Presentations will enable us to reflect on how art therapists attend to context and relationship, meeting challenges creatively and developing new, exciting ways of working. Making art across the day will deepen and enrich our thinking, drawing out the links to practice to inform questions and discussion.

We will see how taking account of context and relationship can also help us to hold onto what is core about our practice and to maintain integrity; guiding the way we incorporate research, different ideas, and use new opportunities on the horizon.

The day will offer inspiration and grounded, critical reflection to enable participants to feel better equipped to innovate – safely, effectively and with integrity – enhancing art therapy practice in service of our clients and the communities we support.

Tickets sold out!

As this is an in-person event, this year’s conference had a limited number of tickets available, which have sold out and the waiting list is now closed. After Friday 18 October 2024, cancellations and reallocation of tickets cannot be processed. Please refer to our event terms and conditions or email us at events@baat.org for more information.

About the day

Venue

The Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health. It is a short walk from Euston Station, London.

Doors will open at 9.30am for a 10am start.

Information for ticket holders

If you are a ticket holder and you have not completed the Conference delegate form by the 19 October deadline please email us at events@baat.org. If you did not complete the form before 19 October 2024, BAAT cannot guarantee that dietary requirements can be catered for and an afternoon ticket will be assigned randomly and cannot be changed on the day. Seats are limited per session and will be allocated in advance, on a first come first serve basis.

Programme

The full programme can be viewed here.

Art therapy in the contact zone: responsive pathways of connection, transformation, and resiliency

Keynote speaker, Dr Lynn Kapitan, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM is a Professor Emerit and former Director of Graduate and Doctoral Art Therapy at Mount Mary University (USA). Former Executive Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association and Past President of the American Art Therapy Association, she was awarded its highest honour for her contributions to the advancement of art therapy.

No Barriers Here: the evolution of arts-based, equity-oriented intervention and research method

Dr Jed Jerwood (PhD) is Advanced Clinical Academic Art Psychotherapist at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham.

Art as therapy

Jason Wilsher-Mills is an artist. His work celebrates disability, his northern working-class heritage and popular culture through cutting edge technologies and brightly coloured, largescale humorous, but challenging art. Jason’s exhibition, ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254,’ at the Wellcome Collection, is all about his experiences of becoming disabled as a child. It is inspired by the objects from Wellcome Collection’s anatomical collections, which triggered memories of his own hospitalisation during childhood. The exhibition installations are based on hundreds of sketches he did every day in the run-up to the show. Jason will lead us in an interactive art making workshop, responding to those same objects and prompts, to explore together how creativity works and where it comes from.

Exploring the intersection of neurodiversity and grief: advancing a neuro-inclusive service

Paula Boyle is Principal Lead for Psychological and Emotional Support at Harlington Hospice and Nana Zhvitiashvili is the Child and Adolescent Bereavement Service lead at Harlington Hospice. www.harlingtonhospice.org/cabs

Art therapy to reduce burnout and mental distress in healthcare professionals in acute hospitals: a randomised controlled trial

Megan Tjasink is a Lead Art Psychotherapist at Barts Health NHS Trust where she has developed the role of art therapy within acute medical contexts since 2005. She is currently in the final year of her PhD with QMUL.

Art psychotherapy meets creative AI: first chapter

Dr Ania Zubala is a researcher of art psychotherapy and evaluator of complex interventions in mental health, with a passion for expanding the evidence base for arts psychotherapies practice. She is based at the University of Edinburgh and is an Associate Editor of IJAT.

Assembling an Afro-Caribbean art therapy approach: echoes from the past; directions for the future

Kim Valldejuli, ATR-BC, is an Art Psychotherapist, Director of the Art Therapy Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Doctoral student at Drexel University (USA), and Culturally responsive practice advisor for the International Journal of Art Therapy.

My dark shadow and other stories: an enduring account of animation films made in forensic settings and the value of an audience

Tony Gammidge is an artist, filmmaker and freelance art therapist who has worked in mental health and forensic settings as well as with asylum seekers and refugees. He has been running animation projects in prisons and secure and mental health settings for the last 14 years.

Anchoring art psychotherapeutics in the world of extended reality (XR) technology

Hand2Health is a female led therapy/tech start up, founded by 3 Integrative Art Psychotherapists, Fléur Davey, Sarah Jane Sellors, and Eleanor Strange.

Sponsors

Chroma works across the Health, Education and Social Care sectors and is the UK’s largest and leading provider of HCPC regulated Creative Arts Therapies services. Chroma won the prestigious “Supporting the Industry” category at the 2022 PI Awards, and is rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted. Chroma is commissioned by NHS and private hospitals, brain injury case managers, local authorities, schools and residential nursing and care homes. Its team of 100+ art, drama and music therapists work nationally and collaboratively within MDTs and are fully supported behind the scenes by Chroma’s experienced management team.

Howden are professional liability specialists, providing insurance for BAAT members at discounted rates. Their dedicated team of insurance specialists have supported therapists for over 29 years, providing tailored insurance solutions based on your circumstances and criteria, and providing hands-on help when you need it.

Inspiring Creativity Since 1783. First founded as a pigment company for wigs in the UK, Daler-Rowney has grown into an internationally-renowned fine arts manufacturing company with colours & pigments still at its core. From paint, brushes and surfaces to accessories, luggage and easels, Daler-Rowney produces & sells products for artist of all experience levels.

The inaugural Art therapist awards will be announced at the 2024 conference, thank you to award sponsors, Art Pass.

Thank you to partners that have generously provided items contained in our conference delegate bags, including:

Daler Rowney I Artway I  The English Soap Company I  Hampstead Tea I Crafts Council I
Wellcome Collection I  Tales from the Tangled Wood I  Jessica Kingsley Publishers I  Taylor & Francis

Conference phishing email alert

We have recently been made aware that some members have received phishing emails from a third party claiming to be in possession of a BAAT conference email distribution list, which they are selling and another third part claiming they were selling tickets for our Annual Conference, who promised a schedule and speakers listing after payment. Please note that they are not acting on our behalf and we are not engaged with any third parties. Tickets for our Annual Conference can ONLY be purchased directly from the BAAT website.

BAAT has not and will not resell member data and we ask that you do not engage with any organisation claiming to sell such data. If you are contacted by such a third party, we recommend that you block the sender/domain. You can also help us block these entities by reporting them as phishing/spam in Outlook, and by reporting them to the Government via report@phishing.gov.uk.