.

Graduates of the Master of Visual Art and Creative Practice will demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills both in studio and with competence to market the artist/designer in a professional context, in producing, presenting and marketing an exhibition, to apply for public grants and private funding and in practice led research producing creative and innovative texts and artefacts through intensive studio practice. 

The students will complete 54 units of study over one and a half years of full-time study or part-time equivalent.

• Applicants must have completed a three-year Bachelor degree from a recognised higher education institution, or equivalent, in a related discipline. Applicants must submit a portfolio of work and statement of intent.
• Applicants who have completed the Graduate Diploma in Visual Art and Creative Practice or the Graduate Diploma in Visual Art and Design from the University of South Australia are eligible to apply and are not required to submit a portfolio of work and statement of intent.

English language entry requirements

English language test

• IELTS total: - 6.5
• IELTS reading: - 6.0
• IELTS writing: - 6.0

Each year, more than 2,500 students at the University of South Australia benefit from scholarships and grants worth millions of dollars. We welcome high achieving students from developing countries who are supported by the Australian government program, Australia Awards. We also host around 500 students who are sponsored by their home government, university or employer.