MFA Curating 2025–26

MFA Curating at Goldsmiths is welcoming applications for the 2025–26 entry.

The original meaning of the word cura means care and concern, and curators have long been caretakers of collections, exhibitions and ideas, of artists, audiences and situations. In the last two decades, curators have taken on broader responsibilities—as conveners, mediators, translators, awareness-raisers—in the deployment of collective imaginaries, acts of world-making and proposals for more sustainable futures.

Focused on the contemporary, while acknowledging the past through the study of the genealogies of curating as a discipline, MFA Curating looks to anticipate what curatorial practice might look like and mean tomorrow. In our programme, we see curating as a central and complex place from which to see the world and meaningfully act within it.

MFA Curating offers knowledge in the form of a toolbox, ranging from theoretical concepts to the practicalities of project management, and is built on a peer-to-peer learning model. Our student-centered learning generates independent, articulate, confident, self-motivated, knowledgeable producers who support each other’s learning and development.

The programme is designed for students who wish to take up the challenge of contemporary curating as an artistic, social and critical undertaking, and to develop their professional practice in this area. We provide a practice-led research context for aspiring curators and producers, practitioners at an early stage of their professional development, and those looking for a shift in their art career.

Interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, collaboration, and practices of listening, attention and accountability towards the human and non-human worlds are key principles of the programme. These principles help students develop methods and a work ethos relevant to the area of practice they want to pursue and refine, whether exhibition-making, public programming, commissioning social or public projects, publishing, or working with artists and practitioners from other disciplines.

The programme is situated within the Department of Art and curating students work in close proximity to postgraduate art students—in particular MA Art and Ecology, MFA Fine Art, and MA Artists’ Film & Moving Image, allowing for a unique dialogue. The programme is also associated with Goldsmiths’ Centre for Art and Ecology and the Art Research Garden, and works in close connection with Goldsmiths CCA, a vibrant platform for international curating and exhibition making. Upon graduation, we offer students a fellowship scheme to work on the MFA Curating programme or at Goldsmiths CCA

The course offers students the possibility of realising projects through our associations with organisations including Cubitt, Forma, Gasworks, Mimosa House, Acme and Artangel. Students are offered opportunities for professional development through placements at Tate Modern, Create London and the Government Art Collection.        

Goldsmiths’ MFA Curating programme is recognised worldwide for producing highly qualified curators and arts professionals, as well as those pursuing further academic study at PhD level. Our graduates find employment in top international museums, commercial galleries, magazines, non-profit organisations and alternative spaces.      

Our staff is made up of internationally renowned curators and academics whose own professional practice informs their work as teachers: Paul Clinton, Dr. Anna Colin, Chris Hammond, Kirsty Ogg, Helena Reckitt, Dr. Irene Revell and Prof. Andrew Renton.

Apply here.