What have you been doing today? Is that a typical day for you?
It’s the start of the academic year, so today has kicked off delivery at Queen Mary University of London’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. We have just led an interactive forum theatre training for Year 4 students, working with our Associate Artists and the new Medical Education Fellows.
Back at the office, we are working on preparing notes for our upcoming Board meeting, working on funding applications that span from working with the hyperlocal community to international partners, and planning and designing for upcoming delivery. Performing Medicine’s days very enormously, so there isn’t really such a thing as a ‘typical day’. The team works across all our different strands of work from having a conversation and sharing our expertise with individuals working in creative health in Prague, to working with healthcare professionals at a GP surgery in South London.
When did you start working with culture, health and wellbeing, and how?
Performing Medicine has been working in the field for over 20 years, beginning with our work at Queen Mary University where we pioneered the use of arts-based learning in medical education. Our work has expanded across NHS Trusts, Medical Education, Creative Health and Research, and exists to support people working in health and social care settings to provide high-quality compassionate care.
What has the impact of winning the CHWA Awards been for you or your organisation, and how has your work developed since then?
Winning the award for Practising Well was a very meaningful and heartening recognition of the care and attention that we bring to all aspects of Performing Medicine’s work. We were delighted to be able to shine a light on the important contribution of our Associate Artists, their wellbeing and our role in artist development.
The CHWA Award brought attention to Performing Medicine from a wider range of arts practitioners interested in creative health. Since the award we have continued further development of emerging artists keen to work in this area. We have recently mentored an ACE-funded DYCP (Developing your Creative Practice) artist, and hosted artists from overseas, supporting them in research and development for a project for dementia carers. We have also launched a new introductory course for artists, and have expanded our pool of Associate Artists.
What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the awards?
Performing Medicine leads with care at the heart of our practice. Our advice would be to consider how you nurture conditions, relationships and collaborations in order to practise well. We consider practising well across all our programmes, working collaboratively and listening to our Artists from planning to delivery to ensure that we are building a sustainable and evolving approach.
What’s most exciting you in creative health right now?
It’s a really exciting time for creative health. We have seen more joining up and more connected conversations across organisations with strategic collaboration leading to more effective processes and possibilities. It has been wonderful to see the perseverance and passion of all those working across the sector paying off, with the benefits and impacts of creative health programmes becoming more visible and valued.
Performing Medicine provides creative training programmes for healthcare professionals and students. Our work spans Medical Education, NHS Trusts, Research and Creative Health. We work with a dynamic team of Associate Artists who draw on techniques from the arts.
Find out more information and how to apply for the CHWA 2025 Awards here.