Course Overview

The MA Applied Arts and Social Practice focuses on the applied use of creative activities. It provide students with the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to best prepare them for applying the arts and creativity to areas such as third-sector organisations, public health, social welfare, education or criminal justice. It also aims to provide students with the enterprise skills to establish and market themselves as applied arts practitioners in a professional context. The current team’s expertise stems from community arts, applied theatre and socially engaged practice, and we define applied art as ‘creative processes and skills that are applied to a specific purpose or function.’ This could include any creative practice (such as theatre, art, music, dance or puppetry, just to name a few) that does not exist in traditional spaces (such as museums, theatres or galleries) but rather is based alongside and with individuals and communities in the public domain. You may find the course particularly suitable if you have already worked within social practice and want to broaden your understanding of your professional social practice. It also works well for people with significant workplace experience who want to gain a formal qualification in a flexible manner. The course is also suitable for recent graduates of fine, contemporary or performing arts courses especially those who have developed a set of artistic skills and want to learn how to apply them to projects in a social context. Over the past three decades within the UK, there has been a significant and sustained growth of the arts within a social context. Indeed, the current draft Cultural Strategy in Scotland looks at embedding artistic and creative practices across numerous sectors, inviting artists, theatre makers, musicians and all creative practitioners to be productive within industry, business, education and social settings. Concurrently, the arts are becoming more important within health and wellbeing contexts and the recent national report ‘Creative Health: Arts for Health and Wellbeing’ calls for artists to play a vital role in the social health and well-being of the population to the extent that GPs in England can prescribe artistic activities in order to tackle social issues such as obesity, loneliness and depression. This MA will provide qualified students to service the growing demand for this type of creative practice.

General Eligibility

Part Time Work Details

Language Requirement

• The minimum IELTS score required is 6.5