MA Culture, Criticism and Curation

Master

In London

£ 8,500 VAT inc.

Description

  • Type

    Master

  • Location

    London

  • Duration

    45 Weeks

Places available 2017/18This course has places available for January 2018 entry. View the ‘How to apply’ section on this page for more details.Established in 2013, MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins works with two distinctive approaches: allying itself to culture as a broad-based field and treating intellectual and practical work as a joined-up form of enquiry. We see theory and research as foundational to project work, and learning through doing is fundamental to the development of curatorial practice.This course is part of the Culture & Enterprise Programme.Great reasons to apply Curating and critical writing are critical and creative practices with potential to be applicable to institutions and to independent or alternative practices. Students are taught how to act with agency within complex and changing environmentsWe emphasise interdisciplinary thinking and enquiry. Multiple subject backgrounds and a distinctively international cohort enrich the experience by placing a diversity of experiences and views in dialogue with one another. We seek to engage with social and political issues and position research-led curation as a potent agent of change The Course has strong links with Central Saint Martins’ Museum and Study Collection and the University’s Archives and Special Collections Centre, providing students on the course with project work and access to specialist knowledge integral to their field of study Projects are realised through group work, through which collaboration is discussed, tested and reflected upon. These make use of the college’s excellent resources as well as links with external organisations. They lead to partnerships with organisations both internal and external to the University, providing opportunities for students to build their individual practice, professional capacity and research interests . Our projects are of a very high standard and public profile We are...

Facilities

Location

Start date

London
See map
1 Granary Square

Start date

On request

About this course

Entry requirementsApplicants should have an Honours Degree or evidence of equivalent learning, and normally at least one year of relevant professional experience . The relevant disciplines and professional fields include: History; Art History; Culture, Communications or Media Studies; Fine Art or Design; Fashion (history & theory or design); Multimedia or interactive design; Curatorial, gallery, archive or museum work; Research; Collections management or interpretation; Journalism - digital, broadcast, press and radio; Art criticism or publishing; Marketing and PR; Retail or...

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Subjects

  • Interpretation
  • Works
  • Approach
  • Teaching
  • Design
  • Exhibition
  • Art
  • University
  • Public
  • Project
  • Systems
  • Writing
  • Team Training
  • Communication Training

Course programme

Course detail

Raymond Williams described culture as one of the most difficult words in the English language. It crosses disciplines and holds multiple meanings. It designates things and processes. Historically culture meant ‘civilisation’; more recently the meaning has shifted towards the entertainment and education sector, but importantly this has been accompanied by an ongoing negotiation about what might constitute the objects, activities, agents and interpretations of cultural production.

Through critical writing and expanded forms of curating, MA Culture, Criticism and Curation offers a framework for engaging with the history and present scenarios of culture. Taking advantage of its location in an art school, MA CCC integrates theoretical issues and practical skills, interrogating history and working critically and creatively to consider how potential new knowledge can be presented in the public realm. The Course aims to teach students to be strong researchers and innovative practitioners, with the skills to communicate with specialist and general audiences alike.

The Course makes use of London’s many collections, archives and creative practitioners, staging the teaching in relation to ‘live’ resources. Key focusses of the Course are collections and archives, including those that are institutional, personal and/or produced in the context of creative art practices, which you will address from both theoretical and practical standpoints.

With these critical and historical frameworks you will work on ‘live’ projects, led by students and facilitated by tutors. The projects are different each year in form and content, with students addressing the complex of issues surrounding the presentation of culture in public and social spaces. As a group, you will learn how to collaborate effectively, to use the project as a testing-ground, and make individual skills and ideas contribute to a collective end.

The Course is taught by a team of tutors who bridge academic research and writing and professional practices of criticism, journalism, art, exhibition design, curating and collections management. They will support your acquisition of critical and practical skills enabling you to work in the field of art and culture or progress to a research degree (PhD).

About this course

  • MA Culture, Criticism and Curation lasts 45 weeks, arranged across one academic year – three terms of ten weeks – plus an additional 15 weeks of independent work
  • MA Culture, Criticism and Curation is credit rated at 180 credits and comprises three Units. All three units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from the mark for Unit Three only
  • We expect you to commit an average of 40 hours per week to your studies. This comprises 10-15 hours of taught and supervised sessions and 25-30 hours self-directed study
  • Your taught input will normally be scheduled over two - three fixed days per week, which we will detail at the start of each term and further in advance if possible. The course structure is intended to allow you to pursue your studies while also undertaking part-time work, internships or care responsibilities.

Course dates

Autumn term
8 Jan 2017 to 23 March 2018
Spring term
16 April to 22 June 2018
Summer term
24 October to 7 December 2018

MA Culture Criticism and Curation Programme Specification 2018/19 (PDF, 386KB)

Projects and professional partnerships

The Culture and Enterprise Programme team has cultivated and delivered student projects in partnership with a range of external organisations including Camden Council, The Guardian, and EDF.

