Partner Details

Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts

Awards

Target Award

Award Description:Master of Arts - MA

Alternative Exit

Alternative Exit

Programme Offerings

Full-Time

F2F-LPA-SEP

Educational Aims of the Course

To provide a holistic postgraduate experience that enables students to graduate as versatile, resourceful and creative costume makers.

To advance, renew and develop existing practice in costume design interpretation and technical construction skills, encouraging an experimental approach to costume construction through the application of critical thinking, engineering and problem-solving strategies.

To identify professional frameworks for collaboration and employment, providing opportunities for experiential work-related learning in costume and professional development provision that encourages engagement with industry.

To develop methodological frameworks for, and innovative approaches to, the development of practice research in costume; research that has the potential to make a positive contribution to the future development of industry practices and enables students to establish and assert their own critical voice as a unique costume maker researcher.

Learning Outcomes

1.
Evaluate, practice and apply advanced specialist skills and techniques in diverse areas of costume production .
2.
Apply advanced sophisticated pattern cutting and costume design interpretation skills.
3.
Demonstrate an experimental approach to critical thinking, engineering and problem-solving in relation to costume production.
4.
Creatively and proactively engage in the process of costuming a performance.
5.
Develop and apply reflective documentation to critically evaluate own practice, working processes and progress .
6.
Evaluate personal and professional development progression and engage in focussed career planning.
7.
Evaluate academic terminology and associated research skills and apply to own practice.
8.
Critically evaluate and reflect on own practice in relation to other practitioners and researchers.
9.
Evaluate critical theoretical and contextual knowledge and apply it to own practice.
10.
Evaluate and develop sophisticated practice research methodologies and apply to own practice.
11.
Design and conduct innovative practice research in the field of costume production, present findings and reach complex conclusions .
12.
Engage as a proactive and creative collaborator, working professionally with others and negotiating the challenges of working in complex and unpredictable situations.
13.
Evaluate self-management processes and formulate sophisticated project and time management strategies.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

The teaching and learning methods employed in the delivery of the MA Costume Making programme will be varied and diverse, drawing on a combination of methods of delivery as appropriate to the course's overall aims and learning outcomes.

As Master's degree courses typically feature a greater emphasis on methods involving independent study, the learning trajectory will move towards increased independence and autonomy, encouraging positive attitudes towards lifelong learning. This independence, coupled with an industry facing approach to teaching and learning, keeps the programme current, relevant and valid by enabling a reciprocal exchange; innovative practice research in costume construction that can influence industry practices and industry developments that can further inform teaching and learning.

Students will develop subject-specific expertise, personal and social development and intellectual maturity through engagement with appropriate ways of thinking and doing. Teaching and learning will be closely related, through a variety of approaches that facilitate students' artistic, creative and scholarly development. These approaches will cohere around the integration of practice and theory, exploring relations between creative and critical modes of enquiry which, in turn, inform the development of new training frameworks, pedagogies, research methods and methodologies.

Teaching and learning will take place in a variety of continually evolving contexts, including an appropriate balance of group and individual learning, workshops, practical classes, studio-based practice, subject-specific masterclasses, lectures, seminars and tutorials. Experiential learning is also a key principle of study on the programme. Students will experience work related to practical and professional performance contexts, undertaking costume making roles and participating in a range of processes.

The assessment approach will enable students to demonstrate their level of attainment and full range of abilities and skills. Modes of assessment and related feedback strategies are designed to be part of the learning experience and ensure that the learning outcomes identified by course components can be met. Opportunities for formative and summative assessment are provided in a variety of formats which assess critical understanding, knowledge, ability, technique, creativity, artistry, and application. These formats include:

  • Portfolios of practical work (examples of costume making)
  • Reflective documentation and critical evaluation (presentation, viva voce, essay, dissertations, video, blog, vlog, podcast)
  • Self and peer assessment (discussions, tutorials & seminars)

Teaching, learning and assessment will be underpinned by a commitment to inclusive practice. Curriculum design, delivery and assessment activities will enable reasonable adjustments to be made as appropriate, in recognition of individual learning needs. The teaching and learning strategy of the programme will also include a continuing and reflective approach to decolonising the curriculum through rethinking, reframing, and reconstructing the delivery of historical perspectives to incorporate a broader range of voices that will develop alternative research frameworks and traditions that can inform one another.

Students will also be provided with all relevant course documentation comprising aims and objectives, structure and content, learning outcomes, assessment procedures and criteria, expected study approaches.

Opportunities for work related learning

Students are offered the opportunity to construct costumes as part of live and/or filmed LIPA productions created under professional industry conditions in the Professional Practice module. Students are also encouraged to consider a work placement as part of their professional development.

Programme Structure

Programme Structure Description

A student must complete the following modules to achieve the target award: Research Skills (15 credits)Costume Skills (15 credits)Experimentation and Development (45 credits)Professional Practice (45 credits)Practice Dissertation: Final Research Project (60 credits) Students must pass the Research Skills module in order to progress to the Practice Dissertation module.

Approved variance from Academic Framework Regulations

This programme has an approved Variance to PG A.4.2 which states: ‘In postgraduate taught programmes of more than 120 credits modules comprise 10, 20, or 30 credits except for the research project/dissertation module which must be 60 credits’. In this programme modules comprise of 15, 30, 45 and 60 credit … For more content click the Read More button below.

Entry Requirements

IELTS

Undergraduate degree

HECoS Code(s)

(CAH25-02) performing arts