Nicole Dolan – BA (Hons) in Fine Art

Name: Nicole Dolan

From: Cavan

School: Loreto College, Cavan

I was always artistic but had only painted before this course. The Fine Art degree at ATU Sligo gave me the opportunity of studying many different mediums of art from photography and ceramics to print, drawing and painting. It also gave me the chance to study the history theory of art and develop my writing techniques!  This degree has enabled me to learn new artistic skills and develop the ones I had even further.

When applying to different colleges, I had been accepted to the IADT Art course but I felt that I would learn more about different mediums in the ATU Sligo Fine Art course. This was definitely the case. The freedom to create and fulfil your own potential helped me flourish as an artist. This was especially the case in my final year where it was like being a practicing artist in a studio yet having lecturers to advise on your work throughout the process.

When it comes to modules, I particularly enjoyed learning about oil painting in second year. It was a new medium for me and I loved learning new skills but with freedom.  In third year, the Work in Context module gave me the opportunity to interview artists. Here I learnt about the running of an artists day to day job. Also, when learning lots of new subjects, having small class sizes gives you more one to one time to talk with lecturers about your work. This is the case in ATU Sligo and it is brilliant! We also went to Berlin in third year which was an wonderful experience as an artist. To travel with lots of creative people was exciting and to see the work of other artists first hand was amazing.

The course is what you make of it. You need passion, drive and enthusiasm to be an art student and keep creating on a day to day basis. It can be hard but it pays off in the end.

My long term goal is to be a secondary school art teacher. I got accepted to University College Cork and TUS Limerick for a Professional Master of Education in Art and Design. I chose UCC and started last September.

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