FIN8016 - Art Writing

• Offered for Year: 2025/26

• Module Leader(s): Dr Fiona Anderson

• Owning School: School of Arts and Cultures
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

• Capacity limit: 100 student places

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

1. Semester 2 Credit Value:	20
   Total Credits:	20.0

Aims

Art Writing explores the expanded field of contemporary art writing and its relationship to contemporary art practice and art history. Spanning poetry, fiction, artists’ writings, oral histories, and exhibition reviews, the module engages and develops students’ understanding of their position as a writer in relation to the field of contemporary art practice, art writing, and criticism. The module develops a detailed knowledge of the landscape of contemporary art writing and art practice, specifically its representation through writing, considering how contemporary art writing builds on and diverges from art history. Through seminars, one-to-one tutorials with module teaching staff, exhibitions visits, and visits from those working in the contemporary art writing sphere, students explore key developments in the field of contemporary art writing and develop writing and close reading skills pertinent to contemporary art writing and contemporary art history. In short, the aims of this module are:

• to support development in writing about art alongside contemporary artists and curators.
• to develop skills in pitching, researching, and writing in a range of styles and for a range of publication formats and contexts.

Outline Of Syllabus

The topics covered address contemporary art writing in theory and practice, and may include the following:

• The purpose of art criticism and critique
• Exhibition reviews
• Artists’ writing
• Close reading/close looking
• Ekphrastic poetry and art writing
• Artist interviews and the value of oral history for art writers, art historians, and curators
• Fiction as art writing: the novel
• Autobiographical and confessional art writing
• The future of art writing: from print to digital
• Life as a professional art writer or editor
• Writing for a live audience

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Seminars encourage interaction and the development of cognitive and key skills. In a peer-supported environment, students are encouraged to articulate their aims, develop their critical position on the seminar topic and set readings and discuss aspects related to the research, structure, writing, and presentation of their portfolio. Directed and independent research and reading is a core component of the teaching for this module, given its focus on art writing and developing an in-depth understanding of the landscape of contemporary art writing. (K1, K2, K3, K4, S3, S4)

One-to-one tutorials encourage students to articulate their aims, define their subject area, and demonstrate their grasp of the material involved. They are an opportunity to provide advice to the student on all aspects of the research, content, structure and presentation of their writing and critical feedback on strengths and weaknesses of work in progress. (S1, S2, S3, S4).

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessments:

The formative assessment is a written exercise that provides an opportunity for students to experiment with creative modes of art writing, drawing on seminar discussions, directed research and reading in the areas of ekphrastic poetry, experimental creative writing about art, and art criticism, and students’ independent research and reading. This is an important stepping stone, designed to support students as they move from more traditional modes of scholarly writing about art (like the academic essay) to the expanded field of art writing.

The summative assessment – a portfolio of writing - is designed to enable students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of a range of contemporary approaches to art writing. Students select the modes of art writing they wish to include in their portfolios, in dialogue with module teaching staff through one-to-one tutorials. The portfolio format affords students the opportunity to conduct research in relation to their particular areas of interest and to develop confidence in writing about a range of contemporary art practices in a range of styles, publication formats and contexts. Students are asked to identify where each piece of writing might be published, allowing them to demonstrate their understanding of the pitching process, as well as key publications in the field of contemporary art writing. The task-specific criteria associated with the portfolio are:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of styles and publication formats in use in the field of contemporary art writing (K1, K3, K4, S3)
2. Demonstrate the ability to develop a range of original pieces of art writing, aimed at relevant and appropriate publications in the field (K1, K2, K3, K4, S1, S2, S3, S4)
3. Develop an independent perspective on contemporary art practice through the medium of art writing (K4, S2, S4)
4. Demonstrate knowledge of and adherence to publishing conventions appropriate to the chosen type of art writing and the relevant audience (K1, K3, S1, S4)

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/