Visual Cultures
School of Art
Content navigation menu
Programmes
Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Art History
MA Contemporary Art Theory
.jpg)
Learning
We pride ourselves on our interdisciplinary and innovative approach to learning and teaching. As well as being world-recognised scholars, many of our staff produce practice-based research as artists, curators and activists.
Our collective interests and involvements in the practice-theory interface have been embedded into our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Our students learn through many activities, including discussion and debate, as well as gallery visits, group work, fieldwork and placements.
This approach to learning enables students to develop research projects, presentations, and installations, often in a highly collaborative, experimental, and outward-facing manner, gaining as much from each other as they do from the teaching staff.
We host internationally renowned artists, theorists, activists, curators and filmmakers – including our award-winning alumni – in our termly Visual Cultures Public Programme.
Many of our graduates are embedded within international institutions such as Tate Modern, Ashkal Alwan and the Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent or have founded their own independent organisations such as Block Universe Performance Festival and Sylvia Kouvali Gallery.
Others have entered creative fields such as publishing, journalism and film production or have careers as teachers and researchers at universities around the world.
You will have access to specialist software, online learning platforms, and dedicated support for developing digital and entrepreneurial skills. Campus-wide services, including the Library, Careers Service, and Goldsmiths' Digital Studios, provide additional training and resources for content production and communication.
At Goldsmiths, you'll immerse yourself in a subject you love and be part of a welcoming and creative campus community.
Based in South East London, our vibrant setting connects you directly to the capital's business, technology, and cultural networks. Your learning goes far beyond the classroom through partnerships, guest lectures, and real-world industry experience.
You'll be supported by inspiring academics, dedicated staff, and fellow students who are passionate about making a difference. And because we're in London – ranked the world’s number one student city (QS Best Student Cities 2025) – you’ll benefit from our close links with some of the capital’s leading creative and cultural organisations.
Discover the campus for yourself with our Virtual Tour.
Teaching
We pride ourselves on our interdisciplinary and innovative approach to learning and teaching. As well as being world-recognised scholars, many of our staff produce practice-based research as artists, curators and activists.
Our collective interests and involvements in the practice-theory interface have been embedded into our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Student work
Our students learn through many activities, including discussion and debate, as well as gallery visits, group work, fieldwork and placements.
This approach to learning enables students to develop research projects, presentations, and installations, often in a highly collaborative, experimental, and outward-facing manner, gaining as much from each other as they do from the teaching staff.
Events and guest speakers
We host internationally renowned artists, theorists, activists, curators and filmmakers – including our award-winning alumni – in our termly Visual Cultures Public Programme.
Career development
Many of our graduates are embedded within international institutions such as Tate Modern, Ashkal Alwan and the Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent or have founded their own independent organisations such as Block Universe Performance Festival and Sylvia Kouvali Gallery.
Others have entered creative fields such as publishing, journalism and film production or have careers as teachers and researchers at universities around the world.
Facilities
You will have access to specialist software, online learning platforms, and dedicated support for developing digital and entrepreneurial skills. Campus-wide services, including the Library, Careers Service, and Goldsmiths' Digital Studios, provide additional training and resources for content production and communication.
Study with us
At Goldsmiths, you'll immerse yourself in a subject you love and be part of a welcoming and creative campus community.
Based in South East London, our vibrant setting connects you directly to the capital's business, technology, and cultural networks. Your learning goes far beyond the classroom through partnerships, guest lectures, and real-world industry experience.
You'll be supported by inspiring academics, dedicated staff, and fellow students who are passionate about making a difference. And because we're in London – ranked the world’s number one student city (QS Best Student Cities 2025) – you’ll benefit from our close links with some of the capital’s leading creative and cultural organisations.
Discover the campus for yourself with our Virtual Tour.
Research
Visual Cultures enjoys an international reputation for innovative and intellectually rigorous enquiry into contemporary art and culture, developing groundbreaking research to address new challenges in a changing world. We work at the intersection of social, philosophical, political, ecological and aesthetic forms, concerns or processes.
We investigate modern and contemporary art and spatial practices within an expanded field, which bridges performative and aural practices, cultural institutions and new technologies.
Our research is guided by four key principles: decentering, decolonizing; philosophical depth; political approaches to aesthetics and experimentation and innovation.
Find out more about research in Visual Cultures.
Research clusters
Many staff and students are affiliated with the following clusters:
- Situated Knowledges
- Spatial Practices and Architecture
- Planetary Aesthetics and Ecologies
- Digital Visual Cultures
- Curatorial and Institutional Practices
- Radical Archives: Memory, Narrative, Care
Meet the academics, technical tutors and researchers in the School of Art.