Overview

Prepare for a career as a professional artist. Independently develop your practical work, research skills, and critical thinking, with support from our experienced staff and visiting artists. Test out your ideas in a professional environment and gain invaluable experience in exhibiting, curation and collaboration.

Additional Descriptions

• Gain invaluable experience of exhibiting, curation and collaboration
• Follow careers in museum and gallery management, public art projects, artist in residence schemes
• Benefit from links with local art organizations
• Engage with debates about contemporary art practice with artists and staff
• Study in Cambridge, with its many galleries and exhibition spaces, and just a quick train journey from London

Our Master’s course will allow you to investigate a range of approaches used in fine art, from painting, sculpture, and printmaking, to more contemporary media such as photography, video, digital media, installation, sound, and performance.

You will spend much of your time working and researching independently - but you will also learn about recent theories, contexts, and practices in lectures, seminars, and one-to-one tutorials.

We will give you the chance to test out your ideas in a professional environment, and to pick up important transferable skills for your career through group and individual presentations and critiques, exhibiting, curation, and critical writing.

Here at Cambridge School of Art, you will be supported by lecturers who are themselves, experienced artists. So as well as having access to artists who are working across many disciplines at the forefront of contemporary art practice, you will receive invaluable advice and direction for your future career.

As well as preparing you for work as a practicing artist, you will pick up skills and knowledge that will equip you for other roles. Our past students now enjoy careers in further and higher education, museum and gallery management, public art projects, artist in residence schemes, and fellowships opportunities, both in the UK and abroad.

Or you might decide to continue on to a research degree, like our Ph.D. Fine Art.

Our links with local art organizations, such as Aid & Abet, Changing Spaces, Wysing Arts Centre, and Cambridge Artworks, will give you the chance to take part in professional exhibitions, portfolio reviews, and live projects. You will also be able to take part in Fine Art Professional Practice and networking initiatives for both students and alumni.

Our Fine Art Research Unit (FARU) runs fortnightly lectures that will give you a chance to hear contemporary artists and staff talk about their work, and engage in debates about art practice. Recent speakers have included Phillip Allen, Juan Bolivar, Rebecca Fortnum, Danny Rolph, Hayley Newman, Günter Herbst, David Kefford, Cally Spooner, Tim Ellis, Andrew Grassie, Lilah Fowler, Jemima Brown, Caroline Wright, and Matthew Derbyshire.

Specialist facilities

You will have the chance to experiment with many different art forms, making use of all our art facilities, which include fine art studios, printmaking, and 3D/sculpture workshops, photography darkrooms, and computer suites for video production and digital imaging. You will also have access to three Mac suites with the full Adobe Creative Suite, plus high-quality 27-inch monitors.

If you are a full-time student, you will have an individual studio space to work in. If you are part-time, you will need your own external studio facility, but may be able to negotiate some temporary on-site space for specific projects. Whether you are full-time or part-time, you will be based in our MA studios and we will encourage you to make full use of them both during and outside of formal teaching times. You can also arrange to use the studios on weekday evenings and at weekends during term-time.