Working collaboratively with organisations, small and large, independent and well established, is central to our approach to practice. Final projects, whether curatorial, editorial or creative, are done in partnership with external organisations. The Course has done projects with The Guardian Newspaper, Flat Time House, The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garrett, David Roberts Art Foundation, the South London Gallery, Camden Council and South Hampstead and Kilburn Community Project, the Archive Studio at the Southbank Centre and Artists Studio Company (ASC). Read about a few recent student projects by MA Culture, Criticism and Curation students via the links below.

  • Artists Studio Company
  • Saving Southbank Centre's 60s buildings
  • Digital Exhibition Histories

Dissertation subjects

Research and critical writing on MA Culture, Criticism and Curation is multi-disciplinary. We encourage innovative writing and/or students interested in practice-led research. Here are some examples of dissertation subjects:

  • Conceptual Art, White Cubes, Criticality: The Influence of Kanrasha Gallery in Japan from the 1980s Onward (Hayato Fujioka)
  • Capital/Country/Speed: Towards a Curatorial Project (and its Conceptual Foundations) (Barnaby Lewer)
  • Selfridges' Body Studio: A Case Study in Women, Consumer Culture and Questions of Identity (Ophelia Stimpson)
  • Cultural Logic of a Database (Špela Pipan)
  • Exhibition as Research (Annika Turkowski)
  • Collage in Community-Based Research, Art Education and Art Therapy (Yu-Wen Hung)
  • May 9th in Russian Political Mythmaking Today, in Memory: Memory, Film and the Russian Idea (Alexandra Sazonova)
  • The Seen and the Unseen: A Study of Bethlem Royal Hospital (Yusi Xiong)
  • Why You Should Invest 0% of Your Monies in Art (Bernard Tan)
  • Playing with History (Jake Charles Rees)
  • Turn and Face the Change. Digital Media and Museums in the 21st century. Case Study: Victoria and Albert Museum (Gili Yuval)
  • Applying Digital Media technology in museums in China (Yan Yu)
  • What's under the sun? A cultural engagement with the new (Eva Tyler)
  • Bad Bitches, Strip Clubs and Twerking. The Racial Analysis of Miley Cyrus Twerking at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (Rhianne Sinclair-Phillips)
  • The Good, The Bad and the Sexy. An approach to popularity, heritage and meaning in El Libro Vaquero (Marisol Rodriguez)
  • Can works of art stop being works of art? The case of the Miro collection (Eva Oddo)
  • Wide, Open Spaces: Institutional Critique as Artist Practice in the 21st Century (Janice Mitchell)
  • Obsession, Possession and Oppression; Collecting and Social Structures in French Art Deco 'Exoticism' Furniture (Cath Layton)
  • The Fictive Museum. Return to the Wunderkammer (Lisa Kim)
  • He'll Give Us What We Need, It May Not Be What We Want. Kanye West, Yeezus, and the Curatorial (Ross Jennings)
  • 'A DOWN': Decadence of Hunting Aesthetics in Film from Fred.B.Bear to 8 year old Will (Oscar Holloway)
  • From the Stars Group to the China/Avant-Garde Exhibition: Chinese Avant-Garde Art in Chinese Modern Society since 1979 (Siyi Chen)
  • The Hidden Treasure. Angelo Baldassarre's contemporary art collection (Fausta Maria Bolettieri)
  • Kettle's Yard: Unpicking the Burden of History. A Critical Assessment of the Kettle's Yard Identity (Natalie Baerselman le Gros)
  • Curating Art's Names: On the Possibility of Mapping Conceptual Investigations in to the Nature of Art Within a Curatorial Discourse (Ludovica Gilio)
  • Education without Learning; The Paradox of Staging Critical Discourse (Charlotte Rose Ram)
Projects

The Culture and Enterprise programme team has cultivated and delivered student projects in partnership with a range of external organisations including Procter and Gamble, The Guardian, and EDF. Read about a few recent student projects by MA Culture, Criticism and Curation students via the links below.

  • Art in Large Doses
  • Artists Studio Company
  • Saving Southbank Centre's 60s buildings

Staff

Course Leader: Dr Alison Green

Course Tutor: Dr Caterina Albano
Course Tutor: Ben Bethell
Course Tutor: Prof. Caroline Dakers
Course Tutor: Dr Louise Garrett
Course Tutor: Dr Michaela Giebelhausen
Course Tutor: Nathalie Khan
Course Tutor: Nick Kimberley
Course Tutor: Andrew Marsh
Course Tutor: Dr Colin Perry
Course Tutor: Prof. Roger Sabin
Course Tutor: James Swinson
Course Tutor: Judy Willcocks, Director, CSM Museum and Study Collection

MA Culture, Criticism and Curation

£ 8,500 VAT inc.