Bachelor of Visual Arts
Passionate about art? Our visual arts prepares you for the demands of a career in contemporary art, whether as an artist or in the many other roles within the art sector.
Study visual arts and enjoy a student-centred and studio-based programme where you can follow your interests in art - including drawing, printmaking, digital art, sculpture, moving image, analogue and digital photography, installation, sound, painting, performance, art and technology, social and community-based art practices.
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Minimum entry requirements
International student entry requirements
English language requirements
- IELTS (Academic) 6.0 overall with all bands 5.5 or higher; or equivalent
Useful New Zealand school subjects
Classical Studies, Computing, Construction and Mechanical Technologies, Design (Practical Art), Design and Visual Communication, Digital Technologies or Hangarau Matihiko, English, Geography, Hangarau, Hauora, Health, History, History of Art, Mathematics/Pāngarau, Media Studies, Music Studies, Ngā Mahi a Rēhia, Ngā Toi, Ngā Toi Ataata, Ngā Toi Puoro, Painting (Practical Art), Pāngarau, Photography (Practical Art), Physics, Printmaking (Practical Art), Processing Technologies, Psychology, Pūtaiao/Science, Sculpture (Practical Art), Technology/Hangarau, Te Ao Haka, Te Reo Māori, Te Reo Rangatira, Technology, Visual Arts
Transferring to AUT (recognition of prior learning)
You may be eligible to enter Year 2 or Year 3 of our visual arts degree if you have completed all or part of a design or visual arts degree at another approved tertiary institution. Applications for cross-credits will normally be assessed after you receive an offer of place for Bachelor of Visual Arts.
Email artbox@aut.ac.nz
In the visual arts degree you can specialise in one of three pathways:
Explore the breadth of the expanded field of sculpture in contemporary art. You'll be encouraged to develop individual approaches to your making through experimental and open-ended investigative methods.
There's a strong focus on the exploration of sculptural concepts and ideas driving contemporary art; object making, installation, performance and social art practices.
What this pathway covers
- Casting
- Metal fabrication and wood construction
- Digital fabrication including 3D printing, laser cutting, virtual 3D modelling and CNC carving
- Post-digital and post-object practices, which include video, sound, performance, social practices, internet systems, physical computing, AI and other speculative practices
You'll engage with contemporary scholarship concerning sculpture inclusive of materiality, time, contingent objects, space, site and place, to become a critically informed and socially engaged practitioner who works as confidently with new technologies as with traditional processes.
You'll approach image making as a process that involves the interaction between visual qualities, ideas, technologies and media. Using media and technologies in ways that suit your inventive purposes, you'll then develop a territory of interest for art making.
Participate in workshops and seminars on painting concepts and techniques, printmaking concepts and techniques, studio practice and how to work with ideas and images, and on the critical analysis of works of art.
What this pathway covers
- Drawing
- Relief
- Intaglio
- Screen and digital printing
- Painting supports, materials and techniques
- Textile printing
- Virtual reality drawing/painting
- Bookbinding
You'll engage with contemporary scholarship concerning painting and printmaking including:
- Representation
- Colour
- Figuration
- Relationship to photographic and mediated images
- Histories of painting and printmaking
Develop an independent lens-based direction from a foundation of learning in photographic theory and technical learning.
You'll work with a broad range of high-end equipment and facilities, including large format analogue photography, studio lighting and digital processes that include moving image work. By questioning what photography is and how it operates in the world today, you'll develop a photographic art practice that is critical and current.
What this pathway covers
- Digital camera technology (including DSLR and medium format)
- Analogue camera technology (including pinhole, medium and large format)
- Fundamental photographic technical processes (including exposure, colour temperature, light metering, focus)
- Studio flash lighting
- Digital scanning
- Film processing
- Darkroom printing
- Digital printing
- Digital video camera technology
- Video editing
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Digital stitching
- Moving image
- Photographic installation
You'll engage with contemporary scholarship concerning photographic representation, portraiture and documentary; the relationships between moving image and installation practice, photography and video's relationship to ideas of time, race, colonial histories and decolonisation.
Minors
You can study the following minors when you are enrolled in AUT’s design or visual arts degree:
Animated Drawing
Explore the process and materiality of animated drawing as a means for ideation and creative expression.
