MA Culture, Criticism and Curation

MA Culture, Criticism and Curation is a course directed towards critical enquiry and mindful change-making in the fields of culture, curation, art, design and creative production. To equip practitioners with tools that will enable them to actively find their way through a variety of institutional and cultural situations, the Course offers an overview of cultural history and curatorial theory alongside opportunities to acquire skills in research, writing, curating and production.

On this Course we address the present moment and pressing questions faced by cultural producers, policy makers, curators, artists and researchers. Approached through interdisciplinary and intercultural enquiry, you will learn to engage with the in-between places where new knowledge is developed via an integration of theory and practice. Through the lens of activism, we explore with you the ways in which culture, criticism and curation can contribute to change, through accumulative small steps or actions.

The curator is positioned as a figure able to act intentionally, bring in agency and make change in a variety of frameworks, within and without the world of the creative industries. Curating makes meaning and contributes new, critical perspectives on existing scenarios. The Course asks you to think reflectively—with others—about the forms that art and culture take, identify where and how hegemonies develop, keep hold and challenge them.

The Course prioritises interrelations between people as well as ideas and objects, and will help you develop your capacity to collaborate with empathy and through dialogue. Through skilling in mindfulness and active listening, you will build up sensitivity as well as working practically within networks of collaborators and audiences.

We encourage you to test and engage with emerging digital tools and communication platforms to undertake research, experiment with forms and collaborate equitably.

We recognise how new generations of professionals are prepared to redefine and renegotiate traditionally defined roles within industry, and who are keen to direct themselves proactively. The Course works with you to develop research-led, experimental, creative and critical curatorial practices to enable you to engage with and make an impact in changing situations, in professional work or through further study.

We are committed to developing ethical cultural and critical  practices. To achieve this, we are working to embed UAL's Principles for Climate, Social and Racial Justice into the course.