Event celebrates 30 years of art therapy scholarships

32 Goldsmiths Alumni have benefitted from the scholarship since 1993, and have gone on to make valuable contributions within the art therapy cancer care setting.

An anniversary event marking 30 years of the Corinne Burton Memorial Trust (CBMT) scholarship for Art Psychotherapy students was held on campus on 28 March 2023.

Corinne Burton scholars and their families gathered alongside Sir Michael Burton GBE, Chair of the CBMT, Trustees and Goldsmiths staff and students, for a celebratory reception of the 30-year partnership.

This year's recipient, Georgia Arben-Crowther was presented with the Corinne Burton Scholarship for 2022-23. She said: “I feel great honour, especially on this 30th anniversary of the Corinne Burton Scholarship to have this opportunity to enter a field of extremely important work, connecting people in cancer care to art therapy.”

“It feels surreal and brilliant. I’m really excited to join this community at Goldsmiths, this is so specific to what I would love to do. End-of-life settings are extremely important and can be really overlooked.”

Artworks created by past scholars showing their art psychotherapy practice were on display and alumnae Claire-Louise Vaculik and Poppy Stevens spoke about how the scholarship has supported and elevated their art psychotherapy careers.

Professor David Oswell, Professor in Sociology and Pro-Warden for Research, Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange said: “The Corinne Burton Memorial Trust is a loyal and long-term friend of the College. Goldsmiths is incredibly privileged to have enjoyed your support for the past 30 years. The assistance you have given 32 extraordinary students at Goldsmiths to realise their potential and make a meaningful contribution to the care and dignity of patients in this country, is beyond measure.”

Poppy Stevens, a previous Corinne Burton Memorial Trust scholar recipient, is now Lead Arts Psychotherapist at Barts Health NHS Trust. Poppy said: “My last placement was at Barts. It was just an amazing place to work, I really found my niche, and without the Corrine Burton Scholarship, I’m not sure I would have got my placement there and had the amazing opportunity to work with such an excellent team.

“What the scholarship allowed me to do was get that clinical experience in the NHS in cancer care, which is nearly impossible, there are not that many jobs in acute healthcare settings for art psychotherapists specifically.”

Poppy now supervises current Goldsmiths students through placements, as well as volunteering for multiple charities and co-authoring a book chapter in ‘Art Psychotherapy and Innovation’.

Dr Naomi Thompson  Head of Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies said: “Having a scholarship like the Corinne Burton award in the department is so important and valued: it rewards deserving students with the opportunity to pursue their education and relieves some of the financial burden and stress many students feel today."

Georgia Arben-Crowther, 2022-23 scholar, added: “I think art therapy has just been the ultimate merging of art and then connecting with people. Art is such a powerful tool and language and it has so many different meanings to so many different people I think if you’re an artist that’s looking to make your art really active and real that art therapy is such a huge force for that and it's also very new and exciting.”

Find out more about the Corinne Burton Art Therapy Student Scholarship.