The minor has a studio lab component where you'll examine different animated drawing practices, including life drawing, and produce short animated films, installations, motion graphics, comics, graphic novels and picture books.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN540 Introduction to Drawing, Motion and Animation
- ARDN640 Drawing and Storytelling
- ARDN641 Drawing for Motion
- ARDN740 Animated Drawing Project
Cinematic Arts
Discover the possibilities of filmmaking through analogue and digital cinematography, sound recording and audio design, editing and post-production, storytelling and industry workflow, to make a short narrative, experimental or documentary film.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN501 The Fundamentals of Filmmaking
- ARDN603 Cinematic Process
- ARDN604 Film Preproduction
- ARDN701 Film Production
Contemporary Pacific
Develop your creative practice drawing on contemporary and traditional Pacific concepts, contexts and material culture. Pacific concepts and stories are explored in relation to pattern, movement, and spatial systems.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN514 Pattern Systems
- ARDN629 Movement Systems
- ARDN630 Spatial Systems
- ARDN714 Contemporary Pacific Project
Creative Entrepreneurship
Build your creative business confidence and capability by combining your creative strengths with business skills and understandings to transform your ideas and concepts for the future.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from courses listed below with at least 15 points at level 6
Level 5 courses
- ARDN502 Introduction to Creative Business
- ENTR501 Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- MKTG501 Marketing Insights
Students usually take ARDN502 in their first year, and one of the other two level 5 courses listed above in their second year of study.
Level 6 courses
- DESN600 Design Thinking Practices
- DESN601 Strategic Design
Level 7 course
- ARDN702 Creative Entrepreneurial Project
Design for Health
Tomorrow's health and wellbeing will be driven by those who can apply creative and practical problem-solving skills to complex problems. This minor offers a fresh perspective through collaborative and cooperative tools, skills and mindsets. You'll design for positive social impact and lead transformative change in health and wellbeing.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- DESN513 Healthy Futures: Good Health Design
- DESN613 Designing with Care
- DESN614 Design for Social and Emotional Wellbeing
- DESN713 Reimagining the Future of Health Together
Design for Social and Environmental Justice
Discover how design can make a difference. Explore strategies for social innovation and environmental impact and how these can contribute to towards a more resilient, sustainable and just future.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN504 Introduction to Social and Environmental Justice
- ARDN607 Design and Society
- ARDN608 Design and Ecology
- ARDN704 Applied Sustainable Design Project
Design Thinking
Design thinking is a mindset and set of creative methods that can be used to interrogate, understand and solve real-life business, social and environmental problems. You'll develop an understanding of the needs of the people you're designing for, experiment and explore creative ideas, and create design solutions.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
This minor is aimed at students who are interested in developing design thinking expertise to support their major discipline area.
Minor must include
60 points from courses listed below including DESN501 with at least 15 points at level 7
- DESN501 Creativity and Design Thinking
- DESN600 Design Thinking Practices
- DESN604 Design Storytelling
- DESN705 Designing Thinking Project
- DESN706 Design Your Future
Digital Fabrication
Explore how digital fabrication can facilitate art and design creative practices, through the utilisation and application of a range of current and emergent technologies.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Enrolment in this minor is subject to approval from the Art & Design Minors, Head of Department.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN505 Digital Foundations
- ARDN609 Emergent Origins
- ARDN610 Remediating Emergence
- ARDN705 Digital Fabrication Project
Experimental Surface Design
Get involved in the experimental development of surface practice across a range of disciplines and potential applications. This minor emphasises the importance of learning through making and the relationship between the maker, the materials, the process of making and the work.
Students develop conceptual and technical surface design knowledge through applied materials practice.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you'll study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Enrolment in this minor is subject to approval from the Art & Design Minors, Head of Department.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN517 Material Processes
- ARDN633 Towards Tactility (From 2024)
- ARDN634 Dynamics of Scale
- ARDN717 Contextual Resolution
Extended Reality
Explore extended reality technologies - XR, VR, AR and MR - as tools for design and ideation for creating immersive user experiences across a range of design and creative practices.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN541 Introduction to Extended Reality
- ARDN642 Journeys in Extended Reality
- ARDN643 Embodiment in Extended Reality
- ARDN741 Extended Reality Project
In Print: Publishing Practices
Experiment with traditional and contemporary publishing practices using a range of media, conventions and technologies. Explore and design with text and image to develop personal, professional and community voices through the published artefact.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN542 Finding Your Own Voice: Establishing Publication Practices
- ARDN644 Making Voice Visible
- ARDN645 The Collective Voice
- ARDN742 The Self-Published Voice
Motion Capture
Explore motion capture (mocap) technology that records human movement as 3D data for use in a range of design and creative disciplines.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Enrolment in this minor is subject to approval from the Art & Design Minors, Head of Department.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- DIGD506 Introduction to Motion Capture
- DIGD605 Visualising Motion Capture
- DIGD606 Performance Capture
- DIGD707 Motion Capture Project
Photographic Practice
Discover visual conventions and develop technical competencies to include DSLR camera fundamentals, exposure and lighting control, composition principles and image making strategies for project outcomes.
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You'll need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Enrolment in this minor is subject to approval from the Art & Design Minors, Head of Department.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN516 The Photographic Image
- ARDN631 The Interpreted Image
- ARDN632 The Manipulated Image
- ARDN716 The Directed Image
Temporary Practices/Temporary Publics
As artists and designers, we are interested in practising by making – doing projects that have currency and real-world capacity. We work through ideas of site, collaboration and publication in order to create events. Temporary Practices is an experimental, creative field of making. This minor supports the development of work across a range of disciplines and potential applications by using AUT facilities (3D Lab, WetLab, Bindery, Risograph printer).
