BA Fine Art
Meet your Librarian – Robin Hobbs
About Robin
Robin is the Subject Librarian responsible for the Faculty of Arts & Media. He studied English and American Literature at UEA, Women’s Studies at the University of York, and Information and Library Studies at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
How Can I Help You?
You can book one to one tutorials with me to help you with your research or referencing, please contact me via email or you can drop into the library office (DS103) to have a chat!
I work Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
As a team, we also provide research and referencing drop in sessions to assist you in the run up to written work hand-ins, keep an eye on Instagram (@norwichuni_library) for times and dates.
E-Book Collections
Try these virtual shelves which link you to ready-made collections of e-books on specific subjects.
Useful E-Book Collections for BA Fine Art:
Fine Art (ProQuest)
Print Books
Fine Art books begin at Dewey Decimal number 700 but you will find there are many other sections on the library that will help your research.
With the exception of short loan books, everything can be borrowed for three weeks.
Find out how to search for books on Discovery, the Library catalogue, here



Useful Sources of Information
Reading lists
Here are the reading lists set for each unit of your study, these will provide links to the required and recommended resources that your tutors wish you to look at.
Online Resources
As well as printed materials, the Library also has a wide selection of online resources to help you with your research.
Useful Online Resources for BA Fine Art:
Box of Broadcasts
BoB is an up to date television streaming service available to all students and staff. BoB allows you to view recently aired programmes from over 65 channels and there is a searchable archive of 2 million broadcasts. You can also record programmes aired in the last 30 days which will be stored on the service permanently, meaning you can watch them again and again. Best of all, you do not need a TV license to use this service.
This service is not available outside of the UK. You will need to register with BoB when you first try and access it.
Video resources to support accessing and using BoB are available on the VLE.
eBook Central
Search our huge database of titles covering a wide variety of topics. All titles are available so you can start reading straight away. A great source for research and learning more about historical and cultural contexts. You can read e-books online, or you can download them to Adobe Digital Editions (PC/Mac) or Bluefire (iOS/Android).
Wellcome Images
Free low and high-res historical images from the Wellcome Library collections, including Tibetan Buddhist paintings, ancient Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, beautifully illuminated Persian books, and many detailed medical photographs inspiring in shape, colour and texture. Images free to reuse with attribution.
Visual Arts Data Service
VADS includes 140,000 images (fashion, textiles, posters, prints and design artefacts) from over 50 diverse UK collections. Images are copyright-cleared for non-commercial educational use and personal research.
John Johnson Collection
The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera gives access to over 65,000 digitised documents in five main categories exploring everyday life from the 18th to the early 20th century : 19th-Century Entertainment; The Booktrade; Popular Prints; Crime; Advertising (See also VADS for major images from the collection).
Publications
Journals and magazines cannot be taken out on loan, but you are welcome to browse the latest issues and back copies held on the first floor of the Library.
Journals and magazines are a valuable source of visual and written material to help you in your research. It’s a good idea to get to know the titles related to your course because:
- They are up to date.
- Often the material in them covers contemporary activity and news.
- Young animators and designers will be covered in journals long before they are covered by books.
Below you will find a small selection of magazines and journals related to your course.
To see all of your course publications, use the link at the bottom of this list.
Selected BA Fine Art publications:
Art monthly
One of the UK's leading contemporary art magazines
Drawing: research, theory, practice
Promotes and disseminates drawing research with a focus on contemporary practice and its theoretical context.
Frieze
Leading magazine for contemporary art and culture
Tate etc.
Tate's art magazine, published three times a year.
Turps banana
Magazine which concentrates exclusively on painting and is written predominantly by practising painters. Part of the art school of the same name in London.
Research Reports
For the BA3a unit you are required to produce a Research Report.
The Research Report gives you the chance to explore an area of interest to you and your practice. It should build on the ideas you laid out in the Research Report Proposal you handed in as part of the BA2b unit.
The guidelines for all courses are available on the intranet: Research Report Guidelines
You can see examples of high quality research reports from previous years’ Norwich students via the link below:
Websites
Useful websites for Fine Artists
- a-n
a-n is the largest artists’ membership organisation in the UK with over 21,000 members.
- American Suburb X
A US photography blog with a huge photography history archive. (Sections on painting and Film too).
- Bomb Magazine
Quarterly magazine edited by artists and writers.
- It's nice that
Innovative website covering a range of subjects including Art, Photography, Media and Fashion.