Creative and Therapeutic Arts
Discover how creativity can transform lives. This innovative degree explores the power of the arts to support health, wellbeing and inclusion. Through hands-on projects and real-world experience, you’ll develop the skills to make a meaningful impact across communities, cultures and care settings.
How to apply Apply through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to us/prod01/channel_2/media/university-of-south-wales/site-assets/images/03-courses/psychotherapy-and-counselling/ba-creative-and-therepeutic-arts.png)
Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
W190
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Start Date
September
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Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,790*
International students
£17,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
-
UCAS Code
W191
-
Start Date
September
-
Location
Pontypridd
-
Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,790*
International students
£17,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
You’ll explore evidence-based creative practice while completing projects with experienced professionals in healthcare, education and community environments. From your first year, you’ll develop practical skills, confidence and independence, preparing you to work with diverse groups with a focus on improving wellbeing.
DESIGNED FOR
If you have a passion for helping people and want a career that will utilise your artistic skills, Creative and Therapeutic Arts is for you. This practical, inclusive degree will help you understand and apply the relationships between creativity and wellbeing. This is a great stepping stone to a fulfilling career in arts, health and wellbeing.
Career paths
- Art Therapist
- Teacher
- Counsellor
- Occupational Therapist
- Freelance participatory artist
- Wellbeing practitioner
Skills taught
- Developing artistic identity through skills-based sessions
- Applying psychological theory
- Facilitation of workshops for wellbeing
- Critical reflection and evaluation
- Collaboration and co-production
- Independent working
- Skills for developing your professional network
Course Highlights
Module Overview
In your first year, you’ll explore inclusive, socially engaged creative practice. Through hands-on projects in community, public, and outdoor settings, you’ll develop artistic skills, facilitation techniques, and confidence in working with diverse participants.
Art for Inclusion
You’ll explore how art can give voice to underrepresented people through hands-on creative projects. By working closely with participants and acting as an Artist-in-Residence, you’ll develop flexible, inclusive art methods while learning to represent identity and lived experience with care and confidence.
Inclusive Facilitation
You’ll learn how to plan and lead safe, accessible creative workshops that support diverse needs. Through observation, practice and reflection, you’ll develop your own inclusive facilitation style grounded in care, ethics and wellbeing.
Live Art in the Public Realm
In this module, you’ll collaborate to create live art in public spaces, exploring how creativity can raise awareness and inspire change. Through research, teamwork and practice, you’ll develop socially engaged projects that support mental health and wellbeing, inclusion and community connection.
Outdoor Arts for Wellbeing
Through hands-on, site-specific projects in natural environments, you’ll explore how creativity supports wellbeing and environmental awareness. Working with children and local communities, you’ll develop collaborative skills and confidence in sustainable, outdoor creative practice.
In your second year, you’ll expand your creative and professional practice. Through an individual placement, arts in health project, and studio exploration, you’ll refine your artistic voice, develop facilitation skills, and critically evaluate your impact.
Studio Practice: Finding your Artistic Voice
Through experimental studio work and creative research, you’ll explore new techniques, take artistic risks and refine your personal style. Working collaboratively and preparing a public exhibition, you’ll build confidence, critical awareness and professional insight into contemporary art practice.
Arts in Health
Engage with the growing field of arts in healthcare by designing and delivering creative sessions and artwork that supports patients, staff and visitors. Through real-world projects, you’ll explore compassionate, person-centred practice while developing your artistic voice in professional health settings.
Leading Your Community Placement
Step into a professional placement where you’ll design and deliver creative arts projects in healthcare, education or community settings. You’ll develop facilitation skills, ethical practice and confidence while making a real impact and building a portfolio of meaningful work.
Evaluating Your Community Placement
Continue your placement while reflecting critically on your creative practice. You’ll learn to assess impact, analyse outcomes ethically, and communicate findings, developing professional evaluation skills that prepare you for future practice or research.
Building on what you’ve learnt, your final year focuses on professional practice and impact. Through research, accessible creative projects, and a community art trail, you’ll apply your skills and prepare for a sustainable creative career.
Creative Access in Museums and Galleries
You’ll explore how art can make cultural spaces more inclusive, designing accessible exhibitions and resources. Through practical workshops and collaboration, you’ll develop creative strategies that remove barriers, promote equity, and support wellbeing.
Research skills for Arts, Health and Wellbeing
You’ll develop critical research skills by exploring and analysing evidence in creative health. Through literature review, reflection, and innovative methods, you’ll strengthen your academic voice and build a solid foundation for future practice or research.
Establishing a Professional Creative Practice
In this module, you’ll explore how to build a sustainable creative career. You’ll develop professional skills, deliver independent workshops, and define your artistic identity to confidently step into the arts, health, or wellbeing sectors.
Art Trail: Site-specific Degree Show
In this module, you’ll create a community art trail, combining your artistic practice, research, and professional skills. You’ll engage real audiences, collaborate with stakeholders, and develop project management and exhibition experience.
