Image
Photo by Marcia Chandra, courtesy of The Reading Agency
Written by Gemma Jolly, Head of Health and Wellbeing, The Reading Agency
Latest news
Image
Accentuate/Screen South
We believe it is important to challenge misconceptions that disabled people can’t work, don’t work or aren’t able to work within the museums sector; highlighting, challenging and changing those barriers which disabled people face to employment.
“We have no land, we are the land. We have no sea, we are the sea.”Günther Baechler – Toda Peace Institute
Image
Meeting up! Working Together Museum Partners at Castle Museum, York, 2024
Working Together is an National Lottery Heritage Fund programme involving 6 heritage organisations across the UK, led by the Culture Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and Group for Education in Museums (GEM).
One possible response to the budget is that it doesn't match the ‘mood music’ the cultural and community sectors were hearing from government earlier in the summer (see this
Image
Becky Bailey for Kazzum Arts
Find out what a day in the life looks like for past CHWA Award Winners, Kazzum Arts.
Watch this inspiring conversation between Clancy Williams and CHWA's Kheyla Buchanan, which explores the concept of 'reclaiming' in relation to history, health, nature and creativity.
Image
darts in Doncaster, photo by Jim Mulkeen. Artists: Angie Hardwick and Jim Lockey.
We've been investigating how the new government's approach might support creative health. Below we set out a few thoughts, based partly on attending a fringe event at this year’s Labour conference with the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Lisa Nandy, hosted by the Fabian Society.
Building on Yewande 103’s current body of work around embodied advocacy, Fountain blends together dance and digital watery environments to explore tidal cycles of repair, loss, joy and intimacy.
Diana Amma Gyankoma Abankwah is a Ugandan-Ghanaian solo dance artist, painter, writer, musician, and interdisciplinary artist based in Stoke-on-Trent where she emigrated from Rwanda in 2022.
Writerz and Scribez is a Black-led arts company working at the intersection of art, wellbeing, and equity. View their interpretation of this year's Black History Month theme, 'Reclaiming Narratives' via the link below.
Image
In response to this years Black History Month theme; ‘Reclaiming Narratives', CHWA in collaboration with London Arts and Health invited artists/practitioners to interpret this theme in a way that spoke to them within the context of creative health. Nike Opal is Non-Binary, Queer Multimedia Artist, view their interpretation via the link below.
Image
Performing Medicine Workshop. Image Credit: Imperial Health Charity.
We asked past CHWA Award Winners, Performing Medicine, what a day in the life looks like and how the award impacted their organisation.
Arowah Cleaver is an award-winning musician, activist and creative health practitioner, read their blog about time spent on hospital wards during their residency.
Read postgraduate trainee Existential psychotherapist, Zahraa Scott's, exploration of the phenomenology of people of Afro-European descent.
Image
@inspiredmaephotography - CHWA Board meeting, November 2022
Seeking new Directors for the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance CICDeadline: 11am on Monday 28th October
The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and London Arts and Health (LAH) are pleased to be collaborating on a paid opportunity for Black History Month 2024.
Image
Jenny Harper
I work for both CHWA, and for Derby Museums [...] There’s no such thing as a typical day. I really like the strategic and policy-level thinking, research and development, as well as the face to face delivery and relationship building. No two days are the same and that is one of the highlights of my work.
Arts in Care Homes is a programme by the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) that underscores the well-being benefits of arts, creativity, and cultural engagement in care settings.
The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and London Arts and Health (LAH) are pleased to be collaborating on a paid opportunity for Black History Month 2024. Listen to an au
Image
Copyright: CUH Arts
‘Space and time is made to engage with and listen to patients in a non-clinical, creative way. Although not therapy, the sessions are often of therapeutic value, and give patients positive and meaningful experiences whilst in hospital.’ Filipa Pereira Stubbs
The UK Research and Innovation 'Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities' programme is now entering phase 3, with numerous substantial research programmes launching around the UK.
Image
An invitation to Arts Managers across Northern Ireland to participate added to the Festival's success and profile. No county left behind. This year's festival was a testament to the pivotal power of partnership in embracing and the arts, and challenging the stigma associated with mental health and wellbeing, fostering the importance of community spirit, mental health awareness, and harnessing lived experience to inform government policy.
