Educational Standard

All applicants are expected to present an approved Bachelor degree at minimum level of 2nd class honours (2.2)

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)  - Applicants who do not meet the minimum academic entry requirements for admission may be considered on the basis of a recognition of previous learning  whether based on prior relevant experience or other relevant credited or non credited or learning  (RPL). In such cases each applicant will be considered on a case-by-case basis based on a review of the applicant's CV and other supporting documentation.

Please contact ncad@creativefutures.ie for further information.

Qualifying Examination - In certain cases the academic team may choose to set a qualifying assignment in order to assess an applicant's suitability for admission.

You may apply for the programme if you are currently completing your Undergraduate Degree. NCAD will review the rest of your application If necessary, we can make you a Conditional Offer. When your degree is completed and you send us final transcripts we will upgrade this to a Full Offer.

Applicants who have not been educated through English must show proof of achieving IELTS 6.5 (with a minimum of 6 in the writing section on the Academic Version) or an equivalent score in another accepted test.

Entry Requirements

Completed Professional Certificate (Creative Principles) module. 

Applications are now Open for the October programme 

Professional Certificate (Creative Principles) is the foundation module of the Professional Diploma programme.

If you have completed this module or are enrolled to complete it in September 2024, please apply here by Sep 31st.

Fees

Creative Futures Academy has been awarded a total of €315,640 from the Human Capital Initiative HCI Pillar 3 Micro-Credentials Subsidy funding. Subsidies will range from 50 - 80% of the total course costs for eligible learners.

This course is eligible for subsidy funding. Full details can be found here.  

There is a fee of €2200 for this programme.  If you are eligible you will receive a subsidy of €1760. It is free to apply. 

For those continuing from Prof Cert the fee is €1600.

Apply- 

Step 1: Click on Apply Now link below  | Step 2: Fill in your details

Step 3: Upload your Supporting Documents

• You can also submit your application even before you upload the necessary documents. 

• You can not add new documents after you have submitted. 

• Additional documents can be sent to postgraduate@ncad.ie and we will upload them on your behalf. 

Step 4: Submit your application to NCAD from April

Who Should Apply

Established and emergent artists, curators, activists, designers, makers, cultural producers, ecologists, scientists, architects, landscape architects, social workers, policy makers, biodiversity and sustainability officers, educators, horticulturalists, active citizenship, citizen scientists, lifelong learning.

The programme is designed to meet the needs of the creative sector within and beyond Ireland.  As such, the constituent awards explicitly address key requirements identified in extensive discussions and research undertaken with industry partners and representative bodies such as the Arts Council of Ireland, Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and Institute of Designers in Ireland, and findings from government and sectoral reports.

Progession Opportunities 

This diploma lays the foundation for further study at Masters and Phd level.

Opportunities to Engage

As part of a suite of programmes that make up the Creative Futures offer at NCAD, the Professional Diploma in Art and Ecology seeks to provide a scholarly framework for students who wish to study specific, connected aspects of creative disciplines and themes within a leading art and design college setting. 

Many aspects of the suite of programmes will be delivered in collaboration with partners from the Creative Sector and in addition, a number of programme sessions will have a public dimension, allowing us to invite other interested parties from the fields of contemporary creative practice and scholarship to join our conversations and creative activities.

Programme Faculty

Seoidin O’Sullivan: osullivans@staff.ncad.ie

Seoidín O’Sullivan is a contemporary artist with a socially engaged practice who lectures in Art and Creative Ecologies and First Year Studies at National College of Art and Design. Her art projects are collaborative and focus on bringing people together in action to protect or develop an aspect of their Ecological Commons.

Seoidín works in the area of 'Critical Ecologies' connecting multidisciplinary teams and partnerships using creative participatory art methodologies to reveal, find solutions and work towards creating just multi-species futures and collective imaginaries at a time of climate crisis. Creative out-put includes drawings, installations, video, publications, walks and pedagogical exchange.

Recent exhibitions include  crex, crex, crex, looking at the migration of the corncrake connecting to her own biographical history growing up in Zambia  for EVA 2023. Holdings, a group exhibition at Solstice Arts Centre looked at the soil ecology and the quadrat to unpack how land is valued and measured. She was part of Mapping Green Dublin, a research project  and community mapping project that mapped the tree canopy of Dublin with UCD Geography and Common Ground.

Mark Clare: clarem@staff.ncad.ie

Mark Clare is a contemporary visual artist, employing a variety of media including sculpture, video, animation, sound, performance, and photography to produce projects that examine to what extent human activities have had a significant impact on the Earth’s ecosystems. He has exhibited widely and participated in numerous Artist Residency programmes both nationally and Internationally. He is currently one of the inaugural artists at the Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studio Residency Program. 

He has over 30 years of experience as a Fine Art Lecturer and is currently a Part-time Lecturer at NCAD, teaching on the Art & Ecology Postgraduate Diploma (Creative Futures Academy), Part-time higher diploma, Level 8 (CEAD), and Media Area Experience (1st Yr). He has also been invited as a Guest Lecturer on the MFA Crawford Art College, Cork, MA Film, Louis-Lumerie ecole nationale superieure, Paris, Sculpture Dept. Columbus State University, USA, Sculpture Dept. State University New York, and the MFA, Grays School of Art, Aberdeen.

Gareth Kennedy; kennedyg@staff.ncad.ie

Admissions Contact 

Please contact the Admissions Team with any questions.  

Camille Rocca: postgraduate@ncad.ie

01 636 4200