BA Art and Psychology

With this BA Art and Psychology develop your practical skills and explore new and emerging art forms. Be stimulated by our internationally excellent staff, take part in wide variety of exhibitions and gain your first qualification towards training as a professional psychologist. 

Explore how art and psychology feed into one another and discuss the therapeutic properties of creating art on this well-established course.

Join a lively community and explore a vast range of media, experiment with emerging art forms, and develop as an artist. Modules in Contemporary Art Theory and the History of Art will complement your practical study. You will receive a dedicated studio space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and a studio tutor to help develop your individual and professional practice. The studios are a busy place with events, screenings, performances and exhibitions happening regularly.

Trips to museums and art galleries help prompt thoughts on how art is displayed and received. You will gain professional experience by taking part in your own exhibitions, public art commissions and events. Our teaching staff are all artists, curators and researchers of international standing and strongly encourage regular exhibitions and open debate.

The psychology element of this course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and enables you to move on to further training as a professional psychologist. Your first year will introduce you to the concepts required for BPS qualification, including cognition, neuroscience, development, personality and social psychology.

Throughout the course you will gain practical experience, and learn how to devise and run your own experiments. You will develop your knowledge by exploring areas of interest in greater depth. Modules are regularly revised and recent additions include autistic spectrum conditions, behavioural economics, nutritional psychology, and cognitive behavioural theory and therapy.

In your final year you will concentrate on your psychology dissertation and art degree show.

Both departments actively encourage placements and there is also the chance to experience life in another country. Throughout your degree you will receive advice and guidance in career development.

Placement

All students are encouraged to undertake several placement opportunities in both art and psychology. Past students have enjoyed art internships at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair. Others have performed at the ICA, taken part in an Arts Council-supported film project at the Museum of Rural Life and participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea.

Psychology students have undertaken placements at outside organisations such as charities, at one of our three in-house NHS clinics, and at the world-renowned Charlie Waller Institute for Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments. Alternatively, you can volunteer as a research assistant on a range of projects within the School.

There are also several opportunities – across all our undergraduate courses - for you to study abroad at an international university. Institutions include the Emily Carr University of Art & Design in Vancouver, Canada; Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA; Monash University, Australia; and National Taiwan University of the Arts in Tapei, Taiwan; as well as Art Universities in Dijon, France; Zurich, Switzerland; Budapest, Hungary; and Tampere, Finland.

For more information, please visit the Reading School of Art website.