Contemporary Art Practice (MA)

In the Contemporary Art Practice MA at the RCA, we take a collective and responsive approach to the curriculum, one which is in dialogue with the people who comprise the community: the artists who make up the students and staff of CAP of a given year. It would be impossible for a programme like ours to have a set curriculum, by necessity it must shift in order to reflect the contemporary world and so that we can experiment with the form and practice of teaching and learning in more formal settings and also through simply being together across studios and crits and in workshops and queues for the microwave.

It has been a big year for CAP. Undoubtedly, a highlight was the CAP Festival. Now in its fourth iteration, the annual festival offers our students an opportunity to work collaboratively and with external partners. This year we were invited by Tate Modern to activate four large spaces within the gallery as part of the Tate Modern Lates event in March. It was the first time TML had collaborated with an art school and the CAP students absolutely shined on the night with their interactive performances, artist talks, film screenings, workshops and installations. Behind all the shimmer and fluorescence of golden jumpsuits and Mary’s signs was a great deal of hard work and the success of the event is a testament to the level of creativity, commitment and collaboration demonstrated by this group of students.

This year we farewell the last of our CP, MI and PS students (pathways) and welcomed our new MA CAP students as well. It makes sense that a programme such as ours, that takes a position against the weight and trajectories bound up within the traditions of a medium, should not return to the rigidity that comes with classification. Critical practice, moving image, public sphere and performance continue to live on in the heart of CAP and as our graduating artists across both cohorts demonstrate, it’s a porous affair. We have loved watching this year’s graduating Contemporary Art Practice artists interact and engage with their work and each other both within and beyond our studios and we are so pleased to invite you to have a glimpse into the world that is CAP 2023.

- Professor Chantal Faust, Head of Programme, MA Contemporary Art Practice

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Instagram: @rca_contemporaryartpractice / @glimpsepublication

Tate Lates: CAP at Tate Modern Lates

Study Contemporary Art Practice at the RCA: rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/contemporary-art-practice-ma/

RCA CAP Video by Chloe Langlois

CAP Images by Finn Dovey, Hazel Jiao & Theo Vasiloudes