First Year Studies

In art and design education we often use disruptors to prompt and generate creative responses. Openness to possibility and creative and critical agility, are primary characteristics of our practices.

This year disruption came to us; we had to meet the new conditions with inventiveness and resourcefulness as our work continued off campus. It was challenging and our students responded with resilience and creativity. We celebrate their outputs here and also with their online exhibition. These images are representative of work made during the campus closure for the final module where the students work within their chosen path.

In First Year Studies we foreground the diverse offering of specialisms available in the College. Through our programme structure we encourage an exploratory journey through various possibilities of material manipulations, processes, and approaches, before the individual student sets out on their chosen specialist path. Our art and design practitioners collaborate to create projects and learning environments where the students are encouraged to explore and experiment broadly. Ultimately the students find the right pathway for their ambitions and we hope their early interdisciplinary connections will lay foundations for future fruitful collaborations.

As we continue in this changing reality, innovative and agile thinking and practice are the necessity of the moment. Art and design education has a vital role to play in meeting this need; exploring what is possible and creating the new.

Professor Mary Avril Gillan
Head of First Year Art & Design Studies

year1.ncad.ie