CHWA has spent the last few months catching up with people who attended the Making Change Conference in October last year. We were really keen to hear about what they had been working on, how they were feeling, and the impact that attending the conference may have had on them, both personally and professionally.
Image
Michael Aiden Photography
Thanks to the Baring Foundation, CHWA is launching a new training hub, to make it much easier to find what’s out there and to advertise your own training.
The 2024 Everyday Creativity Conference is an opportunity to share understandings and ways of working with/for everyday creativity (EC).
With a general election coming up on July 4th, we are keen to make sure that candidates are aware of Creative Health and the benefits it can bring across a range of policy areas.
It's Pride Month and to celebrate, we're sharing a small selection of LGBTQ+ creative health programmes and projects around the country.
Civil society is calling on government to address long-term crises in health and social care in various ways:
For over a year CHWA has been trialling payments for freelance and low/un-waged colleagues when they contribute their expertise to help develop CHWA's work. After positive feedback from members, this has now been formalised and signed off as a Policy as part of our Equality Action Plan.
Sally Lewis recently stepped down after 18 years at Arts Council Wales, most recently as Portfolio Manager for Arts & Health.
UCL established the world’s first Masters in Creative Health in 2021. The programme, now in its third year, seeks to create a new generation of socially engaged scholars and practitioners to meet the needs of a changing health, social care and voluntary third sector, where integrated care, health inequity and the patient experience are mainstreamed into public health.
Image
Music composing sessions delivered by musicians/composers Thomas Sherman and Joe Harrison-Greaves for people with hearing impairments in partnership with Arts in Health and the Hearing Department at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and University of Sheffield Department for Music. This project was part of the In & Out of Hospital arts programme, funded by Sheffield Hospitals Charity and Arts Council England.
The In & Out of Hospital arts programme was designed to see if creative processes used by different professional artists could complement the care and treatment provided by our NHS Trust.
Image
Lung
As we said back in January with our colleagues at London Arts and Health, we are organisations devoted to health, wellbeing and equity; and we’re watching these concepts devastated e
Dance in Cancer Care - Practitioner Training Be a part of the Dance in Cancer Care movement.
Image
Paul Blakemore
Arts & Health South West has released a toolkit on collaborative working between youth, artists, and cultural institutions to support programmes of creativity, wellbeing, and volunteering.
Image
Hannah Mumby
Arts and Health South West (AHSW) closed its doors on 31st March 2024.
Image
Lydia is a multi-disciplinary artist and activist based in London, who's work focuses on building life-affirming relations and systems through radical creativity and collaboration.
Image
Louise Campion is Head of Learning & Engagement at the Holburne Museum in Bath and the new Project Lead for our Working Together Programme in collaborations with GEM (Group for Education in Museums). Find out what a day in her life looks like.
Image
Funded by Youth Music and BBC Children in Need, the Sonic Minds programme supports young people at elevated risk of experiencing a mental health issue.
Image
‘Untitled’ By Casey Francis (Mad Truth)
...through creativity we can transform adversity to beauty and in the process transform ourselves. We can create our own lives as if we are creating a work of art. Instilled within all of our experience are layers of meaning, understanding and connection. Art is empathy, it is communication. Art allows us to step outside of ourselves, and see something inside that we could not recognise because of our external circumstances, our pain, our fear, our doubt.
Image
The BHH Network is a community of academics, artists, and activists working in the field of Black health and the humanities. We are delighted to open the network for a new cohort of PhD students, researchers, and practitioners in the field of Black health to join our existing community.
Image
The horror of what’s unfolding in Gaza and Israel is affecting us all, whether we are trying to work around it or are deeply engaged. Whenever there is a terrible event, it undermines normal life – when we don’t speak about it, some part of us is always managing this absence. But to speak about it is painful, and complex.
The NCCH Creative Health Associates would like to hear your thoughts on creative health to help shape their work with Integrated Care Boards and Systems. They will use the information to better understand what work is happening and where, and what support organisations and individuals need.Here are the links to two different surveys:
This article was first published at www.artsprofessional.co.uk, 8 February 2024.Hospital arts programmes are flourishing thanks to a national network and a groundswell of support for such initiatives, as Laura Waters explains.
