Students at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Trowbridge campus are set to benefit from a new £4.3 million School for Digital and Creative Art, with facilities described as the potential ‘gold standard’ for creative education in the South West.
The new school forms part of a £5.9 million expansion at the Trowbridge campus, which also includes a £1.6 million Construction Skills Centre. Both developments are due to be completed in time for September 2027, providing students with modern teaching spaces, industry-standard equipment and greater opportunities to develop their skills.
The School for Digital and Creative Art will feature a 385sq.m open-plan art studio, IT and media suites, and a state-of-the-art audiovisual studio. The project will involve converting an unused building and installing a mezzanine floor, creating flexible teaching spaces that can accommodate both individual work and larger collaborative projects.
Owain Milford, Trowbridge Head of Faculty for Technical & Industry Focused Education, believes the facilities will establish a new benchmark for further education. “Nowhere will have the space and design that we will have,” he said. “I think we’ll be leading the South West, if not further afield, with provision that will be seen as the gold standard.”
The new studios will bring together all of the campus’s creative courses, alongside upgraded photography, print, media and computing facilities. Students will also benefit from dedicated tutorial rooms, specialist lighting designed to replicate natural light and easy access to the Learning Resource Centre and Tech Trowbridge arena.
“I think our students are really going to benefit because they will be better prepared for their next steps,” said Owain. “That transition for our students from here into higher education or industry will be smaller because they’ll be more used to working in those spaces, with the relevant technology and processes.”
The additional space will also provide a new setting for the college’s popular end-of-year exhibitions, allowing students to create and display larger and more ambitious pieces of work. Meanwhile, the new Construction Skills Centre will almost double the existing teaching space for construction courses.
The development comes amid unprecedented demand for creative subjects at Trowbridge, with the expansion expected to increase capacity on the college’s nationally renowned Foundation Arts course by at least 25 per cent. It also coincides with the course’s 50th anniversary, marking an exciting new chapter in the college’s creative education provision.
“It’s a really exciting time for all of us because we’ve just celebrated those 50 years and now we’re saying ‘let’s do the next 50 years even bigger’,” said Owain. “We’re working with the architects and the builders to create a fantastic new facility and I’m looking forward to seeing the students walk in there and being really wowed by it.”
Visitors can find out more about the expansion at the college’s Trowbridge Open Event on Saturday 7 November 2026.
For more information and to book a place, visit wiltshire.ac.uk/events.
