Creative and innovative every day

Today (21 April) is World Creativity and Innovation Day, but at Bath Spa we champion creativity and innovation every single day of the year.

Today (21 April) is World Creativity and Innovation Day. It’s a day, dedicated by the United Nations, to raising awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development.

At Bath Spa University we place creativity and innovation at the heart of everything we do - not just on one day of the year, but every single day, whether that is through our teaching, our research, or our partnerships. 

"Being creative isn’t just about art, music, drama… although that’s part of it. It’s ingrained in the way we teach. Our ethos. All our students are encouraged to be creative problem-solvers – they are enterprising and innovative."
– Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor

Here are just some of the ways that our staff, students and alumni have made the news with their creativity and innovation over the last six months.

Adobe Creative Campus

Bath Spa is one of just three Adobe Creative Campuses in the UK. This partnership means that our staff and students can access the full suite of industry-leading Adobe creative software, giving everyone the tools they need to help their creativity flourish.

Paper Nations

Bath Spa University’s creative writing incubator, Paper Nations, is one of only a few cultural organisations in the South West to be awarded Arts Council England (ACE) and National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding over the next three years.
The £603,060 funding will be used to further nurture an appreciation for the art of writing in people of all ages and from all walks of life, across the region, and beyond.

Forest of Imagination

The annual Bath-based pop-up arts festival, Forest of Imagination, co-created by Bath Spa’s Penny Hay, brought ‘Living Tree Mirror Maze’ to the city in 2022. It was one of just four projects from around the country to be shortlisted in the ‘one off activity - children’ category of the Inspire Future Generations (IFG) Awards, and it went on to win the title.
More details about this year’s event will be revealed soon.

The Turner Prize

The winner of the 2022 Turner Prize was Bath Spa alumna Veronica Ryan. Ryan studied for a BA in Fine Art at the Bath Bath Academy of Art (now Bath Spa University’s Bath School of Art, Film and Media, at Locksbrook campus) from 1975-1978.

Education Research

Research showed that a support programme developed by Bath Spa University, for primary school teachers of science, has a significantly positive impact on pupils’ learning. Designed by the University’s researchers, the Focus for Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (Focus4TAPS) programme, aims to support teachers with key areas of their science teaching.

Street Child World Cup

Renowned illustrator and Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University, Tim Vyner, along with three students from the Bath School of Design, travelled to Doha in Qatar to  captured the action from the Street Child World Cup, and tell the stories of the young people involved, using different creative techniques.

Researching the magic of theatre

Bath Spa was a partner in a major research project bringing together science and art. The project with the Bristol Old Vic measured audiences’ physiological responses to a show  - to see if people watching the play all had similar responses at the same moment.

Skills Bootcamps

Bath Spa’s innovative short course programme has taught more than 500 students  the sector-specific skills needed to start their dream careers. We’ve just launched Click Start -  a free creative digital programme to help tackle the digital skills gap.

Bath Social Impact Network

Launched as a partnership between Bath Spa University and 3SG, Bath Social Impact Network is the first of its kind in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), aimed at bringing together groups and individuals specifically from social enterprises with a shared purpose of improving and growing the social economy in B&NES.

Fashion and Sustainability Project

Bath Spa University is working in partnership with Bath and North East Somerset council to create a world-leading Fashion Collection Archive in Locksbrook. This will provide a home for the Fashion Museum’s extensive collection and will be accessible to the public through special events and study sessions.

Bath Spa studentpreneurs

At Bath Spa, ensuring students gain the skills valued by employers is a key component of our teaching. Some of our students choose to start putting these skills into practice even before they graduate, and we are proud to encourage entrepreneurial spirit!

Cultural Partnerships

We are proud of our partnerships with the creative and cultural sector in Bath. Together, we support our community, our students and staff, and our valuable research and creative practice. One of our partners is Bath Festivals, and this year we will be sponsoring the festival once again, and many of our students, staff and alumni will be performing.

My Salah Prayer Mat

Former teacher and Bath Spa University MA Design (Textiles) graduate Kamal Ali has used his professional creativity to solve an age-old problem, by inventing the world’s first patented interactive prayer mat.

Feeling Machines

Subject leader in Creative Computing at Bath Spa University, Coral Manton, co-curated an arts festival exploring the complicated relationships between humans and machines.