Image
Alexis Butt has recently joined our team of Regional Champions, with over 20 years experience of working in arts and culture and currently working as a General Manager for the NCCH, she shares what a typical day for her looks like.
42nd Street and Arts & Health Hub are both seeking submissions of short films exploring mental health for film screenings in Manchester and east London respectively this May.Read about the Arts & Health Hub opportunity here (deadline 8 April)
Image
The UK State of the Sector Survey was conducted between February and April 2023, to help us understand more about the creative health sector in the UK. It was conducted as a collaboration between CHWA; the Wales Arts, Health & Wellbeing Network; Arts Health & Wellbeing Scotland; and Arts Care (Northern Ireland).
Image
City of Bristol College has been working closely with Bath Spa University to create a brand new degree programme exploring creativity and its impact on wellbeing, with a focus on participatory practice. We have our first cohort up and running and are now accepting applications for this September.
If you have been using the Creative Health Quality Framework and wish to share your experiences and learn from others, we’re running two events on Tuesday 27 February and Thursday 7 March 2024.
Are you an artist/creative health practitioner, commissioner, or partner organisation delivering creative programmes to people living with challenging conditions/ circumstances? We'd like to hear what supports you in your work - the resources you use and what is needed:
Image
Evaluator, researcher and educator, Siân Hunter Dodsworth, talks to us about her exploration of artistic, cultural and heritage practice in improving health and wellbeing both in Mexico and here in the UK.
Our colleagues at the National Centre for Creative Health have launched both the Creative Health Review, and a brand-new Creative Health Toolkit. Together with the Creative Health Quality Framework this gives us a great grounding for 2024.
Image
The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG AHW) launched the report of the Creative Health Review on 6th December 2023.
Image
The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG AHW) launched the report of the Creative Health Review on 6th December 2023.
Image
By Dr Katey Warran, Research Fellow in the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at University College London and Deputy Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health
Image
Michael Aiden Photography
It’s been just over month since The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance came together with over 300 colleagues, in Barnsley and online, to host the Making Change national conference. Here we reflect on the event, our findings, and our plans for the future.
Image
Michael Aiden Photography
It’s been just over month since The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance came together with over 300 colleagues, in Barnsley and online, to host the Making Change national conference. Here we reflect on the event, our findings, and our plans for the future.
Black History Month 2023 is a time for progressive reflection, it presents the opportunity to experience events, discussions and more around the country that enable us to mark the historical contexts of black culture whilst celebrating it's non-monolithic evolution to the present day.
Image
What do we owe future generations? How do we create a sustainable space for our collections and the planet? How to discuss this with different audiences?” Topics explored in 'The Crying Child: On Colonial Archives, Digitization and Ethics of Care in the Cultural Commons', by Temi Odumosu.
The fact we still have work to do is exciting. Our collections continue to grow, and we encourage everyone to think about their history and their stories.
Image
Please refer to the full findings here
As an organisation focused on health, wellbeing and equity we urge the UK government to call immediately for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and to speak up unequivocally for the maintenance of international law and protection and support of civilians, as well as aid and health practitioners.
Image
CALLOUT FOR PROPOSALS FOR A ONE DAY EVENT EXPLORING LONDON AS A CREATIVE HEALTH CITY, THIS NOVEMBER.
SAVE THE DATE: 27th November 2023, 10.30am – 5pm in-person at Battersea Arts Centre and online via Zoom.
Image
Creative Recovery
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is recruiting new members to the Barnsley Creativity and Wellbeing Group
The Creativity and Wellbeing Group is jointly led by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC) and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Image
Cover of the Creative Health Quality Framework; design by Jennie Ives
Ground-breaking tool launched to boost the use of arts and culture to support health
The Creative Health Quality Framework, a ground-breaking new tool that clearly articulates what “good” looks like for
Our hope was that, by developing set of Quality Principles and offering clear guidance on how to use them, The Creative Health Quality Framework would inspire the best possible experiences and outcomes for everyone involved in Creative Health work.
What I hadn’t expected was just how much the process of developing the Framework would impact me and my practice!
Using the eight Quality Principles as a structure for reflection, I have taken a moment to pause and consider what the process of working on this project has meant to me.
