Applications are now being accepted for the academic year 2013–14.
The application deadline is 30 June, but places are limited and we advise you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Early applicants will qualify for grants.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
University of the Arts London
Granary Building
1 Granary Square
London N1C 4AA, UK
TheMRes Art: Exhibition Studies, which launched in 2011, offers a context for historical and philosophical research concerning contemporary art exhibitions. The programme addresses exhibitions’ modes of display and curatorial strategies, as well as their ideological formation and onward influences. An exhibition, as the forum in which art is made public, constitutes the key critical moment in an artwork’s trajectory, and the MRes Art: Exhibition Studies provides groundbreaking analysis of the factors and processes that shape such occasions.
The two-year course is taught in extended full-time mode, with an average of three taught days per week, and is aimed at graduate or professional applicants with a committed interest in art and theory, research and curatorial practice; however, students from a broad spectrum of backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
Teaching staff
The course is developed in collaboration with the publishing and research organisation Afterall, led by two of its editors, Lucy Steeds and Pablo Lafuente and with the ongoing participation of Charles Esche, a co-founding editor of Afterall and director of the Van Abbemuseum. Visiting lecturers have included Martin Beck, artist; Claire Bishop, art historian; Roger Buergel, curator and artistic director of Documenta 12 and of the 2012 Busan Biennale; Mary Jane Jacob, curator; and Lisette Lagnado, critic and chief curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo.
Research activities
During the past two years students have taken part in both academic and professional activities associated with Afterall, and specially in relation to its Exhibition Histories research and publication project, which Afterall develops in association with the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and the Van Abbemuseum.
Current students took part in Afterall’s ‘Artist as Curator’ symposium on 10 November 2012, with invited speakers including Ekaterina Degot, Elena Filipovic, Ruth Noack, Willem de Rooij, Valerie Smith and David Teh. They are now working to produce a follow-up event at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on 19 April 2013, ‘Artist as Curator Part 2: Collaborative Practices.’ Organised in partnership with Afterall and the Whitechapel, this symposium will bring together authors, artists and curators such as Zdenka Badovinac, Clémentine Deliss, Liu Ding, Ines Doujak and Oliver Ressler to discuss historical and contemporary developments of artists’ collective and self-organisational approaches to exhibition-making.
Students also participate in the activities of the ‘Exhibitions: histories, practices’ research group at Central Saint Martins, and have been commissioned to write for Afterall.
Further information
The MRes Art: Exhibition Studies course is part of a new Postgraduate Art Programme at Central Saint Martins, a college of the University of the Arts London, which also includes MRes Art: Moving Image and MRes Art: Theory and Philosophy, as well as MA Art and Science, MA Fine Art and MA Photography.
Successful applicants will benefit from studying at Central Saint Martins, one of the most prestigious art institutions in the world. The course is based at King’s Cross, the college’s new campus in Central London, and it provides access to faculty dedicated to a broad range of art and design disciplines, with additional support networks active across the city and internationally.
For more information on the MRes Art: Exhibition Studies please click here.
For more information on Afterall, please click here.