Textiles

Textiles as a degree subject encompasses a wide range of creative practices rooted in fabric, fibre, material, and surface. It includes weaving, knitting, embroidery, print, dyeing, and experimental approaches to making that push against the boundaries of what textiles can be and do. Textiles sits within the broader context of contemporary art and design, and at its most ambitious it engages with questions of material culture, sustainability, body and garment, memory and identity, and the relationship between craft and concept.

The discipline rewards those who want to develop a serious and sustained creative practice grounded in material knowledge.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year programme is taught within one of the UK's most highly regarded art schools, the Edinburgh College of Art, which is part of the university. You will develop technical skills across a range of textile processes while also building the critical and conceptual framework that distinguishes contemporary textile practice from purely decorative or functional craft. Studio work is central to the programme, and you will be encouraged to develop your own creative identity and to situate your practice within the broader context of contemporary art and design.

Edinburgh itself, a city with a rich artistic and cultural life and strong connections to Scottish craft and material culture, provides an exceptionally stimulating environment for textile study.

This full-time programme runs over four years and includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to experience textile education or practice in a different country and cultural context. That experience can significantly enrich your creative practice and your professional network. Graduates in textiles go on to careers as textile designers, surface pattern designers, fashion designers, artists, makers, educators, arts administrators, and in roles within the textile, fashion, and creative industries.

Many also go on to postgraduate study, including MA programmes in textiles, fashion, and related design disciplines.