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School of Visual Arts

Centre for Advanced Practice

City Lit’s Centre for Advanced Practice is where you can find advanced courses from across all subject areas in Visual Arts. In many cases, this means well established courses of a year or longer, with outstanding reputations for preparing students for study at Bachelors or Masters level. Equally, their quality and depth makes them a viable alternative, for many learners, to the conventional Higher Education route into careers as creative practitioners.

To continue to support learners from a range of backgrounds, with diverse requirements, we have several newly developed courses – with more appearing soon – that build on our long-standing fine art and contemporary craft provision, and bring traditional practices up to date, to ensure learners have the relevant skills for the contemporary creative industries. This is supported through increasing connections with external organisations and practitioners in many courses, for example through real-world project briefs, public exhibitions, and visits from industry professionals.

In the last couple of years, we have introduced new titles in contemporary media and communications-based creative practices, and new courses running across a range of patterns and modes (weekly, monthly, studio-based, online or blended), to ensure that our advanced provision remains accessible and manageable alongside learners’ existing commitments. Alongside these developments, we are progressively refreshing many of our well-established courses, with an increased emphasis on critical discourse, and contemporary cultural debate, in keeping with the advanced level of study and focus on increased confidence, independence and professionalism that are the common characteristics of all our advanced courses.

In addition to our expanding range of advanced long courses, a growing range of advanced one-day workshops is available, aimed at providing knowledge and insight required to support specific aspects of professional practice. These can be taken individually, according to need or interest, or as complementary components of your own pick-and-mix modular course. In common with our long courses, these will provide you with the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to take your advanced creative practice forward.

We host exhibitions throughout the year at City Lit Gallery where our students showcase their amazing work.

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between in-person and online learning.

Learn in the centre of London with our in-person courses. Our purpose-built facilities in Covent Garden mean we are ideally located and easy to get to. 

See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you.

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  1. Digital fundamentals: imaging for print and 2D
    Course start date:  Fri 14 Feb 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rolina Elsje Blok
    As artists and designers, we generally tend to observe a number of fundamental 'rules' when working with digital media for print-based or other forms of 2D output. These relate to steps or settings for proceses such as scanning, saving, resolution, image or data format, colour modes, compression... To a certain extent, much of this is received knowledge, and we don't necessarily know why we follow these rules. Knowing what they are based on, and why, is, however, fundamental to technical proficiency, and expertise, and knowing what these principles are based on allows us not only to produce work to professional standard, but also to exploit them to their full creative potential. This workshop will be of value to any visual artist who uses digital technology in their creative practice, from painters and printmakers to photographers and graphic designers. Coverage includes: principles and concepts underpinning digital imaging for print/static delivery: pixel/vector; resolution, scalability, application; acquisition, modes, formats and real-world constraints; file sizes/compression/data integrity; relation to physical output (size, resolution, process).
    Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00
  2. Art and Ideas: space and place
    Evening
    Course start date:  Wed 19 Feb 2025

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Charles Chambers
    Explore concepts and theories of space and place in relation to historical and contemporary art and making, and engage in discussion and debate related to landscape, urban, site-specific and place-based creative arts.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £132.00
  3. Art and Ideas: What is visual language?
    Evening
    Course start date:  Thu 20 Feb 2025

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Ian Tucknott
    This course is for students and creative practitioners interested in visual language as a creative and conceptual theme. Explore and discuss ideas, theories and work by significant artists and writers to enhance and inspire the development of creative work and build an understanding of your own visual language.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £132.00
  4. Design thinking: creative problem solving
    Course start date:  Tue 8 Apr 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Andrew McCarten
    The term ‘design thinking’ describes an adaptive and reflective approach to problem-solving that is, in many ways, the same as the kinds of processes that underpin creative practice generally, and is fundamental to the development of many of the systems on which the world’s current production, logistics, communications and supply depend. Although generally considered largely in relation to system design, information and interaction design, and product design, it is a way of thinking through and deconstructing creative and/or technical challenges that is equally valuable as a lens through which to examine creative processes and problems in any discipline. In this professional practice workshop, we examine the 5 classic stages of Design Thinking, and look at how we can use them to refine our thinking processes, apply our insight and focus our imagination, to solve both creative and practical problems.



    For this workshop, you will need to have access to A3 or A4 plain paper, and a range of coloured marker pens, as well as a notebook. Basic materials will be provided, but you're welcome to bring your own as well.
    Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00
  5. Advanced visual communications: where is the truth?
    Course start date:  Tue 29 Apr 2025

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Andrew McCarten
    This advanced course examines the representation of truth and the manipulation of meaning through text and image, an issue with critical importance for the current times, from a number of perspectives. Working across a range of media and techniques employed in creative design and visual communications, we will examine examples in print, broadcast and on-line media.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £349.00 Senior fee £279.00 Concession £244.00
  6. Children's book illustration: advanced projects
    Evening
    Course start date:  Wed 17 Apr 2024 (and 1 other date)

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Tim Ellis
    An intensive highly focused follow up course to develop design, drawing, imagination, characterisation and narrative skills. Ideal if you’re planning to prepare a portfolio for presentation to publishers or wishing to further develop your skills and imagination.
    Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £286.00
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