About Art And Visual Culture MA in University of Westminster, London

The Art and Visual Culture MA is part of the Cultural and Literary Studies Suite, a cluster of four MAs that bring together academics, curators and practitioners who share a commitment to investigating modern and contemporary culture from aesthetic, critical, literary, and experiential perspectives. You will share classes with students from the Cultural and Critical Studies MA, the English Literature: Modern and Contemporary Fictions MA, and the Museum, Galleries and Contemporary Culture MA, joining a fruitful and intellectually-rigorous environment designed to facilitate the sprouting of interdisciplinary thinking. As part of our Suite, you may also choose an option module from the other three MA programmes (what is referred to as an ‘elective’ module), a fantastic opportunity to explore a facet of culture outside of your chosen MA programme. 

The Art and Visual Culture MA is an interdisciplinary, visual theory-based course established around the belief that visual literacy and the impact of visual forms of thinking and working play significant roles in our society. On the course, we interrogate visual perception and representation in high and popular culture, explore how these produce meanings, and how such meanings shape societies and individuals.

The course introduces you to a wide range of historical and contemporary debates that inform the theories and practices of visual culture, and supports you in developing a conceptual framework within which to evaluate the role of the visual arts, and other forms of visual production, in contemporary society and culture. The course gives you a solid grounding for careers in the art and cultural sectors as well as academia, and it is also suitable for practising artists wishing to further their research.

This MA balances historical and theoretical debates in the field of visual culture studies with a rigorous interrogation of cultural practices across a range of topics, including: contemporary visual arts; the visual and material culture of the city; modernism in art and architecture; popular and avant-garde cultures; fin de siècle visual culture; digital culture and new media technologies; migration, identity and gender as represented in cultural practices; activism and popular politics; theory and practice of archive research; and critical theories of modern and contemporary culture. 

Many of our modules include class visits to leading museums, galleries and archives in London: this provides a fantastic opportunity to engage directly with the city’s cultural institutions and intellectual resources, in doing so providing you with sophisticated critical thinking skills as well as practical knowledge of how the cultural sector operates.

​​​Academic qualification equivalents

• You will typically need to have one of the following:

• 3-year Bachelor's degree (Honours) from an accredited university with a minimum overall average of 55% or CGPA 6.0 out of 10.0 depending on the university
• 3-year Bachelor's degree (Science) from an accredited university with a minimum overall from 58% or CGPA 6.5 out of 10.0 depending on the university
• 4-year Bachelor's degree (Eng/Tech) from an accredited university with a minimum overall average of 55% or CGPA 6.0 out of 10.0 depending on the university

English language requirements (one of the below):

•  IELTS: 6.5 overall with a minimum 5.5 in each component
• TOEFL iBT : 88 overall with a minimum of 17 in Listening, 21 in Writing, 18 in Reading and 20 in Speaking 
• PTE:58 average with 51 in each component

University of Westminster, London Highlights

University of Westminster Cost of Attendance

The average estimated annual cost for 2020/2021 session is presented on the table below: