Fine Art (Curatorial Practice)

MA Fine Art (Curatorial Practice) at Bath Spa is designed for students who wish to broaden their knowledge and experience of gallery practice, models of curating and the changing nature of the museum.

This Master's degree will challenge your assumptions and encourage you to explore ways to progress within and transform the field. It will also encourage you to build collaborative relationships with other professionals and develop transferable skills.

You’ll take a holistic approach, embedding theory, research, and historical and contemporary practice into your work.

This MA in Curatorial Practice runs over one year and is divided into three trimesters.

Trimester one
You'll be introduced to a range of key issues in art and curatorial practice, allowing you to explore how your specialism relates to the wider field.

You’ll also start to develop your professional practice skills, such as understanding governance, proposal writing, collaborative processes, methods of display, contracts and team leadership. This will begin your critical analysis of current debates and the changing politics of curating, informed by research and practice.

Trimester two
Building on the work in the first trimester, you’ll maintain an experimental approach, but start to narrow your focus.

Academic staff will help you to evaluate your initial studio developments and to refine your working strategy. You’ll explore what curators need to consider when making live projects and presenting work in public contexts. Live projects might include exhibitions, displays, learning projects or residencies in appropriate settings, on campus, or with any of the School’s external partners. Technical staff will support you to bring your outputs to a finished level for exhibition at assessment.

Trimester three
You’ll work in the studio with increasing independence as you establish a professional practice. You’ll devise and complete your Master’s Project, working to a proposal which contextualises your work within your specialist discipline and leads to your final Degree Show.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document for more information on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Research Methods
• Theory and Professional Context
• Practice 1 (Fine Art)
• Research Practice
• Theory and Professional Practices
• Practice 2 (Fine Art)
• Masters Project

Your progress is evaluated throughout the course and at the end of each trimester through a mixture of exhibitions, verbal/visual presentations, research folders/blogs and written assignments.

You’ll learn through lectures, talks, taught sessions, individual and group tutorials, and studio critiques and seminars.

Visiting lecturers, and seminars with external professionals and internationally renowned designers and artists will help you determine where your current practice sits within the industry.

Our collaborative structure also means that you’ll learn from each other – for instance, Photography or Ceramics students might engage in debates with Curatorial Practice students.

Technical Demonstrators, who manage our workshop facilities, provide teaching and support across a wide range of subject specialisms. Your learning is also supported by specialist librarians.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Exchange potential is global. Opportunities have been established in partnership with, amongst others, Hauser and Wirth, CAL Arts, Xian Academy of Fine Arts and the Freelands Foundation.

When permitted, Bath School of Art, Film and Media offers field trips throughout the academic year. Past trips have included the British Ceramics Biennial, Jerwood Makers Prize, Collect, Ceramic Art London, V&A Museum, Hauser and Wirth (Somerset), Spike Island, Bristol; Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery; Salisbury Arts Centre; and National Museum Wales' sites in Cardiff.

• The Porthleven Prize
• Emerge studio residency

As a postgraduate Fine Art (Curatorial Practice) student you’ll benefit from access to comprehensive digital workshops and specialist art and design facilities, including:

• Our student service point at Locksbrook where you can purchase subsidised art and design materials, hire out equipment for free and collect Library resources
• Access to our well-stocked Library at Newton Park
• Specialist technical facilities across all of art and design
• Access to studio space where you can work on projects and refine your practice and your research.