Creating a vocabulary of soothing words that can prevent a man with a broken neck from falling into depression is a daunting task. Susan Ashton had gained some knowledge about treating depression from her time spent as a caretaker in a psychiatric ward. When her husband Peter became severely depressed after a drunk driver crashed into his car at 70mph, she struggled to find ways to alleviate his emotional pain. Although his neck was broken, Peter remained articulate and capable of being a loving husband and father, but he needed a purpose to focus on.

One day, Susan asked Peter what he would have done if he didn’t choose nursing as a career. Peter casually mentioned art school, which sparked an idea in Susan’s mind. She discovered an organization called the Open College of the Arts (OCA) that offered distance-learning courses in the visual arts. Peter enrolled in a drawing course, and soon, he began to see that he could be good at drawing.

With limited hand movement in his prone position, Peter started working on a portrait of his daughter. As the portrait took shape, Peter felt an incredible change. The negativity and despair he had been feeling quickly dissipated, and he recognized that something positive was happening. When people complimented him on the portrait, Peter framed it and hung it in his office.

Over time, Peter regained his movements and found a job as an arts coordinator at a hospital. The OCA had transformed his life, and he now has a purpose and passion for art that he never knew he had.

Despite its life-renewing powers, the Open College of the Arts is not well-known. The college’s director, Roger Head, admits that he had never heard of the school before his daughter recommended it to him. Founded in 1986, the OCA was created to offer arts courses that the Open University did not provide. Today, it has a network of tutors around the country who offer individual instruction to the school’s 5,000 students.

The OCA does provide postal tuition, but its unique selling point is its face-to-face instruction. The school has 300 tutors who are all working artists, providing tutoring in painting, sculpture, writing, calligraphy, music, and choreography. This type of instruction is unparalleled in the world, and it is available to anyone who wants to learn. Although the OCA may be situated on a small industrial estate in Yorkshire, the spark of creativity and inspiration it provides to its students is immense.

The OCA, or Open College of the Arts, boasts a head of creative writing in the form of the prolific author Sara Maitland. It is worth noting that she is very discerning when it comes to picking potential writing tutors.

The majority of students at the OCA are aged between 45 and 50 and nearly half of them are enrolled in a painting or drawing course. In terms of gender, women outnumber men at a rate of two to one.

As an institution with open access, there is no requirement for previous qualifications. A significant proportion of students have faced difficulties in typical formal educational settings. Some students arrive after completing other degrees, having carried with them a prevailing sense of frustration concerning the lack of opportunity for creative fulfillment.

Many students share the same desire as Peter Ashton, who explains how he would have liked to have gone to art school but never got the chance to do so. The OCA empathizes with this sentiment, with previous arts education being a valuable asset in the eyes of the organization.

The OCA divides its courses into three levels, though completing a level usually takes around 10 months. It is worth noting that enrollment can occur at any time of year, with prospective students free to fill out one of the 1.5 million leaflets that OCA distributes yearly at libraries, arts centers, museums, and galleries nationwide. Candidates can also register online via the OCA website.

Several of the courses offered by OCA are accredited by the University of Glamorgan. Students who complete a course can earn CAT Points (Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme), which can count towards their degree or other qualifications.

It is interesting to note that, according to Head, accreditation is not a priority for most students, with less than 10% of students opting to pursue such schemes. Instead, a significant number move straight onto creative writing master’s programs, using their portfolios of work to secure a coveted place.

One striking fact is that twenty-five percent of OCA students originally hail from areas that center around coal mining. The Head of the OCA attributes this statistic to these communities’ devotion to education.

The best place to find out all about OCA is at its website: oca.ac.uk.