Art and Design facilities

You bring the passion, and we'll give you the tools, space and support you need to develop your skills in traditional and contemporary crafts, processes and digital technologies.

Our City Campus incorporates Bower Ashton and Spike Island as well as studio spaces above Arnolfini gallery and the Watershed - so you'll be learning right at the heart of current thinking.

What's waiting for you?

You'll be offered workshops to support your learning then, once you've developed skills you'll be able to access all these resources with the help of our dedicated Student Project Coordinators:

Print centre

A playground of printing ideas, techniques and technical support. From traditional skills to futuristic exploration, get inspired and try:

• Screen printing – paper and textiles
• Digital print
• Lithography
• Etching
• Typography
• Heat-transfer printing
• Dyes and dye technology
• Fabric manipulation
• Surface decoration and embellishment,
• Photo-transfer printing
• 3D printing

Drawing centre studio

Everything you need to build traditional drawing skills, including life models and still life. You can also practice digital drawing, using virtual reality equipment and iPad.

Fabrication studios

In the fabrication studios you can try:

• model making
• metal fabrication
• laser cutting
• clay and ceramics
• enamelling
• 3D printers, 3D scanning equipment
• woodwork - hand tools, machinery, cnc routing and milling
• casting
• hot wax
• resin and plastic forming
• glass
• sandblasting
• spray painting
• Tech lab - a unique facility that opens up the possibilities of animatronics and creative tech: here, explore the power of programming to bring things to life.

Sewing, embroidery and knit studios

In the sewing, embroidery and knit studios you can find the facilities and passionate professional experts to help you turn your ideas into art. Using industrial and domestic machines, you can build skills like:

• pattern cutting and garment construction
• fabric manipulation
• leather work and construction
• hand knitting
• machine knitting
• digital embroidery

Photographic Resource Centre

Fully equipped photography and filmmaking studios, with facilities including:

• Infinity cove
• Changeable backgrounds
• Flash lighting
• GHigh access facilities
• Analogue darkroom facilities for colour and black and white film processing
• Printing from negatives up to 10x8 inch film size
• Digital production suites comprising of Imacon scanners, dual screen Apple Mac workstations and calibrated large format inkjet printers

Digital Design Studios

Our Design Studios have comprehensive Mac resources at Bower Ashton, City Campus at Arnolfini and City Campus at Spike Island, providing open access to the full Adobe software suite and dedicated staff to support.

Good to know: workshops with specialist technicians are available to help you make the most of all the fantastic kit.

Collaboration with other creatives

• Media Studios - newsroom and studio equipped with the latest software for creating print, television, radio and digital content.
• Film Studios - opened in 2019, with industry-standard production and post-production filmmaking, animation and photography facilities.
• Animation Studios - facilities support hand-drawn and stop-motion techniques to computer generated forms, digital compositing and post-production activities. The art shop at Bower Ashton Campus stocks a wide range of high-quality artist materials and products at excellent value for money.
• Central Loans Desk - based at Bower Ashton Campus, students can hire equipment from this well stocked loans desk.
• Art Shop - based at Bower Ashton and there for all your creative supplies.
• Student Project Coordinators - a dedicated personal service to help you get the right technical help and support to create your work.

Library and online resources

From journals to specialist books, find out more about resources available in our library.