City & Guilds of London Art School
Introduction
Welcome to City & Guilds of London Art School, a not-for-profit, specialist higher education institution dedicated to teaching and inspiring the next generation of creative professionals. We provide an important alternative to other models of art and craft higher education in the UK.
All of our courses have a proven track record and are widely respected. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in contemporary Fine Art (BA (Hons) and MA), Conservation of cultural objects (BA (Hons) and MA), and Historic Carving (Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma), as well as a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. Please visit the individual programme pages to find out more about our courses.
While our fees are in line with standard UK degrees, we have a commitment to high levels of contact time with tutors, all of whom are active professionals. We also offer a significant number of bursaries and scholarships to help students fund their studies, thanks to a wide range of generous benefactors who recognise the Art School’s commitment to excellence. Students on our BA (Hons) course may be eligible for government-funded student loans.
TEACHING
Our staff to student ratios are generous, and teaching on all courses takes place across the week. Teaching is conducted by artists and practitioners at the top of their professional fields, who collectively provide a varied and dynamic range of expertise and viewpoints. The specialist nature of the Art School means we can focus on excellence and provide the one-to-one attention our subjects require. We believe in curiosity, ambition and learning through making. Every student is encouraged and supported to exceed their own expectations.
The education we offer is both broad and deep. We combine skills-based teaching with contextual Art Histories lectures and seminars that employ London’s museums and galleries as a crucial resource for regular targeted study trips. Drawing is fundamental to all of our courses with a dedicated Drawing Studio open to all, while the fruitful cross-pollination of subjects helps students to develop a profound understanding of their practice.
LOCATION AND FACILITIES
We have been at our Kennington site since 1879, which now comprises a Georgian terrace and purpose-built Victorian studios located opposite Kennington Tube station, together with large flexible studio spaces for the Foundation Diploma in a neighbouring 1930s ex-warehouse building. We have London’s galleries and museums within easy reach, with the National Gallery just a few stops away and both the East End galleries and South Kensington museums just a 20-minute tube journey away. This area of South London is fast becoming a cultural quarter with Damian Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, Gasworks, Beaconsfield and numerous other galleries within a short walk. Our relationship network with cultural organisations, museums and galleries is extensive and both local (London) and global, including partnerships in Venice, Tokyo and Berlin.
We recognise the centrality of the studio as a space for creative endeavour, analysis and experimentation, and students are allocated dedicated workspaces which support their intensive, focused and full-time practice. Each area of workspace is devised with the student’s practice in mind whether that is a high ceilinged artists’ studio with natural north light, or a conservation research lab. In addition, students have access to expert- run specialist resources and workshops, including the drawing studio, print room, wood workshop, casting workshop, glass workshop, Sackler Library and IT studio, as well as access to smaller specialist facilities such as a foundry, ceramics kilns and a photographic darkroom.
SUPPORT AND COMMUNITY
We operate on a human scale with approximately 230 students and 80+ teaching staff. This enables us to work with our students as distinct and important members of our lively and engaging creative community. We care about individual progress and stay in active communication with our alumni, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Students also benefit from collaborations with leading heritage, creative and art-related institutions and initiatives, which provide opportunities for voluntary work experience, commissioning and showcasing student work.
For more information, please visit our website.