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Overview | Summary of Courses

Offered By:	Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Asian Studies, Canberra School of Art, ANU Medical School, and Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Academic Contact:	Janet DeBoos

  

This workshop major may only be taken in a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Bachelor of Design Arts or a Diploma of Art. 

The Ceramics Workshop has a long-established tradition and has become prominent within Australia for its facilities, teaching program and student successes. As the only tertiary institution conducting ceramics programs within the Australian Capital Territory, the School caters for a wide range of ceramic interests and modes of expression - from the more conventional functional pottery to exploratory and innovatory figurative and sculptural ceramics. This diversity is reflected in the range of programs and study programs available in the Ceramics Workshop. The facilities of the Workshop are extensive and offer some of the best studio spaces and ceramic equipment in Australia. The twenty plus kilns include wood-firing, soda firing, top-hat trolley kilns, gas, electric, raku, blackfire and test kilns. Along with clay-making equipment and other associated machinery, these facilities offer almost unlimited potential for students to artistically explore the versatile ceramic medium.

The three-year Degree program allows for the mastery of skills and the promotion of conceptual development within a specialisation of the student's choice. During the first three semesters of study in the Ceramics Workshop students are introduced to a broad range of ceramic skills, methods of production and kiln and glaze technology, while their aesthetic sensibilities are developed through a project system of teaching.

The workshop teaching program is based on ‘Processes' taught by intensive instruction in the first year. Followed by projects dealing with ‘Surfacing' and in-depth projects of longer duration in semesters three and four which are led by artists specialising in various areas.  In the final semester of study (Independent Work Proposal), students, under the guidance and supervision of staff, are encouraged to diversify and specialise according to individual interests and capabilities.

The two-year Diploma is presently offered both as a day program or a part-time evening program (catering for many employed Canberra residents) and has an orientation to more conventional approaches to clay, especially wheel-thrown pottery. This can also be undertaken by Distance Mode made available through the Distance Diploma Pathway.

All students, both degree and diploma, undertake a compulsory Glaze/Clay/Kilns course as part of their program.

A compulsory workshop fee applies for all students, whether part-time or full-time.