Course Highlights
How you'll Learn
You’ll learn by doing - through hands-on, project-based work that blends art, professional practice, and wellbeing theory. Collaboration is key, with real-world projects, community partners, and site-specific work bringing your learning to life. You’ll work in studios, outdoor spaces, galleries, and dedicated teaching areas, while workshops and peer feedback help you think critically and reflect. Each year, projects grow in independence, culminating in a public-facing art trail. Inclusive, supportive teaching will help you develop creativity, confidence, and the skills to make a real impact.
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How you'll be assessed
You’ll be assessed through a mix of practical, creative, and professional tasks that reflect real-world arts, health, and wellbeing practice. Assessments include exhibitions, presentations, artwork, and reflective projects, with opportunities to collaborate and work with industry partners. Each year of study offers a choice of assessment to encourage independence and inclusivity. Feedback will help you grow, while assessments will build your skills, confidence, and professionalism, preparing you to apply your knowledge and make an impact in diverse settings.
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Placements and work experience
Placements are an important part of this degree, and you’ll graduate with a CV full of relevant experience from a diverse range of settings. You will have the opportunity to work with and have access to more than 50 partner organisations in the community and creative arts sector through projects, group and individual placements.
Students use creativity to support the wellbeing of diverse groups and individuals including those who have experienced trauma, physical and mental ill-health, disadvantage, abuse and adverse childhood experience, homelessness as well as those seeking asylum, with disabilities, neurodivergence and sensory needs.
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Facilities
Most teaching takes place in our flexible, multipurpose spaces, perfect for messy experimentation and workshops. You’ll also have access to dedicated studios, tutorial rooms, and the Innovation Hub for focused project work. The course also includes on-site and community placements, supported by USW Placement Officers. These spaces and partnerships give you the freedom to explore, experiment, and apply your learning in real-world settings while developing professional skills in inspiring environments.
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Anna Coviello
Creative and Therapeutic Arts student
Celeste Ingrams
Arts, Health and Wellbeing graduate
Vee
Creative and Therapeutic Arts student
Accredited By
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS Points: 104 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: BCC to exclude General Studies and normally include A Level Art, an Art & Design Foundation Diploma or a relevant background.
- Welsh BACC: Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales Grade C/B and BC - CC at A Level, to exclude General Studies, and normally include A Level Art, an Art & Design Foundation Diploma or a relevant background.
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit and normally include an Art subject or an Art & Design Foundation Diploma or a relevant background.
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 104 UCAS tariff points in an Art related Access or hold an Art & Design Foundation Diploma or a relevant background.
- T Level: Pass (C and above)
Additional Requirements:
GCSEs: The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
You will be required to produce a portfolio of work, which should be no less than 20 pages, demonstrating your art practice. If you have not previously studied art in a formal education setting, it is recommended that you consider pursuing art classes, night school and/or independent studio practice to strengthen your portfolio and application.
An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the Child & Adult Workforce and Child Barring List and subscription to the DBS Update Service is required. (Overseas equivalent required for non-uk applicants).
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 4 overall and a minimum of 4 in each component or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,790
per year*£17,200
per year*£17,200
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
Art materials for projects. Cost varies depending on individual projects
Cost: £250 - £1000
Occasionally students will take trips to regional galleries and creative health settings which incur a small travel cost.
Cost: Variable
Where needed some grants are available through the University as well as application to the Hardship Fund
Cost: £300 - £350
An enhanced DBS is required. The update service is recommended.
Cost: £64.74 annually for enhanced DBS and £16 for the update service.
For graduate exhibition
Cost: £80 - £100
Students undertaking placement as part of professional practice modules may incur costs associated with travel to placement and placement responsibilities e.g. materials and resources.
Cost: Variable
Students arrive with some basic art supplies for their studies. As they follow their own specialist interest, they may need specific materials for outside lectures. The course teaches and encourages economical and sustainable art practices using recycled and re-purposed materials.
Cost: Variable
You will need to pay for your work books and printing costs.
Cost: £25 - £100
Visits to community settings, undertaken as part of taught modules, where students engage in their assessed project activities.
Cost: £10 - £30
Some Placement providers will require individual students to have Public Liability Insurance.
Cost: Variable
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Course Kit Bursary
As a student of BA (Hons) Creative and Therapeutic Arts, you'll receive a £100 voucher to purchase art supplies from Dryaeducation when you enrol, to support you with course costs.
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
How to apply
Applications for the BA (Hons) Creative and Therapeutic Arts degree course can be made via UCAS and directly to the University. If applying through UCAS, take the next step: Apply through UCAS. If you are applying directly to the University, seeking advance entry, or you’re an international student, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time).
On applying to study a BA (Hons) Creative and Therapeutic Arts degree, you will be required to upload a portfolio of your work (no more than 20 images) of your choice that shares your current and past creative practice.
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.