Chelsea, CSM, Camberwell or Wimbledon FINE ART?

I've got offers to do BA Fine Art at Central St Martins, Chelsea, and painting BA course at Camberwell and Wimbledon. Still waiting to hear from Brighton. But I'd really like to go to London.

I was deciding between Central St Martins, Chelsea and have more recently been thinking about going to Chelsea because I loved it on the open day. But after talking to a few people they said Camberwell has a much better student community and had a more fun environment. And its a straight painting course, and I love big expressionist painting and don't think very conceptually But i prefer the buildings of Chelsea and St Martins and are more selective with their students so maybe I should go.

If anyone has been to any of these Art colleges I would love some advice, very stuck at the moment! Thanks

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

Nonel

I've got friends chelsea and csm doing fine art as well as a friend doing painting at camberwell and ill be going to csm to do fine art myself this september so ill try to help!

Chelsea: great reputation obviously and good tutors. Not much studio space though. They make you put on shows pretty often, both on-site and externally which I think is a good thing. Chelsea itself is a bit dead. As a college there's no community feel at all and there doesn't seem to be that much of one on the course either although I can't say for certain. I will say that in the show I went to see there were a lot of paintings, but I wasn't that impressed with a lot of the work to be honest. That was after the first term though and the course does churn out some great works. It's mainly the place that makes me dislike chelsea - brilliant workshops but everything else leaves a little to be desired really. Apparently the fine art tutors are really unorganised and last minute!

Saint martins: first year fine art get a building all to themselves so there's plenty of space, especially for 3D pathway whose room is huuuuuge - they even made a garden at the end and have a kitchen where they've got goldfish swimming around in the sink. All the shows they've put on so far have been for course mates only but next term they're putting on public shows. There's lots of tutors to share between the students. Apparently they're almost a little too relaxed so you've gotta be really independent. My friend has said he's never had so much free time in his life. Second year you're at kings cross and have to share studio space with third years and apparently space to work is going to be a huge issue, but I guess that depends on what kind of work you'll be doing. I love the kings cross building personally but it may be too modern for some.

Camberwell: seems to have a great community like you said, especially if you end up living at camberwell campus which is hands down the best student hall I've ever been to. Camberwell itself is pretty nice, can't comment on the facilities but the studio spaces are fairly good from what I've seen. There's a lot of cross-year crits which may be a bit daunting for some. I think there may be cross disciplinary crits with drawing sculpture and photography too, but I'm not entirely sure on that. The tutors are supposed to be really nice. My friend there says he doesn't do much work though and he doesn't seem to be pushed much. They don't put on any shows, they just go to the pub at the end of term as a year group instead.

Hope this helps, any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

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Reply 2

Libbie1

Thank you so much! It was very helpful. I keep finding out new positives and negatives for them all. Worried about the part about not having a lot of studio space at chelsea, all my open days seem to have merged together but I seem to remember there being more there then camberwell - I'll need as much space as possible haha! I have also heard that Chelsea make you put on shows too from someone else, It'll be daunting but I think it'll get me into good practise I do need to get braver at showing my work off. I loved the kings cross building at csm too, but unfortunately didn't get to speak to any of the students or go into another section of the department due to the students having these group assessments - First year building wasn't quite as nice!
Thanks so much for all that though, very appreciated! Good Luck :smile:

Reply 3

Nonel

No worries! Yeah putting on shows is definitely a great experience, especially when everyone comes round to view your work and (more importantly) get drunk. I may be wrong about the studio space at Chelsea actually... A lot of the time with fine art you'll find that people aren't really in the studios working anyway. They're rarely crammed full with everyone doing stuff, it seems.

The first year building at st martins isn't that nice, it seems like the sort of place where you could just write on the walls of you wanted and nobody would really care haha. It had a bit of character though I guess which drew me to it

Chelsea, CSM, Camberwell or Wimbledon FINE ART?

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