The Fine Arts programme develops independent thinkers who can engage critically with the world through creative practice. We place significant value on the diverse knowledge and experiences each student brings to their art education. The course builds a solid foundation in traditional media based in drawing, and extending into photography, printmaking, sculpture, painting, digital media and post-disciplinary practices. Student are encouraged to integrate practical skills, conceptual development and theoretical knowledge throughout their creative work. Self-directed research, experimentation and visual inquiry are central to the learning process. Students are encouraged to embrace experimentation, work through uncertainty, and use creative practice to contribute to cultural and social dialogue. Across the four-year programme, students learn to communicate complex ideas with clarity, understand their place within the art world, and develop confidence in their studio practice. Graduates are equipped with adaptable skills that support professional art careers and access top postgraduate study. 

For more information 

Ashley Walters | Coordinator, Fine Arts | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3045 

See examples of student 3D work here: https://www.threedeestellenbosch.com

The Creative Jewellery & Metal Design division offers a leading educational environment for exploring contemporary and art jewellery through research, design, and making. The programme brings together two interconnected aspects of jewellery practice: the visual and conceptual design process, and the technical skills required to realise ideas through metal and other materials. Jewellery is far more than adornment. It is a powerful form of communication and representation in contemporary society. The ways in which the body is adorned can express identity, cultural heritage, personal mood, social position, and political viewpoints. Jewellery can provoke thought, critique social norms, document experiences, and even introduce humour, making it a dynamic and meaningful creative medium. Through engagement with a wide range of approaches, concepts, materials, and techniques, students are encouraged to explore and develop their own creative voice. The programme provides a space where experimentation, critical thinking, and craftsmanship come together, enabling students to translate ideas into distinctive and thoughtful jewellery objects. 

For more information 

Dr Joani Groenewald | Coordinator, Creative Jewellery & Metal Design | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3051

The Visual Communication Design programme covers a diverse range of skills including graphic design, illustration, photography, and a range of digital media including UX/UI design, animation, video, etc. It focuses on the application and integration of these skills in real-life contexts, hence developing critically minded graduates who can solve the challenges of the 21st century in innovative, creative ways. 

For more information 

Dr Karolien Perold-Bull | Coordinator: Visual Communication Design | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3046

Visual Studies is dedicated to the study of how we perceive, produce, and circulate images. This theoretical offering provides an interdisciplinary framework across visual culture, art history, and media studies. It is designed for critical thinkers interested in the visuality of our world, offering the tools to analyse the evolving impact of art and media culture, spanning from the history of representation to contemporary issues in digital futures. 

For more information 

Prof Ernst van der Wal | Coordinator: Visual Studies | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3593

The BA Honours in Visual Studies - widely regarded as one of the best programmes in South Africa - is a theoretical course dedicated to select critical issues in contemporary and historical visual culture. We equip students with an interdisciplinary theoretical toolkit to analyse visual culture from diverse historical periods and global contexts. Through focused seminars and workshops, we delve into topics such as critical discourses and practices in photography, models of subjectivity in the visual arts, the politics of curatorship, and critical debates around decolonial African visual culture. 

For more information 

Prof Ernst van der Wal | Coordinator: Visual Studies | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3593

The MA in Visual Arts (MAVA) programme offers an opportunity for specialised postgraduate research in studio production and theory within the broader areas of Visual Communication Design, Illustration, Jewellery Design and Fine Art. The programme promotes the development of each student’s particular interests, skills and ideas. Students are expected to conduct independent, practical and theoretical research of an advanced, in-depth standard that reflects an awareness of a contemporary South African context. Research that is practice-based in its methodology, thus research wherein the relationship between practice and theory is dialogical and interrelated, not only in the research process, but also in the final presentation of the research project, is encouraged. 

For more information 

Ledelle Moe | Coordinator: MA Visual Arts | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3594

The master’s degree was motivated by a need to harness the critical social power of art in an era of globalisation and social reparation by engaging both potential and established art educators. The programme is premised on the belief that the creative and critical practice of teaching and generating art is instrumental in the creation of an imaginative and socially conscious citizenry. Moreover, it takes as a starting point the unequal social relations that characterise South African society, and, within the educational context, the dominance of particular theoretical and intellectual paradigms that perpetuate histories of subordination. It sees the field of creative arts as fertile ground upon which to contest boundaries of social inclusion. The programme aims to develop inroads to greater collaboration between educational practitioners, intellectuals, artists, cultural activists, students and communities. 

For more information  

Dr Karolien Perold-Bull | Coordinator: MA Visual Arts (Art Education) | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3046 

Understanding the visual is essential in a fast-paced, increasingly digital and globalised milieu. The MA in Visual Studies, equips students to decode visual culture in a variety of contexts, including (social) media, populist culture, film, music, fine arts and generative AI. As an innately interdisciplinary subject, Visual Studies incorporates a broad range of critical theories from a variety of fields, including decolonial studies, transnationalism, Afropresentism, New Materialism and curatorial studies. 

For more information 

Prof Ernst van der Wal | Coordinator: Visual Studies | [email protected] | +27 21 808 3593

Our doctoral programme is one of the strongest in the country with a thriving and robust cohort of students. We offer opportunity for independent, advanced research that impacts the world with original contributions. Project are customised according to the topic but can be purely ‘theoretical’ (with a dissertation as the only ‘output’) or practice-led (meaning the project includes an examinable creative ‘output’ that could comprise anything from an exhibition to a curated event, series of artists’ books or film). 

For more information 

Prof Stella Viljoen | Coordinator: PhD Visual Arts | [email protected] | +27 21 808 9087