Culture, Criticism and Curation

Overview

Course overview

This MA in Culture, Criticism and Curation at University of the Arts London (UAL)  will teach you how to become an innovative practitioner and researcher, with the skills to communicate to specialist and general audiences alike. It is part of the Culture and Enterprise programme.

The theorist and novelist 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 its definition has shifted towards the entertainment and education sectors. This has been accompanied by an ongoing negotiation about what might constitute the objects, activities, agents and interpretations of cultural production. 

MA Culture, Criticism and Curation works with two distinctive approaches: it examines culture as a broad field, while treating intellectual and practical work as a form of joined-up enquiry. The course aims to make research accessible to new and larger audiences, removing it from a solely academic environment. Taking advantage of its location in an art school, the course integrates theoretical issues and practical skills. It interrogates history and considers how new knowledge is presented in the public realm.  

MA Culture, Criticism and Curation will teach you how to become both an innovative practitioner and a strong researcher, with the skills to communicate to specialist and general audiences alike. Project work is a combination of theory and research and learning through doing is fundamental to the course. MA Culture, Criticism and Curation promotes a community of practice, which is central to student development. The course is designed as a series of intensive workshops, combining seminars, discussions, site visits and practical projects. These are often interdisciplinary and the course encourages a holistic approach to critical, practical, peer-to-peer, group and independent work. There are also opportunities for programme, College and University-based events which allow you to engage with the rich culture of research and innovation at Central Saint Martins. 

MA Culture, Criticism and Curation makes use of London’s wealth of collections, archives and creative practitioners, staging teaching in relation to these resources. You will work on live projects which are devised in response to the complex issues surrounding the presentation of culture in public spaces. Working in groups, you will learn how to collaborate effectively, how to use the project as a testing-ground and how to contribute individual skills and ideas to a collective end.