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‘This is an exciting time for the school, with our new programme in Contemporary Art Practice extending our range and enabling us to remain at the forefront of debates and discussions in the broad and ever-expanding field of Fine Art. As the largest and most international concentration of postgraduate Fine Art students, researchers and academics in the world, the School of Fine Art at the RCA is the key international point of reference for anyone trying to understand what Fine Art is about today.’

Juan Cruz is an artist and writer with a long-standing commitment to Fine Art education. Prior to joining the RCA in 2014, Professor Cruz was Director of Liverpool School of Art & Design, and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Professor Cruz is a member of the Tate Liverpool Council, and a trustee of the Liverpool Biennale and the John Moores Painting Prize. His work as an artist is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London, and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid.

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We are committed to examining the means by which art is made – the rich array of positions, methods and materials that artists use and have used, as well as the subjects, ideas and issues that are successfully articulated by art.

While supporting the research and study of specific disciplines, the School identifies Fine Art as the overarching subject within which all our work takes place. Our School-wide lectures and workshops will seek to define an understanding of both the contemporary context and of what the future might hold, with renowned artists, writers, curators, critics and theorists from a range of fields including economics, sociology, politics and linguistics helping us to look at our work from an expanded range of perspectives.

Staff — Students are taught by highly regarded and active practitioners, who are also academically qualified to provide a critical context for their work. For further information on staff, including research interests, exhibitions and publications, please visit:rca.ac.uk/staff

Applications are welcomed from — Graduates with a good BA degree in Fine Art or a related subject, who are able to demonstrate an original and critical approach to their work, as well as an ability to engage with current theories of art and culture. For College-wide and programme-specific requirements, please see: rca.ac.uk/entrance-requirements

Alumni — The Royal College of Art is rightly proud of its graduates’ achievements. Alumni from the RCA form part of an international network of creative individuals who have shaped and continue to shape our culture. Well-known Fine Art alumni include: Frank Auerbach, Christiane Baumgartner, Peter Blake, Victor Burgin, Jake Chapman, Tony Cragg, Dexter Dalwood, Adam Dant, Richard Deacon, Tracey Emin, Ori Gersht, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Tom Hunter, Idris Khan, Henry Moore, Tim Noble, Chris Ofili, Marilène Oliver, Chris Orr, Bridget Riley, Hannah Starkey, Gavin Turk, Nick Waplington, Richard Wentworth and Carey Young.

Contemporary Art Practice Led by Dr Mel Jordan, Reader in Art & the Public Sphere, Contemporary Art Practice incorporates practices that exceed the specificity of the well-established disciplines at the Royal College of Art, facilitating students’ engagement with the histories, theories and expanded practices of Fine Art. Students will be committed to developing and foregrounding the conceptual and social ideas in their practice, while engaging with appropriate material and technical concerns for making contemporary art now. The programme is delivered through four distinct pathways: Critical Practice, Moving Image, Performance and Public Sphere, and your application should stipulate which pathway you wish to study. Critical Practice is delivered with MA Critical Writing in Art & Design in the School of Humanities. Contemporary Art Practice students have access to all facilities within the School of Fine Art. The programme has specialist pathway leaders in order to facilitate a distinct engagement with specific areas of contemporary art practice. Studio-based and focused on supporting the artistic practice of its students, Critical Practice, led by Jeremy Millar, offers regular seminars exploring emerging ideas and bodies of theory as well as opportunities to work with organised forms of knowledge such as public archives and institutions.

Moving Image, led by Jane Wilson, is aimed at artists using film and video, and practitioners working in the areas of documentary film, film and fiction cinema – practitioners who wish to draw upon, challenge and re-map established realms of practice. The diversity of approaches employed in the pathway reflects the new reality of contemporary moving image. Performance, led by Professor Nigel Rolfe, happens in the ‘here and now’ and not the ‘there and then’. Unlike many practices, where time is historic, and the image presented is necessarily an archive or record, ‘being and doing’ are more immediately significant in live time, and the expectation is that – in the contemporary – artists are often presenting work that is not made in advance but rather happening now. Public Sphere, led by Dr Mel Jordan, is a major research area in the School, and the pathway supports expanded engagement with art and its publics as well as art’s social function. Social art practices have featured as a key force in the rise of the global biennale as well as being utilised by the Occupy movement. Therefore questions about public space, participation, collaboration and collective action are becoming essential principles within the production of contemporary art both in terms of practice and theory. ca

