Foundation Years

Canaan BA Art and Design, third year.
So the foundation year was one opportunity to not only to not only expand my art practice but also to expand my ambition as well.

So a foundation year is essentially one year dedicated to expanding your understanding of what a creative practice is so you work in in sculpture and photography and life drawing and painting and all of these different forms of creativity to continue to expand and build on your practice. This is really helpful in terms of preparing you for the next year's studies so for example in in my case going into Art and Design which is very interdisciplinary with lots of different disciplines and parts of creative practice and Foundation year was a great opportunity to allow me to explore working in that way in this really interdisciplinary way in a much more safe and exploratory context.

When applying for my Foundation year I did so through UCAS with the help of my sixth form, the application was essentially writing a supporting statement as to why I wanted to join the university and after I submitted my application I was given the opportunity to go to a taster day at the University to experience the different workshops and Facilities here and also to meet some of the lecturers as well I also had the opportunity to meet the art design lecturer who I would later be taught by in my um first year of Art and Design.

The process was quite straightforward but it was nice having the combination of the written submission and going there as well I chose to do my Foundation year because it was ultimately an opportunity to experiment build and play with my practice it was also an extra year to do that and to work with my art especially given that I hadn't done a level in art and design in sixth form so having that opportunity to build on and expand on what my understanding of art is was really helpful especially going into my in the next year in Art and Design. I definitely felt part of the BCU Community because it was very much an opportunity to do extracurricular things beyond just my course as well, for example, going to society events such as those organized by the African Caribbean society and the West Indians Society allowed me to meet people who I otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet so essentially having an opportunity to work hard but also to enjoy myself as well I lived in student accommodation which was really um it was a really good opportunity to meet and mix in with people who I just wouldn't necessarily have met um if I hadn't lived a student of accommodation it was great to go to the different parties events and to experience different things that I just wouldn't have thought that I could do so I would definitely recommend it as an opportunity to immerse yourself into the university experience from a different perspective.

One of the main things that I really enjoyed from the foundation year was the opportunity to go and see different places on the course with my course mates so for example going to to New York to see museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art which were really transformative experiences for me I would advise for whoever is thinking of how to push their work further to think about what you're feeding your mind with because it definitely comes out in your work.