This page provides information about online tickets. If you would prefer to attend in person, please see ourin-person tickets.

What role does art therapy play in sustaining care?

Sustaining care means supporting the conditions in which people, communities and organisations can thrive. Drawing on creative and relational processes, this conference will examine how art therapy contributes to this goal across three interconnected strands:

1. Supporting psychological safety and reducing burnout among healthcare professionals
2. Building wellbeing and cohesion in communities, including work with marginalised and underserved groups
3. Supporting individual people to recover from trauma across the lifespan.

This conference brings together landmark new evidence, including the findings of a major randomised controlled trial, alongside community-based practice and clinical work with individuals, to demonstrate art therapy’s contribution to sustained, compassionate care.

Programme

Opening address by Sonia Kumar, Labour MP for Dudley and a registered physiotherapist.

Keynote presentations

‘Why the arts are the forgotten fifth pillar of health: evidence for individual, community and societal health and wellbeing benefits’ | Daisy Fancourt 

What does the science tell us about how arts and cultural engagement shapes our health? Drawing on her work leading the WHO Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health, Professor Daisy Fancourt will present the evidence for how arts engagement builds resilience and supports recovery at individual, community and systems levels.

‘Sustaining those who care: art therapy and healthcare workforce wellbeing’ | Megan Tjasink, principal art therapist and researcher presenting alongside a participant from group art therapy 

Megan Tjasink will present findings from a multi-site randomised controlled trial evaluating group art therapy for healthcare professionals. Co-presenting with a doctor who took part in the trial, the keynote will explore what art therapy can offer healthcare workers at risk of burnout.

‘Making art therapy accessible: working with marginalised communities’ | Thahmina Begum, art therapist, presenting alongside a service user from SEND Salaam CIC 

Drawing on two decades of community practice across Yorkshire and beyond, Thahmina Begum and a participant from a local community group will share how art therapy can support marginalised communities to process difficult experiences, reclaim their stories and access high-quality, relevant and safe mental health suppport.

Artist’s talk: ‘The Love Booth: art, social history and community cohesion’ | Karen Vost, art therapist and artist 

Registered art therapist and Arts Council England funded artist Karen Vost shares The Love Booth, a community arts project using the analogue photobooth to document everyday love, build community cohesion and preserve collective social history. Drawing on her dual identity as artist and art therapist, Karen explores how accessible, participatory artmaking can create belonging and bring diverse communities together.

Parallel sessions

The in-person conference will include a choice of parallel sessions. For our virtual attendees, we will broadcast a selection of key presentations; full details are coming soon.

We are calling for presentations, art-based practice workshops and posters from our members for our in-person conference. If you are one of our full members and would like to submit a proposal, you can find out more in the memberzone.

Presentation and workshop submissions

Tickets

Tickets for our annual conference can only be purchased directly from our website.

Employer-funded tickets

Employer-funded bookings can be made for in-person or online tickets by completing an invoice request form and sending it to events@baat.org. The deadline for employer-funded bookings is Thursday, 1 October 2026.

Prefer to join us in-person? Find out more about our in-person tickets:

In-person tickets