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Painting Led by Professor David Rayson, the Painting programme is committed to broadening the understanding of the discipline in all its forms. Paint is a fluid material and ideas surrounding what painting is, has been and can be are being continually reflected upon, and actively explored. Students and staff rigorously, critically and supportively engage in personal tutorials, group critiques and presentations. These discussions and critical forums take place in the Painting studios, across the College, through visits to galleries and major exhibitions both in this country and abroad, and through collaborations with partner institutions. Our students are here to reflect upon and play out what kind of artist they want to be – how best to serve and challenge their personal agendas in relation to current discussions and developments within the scope of contemporary painting, and the broader cultural realm. The student experience is supported by the Painting programme, the opportunities and events that are timetabled across the School of Fine Art, and the Critical & Historical Studies schedule. The programme is designed and delivered to support our graduates in developing art practices that are sustainable and meaningful to each artist’s particular ambitions and operate at the highest levels of the contemporary art world.

Photography Led by Professor Olivier Richon, the Photography programme provides a critical and educational environment in which students develop as artists with photography at the core of their practice. Our approach to photography relates to practices and theories of contemporary art, rather than media and communication. We have a fluid approach to image making; whether still or moving, analogue or digital, the photographic image is for us a visual form that aims to be thoughtful as well as playful: an allegorical and thoroughly visual form. The programme understands photography as a medium with no fixed identity. This disregard for a fixed essence is photography’s strength: no aesthetic purity but a multiplicity of rhetorical forms used for the creation of fact, fiction and fantasy. Our students have developed ways of working to address questions of narrative, signs and meaning. Central is a fascination with the power of the image to disrupt language and reason, an iconophilia that celebrates the imaginary. For many, photography engages with the mind – an art of imaginary solutions. An informed practice of photography acknowledges the heterogeneous traditions of fine art and visual culture. It also engages with practices of reading and writing about the image. Here, theory and practice inform each other and this dialogue characterises committed study at postgraduate level. p

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Print Led by Professor Jo Stockham, the Print programme is a two-year, full-time specialist MA course that sees Print as an expanded field encompassing both printed matter and archives in art and the making of prints, installations, publications and multiples. We explore the mediated image through a range of intellectual approaches supported by a diverse team of tutors, who are all practising artists interested in post-print debates. Students from a wide variety of backgrounds choose to study with us because of their interest in the nature of the copy, collage, appropriation, the materiality of the image, diagramming, the politics of print, and print as a collaborative practice. Access to world-class technical facilities in all print media means that we are able to explore and expand the field addressing the constant interplay between thinking and making, image and technology with a focus on digital/analogue relations.

Artists’ books and web-based work as forms of distribution and narrative structure are a growing interest reflected in international collaborative projects. Students take part in several exhibitions, and professional practice placements are an integral part of the course. We are embedded in a network of international galleries, print publishers, workshops, and archives. Collaboration and residency situations wheremaking work is a form of exchange are actively encouraged.

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Sculpture Led by Reader in Time-based Media Jordan Baseman, the Sculpture programme establishes a framework that encompasses the material, historical and theoretical conditions of sculpture, where students are supported to develop their own practice. Sculpture includes a broad range of approaches, but – rather than consider the specific manifestations of sculpture – we prefer to think of our position as a methodology from which to progress the production of art. Internationalism is at the core of the programme’s identity. The nature of Sculpture as a subject of site, place and interaction with locations makes the idea of being ‘international’ paramount. Most pertinently this is demonstrated by our staff and students. Our current student body includes artists from China, USA, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Switzerland, Austria, Chile, Australia, Poland, Colombia, Peru, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Spain and Sweden. The make-up of this global cohort is always keenly anticipated and we value the unique insights brought from each location.

We aim to select a student body that complements itself, so in a sense to dovetail with its own composition, to create exciting new potentials for learning and discussion before the first term even begins. While each year group is unique, this mixture of students is something we aim for every year. This leads to lifelong friendships and a unique moment of professional development, as conversations turn into informal group shows and residencies, these things we warmly encourage, all springing up from this juxtaposition of cultures. Our vision is to continue to become increasingly global, truly international.

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MRes RCA Fine Art Pathway introduces students to a range of advanced practice-based methodologies through the School’s Fine Art Research programme and thematic School groups. These are led by key researchers from the School and beyond, together with visiting professors. Students are involved in live and collaborative research projects and have access to weekly Fine Art lectures, Visual Cultures lectures and regular tutorials with academic staff. The broad base of expertise offered by the School of Fine Art means we can support research interests in moving image, painting, performance, photography, printmaking and sculpture. We conceive Fine Art as accessible to collaboration with other fields and disciplines; celebrating the deployment of diverse methods of research and production that are invented, borrowed and even stolen.

