Art Therapy

What sets the Converse University Art Therapy program apart from other undergraduate programs is our commitment to serving the community and preparing our students for the most prestigious graduate programs in the country.

• Community building in the classroom and across campus − At Converse, you will become a compassionate leader and an engaged community member. You will have the opportunity to build lifelong friendships while supporting and being supported by your peers and professors.
• Field experience and internships – You will participate in a year-long internship during your senior year. You will work with community-based art programs to obtain over 100 hours of real-world experience.
• Senior capstone thesis – During your senior year, you will participate in a final project including a research paper, a visual research art exhibition, and a project presentation. Previous projects have covered topics such as 21st-century refugees, archetypes in art-making, story cloths in art therapy, and art’s role in increasing cognition in older adults.
• Credentialed faculty – All of our art and design professors are exhibiting artists and experts in the field.
• Art studio facilities – With our National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) accredited art program, you will have access to customized studio spaces, including indoor and outdoor kilns, a state-of-the-art MAC lab, live studio models, a darkroom, and a woodshop.
• Senior art exhibition – In the spring of your senior year, you will participate in a group art exhibition. This is a great opportunity for you to learn how to hang and market an art exhibition.

Experiential Learning

Art Therapy students learn both on campus and in the community through hands-on field experience with our community partners, including:

• Archibald Rutledge Residences for Older and Disabled Adults
• Kids Club (Formally Boys and Girls Club of Spartanburg)
• Eden Terrace (Assisted Living and Memory Care)

Internships

During the spring semester, you will complete a 120-hour internship with individuals across a continuum of care in mental health and community-based agencies.

Converse Art Therapy students have completed internships with:

• The Greater Greenville Mental Health Center
• The Children’s Advocacy Center, an abuse treatment center for children and adolescents
• The adolescent unit of the Hope Center for Children
• The New Day Clubhouse for adults living with chronic mental illness
• Spartanburg Housing’s Archibald Residence for Older and Disabled Adults
• The Alzheimer’s Association
• Prisma Health inpatient psychiatric care
• Spartanburg School District 5, in a special education classroom for children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Community Partnerships in Action

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Zeisler spearheaded a campus-wide photography project with students to reduce social isolation and counteract the autonomic nervous system’s freeze response. This project was funded by the Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg, SC, and the School of the Arts. Read more…

Our students are making a difference and being awarded for their efforts. Alumna Rachel Hopp ‘20 won the Center for Career Development’s “Intern with the Greatest Impact” award for her efforts at The Hope Center for Children.

Converse’s undergraduate art therapy program is embedded within a dynamic liberal arts curriculum. This major prepares students to identify as artists interested in the social transformation of individuals and communities.

Converse offers a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Art Therapy. The art therapy major is interdisciplinary and consists of a total of 62- credit hours, including a strong foundation in studio art and art history (minimum of 32 hours), psychology (minimum of 12 hours), and art therapy courses (minimum of 18 hours). You must also complete the university’s general education curriculum requirements.

Art Therapy Program Goals

The program seeks to maintain a high percentage of graduate acceptance into master’s programs or successful entrance into the baccalaureate-level social service workforce. To accomplish this end, the degree program for the Bachelor of Arts in Art Therapy identifies the following goals:

1. Develop studio applications that support competency in two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) visual language, with the inclusion of non-traditional materials.
2. Examine a comprehensive knowledge of art therapy theory within historical and contemporary contexts for understanding the profession.
3. Advance civic awareness, ethical behavior, creative problem solving, and cultural humility during art-based interactions with individuals across a continuum of care in mental health and community agencies.

View the BA in Art Therapy Major requirements.

Course Offerings & Academic Catalogs

Many art therapy majors combine a psychology major or minor with their degree. Most of the graduates pursue graduate school, earning their masters in art therapy, clinical counseling, marriage and family therapy, or even a PhD in Psychology.  Other art therapy graduates seek careers in schools, nursing homes, or residential treatment centers as Activities Coordinators, conducting art and leisure-based groups under the supervision of a Registered Art Therapist, Child Protective Services, or Managed Care organizations.

What are common careers in Art Therapy?

• Registered Art Therapist
• Counselor
• Activities Coordinator

What are Art Therapy alumni doing?

Grad Schools

• Florida State University
• Adler University
• George Washington University
• Lesley University
• Prescott College
• Southwestern College

Jobs

• Executive Director at WestGate Family Therapy, Spartanburg, SC
• Counselor/Art Therapist at The Door is Open Counseling Center, Massachusetts
• Mental Health Counselor II at Generations Group Home, South Carolina
• The Gibbs Center at Spartanburg Regional Health Care
• The Louisville Baptist Hospital
• Veterans Administration in Washington, DC