Courses are delivered over one semester for each course and are worth 15 points each. You will need to complete 60 points for the entire minor. In each year, you will study and complete core compulsory courses alongside studio and specialist courses in the minor that you have selected.
Enrolment in this minor is subject to approval from the Art & Design Minors, Head of Department.
Available as a minor only.
Minor must include
60 points from the following courses:
- ARDN511 The Traveller: Site-Related Practices
- ARDN621 The Collaborator: Collaborative Practices
- ARDN622 The Distributor: Publication Practices
- ARDN711 The Organiser: Event-based Practices
Additional majors and minors for bachelor’s degrees
Add an additional major or a minor to your bachelor’s degree and study another area that interests you. You can choose from a wide range of additional majors or minors.
Enrolment in minors is subject to availability (not all minors listed above will be open each year). You also have the option of studying a minor or elective courses from outside the Bachelor of Visual Arts.
Your study is based in the making of art, supported by theory classes along with a mix of one-on-one tutorials, group critiques, seminars, exhibitions, visits from artists and critics, noho marae, and gallery visits.
Visual arts courses are delivered over either one semester or a full year. If you're a full-time student, you normally complete 120 points each year (360 points for the entire degree). In each year you will study and complete core compulsory courses alongside your selected minor.
Year 1
Explore the fundamentals of visual arts theory and practice. You're encouraged to develop your own artistic interests and approaches to art-making. You'll cover a wide range of materials, media and processes.
You study the following courses
- VSAR501 Visual Arts Studio I (30 points)
- VSAR502 Visual Arts Theory I (30 points)
- VSAR503 Visual Arts Core Studio (45 points)
You also study one course from your chosen minor.
Year 2
You continue doing a mix of studio and theory courses, specialising in sculpture and intermedia, painting and printmaking, or photography and lens-based media. You develop advanced visual, media, method and conceptual skills, and create a coherent body of art, with increasing self-reliance.
You study the following courses
You also study two courses from your chosen minor.
Year 3
At the end of Year 3, you have the opportunity to exhibit your work through the AUT School of Art and Design festival
You study the following courses
- VSAR701 Visual Arts Studio III (75 points)
- VSAR702 Visual Arts Theory III (15 points)
- VSAR703 Visual Arts Professional Practice (15 points)
You also study one course from your chosen minor.
More details about courses in this programme
Search for a course (Arion)
Email artbox@aut.ac.nz
Enrolment in courses is subject to meeting all requirements and availability of courses.
AUT visual arts alumni are now carving successful careers around the world, as notable artists, curators, arts administrators, academics, teachers and technicians.
Art industries
- Artist
- Arts administrator, manager or director
- Art consultant
- Art critic, historian, commentator, writer or researcher
Museums and galleries
- Art gallery manager or owner
- Curator
- Gallery technician
- Conservation
Arts education
- Teacher
- Community education
- Gallery educator
Creative technologies
- Film industry
- Commercial photographer
- Interactive designer
- Web designer
Community development
- Community and public art management and coordination
- Arts advocacy roles
Creative entrepreneur
- Craft business
- Art fair developers
Find out more about industry trends, job descriptions and what employers may be looking for.
Broaden your options by studying double degrees
Double degrees double your knowledge and opportunities but don't necessarily take double the time to complete. If you study double degrees, you apply for and enrol separately in each of the two degrees. If you’re considering doing this, please seek course advice to discuss your plans. You may be able to cross-credit relevant courses from one degree to the other, although the number of cross-credits will vary depending on the degree combinations. Double degrees may be completed either one after the other or concurrently.
Study visual arts and:
Detailed programme structure
By studying both degrees you develop design skills for roles in visual arts and business. This includes the ability to create high value products, services and brands, and to balance creative design and strategic thinking to complement design and business.
Postgraduate study
Postgraduate study will open up even more career opportunities for you. Our 18-month master's degree will enable you to specialise in and research a particular area within your chosen discipline.
($7,091 - $7,142. tuition fees + $1074 student services levy)
($37,300 tuition fees + $1074 student services levy)
- Fees shown are based on a full-time workload for the points indicated next to the fee. The exact fee charged will depend on which courses you select at the time of enrolment.
- Fees are subject to change year to year. If you are planning for study beyond the current year, fees may vary from those stated.
- There may also be other fees and charges you need to pay.
- International students' tuition fees reflect the full cost of tuition. Domestic students' tuition fees are less due to a proportion of the tuition fees being funded by the New Zealand Government.
- Fees-free study may be available for domestic students
The information on this page was correct at time of publication. For a comprehensive overview of AUT qualifications, please refer to the Academic Calendar.