MA Art & Ecology

We are pleased to announce that Goldsmiths MA Art & Ecology is now accepting applications for September 2023 entry. This innovative fifteen-month studio-based postgraduate programme is designed for artists and graduates who want to engage through practice in meaningful and transformative ways with the most pressing ecological questions of our time.

The MA Art & Ecology invites artists to develop a self-directed project in response to urgent ecological challenges, including climate breakdown, pollution, biodiversity loss and environmental and social justice. We welcome artistic practices that may involve painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, performance, art writing, textiles, digital media and video, as well as food production, rewilding, inter-species care and co-dependence, sustainable data, citizen and expert science, waste management, somatic work and ritual. The MA Art & Ecology encourages applications from artists working in any ecological context, from rural to ocean habitats, from social movements to scientific settings. The programme’s location in South East London, with proximity to some of the world’s leading artistic and scientific institutions, also provides an opportunity to focus on urban ecologies as dynamic ‘more-than-human’ worlds.

The MA Art & Ecology provides an exception opportunity for artists to learn skills, acquire knowledge and build networks that will be essential to propelling their professional artistic practice after graduation. Students are supported by the Programme Leader Dr Ros Gray and Studio Lecturer Dr Jol Thoms. Other contributing staff and visiting tutors include Louise Ashcroft, Tyler Colburn, Cooking Sections, Suzanne Dhaliwal, Taru Elfving, FRAUD, Ellie Ga, Ian Hunt, Matterlurgy, Harun Morrison, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Professor Lucy Orta, Gerard Ortín Castellví, Jacqueline Pennell, Lucia Pietroiusti, Himali Singh Soin, Dr Edgar Schmitz, Åsa Sonjasdotter, Carole Wright, and Rehana Zaman.

The Department of Art offers students world-class art-production facilities, from Graphics and Time-Based Media and 3D printing to Constructed Textiles, Photography and Moving Image Capture, Ceramics, Woodwork, Metal and Casting, Print and Dye, Fine Art Print, Stitch and Fabric, a Pigment Garden and an Allotment. The Lewisham Way Garden for Art Research is in development and hosted Harun Morrison as its first artist-in-residence in 2022. The programme teaches best professional practice through talks and workshops led by practititioners that provide real-world insights into the kinds of skills, negotiations and knowledge necessary to realising a successful expanded practice. In the last year, students on the programme have benefitted from a range of opportunities with external partners, including the Horniman Museum’s Art in the Gardens: Ecology Boards, the CIRCA commission Agnes Denes: Another Confrontation, and Delfina Foundation’s The Politics of Food.

Through the development of their artistic project, students will realise a public exhibition and disseminate their research process through a project journal that is published online. Studio practice is taught through an intensive programme of individual tutorials, group crits and study visits. Students also participate in an artist-led experimental laboratory. The MA Art & Ecology provides a specialised programme of critical studies lectures and seminars on art’s relation to socio-ecological issues such as climate justice, indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice, and theoretical approaches such as ecofeminism, decolonial ecology, queer ecologies, and science and technology studies. Students will be part of a dynamic research culture at Goldsmiths, which includes the Critical Ecologies research stream. Goldsmiths Green New Deal is a further context that the university provides for understanding and participating in ecological change.

Application: For more information on the programme, available scholarships and bursaries and how to apply online, please visit here. Please register for an open day, or write to Dr. Ros Gray if you would like to discuss your application.