FA7057 - Public Art: Creating and Curating (2025/26)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2025/26 | ||||||||||||||||
| Module title | Public Art: Creating and Curating | ||||||||||||||||
| Module level | Masters (07) | ||||||||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 40 | ||||||||||||||||
| School | The School of Art, Architecture and Design | ||||||||||||||||
| Total study hours | 400 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2025/26(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
This module establishes the core narrative of the MA Public Art and Performative Practices and is designed to provide you with a conceptual and practical journey through artistic, cultural and ethical considerations in creating and curating works of public art, performative and participatory practices. The module directly references the London and International art scenes, with a variety of off-site activities to public art sites, galleries and institutions.
In doing so, the module aims to:
- provide a practical and cultural framework in public art and performative practices, to be applied across the MA
- encourage an interdisciplinary approach to public art, based on both creative practice and cultural inquiry
- directly relate to case studies within the art scenes in London and internationally
- draw on current discourses in the subject of public art and performances, exploring artistic, cultural and ethical questions
Prior learning requirements
Available for Study Abroad? YES
Syllabus
This module combines on-site seminars and mini-lectures with off-site visits to explore a wide range of locations: from art spaces to everyday sites around London. A range of industry perspectives, including case studies from selected organisations and from guest artists and researchers will contribute to the module, providing a wide-ranging overview of the diverse practices of the field. Sessions are informed by key artistic, curatorial, ethical and social principles that form the themes in relation to which projects are created. LO1-LO2
Many sessions will include practical creative tasks, in which students will apply creative strategies to produce imaginative experiences of public engagement and participation. These creative tasks will be modelled on real-life and speculative public art briefs, for which a range of projects will be conceived to different degrees of realisation. LO1-LO4
Across the year, students will be expected to compile a portfolio of work (or a range of portfolios, articulated according to the three main Projects), documenting the creative practice for each brief and the research (artistic and curatorial) undertaken in conjunction to this. Portfolios will be the main tool for the assessment of the module, as each project is delivered in a portfolio format submitted as an online document. LO1-LO5
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
The module is consistently interdisciplinary and, as such, makes use of a variety of learning strategies, both practical and theoretical. Scheduled teaching will involve a range of activities drawing on the aforementioned three strands (Observation, Creation, Reflection).
Independent tasks will be encouraged throughout, specifically focused on the projects developed within the Creation strand of the module.
Students are expected to supplement the knowledge covered in class with additional research, both through reading and field observations of actual case studies. Blended learning and online resources will be used to implement tasks and further research.
Furthermore, students will reference their work theoretically in the accompanying module Research for Practice or Inclusive Practice and Methods + Social Artefacts, so that the combination of both provides a methodological model in integrating theory and practice.
In-class activity makes use of varied student-centred approaches, so that a range of learning strategies is deployed, and individual learning styles are accommodated. Information is provided through a range of means and sources to minimise and remove barriers to successful progress through the module. The course team seeks to embed the University’s Education for Social Justice Framework in fostering learning that is enjoyable, accessible, relevant and that takes account of the social and cultural context and capital of its students.
Activities foster peer-to-peer community building and support for learning. Reflective learning is promoted through interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, receive help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including written reflections on progress and achievement.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will have gained:
A. Cognitive intellectual abilities
LO1 An interdisciplinary knowledge of public art and performative practices, based on both practice and theory
A. Knowledge and understanding
LO2 An insight into the London and international public art scenes, drawing on diverse case studies of projects and curatorial programmes
B. Transferable skills
LO3 The ability to carry out multiple projects (artistic and/or curatorial), drawing on current discourses in the field
B. Subject specific skills
LO4 artistic/curatorial practice, achieved through speculative projects based on real life strategies employed in contemporary public art programming
LO5 Experience in observing and evaluating of current events within public art and performative practices