Research in the School is driven by the individual concerns of academics and students within the broad context of art practice. We operate an integrated research culture, and our work informs every level of activity in the School. We conceive of the School as a critically and socially engaged platform for debate and experimentation about art and its applications, which seeks to understand and generate opportunities for artists in the world. This all contributes to a dynamic art research culture evolved through seminars, symposia and exhibitions, and conducted at individual and group level. Staff and student research is supported by world-class facilities including a full range of well-equipped moving image, performance, computing, photography, printmaking and sculpture workshops, all staffed by highly skilled technicians. The School organises research-focused symposia, publications and School-wide lectures and tutorials, with guests in 2016 including Richard Sennett, Suhail Malik, Marina Warner, Jonas Staal, David Cunningham, Bar Vulkan and many more.

Research Students: MPhil and PhD The School of Fine Art specialises in practice-based MPhils and PhDs. Research students are registered at School level and follow their own course of study, under the guidance of a research supervisor. Supervisors include all heads of programme, and tutors and senior tutors including Margarita Gluzberg, Yve Lomax, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Tim O’Riley, Francette Pacteau, Aura Satz, John Slyce, Nigel Rolfe and Nicky Coutts. Researchers are expected to produce a coherent and original body of work that combines reflexive art practice with conceptual rigour. Research will be self-motivated and independent, enhanced by the following support:– regular tutorials with your supervisor– a programme of bi-monthly discursive seminars, including exhibitions and creative writing workshops– guest lectures– financial assistance to support attendance at conferences and student-run research initiatives– a weekly cross-College Research Methods Course throughout the first year of study, supporting students in the development of their methodology– access to all specialist academic libraries and museum archives in London.

fine-art-research@rca.ac.uk rca.ac.uk/fine-art-research

Fine Art FacilitiesFine Art programmes provide all students with studio and workshop space. The Moving Image Studio provides students with an equipped film and video studio, a series of self-contained editing suites, equipment loans, a technical teaching area and a tutorial space. There are a number of bookable seminar and project spaces across the site available to all Fine Art programmes and students.

Lens-based Media and Audio Resources – Facilities include a variety of photography, animation and moving-image studios that provide filming, lighting and sound workshops. Painting and Sculpture – Materials workshops are provided, as well as a stretcher service and well-equipped metal and wood workshops.Printmaking – Etching, lithography, intaglio, screenprinting and letterpress areas, and a digital suite with large-format digital printing and a reprographics workshop.

College-wide FacilitiesAccess to a range of technical resources can be provided, and students are encouraged to use College-wide facilities, including the Drawing Studio and the RCA Library, located in Kensington. Some facilities are subject to an induction and access is granted following an assessment of academic need.

College Shop and Print Shop – These sell a variety of graphics and art supplies, wood and acrylic, stationery and paper, and provide various high-quality, large-format inkjet printing in colour, greyscale and black and white. Digital Aided Making – These resources offer subtractive manufacturing support for laser cutting, CNC machining and plasma cutting. The varied range of available CNC equipment includes 3 and 4 axis benchtop CNC and large-format 5 axis CNC machines. Students are able to experience working with a variety of materials including plastic, wood, metal and synthetic media.3D Workshops – Facilities include a wood workshop, metal fabrication, engineering, a plastics workshop and a resin, clay and moulding studio. A spray booth is available for specialist paint finishes and a number of bookable project and making spaces complete the facilities.Ceramics & Glass – Facilities include areas for

hot glass making, cold glass working, kiln forming, plaster model and mould making, plastic clay making, as well as clay and glaze development.Jewellery & Metal – Processes available include anodising, CAD/CAM-milling, computer modelling and rapid prototyping, casting, electro-forming, enamelling, forging, tool making, patination, plating, presswork, spark erosion and laser, MIG and TIG welding.Fashion – Facilities include access to a fabric stockroom and specialist software within the College computing suite, as well as a wide variety of specialist sewing machinery, for both apparel and footwear, as well as dummies and finishing presses.Raw Materials Workshop – The workshop provides a cutting service for students and dispenses wood, plastics and metal sold through the College Shop and free hire of a selection of power tools and ladders.Resource Stores – Free hire of lens-based media and AV equipment.Textiles – Provides access to a yarn store as well as workshops supporting knitting and linking, digital knit, embroidery machines and mixed media, printed and woven textiles.Smart Zone – The Smart Zones across the College include training rooms and open-access computer areas. The technical workshops here showcase a variety of software and digital processes including group and 1:1 sessions with technologists. Fa

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