Overview
The School of Art incorporates the histories and perspectives of Edinburgh College of Art’s original Schools of Drawing & Painting and of Sculpture, along with the Photography department and the Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies.
Our mission
In the School of Art we pursue the imaginative practice, research, analysis, organisation and communication of visual, material and sensual culture. We think and act.
The airy and light-filled studios, project spaces and workshops provide excellent facilities for making work, communicating ideas and generating dialogue.
Engagement takes place across the School, the College and the city, establishing a supportive and critical framework where a sophisticated understanding of the diversity of contemporary art practice and visual culture can be developed.
The student experience
The School is a stimulating community of practising artists, art historians, critics and curators. The majority of the teaching and learning at undergraduate level is through experiential projects of differing timeframes and complexity, situated in a studio environment. Conceptual, material and technical issues are explored through seminars, workshops, lectures, tutorials and critiques.
We expect our students to demonstrate imaginative responses to the world through curiosity and exploration and we prepare them to do this with depth, breadth and ambition beyond graduation. They are equipped with the talent, knowledge and expertise to lead, rather than simply respond to, future innovation in art practice.
Professional interaction
Master’s students have their own production company - [Relay] - which enables them to invite artists, writers and programme alumni to run workshops in their Project Space CO2 and to organise external curatorial and publishing ventures.
Recent internationally-acclaimed visitors include: Anna Barriball, Alasdair Gray, Frances Stark, Joseph Kosuth, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Dan Peterman, Manfred Pernice, JJ Charlesworth, Spartacus Chetwynd, Torsten Lauschmann, Juan Cruz, David Musgrave, Alan Currall, Scott Myles, Terry Atkinson, and Turner Prize winners Martin Creed, Mark Wallinger and Mark Leckey. Mike Nelson is an Honorary Research Fellow.
This article was published on May 7, 2012