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Masters Compare - Find your perfect masters course.
Study Details: MA 2 years full-time
MA Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s offers a dynamic environment in which to re-examine your practice as part of a student, alumni and staff community. The course supports a broad range of experimental and speculative practices brought together within the context of the studio. We are home to artists from across the globe, who work across installation, moving image, digital, time-based, performance, social engaged & site-specific practices, sculpture, painting, print and sound.
We create an environment where complex social, cultural, and artistic viewpoints are negotiated. Artmaking in this context is a testing ground for ideas and media. We welcome artists who are open to change, not just in expanding their practices but in creating new positions which contribute and challenge contemporary art discourse and ecologies. Student-centred learning brings your work and the way you make and imagine practice to critical scrutiny. You will develop your individual research into confident, sustained practice. We emphasise the investigation of materials and processes of fabrication - the intelligence of the work is in the making and the approach to realisation.
MA Fine Art has a track record of innovative teaching. Students and staff learn from one another through group projects, live events, and exhibitions as well as crits, tutorials and lectures. Academic and technical staff bring broad expertise in contemporary art as active practitioners undertaking research, production, publication and exhibition making, alongside their teaching roles. Approaches to teaching and learning are informed by these professional insights, in a collaborative learning environment where pedagogical experimentation is encouraged.
An intensive programme of study will develop your skills and knowledge of research methods in art-related fields. Your learning will extend across our postgraduate Art programme, with opportunities to meet your peers and the College’s research community and to work with students from other disciplines and at different levels. Recent examples have investigated sound-based practices, archival work, virtual reality, photogrammetry, artists publication and animation. Strengthening critical engagement with contemporary technologies of making and dissemination, these forums for cross-course and transdisciplinary exchange and collaboration help to build a broad skill set you can take out into professional life.
The MAFA course is designed to support you to develop your practice to a professional level within the context of an international cohort of students who will then become your international network of practitioners. Collectively you will also be challenged to re-consider your practice within the current global climate crisis where the imperatives of social, racial and climate justice need to be considered. The MAFA seeks to equip all students with an informed and ethical approach to making and sustaining their practice within an ever increasingly entangled and inequitable world.
The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:
AP(E)L – Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning
Exceptional applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:
Each application will be considered on its own merit but cannot guarantee an offer in each case.
For fees and funding information, please see website
Our Postgraduate Art Programme offers valuable opportunities to build transferable professional knowledge and skills. The exchange of perspectives with others through shared units, reading groups and debates helps establish stimulating and productive networks.
The focus on proposing and developing a major independent programme of study is supported by a shared professional practice lecture series featuring guest speakers plus opportunities to attend symposia and critique work in progress across subject areas. The Postgraduate Art Programme has wide-ranging links with professional organisations, collections and galleries, and includes opportunities for interaction and networking according to your personal career direction.
Career possibilities for fine art graduates have expanded in recent years in line with increased opportunities in contemporary arts generally, in London and internationally. Alternative pathways for MA Fine Art graduates include residency programmes, performance festivals, teaching, and practising in the community. There are also opportunities in critical writing, curating and further research degree study.
Recent MA Fine Art alumni activity demonstrates the breadth of student activity within the subject, with many of our fine art graduates prominent in galleries, competitions and events.
In 2007 Mark Melvin won the Nationwide Mercury Art Prize, Gemma Pardo was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries, and Ayan Farrah founded Front Room Projects. In 2008 Sachiyo Nishimura was selected for New Contemporaries. In 2009 Maurice Citron was part of the Saatchi New Sensations show with his work being seen on Channel 4, and New Contemporaries showcased work by students Johanna Piesniewski and Hannes Ribarits. In 2010 graduates exhibited widely - shows included Bibi Katholm at 2 Taekker Space, Berlin, and the Vegas Gallery, London, and Filipo Caramazza at Hayles Gallery, London. Students Francesca Simon and Gwen Yip were shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize 2010.
Unit 1: UN-MAKE:RE-MAKE / Enquiry, Process & Communication
In Unit 1 you will engage with the studio as a site of making (un-making/re-making) and discussion; critically reflect on your processes of learning; and challenge your developing practice through risk and experimentation. You will be introduced to key theoretical and critical issues that will support your own research enquiries, engaging with material and processes with the support of a range of specialist staff. Your work in this unit will lead towards developing a Research & Practice Proposal for your continued progress.
Unit 2: COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES for Common Good
This unit provides opportunities for cross-course creative and collaborative practices in relation to global challenges. The unit explores a range of thematic, experimental, and applied approaches to cross-disciplinary research, enquiry and knowledge exchange. The aim is to establish a framework for co-operation across the College, based on our shared values in relation to social responsibility.
Unit 3: CONTEXTS / Enquiry, Knowledge & Communication
Unit 3 takes an ambitious approach to research and practice, heightening your awareness of contemporary art practices by helping you develop and position your practice in relation to material contexts, critical theories, and histories. You will deepen your understanding of the critical contexts in which your practice operates by completing a Research Paper alongside the continuing development of your work.
Unit 4: PUBLICS / Realisation, Knowledge, Communication
During Unit 4 you will be supported in the production of a body of work for public dissemination and presentation. Throughout the unit, you will advance your professional and academic skills to a level that prepares you for post-graduation practices.
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