Inclusive Arts Practice MA (PGCert PGDip)

International equivalencies

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Why study with us?

• Truly unique course that enables you to apply your passion for art in a positive community setting

• Focus on practical, vocational work that puts you in direct contact with marginalised groups, as you explore key issues in the inclusive arts debate

• Dedicated professional development module that gives you transferable skills in budget management, health and safety, partnership development and marketing

• Impressive employment rate, with graduates finding work as inclusive arts practitioners with various charities and trusts

• Support from specialist arts practitioners and professionals for collaborative working with diverse groups

• Guest speakers from the arts, health and voluntary sectors

Watch a video about the Inclusive Arts MA and hear course leader Alice Fox discuss the course.

Areas of study

Studies are based around a core of experiential work-related learning, integrated with theory. The course is designed to support participants' development and creativity as art practitioners within the contexts of inclusion, learning disability and marginalised community groups. Students work alongside diverse groups of people in a workshop setting, sharing experiences as partners in the process of learning.

Modules

• Working Together: Introducing Practical Collaboration
• Participatory Practice and Creative Exchange: Inclusive Approaches to Collaboration
• Research in Progress
• Practice as Research
• Looking Ahead: Continuing Professional Development
• Option 

Syllabus

The course is delivered through seven modules, including one related optional module. PGCert students study the Working Together and Issues and Debates modules only.

Assessment takes place through presentations, seminar discussions, practical work and workbooks. The final research project is assessed through an exhibition rather than a dissertation.

Working Together: Introducing Practical Collaboration

This module is a practical introduction to inclusive arts practice that explores processes of collaborative working and art facilitation skills. You undertake a series of supported arts workshops in local artists studios, working alongside the learning disabled Rocket Artist Group. You establish key philosophies and practices of inclusive practice suitable for transference to other community groups later in the course and your future practice. There are also opportunities for you to think about and develop your own work in the context of collaboration.

Participatory Practice and Creative Exchange: Inclusive Approaches to Collaboration

This module introduces and interrogates the ideas and practices of inclusive arts practice through key readings, tutor-facilitated workshops and peer discussion. It includes issues and debates around the similarities and differences between disability arts, art therapy, occupational therapy and inclusive arts practice, and other approaches to collaboration and inclusion. Within this module students will have the opportunity to work in the newly developed Switch House Building at Tate Modern, as part of a short creative exchange project. 

Research in Progress

This module is designed to support students in the development, implementation and completion of their individual research projects. A series of work-in-progress seminars and workshops run alongside the delivery of students’ ongoing practical art projects.

Practice as Research

This runs in parallel with the Research in Progress module, giving you the chance to capture and present your research findings through a public exhibition or performance, and to demonstrate good practice and the impact of inclusive arts.

Looking Ahead: Continuing Professional Development

This module is designed to enhance the professional practice of arts practitioners and equip students with the skills and contacts to manage their future career paths. It covers areas such as working with museums and galleries, funding, public programming, health and safety, budget management, partnership development, and marketing.

Staff profile

Alice Fox

Alice Fox is a lecturer and deputy head of the School of Art, researching inclusive arts practice and education. She is also the course leader and founder of the pioneering Inclusive Arts Practice MA.

Since 2003 Alice has been the artistic director of the learning disabled Rocket Artists Group, which has received significant funding from the Arts Council England for their high-quality exhibitions and performances. During 2013, The Rockets worked in partnership with the Southbank Centre to deliver the Side by Side project, an international exhibition, symposium and publication that centred on the theme of inclusive arts.

Alice used to work for the University of Brighton in the field of social enterprise and communities of practice. Since the early 1990s, she has worked with people with complex learning disabilities and challenging behaviour, both in the context of arts practice and the advocacy of human rights. Alice's connection with the university goes back to the late 1980s where, as a student, she obtained her Fine Art BA(Hons).

Student views

Gemma Coldicott

“This course is the best thing I have ever done. I have consolidated my past seven years of professional practice as a dance artist and I have a great piece of research to take forward through events and educational projects.”

Gemma’s research question was: How to co-create a language of dance across time zones and cultures using synchronous and asynchronous communication?

Sarah Bennett

"I was working in social care for about 10 years, specialising in mental health, and also in a separate role as a facilitator and at the same time still a practicing artist. I was looking for a course that tied in all of those things that I was doing and interested in, and inclusive arts practice seemed a really good fit." 

Brendan Commane 

"I chose this course because I am a teacher of children with special needs and I am very much into inclusion, doing an art-based course coupled with my own experience of special needs seemed the perfect choice for me."

Workbook Series I-IV. Participants: Gemma Coldicott, Roxie Keon and Felly Mistweave. Medium: dance. (Photo by Felly Mistweave)

Student work

Example student research questions

• Clare Griffiths: 'How can the Researcher facilitate a process that enables a balanced artistic collaboration with autonomy and equality between an artist with a learning disability and herself?'

• Abigail Horn: 'The Postal Project: Can artefacts be used in place of words in creative dialogue?'

• Sue Winter: 'Words are not enough: Using visual arts practices to build resilience with learning disabled young people.'

• Sarah Gladden: 'Consequences: What is collaborative art in the context of inclusive arts practice?'

• Jo Offer: 'Happy holiday: What practices and strategies need to be in place to support an artist with a learning disability to engage with the design industries?'

• Carol Patten: 'How can the impact of long-term hospitalisation be explored through music and the visual arts?'

• Jade French: 'What practices are required to collaboratively curate an art exhibition with women with learning disabilities?'

• Alison Cotton: 'How can a shared walking and art-making process enhance participants' engagement with the environment?'

View more work by Inclusive Arts graduates

View work by 2014-15 Inclusive Arts Practice students

View past work by Inclusive Arts Practice students

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Grand Parade campus map