Study Details: MA 15 months full-time
MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts is designed to enhance the making, criticality and articulation of your practice. It aims to expand the contextual reach of your works and the audiences for them. The course encourages experimental studio practice and individual inquiry at a professional level.
Throughout the course, you will challenge what art is or could be, how art is communicated or exhibited, and consider how to develop a future-facing, culturally progressive fine art practice. You’ll undertake research to critically explore the local, national and international contexts within which art operates. Developing this contextual awareness will ensure you build a sustainable, audience-aware practice that engages with culturally relevant concerns.
What to expect
The standard minimum entry requirements for this course are:
Entry to this course will also be determined by the quality of your application, looking primarily at your portfolio of work and artist’s statement.
APEL - Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning
Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases. 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 we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.
For fees and funding information, please see website
The course develops students’ potential to operate as professional practitioners within an international art community, or to progress to further academic research at PhD level.
Many students go on to set up their own studio practice, developing strong professional links with galleries, critics, and curators. Many Chelsea MA Fine Art alumni are practicing artists working at national and international level.
Due to the course’s interdisciplinary practical approach, many graduates have expanded or multi-platform careers in related fields such as curating, arts management, art dealing, arts advisory services, theatre, film, broadcasting, music, fashion, education, events management, online media, writing and publishing.
Unit 1: Establishing a community
This unit is an introduction to your course, the College and the University.
You’ll develop your own practice and ideas while continually making work in a professional context for a public audience. You’ll work collaboratively on exhibitions and events with other students.
Off-site activities will include field trips and introductions to London’s emerging art scene. As part of the unit, you’ll be asked to produce a Contextual Research Document and Professional Portfolio.
Unit 2: Making your work public
This unit is designed to help you refine your ideas and how to articulate them to different audiences. Discussion forums will help you position your ideas within contemporary dialogues and debates. Consultancies with visiting guests will give you a chance to get professional feedback on your practice and development.
A series of professional development workshops will help you with communication of your work, exhibition strategies and project management. You’ll take part in and organise projects with other students and external partners and present work in a postgraduate show
You’ll submit a proposal that outlines how you plan to progress your professional practice during the unit 3. And, as part of the unit, you’ll be asked to produce a Contextual Research Document and Professional Portfolio.
Unit 3: Locating and sustaining your practice
Unit 3 is about progressing your career ambitions and will take place entirely off-campus. You’ll be assigned and supported by an advisor, who is an arts professional.
You’ll research how you might activate your practice within an external context that you have chosen and identified as appropriate to your development. This may include setting up a studio collective with other students from the course, or operating within a professional context within London, other locations in the United Kingdom or abroad.
You’ll be asked to reflect on your learning and development during the unit in a Contextual Research Document. This will form part of your assessment along with your Professional Portfolio and end of unit presentation.
Note: 120 Credits must be passed before the final unit is undertaken.
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