Introduction to The Burren: A Place of Imagination

• Imagine a purpose-built art college in the grounds of a sixteenth century castle located within a spectacular landscape on the west coast of Ireland
• Imagine a remote place where artists and art students thrive as a community free from urban distractions yet networked with the art centres of the world
• Imagine an art college committed to the initial education of the artist and to the professional development of artists
• Imagine each student with his or her own individual studio space of generous proportions, with extensive one on one contact with faculty, and with ample time to develop his or her unique artistic identity
• Imagine international artists visiting to present their work to the artistic community, to advise students and to debate artistic ideas
• Imagine resident artists pursuing their own artistic mission free from external demands and taking part in the life of the college to the extent that they choose
• Imagine a not-for-profit charitable trust committed to the ideas-led education of the imagination free from the bureaucratic constraints of state institution

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Mary Hawkes-Greene

Art students need what artists thrive on - time, space and inspiration in generous amounts. This was a founding principle for Burren College of Art when it opened ten years ago. At a time when most art colleges are suffering financial cutbacks, Burren College of Art is still fulfilling its commitment to the highest levels of quality. We offer time to work free from urban distractions, with a high level individual tuition from resident and visiting faculty of international standing; space in which to make work in the college's generously proportioned purpose-built studios and workshops which are open 24/7; and inspiration, by which we mean a wonderful location that provides a unique context for reflection, rethinking and repositioning ideas and creative energies. It is this inspirational context that the landscape offers; a place in which artists and art students can shape and extend their identity no matter in which direction they develop artistically.

PROGRAMMES FOR THE INITIAL EDUCATION OF THE ARTIST

The Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art (MFA)

The MFA is a joint Burren College of Art / National University of Ireland programme, based at the Burren College of Art. Students register as full students of NUI, Galway and they study at both the Burren College of Art and NUI Galway. The programme operates in association with the Royal College of Art, London and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both of which provide visiting faculty to the programme.

This course envisions art as a process of enquiry that generates new knowledge and understanding. It aims to enable its students to reach critical maturity and artistic self-confidence, and to succeed as professional artists after graduation.

The MFA is a two-year full-time course that may also be taken over three years, the first year being full-time and the second and third years being part-time.

The MFA is an integrated and progressive learning experience. The modules deal with the following aspects of artistic practice, which come together as parts of one holistic learning experience.

Studio Research: Following an introduction to the concepts and methods of graduate art research, these modules provide individual mentoring and rigorous group critiques to assist students to experiment and innovate in their progress to the production of a substantial body of work.

Professional Skills: These modules enable students to develop the conceptual, technical, organisational and communication skills necessary to professional success as an artist.

Historical and Critical Studies: These modules enable students to develop a well-informed perspective on contemporary art in its various contexts, and personal ability in critical discourse rooted in their own artistic interests.

Identity and Location, Ireland: These modules enable students to gain an understanding of how the culture of the west of Ireland has influenced Irish identity, with particular regard to the landscape, early history, literature, film and traditional music and dance

Entry Requirements

Applicants should have a Bachelors Degree with Honours, or a Major in Fine Arts, or evidence of equivalent achievement. Applications will be assessed by means of a portfolio and a written statement that clearly states what the applicant seeks to attain through study on this programme. The portfolio should comprise a minimum of ten works, which may be represented on CDRom, slides or video.

FINANCIAL AID FOR MFA STUDENTS

A number of scholarships and fellowships and other financial aid are available through the Burren College of Art and details are given on our website http://www.burrencollege.ie
All successful applicants are invited to apply following their offer of a place on the MFA programme.

STUDIOS AND FACULTY

Each student has a personal studio space 14ftx14ft in the graduate studio complex and full access to college facilities. Teaching is undertaken by a team of European faculty, all of whom are practising artists or scholars of international standing. The programme is personally led by the Dean - Professor Timothy Emlyn Jones.

