Go broad or specialise
Focus on your passion – painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, Māori visual arts or performance – or mix and match.
Get hands-on
Create and make in Massey's well-equipped studios, workshops, computer labs, digital suites and darkrooms.
Design your own degree
All Massey design students start with broad core courses. Then in later years you can specialise or gain wide-ranging skills.
Global-ready skills
Our Massey graduates are sought after by employers and work in New Zealand, Australia, Europe, North America and beyond.
Overview
Focus on photography. Explore contemporary Māori art, culture, language, and tikanga. Delve into paint or printmaking. Or broaden your horizons by picking courses from across creative disciplines.
Whether you're starting out or established as a creative, learn the fundamentals and stretch and grow at College of Creative Arts – Toi Rauwhārangi.
Learn from award-winning artists, designers and photographers. Discover new ideas with researchers specialising in areas such as art and the environment, and memorialisation and remembrance. Explore ways of making, and why you make what you do.
Get hands-on in our studios and workshops. Master new skills in our state-of-the-art computer labs, digital suites and darkrooms. Graduate with a qualification respected nationally and internationally.
Art and photography are a good fit if you:
- do well in school subjects such as design, visual arts (ngā toi) or technology (hangarau)
- want to push your creativity and hone your skills
- like being creative and thinking analytically.
Scholarships for Massey's College of Arts
Fine arts courses
Drawing. Painting. Performance art. Sculpture. Video. Take classes in any media, supported by technical workshops to hone your skills.
As well as independent creative work, courses may cover:
- communication for makers
- creative cultures
- research methods and practices.
Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours
Māori visual arts courses
Toioho ki Āpiti, Māori visual arts, recognises language, culture, tikanga and art as inseparable. Our bachelor's degree has a strong Māori kaupapa, with te reo, tikanga, and manaakitanga at its core.
We welcome students of Māori, Pākehā and international indigenous heritage. We cater for all levels of te reo Māori.
As well as independent creative work, courses may cover:
- Māori design processes, including cultural significance
- Māori visual culture, including contemporary and traditional contexts
- te reo Māori
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi).
Māori visual arts – Toioho ki Āpiti
Photography courses
As well as independent creative work, courses may cover:
- composition
- darkroom and digital techniques
- lighting in studios and on location
- post-production
- studio techniques
- video art.
How to study art and photography
Discover what we offer if you’re interested in art and photography – whether you’re coming to university for the first time, changing direction or returning to advance your study or career.
Undergraduate study
Bachelor's degrees
Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts – BMVA
Unique to Massey University, the Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts encompasses contemporary Māori art, Māori language, Māori culture, and tikanga.
Undergraduate bachelor's degrees with honours
Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours – BFA(Hons)
Discover how to produce work that makes people think and feel, act and react. Whatever your mode of art-making is, we’ll help you find and develop your own creative voice.
Photography – Bachelor of Design with Honours
Great photographers shake us, shift our perceptions and entice us to see things differently. Learn from leading photographers and develop your technical skills with our professional cameras and specialist studios and labs.
Graduate certificates
Certificate in Creative Arts – CertCreativeArt
Massey’s Certificate in Creative Arts is a flexible qualification that will introduce you to the basics of art and design - creative thinking, visual communication, specialist skills, and critical awareness.
Undergraduate diplomas
Diploma in Creative Arts – DipCreativeArts
You’ll study with art and design degree students in a range of studio and lecture-based courses covering everything from critical and contextual studies, to social media, painting, and digital fabrication.
Graduate diplomas
Graduate Diploma in Design – GDipDes
Develop your technical skills and learn to think like a designer.
Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts – GDipFA
Massey’s Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts is for skilled graduates who want to gain new knowledge and skills in fine arts.
Relevant undergraduate subjects to major or specialise in
When you apply to study at Massey, for some undergraduate qualifications you can choose what subject you’d like to specialise in. You can usually change your mind after you get to university, depending on the courses you enrol in.
Postgraduate study
Master's degrees
Design – Master of Fine Arts
Embed yourself in a rich dialogue about your creative practice in Massey’s transdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts (Design) qualification, for artists and designers.
Fine Arts – Master of Fine Arts
Embed yourself in a rich dialogue about your creative practice in Massey’s transdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts (Fine Arts) qualification, for artists and designers.
Master of Māori Visual Arts – MMVA
Challenge your own toi Māori practice, and learn from and be inspired by leading artists.
Postgraduate diplomas
Postgraduate Diploma in Design – PGDipDes
Go beyond your bachelor’s degree and advance your design thinking with a Postgraduate Diploma in Design.
Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts – PGDipFA
Extend your creative practice and begin your fine arts journey. Massey’s Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts gives you the opportunity for advanced study in contemporary art.
Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Visual Arts – PGDipMVA
Toioho ki Āpiti (the Māori visual arts programme at Massey) welcomes all indigenous and Pākehā artists.
Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies – PGDipMusStud
Massey’s Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies will prepare you to meet the challenges cultural organisations face in maintaining heritage collections and delivering high-quality services to communities.
PhD and other doctoral degrees
Doctor of Philosophy – PhD
A prestigious research qualification that demonstrates your ability to carry out independent and original research in your chosen field.
Relevant research areas at Massey
Discover research expertise, projects and initiatives relating to art and photography at Massey.
What our students say
“I'd never intellectualised my process before. This was the first time I'd actually gone, 'Why am I doing this? What does this actually mean?’”
“Chev found his strength in bringing together his art and his whakapapa. With a passion for cultural identity and social ethnography, his emerging creative career has involved advertising, journalism, mural and documentary projects. In 2017 he won the Ngā Manu Pīrere award for emerging Māori artists at Te Waka Toi Awards.”
Ngati Porou, Rongomaiwahine, Ngati Kahungunu ki Mahia, Pakeha
“Some of the most valuable skills I gained were how to deliver and present my art and writing, and to be self-directed when constructing a project. I liked the way Massey provides the resources to create and become an artist without telling you exactly how to do it.”
Our facilities
You'll have access to a wide range of first-class facilities when you study with us.
Gallery spaces
Students studying fine arts, Māori visual arts and photography have access to gallery spaces where they can exhibit or test their work.
Workshops
Students can access a number of workshops on campus, alongside technical staff who will introduce them to the equipment and assist them if required. Equipment in the fine arts workshop includes a range of wood and metal working machinery, hand tools, a spray booth and casting area.
Te Pūtahi-a-Toi
Te Pūtahi-a-Toi - School of Māori Knowledge has a rūnanga room and a wharekai – Toi Te Ora – where we can manaaki visitors, students and staff.
Location: Manawatū campus
Photo studios
Massey University's Wellington campus has specialised professional photography studios, (white cycs, green screen, Elincrom/Bowens/Diva lite) access only by students enrolled in photographic specialised papers only.
Screen and digital print facility
Massey students have access to a screen and digital print facility, where they can use a digital sublimation printer for polyester fabrics and materials, and a screen printing facility with 7m print tables.
Fab Lab
Fab Lab Wgtn is Australasia’s first digital fabrication laboratory (Fab Lab) affiliated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fab Lab's capabilities include: A computer-controlled laser cutter; numerically-controlled milling machine; a sign cutter; a precision milling machine to make three-dimensional moulds; surface-mount circuit boards; and small 3D printers, for fast production of 3-dimensional forms.
Toystore
The Toystore offers a wide range of audiovisual equipment for design students to borrow, as well as access to large format printing and technical support.
Jobs in art and photography
Set your own horizons. You'll graduate as an inventive and resilient thinker and maker, ready to make an impact.
Some of our graduates become artists, either working alone or in collaboration with other creatives. Others work in community or cultural organisations, galleries or museums.
Art and photography careers include:
- artists, who specialise in areas such as conceptual art, painting, printmaking or sculpture
- conservators, who repair and maintain artworks and taonga (treasured objects)
- curators, who research and create exhibitions
- film directors or designers
- gallery or museum roles such as archivists or publicists
- photographers or videographers
- photojournalists
- teachers or lecturers.
Annual salary ranges for jobs
- Artist – pay rates vary
- Curator – $55,000 to $95,000
- Photographer – $20 an hour to $250 an hour
Salary ranges disclaimer
Indicative pay rates are:
- in New Zealand dollars
- based on careers.govt.nz data.
Which art or photography qualification?
Examples of where our qualifications may take you.
| Jobs | Examples of what you could study |
|---|---|
| Artist |
Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts |
| Curator |
Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Visual Arts |
| Photographer | Bachelor of Design with Honours (Photography) |
Accreditations and rankings
Red Dot Design ranking
Ranked 3rd in Asia-Pacific by International Red Dot Design Awards, the only design school to be ranked in New Zealand and Australia. This significant achievement recognises the high calibre of our teaching staff and the exceptional quality of our students' design concept work.
NASAD
Massey's College of Creative Arts is New Zealand's only art and design school granted “substantial equivalency” — an international benchmark of quality — by the United States National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
QS Ranking - Art & Design
College of Creative Arts – Toi Rauwhārangi ranks in the global top 150 for art and design by QS World University Rankings.
Get an information guide
Download our guides to find out more about studying art and photography at Massey.
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