4B025E - Live Art in the Public Realm 01 Sep 2026 - 31 Aug 2032 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: 4B025E
Module Title: Live Art in the Public Realm
Faculty: Faculty of Life Sciences and Education
Faculty Group: Psychology and Therapeutic Interventions
Faculty Sub Group: Therapeutic Studies
Module Leader: Becky Davies
Module Team: Emily Bull, Heloise Godfrey-Talbot
First Intended Intake: SEP 2026 Final Year of Intake: 2031
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 30 Credit Level: 4
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100476 - health and social care 100493 - applied psychology 101361 - creative arts and design
HECOS Code Weighting: 30 30 40

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 01 Sep 2026
Valid To 31 Aug 2032

Module Aims

The main aims of the module are: 

  • To develop skills in planning and delivering socially engaged participatory arts events, equipping students with knowledge of historical and contemporary collaborative practices and wellbeing approaches. 

  • To foster values of empathy, inclusivity, and ethical responsibility in participatory arts practice, enabling students to work compassionately and flexibly with diverse communities and partners, including those in the adult mental health sector. 

  • To build confidence in creative collaboration and co-production, supporting students to explore artistic identity while applying transferable creative skills to design purposeful, socially responsive arts experiences in public spaces. 

Content Summary

In this module you’ll be introduced to the principles and practices of socially engaged and participatory arts within public spaces. You will learn about the provocative art historical movements that have informed our current field and explore how your own art might act as a transformative or activist tool. Working as a group you will identify a cause that matters to you all which you will ultimately express as a Live Art event. To support your understanding of wellbeing, inclusion, and social justice through collaborative and community-based approaches you will work alongside Wellbeing professionals at USW. Alongside your own research this will support you to understand the grand societal challenge within adult mental health in the UK generally but also the particular wellbeing challenges for adult student populations. 

 

The module combines practical art making with critical theory, including the ethics and dynamics of participation, and the role of art in shaping positive social change. By developing skills in collaboration and engagement, this module prepares you to contribute meaningfully to creative and therapeutic arts practice and lays the foundation for future work in community and socially responsive contexts. 

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Guided Study 10.5
Independent self-directed learning 173.5
Scheduled Learning and Teaching 56
Summative Assessment and preparation 60
Total Hours Selected 116

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Develop and facilitate safe and inclusive socially engaged participatory arts events in public spaces that respond to adult mental health and wellbeing.
LO2 Apply and refine artistic techniques to co-produce a Live Art experience that reflects individual artistic identity and conveys a clear transformative message.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Synchronous Onsite Practical Assessment Practical Coursework (Onsite) This practical assessment provides students with the opportunity for collaboration, working in small groups, to create and facilitate a Live Art Event. A Live Art Event can take a range of forms (e.g. a performance, protest, parade, participatory artwork, celebration, or socially engaged artwork etc.). Students will work collaboratively to come up with the theme and ideas for their event, to identify something that is relevant and important to them all, as well as considering what might be relevant and important to their likely participants. 0 N/A 100 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Practical Coursework (Onsite)

Reading List

Clift, S. and Camic, P.M. (2016), Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing. International perspectives on practice, policy and research. Oxford: University Press. 

Fox, A and Macpherson, H (2015), Inclusive Arts Practice and Research: A Critical Manifesto. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Thompson, N. (2011) Living As Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. London: MIT Press. 

Sagan, O (2014), Narratives of Art Practice and Mental Wellbeing: Reparation and Connection. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Tritter, J. Q. and McCallum, A. (2006) ‘The snakes and ladders of user involvement: Moving beyond Arnstein’, Health Policy, 76(2), pp.156-168.