BA (Hons) Fine Art (XD)

On BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, we recognise the breadth of possibilities in contemporary art, and will challenge you to develop an experimental practice. You will work in one of four pathways – 2D, 3D, 4D or XD – which encompass studio practice, theoretical studies and personal and professional development. This course is part of the Art programme.
Welcome to the Fine Art BA where you will develop the creative and critical skills to challenge prevailing artistic conventions. The course is aimed at students who wish to question the norms, practices and biases embedded in societies and cultures. You and your contemporaries are the creative practitioners of the future and together we can question and remake the cultural landscape of today.
BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins asks two core questions in relation to art; what is the site of production and what is the site of encounter In other words where has the material of art come from, where is it going and how is it consumed and experienced Working together, staff and students interrogate the multiple and varied ways in which artists make work and make work public. We encourage our students to be resourceful, imaginative and reflective and we will support this by mobilising critical thinking.
At CSM we continually challenge what we think art is. We recognise the broad diversity of social, political, cultural, economic and technological contexts in which contemporary art is made and exhibited and we encourage your practice to reflect this multi-dimensionality. In accordance with our commitment to cultural, ecological, economic and social sustainability, we advocate ethical approaches to the sites of production and encounter. As a course we are committed to embedding UAL’s Principles for Climate, Social and Racial Justice through practical and pedagogic initiatives within our building, alongside our many external partners and through the urgency of our advocacy. Across the course there are many opportunities to engage with the issues of climate social and racial justice.
The course is organised into four studios; 2D, 3D, 4D and XD. Each studio engages students with specific critical perspectives and technical inductions. You are encouraged to develop your work in relation to different forms of practice across any range of media. The studios embody an inter-disciplinary approach encouraging speculative methods, acknowledging complexity and interconnectedness. Our making advances the contemporary range of materials and technologies alongside the ethical and artistic discourses engaged by artists today. This commitment is reflected in the cross-studio events that are structured throughout the course.
Your studio will provide you with an experimental space where discoveries can occur. For this to keep happening the studio has to be perpetually reinvented, functioning as laboratory, performative site, social space and discursive environment. The notion of studio refers to any space for making and exploration. Artists always find new ways to make work with different resources, finding new places to make work that utilise innovative and established production processes. At CSM, the studios reflect these trends.Through participatory methods students co-create with staff to develop and model the studio appropriate to the needs of the group.
Experimental forms of exhibition-making take place within each stage of the course. Exhibitions happen both in the University and in public venues, in conventional and non-conventional physical and non-physical spaces.
Students can also opt to take the year-long Diploma in Professional Studies between Stages 2 and 3, offering highly focused and personalised work placements which help them develop enhanced communication, networking, and organisational skills.

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

One of the following accepted full Level 3 qualifications:

Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Level 3 or 4) or EU/International Foundation equivalent

Merit, Pass, Pass (MPP) at BTEC Extended Diploma (preferred subjects include Art, Art and Design or Design and Technology)

Pass at UAL Extended Diploma

Access to Higher Education Diploma equivalent to 64 UCAS tariff points (preferred subjects include Art, Art and Design or Design and Technology)

And three GCSE passes at grade 4 or above (grade A*\u2013C).

Entry to this course will also be determined by assessment of your portfolio.