What Makes This Course So Special?
BA (Hons) Creative & Therapeutic Arts is a vocational degree programme which has been developed in response to an increasing awareness of the inclusive, creative & therapeutic nature of the arts and society’s increasing focus upon the need to enhance personal, social and mental well-being.
The course trains students to work creatively and therapeutically with children, young people and the wider community using their art form as a means of stimulating positive personal responses and outcomes linked to personal well-being. During the programme, students are trained to develop their art-form with an emphasis upon creative process and therapeutic workshops to develop and support their professional work while on placement. Programme content and work upon graduation is placed conceptually between that of artist/artisan and therapist/psychotherapist; a very exciting borderline with huge creative & therapeutic potential. This programme provides students with the opportunity to be at the centre of new and dynamic territory in the facilitation of creative and therapeutic methods of working to promote the personal, social and mental well-being of children, young people and the wider community.
Course Intro
Involvement in the Arts has always had the capacity to be inclusive and because of this many people draw therapeutic benefit from engaging with an art form. However, few have studied how to use their art form effectively in order to work with groups creatively and therapeutically. This course offers an exciting opportunity for you to be at the forefront of a new and dynamic Creative & Therapeutic Arts Practitioner workforce.
If you are passionate about Music or Art and wish to learn how to employ your art form to benefit the well-being of others, then this course may be just what you’re looking for. It will provide opportunities for you to work with groups within a variety of settings, as well as practical experience within the workplace on placement. Opportunities may be available to experience working creatively and therapeutically within another culture in your third year.
What you study
Year 1Provides initial personal exploration and development of your chosen art form including within a therapeutic framework. The focus is also on exploring, developing and applying an understanding of personal and participant creativity. A study of human development and play will help raise awareness of a range of developmental issues. You will learn about the basic principles of working therapeutically, how effective interaction takes place and how to begin to define safe boundaries. A variety of placements offer opportunities to link theory with practice.
Year 2
While extending knowledge of the art form including within a therapeutic context, you will continue to develop your practical art form skills. You will also explore issues connected with working as part of a multi- disciplinary team. The need to safe-guard vulnerable groups will also be studied. Learning is consolidated, developed, applied and assessed while working creatively & therapeutically with small groups on selected placements, which also provide a stimulus for consideration of a research focus for year 3.
Year 3
You will focus upon personal research linked to placement and the chosen art form. Students are required to plan and develop a focused research project by way of a dissertation. This involves the production of protocol and ethics documentation for consideration and approval by the University’s research and ethics committee. Further development of the chosen art form is pivotal at this stage, as is research linked to professional practice while on placement. This will provide an opportunity for you to explore your emerging professional practice in preparation for employment.
A
programme specification for this course is available.
Where Next?
This programme is a potential pathway to postgraduate study, including Arts Psychotherapy or Music Therapy leading to HPC registration as an Art Psychotherapist or Music Psychotherapist (subject to specific entry requirements). Other employment opportunities will exist within education, health and the third sector, including community arts projects.
Interview Required
Yes. The interview will include a discussion of your current involvement with your chosen art form.
Assessment
Assessment consists of coursework, Music and Art essays, peer presentations, creative & therapeutic peer workshops, dissertation and professional work on placement. There are no examinations within this programme.
Student Soundbite
“This course includes everything that I have always wanted to do. I want to use my artistic skills to make a real difference to people and their lives.”