BA (Hons) Performance & Creative Enterprise
Three years full-time
The BA in Performance and Creative Enterprise (PACE) degree is all about making and engaging in cross artform projects. The programme seeks to prepare you for life in the arts industry, with a strong focus on developing entrepreneurship and employability.
Enabling you to collaborate, communicate and lead in a range of cultural and socially-engaged contexts, the programme seeks to develop your curiosity, stimulate your imagination and help you to generate original work. It will also develop your critical skills in understanding the concepts, contexts and roles of the artist today.
The programme is aimed at artists from a range of music, theatre and performance backgrounds. It is intended for those who want to develop their performance, production, collaboration and leadership skills for employment or entrepreneurship in the arts industry.
The programme focuses on:
- Developing your own individual craft through small group sessions, one-to-one lessons and mentoring
- Working collaboratively to create new work which is live, recorded and digital
- Collaborating with people in a range of community settings (e.g. schools, hospitals and healthcare centres, criminal justice institutions), creating participatory and socially-engaged artistic work
- Cultivating employability by developing creative enterprise skills, including project management, fundraising and budgeting, pitching proposals, marketing and online resources
- Critically understanding the role of the artist today
Taught through on-site specialist training and mentoring, the programme also comprises innovative, real-world off-site projects and placements.
It features guest artists and tutors from across the Barbican and Guildhall School’s roster. Recently, this has included poets Jacob Sam-La Rose and Paula Varjack, director Ned Glasier (Islington Community Theatre), MOBO award-winning singer Zara McFarlane, South African percussionist Eugene Skeef, choreographer Michael Asante (Boy Blue Entertainment), and jazz and hip hop musician Soweto Kinch.
Course structure
Year 1: Foundations
The first year gives you space to experiment and create new work, working collaboratively and an introduction to participatory and socially engaged practice.
- Explore personal storytelling and autobiography, creating work which leads to short performance pieces
- Deepen your collaborative skills and devise new work. A wide range of visiting guest artists will share their collaborative working practices with you
- Explore the notions of participatory and socially-engaged practice. Through a series of lectures and seminars, practical workshops and off-site observations, you will gain an understanding of both theory and practice
- Develop your individual craft, ideas and ambitions
- Learn to manage projects, pitch proposals, document your learning and experiences and start to develop a multimedia portfolio
Year 2: Applied Contexts
In the second year, you will use your new knowledge and skills to:
- In small groups deliver a creative arts workshop in an educational setting supported by a professional arts facilitator
- Respond to an example of a professional commission, working collaboratively as a team to create work in real-world scenarios developing entrepreneurial and business skills
- Develop your artistic technique and creative mastery, learning how to deal with multiple stakeholders, fundraising, budgets, marketing and contracts
- Undertake a work placement in an organisation relevant to your skills, interests and ambitions
Year 3: Performance Practice
By your final year, you will be expected to lead and curate artistic collaborations, both as an individual and as part of a company. You will:
- Undertake an off-site residency providing a platform for experimentation. You will be expected
to drive the artistic collaboration with support from professional artists as mentors and co-participants - Delve more deeply into a particular area of your artistic practice, leading to a variety of outputs (e.g.presentation, exhibition, written or digital)
- Develop a project which leads to a performance at a final showcase festival
- Bring together everything you have learned to create a ‘calling card’ for the industry. You will identify your own individual voice and artistic vision, with a strong focus on career preparation, including refining your online/digital resources and career plan
See the full programme specification, including module specifications and assessment criteria.
Application Fee Waivers
Did you know that we offer application fee waivers for this programme? Find out more and see whether you're eligible for one here.
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Find out application deadline, information on fees and funding, or course entry requirements.
