It is generally accepted that art and design related disciplines attract a higher proportion of students with dyslexia than traditional academic counterparts. Combined with this is a prevalent perception that dyslexia predominantly affects students’ writing and linguistic ability and it is this, as well as an increased visual‐spatial sensibility, that attracts students to art and design disciplines. This article examines these ideas through the experience of fine art students on a degree course with a mandatory written element. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with students, it argues that the studio component, in terms of its learning environment and teaching methods, presents an equally challenging context for students with dyslexia and that the written element or lecture‐based studies can provide students with a valuable counterpoint to their studio practice.

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to feedback and assessment in Fine Art. This has revealed a need for the pedagogic culture of Art and Design subjects to be better understood, particularly from the perspective of the student experience. Accordingly, this article presents findings from a Higher Education Academyfunded project that investigated feedback and assessment within creative practice through a case study of Newcastle University’s Open Studios (OS) feedback and assessment model. Through this we argue that multifaceted feedback models best address some of the problems surrounding the feedback–assessment relationship in studio-based disciplines, particularly assisting students to develop the critical and reflective capacities on which much studio-based tuition is built. Within this, however, careful consideration needs to be made of the power relationships in studio dialogues. Unlike traditional academic disciplines, the research revealed a premise placed on feedback rather than grades within Fine Art where, as the students put it ‘it’s more about building a practice’.