A new partnership between Trinity and the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is set to open an elective module on Contemporary Art Angles to Trinity students.
NCAD, based on Usher’s Quay, is to deliver the art module to Trinity students. In exchange, NCAD students will have the opportunity to participate in Trinity’s elective modules.
Speaking on social media, Provost Patrick Prendergast described it as “the first ever teaching agreement between @tcddublin & @NCAD_Dublin, two city-centre institutions”.
NCAD tweeted a statement that it was “delighted” to partner with Trinity.
The Contemporary Art Angles module aims to introduce students to how artists think, construct knowledge, and communicate, both verbally and through their work. It seeks to expand students’ creative capacity to communicate and teach the value of experiential engagement. The module combines talks and lectures with off-site visits.
The module is run by Professor Philip Napier, head of the NCAD’s School of Fine Art. Discussing the module, Napier explained that it is “something to be undertaken experientially, which means that you turn up and you engage, you reflect, you undertake what’s available, you’re experimental about how you think about this and you’re able to share a reflection and discussion”.
“We’ll also be hearing from artists,” Napier said. “Being in the room together is really really important.”
Students taking the module are to be assessed through the submission of a contextual notebook. “You really don’t need to be worried or concerned about what that is because we can support you to build this project through your engagement with others,” Napier explained.
Trinity’s elective modules replaced the previous Broad Curriculum system in 2019, with 1,578 students opting to take one of 26 new elective modules during the first year of their implementation. 39 electives have been announced so far for the 2020/21 academic year, covering areas such as languages, patients’ experience of cancer, internet security and privacy, forced migration, and design thinking.
The electives are available to most second and third year students, with the exception of most health science students and students studying music education, social work and social policy, European studies, and Joint Honours combinations that include computer science or business studies.
Trinity Electives were rolled out this year under the final phase of the implementation of the Trinity Education Project (TEP), a project which has seen the restructuring of Trinity’s semester and other academic changes, such as a fixed timetable for incoming students.
Applications for electives in the 2020/21 academic year open in June.