BFA/BA Individual STUDY ABROAD

Art in Context; Art History; Creative Writing; Drawing; Irish Studies; Mixed Media; Painting; Photography; Sculpture; Time Arts

The Study Abroad Courses are available to BFA or BA students who wish to study abroad for one or two semesters of their junior year (third year) at an English speaking specialist art college. Exceptionally students take these courses in their sophomore or senior year. Students may select courses from those that will fulfil the requirements of their home College or they may choose courses solely to enhance their own development. Credits transfer to the home college.

Students normally choose five of the following three-credit courses at the time of application, subject to their availability. Preliminary advice is available either by email or telephone for those applicants who require assistance. Contact admin@burrencollege.ie or call +353 (0)65 7077200. Faculty meet with successful applicants at the beginning of each semester to review the suitability of the initial choice of courses and it is at that time that course choices are finalised.
Further course descriptions are available on the website http://www.burrencollege.ie

FOUR WEEK GROUP STUDY ABROAD

This programme provides facilities for faculty-led student groups from colleges and universities offering undergraduate degree programmes in fine art anywhere in the world outside Ireland. This facility has proven popular with faculty who are seeking a cultural and art educational experience in Ireland for their students at an affordable cost.

Home campus instructors accompany participating groups, enabling students to continue their home study schedules in a new and stimulating environment. Generally two faculty members accompany a group providing two courses for 6 credits over the four-week period.

Supplemental courses taught by our international faculty can be available by arrangement, usually in module format for a number of weekly contact hours to suit specific group needs.

THE BURREN

THE BURREN: A PLACE OF NATURAL BEAUTY

The Burren is a geological phenomenon comprising hundreds of square miles of bare rock known as 'karst' limestone, a sedimentary rock that has split geometrically and then eroded into 'clints' and 'grykes' with many extensive cave systems. This is a spectacular landscape, full of its huge emptiness and it extends to include the Aran Islands a few miles from the shore. This place has given inspiration to many artists and writers since the time of WB Yeats, who had a home nearby, many of whom have made it their adoptive home. The beauty of the place is not only on the macro scale. The rock creates a unique ecology whereby sub-tropical plants can thrive within the split rock alongside alpine species growing on its exterior surfaces. Flora abounds so that the Burren is a most colourful place in Spring and early summer, with many types of orchids proliferating. The ecology of the Burren is also conducive to a huge variety of fauna. Many students take the strangeness of this natural beauty as subject matter for their work while others enjoy it as a background to their studies.

THE BURREN: A PLACE OF HISTORY

Human civilisation came to the Burren shortly after the end of the Ice Age ten million years ago and stories of the ancient peoples are still passed on by

word of mouth. Whilst many of the tales are imaginative and take the form of the folklore for which Ireland is famous, there are many whose respect for the si (the little people) is very real. There is evidence of past cultures everywhere in the Burren.

Some seventy-five wedge tombs of Neolithic origin have been found in the region, and the magnificent portal tomb at Poulnabrone in the rocky heart of the Burren is one of the most easily recognised monuments in Ireland. Some five hundred ring forts are found in the Burren. Tower houses, such as Newtown Castle, and Early Christian church sites are also very common, many in an excellent state of preservation.

The Burren was home to some of the earliest education in Ireland, with the law school at Cahermacnaughten and the bardic school at Finavarra thriving between the sixth and sixteenth centuries providing the precedents that inspired the founding of the Burren College of Art (both are only a few miles from the Burren College of Art).

The Burren also attracts many visitors in search of the sources of inspiration of the celtic revival led by WB Yeats and Lady Gregory in the early twentieth century. Following their example the Burren is now home to countless artists and writers who are part of a continuing revival of the west of Ireland in the time of the 'celtic tiger' economy, such are the historical roots of the Burren College of Art.

THE BURREN: A PLACE OF FRIENDSHIP

In Ireland we have the special word 'craic' for the pleasure of liveliness and good company, and this is to be found in profusion in the Burren. This is the spirit of friendship to which Mary McAleese, President of Ireland referred in describing the Burren College of Art in 2004: "The Burren is a special place because of its intrinsic natural beauty and for the other intrinsic natural beauty which is the softness and genius of its people. There is the embrace, the fondness and love they have for the stranger; and that's also something that those who created the Burren College of Art had great faith in."

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