Creative Expressive Arts and Health Practice

Creative Expressive Arts and Health Practice is a discipline that sits at the intersection of the arts and health, exploring how creative practice, including visual art, music, drama, movement, and creative writing, can support wellbeing, facilitate healing, and enrich the lives of people facing physical, mental, or social challenges. The field draws on arts education, health psychology, social work, and occupational therapy to develop practitioners who can work with diverse populations in healthcare, education, community, and social care settings, using the arts as a medium for engagement, expression, and change.

At the University of Derby, this four-year, full-time programme is taught by experienced practitioners and researchers in the field and is connected to community partners who provide real-world experience as part of your learning. You will develop a range of specific and transferable skills applicable in any setting where you work with people using the arts, from hospital wards and mental health units to schools, community arts organisations, and care homes. The curriculum combines creative practice with theory and research, helping you understand both the evidence base for arts-based approaches to health and the practical skills for facilitating creative work with different groups.

Work with community partners gives you direct experience of professional contexts before you graduate.

Graduates of Creative Expressive Arts and Health Practice work as arts practitioners in health settings, community arts workers, arts therapists in training, activity coordinators, support workers, and educators in schools and specialist provision. Many pursue further professional qualifications in art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, or related areas, working towards registration with the Health and Care Professions Council. Others move into community arts management, arts commissioning, and policy roles that address the relationship between culture and health.

Postgraduate study in arts therapies or arts and health is a natural progression for those seeking clinical registration and the ability to work in therapeutic contexts.