Image
part of the Creative Health Quality Framework design, by Jennie Ives
CHWA Non-Exec Director Rosie Dow reflects on how our new Creative Health Quality Framework complements and adds to other frameworks and toolkits now available to the sector.
Image
Jenny Harper
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) is looking for people working within culture, creativity or social justice/community improvement, who are passionate about championing creative health work in their local area as volunteers.
We particularly want to widen our demographic in terms of heritage and dis
Image
CSA survivor, Arts Activist and Artistic Director, Viv Gordon, speaks to us about how arts and social justice informs their day to day life. Viv will be taking part in one of our panel discussions at the National Conference in October.
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is seeking an evaluator for Working Together, a partnership project with GEM to support 6 heritage/museum sites to develop their work with health and wellbeing.
Image
Change, Act! CO-Directors Paul Formosa and Charlotte White let us in on what a day in their life looks like ahead of their workshop at the Making Change national conference.
Job Description:
Working Together Programme Lead
Salary: £40,000 pro rata, 0.4FTE (2 days per week) for 22 months
Application deadline: Monday 25 September, 12noon
Image
Our Regional Champion and Age Friendly Creative Manager for Age UK Oxfordshire, Helen Foundation, shares a typical day with us. Helen is part of the Creative Ageing Lived Experience Network (CALEN), who will be speaking at this years conference.
Image
Ahead of their workshop as part of the Making Change national conference in October, Artist and Performing Recovery magazine editorial board member leon clowes talks us through a day in their working life.
Image
Creative Recovery
Through generous support from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is offering 10 free spaces to attend Making Change: Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance national conference to freelance creative practitioners who live, or whose practice, is based in the South Yorkshire Region. We particularly want to encourage applications from people identifying with any of the protected characteristics as defined in the 2010 Equality Act, or who are from less affluent socioeconomic backgrounds.
Image
National Coordinator, Fiona Moon, chats to Making Change conference contributor Kelly Amoss, about founding the charity Seaglass Collective, which aims to support adopted children access much needed arts and creativity provision.
Image
64 Million Artists
As part of this year's conference theme Making Change, our National Coordinator Fiona is talking to organisations who are rethinking their approaches to work to improve the health of people and the planet.
Discover and celebrate the stories of the people that make up our NHS. Marking 75 years of our National Health Service, this powerful new artwork is an unprecedented collaboration between 19 hospital trusts and a creative team led by Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Fee: £8,000 including VAT and expenses
Deadline: 5pm, Friday 28 July
Project: September 2023-June 2024
Image
So far, no two days at CHWA have been the same, which I really like. There’s a mixture of operational, creative and strategic tasks and it really helps me use every part of my brain. Right now I’m heavily focused on organising the conference, which involves a lot of collaboration with partners and suppliers, so there’s usually at least one zoom call each day.
Image
Changing Current is a new podcast series by @artscatalyst exploring climate perspectives and possible futures featuring the voices of artists, growers, activists, local community groups, heritage workers and researchers across South Yorkshire.
Image
42nd Street
Common Vision is working with Arts Council England to conduct research into young people’s views on culture, creativity and cultural education.
Image
Inspired Mae Photography https://www.inspiredmaephotography.com/
Thanks to you, Creativity & Wellbeing Week was packed with amazing, catalysing events right across the country, and garnered huge interest on social media. Send us photos or videos of your event, and help us understand how the week is working for you...
Common Vision is working with Arts Council England to research young people’s views on culture, creativity and cultural education.
Image
My recipe for a happy healthy day involves a walk, some kind of movement (a two minute kitchen-dance, some stretches or just pegging out the washing) and some meditation.
Image
Following the birth of her son in 2014, Kheyla founded Mother Nature’s Recipes, a company that focuses on making room for the necessity of self-care in motherhood from a holistic perspective. She also co-founds Birthing In Colour, a charitable organisation that creates safe spaces online for black and brown birthing bodies and volunteers as a Peer Supporter for the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers.
Deadline 26 April
Birmingham City Council Public Health have an exciting new opportunity for a highly skilled individual to join the Public Health team as a Programme Officer – Arts and Culture.
This full-time role will be based within the Communities team of the Healthy Behaviours and Communities sub-division of Public Health.
Image
Equal Arts. Photographer, Dani Giddins
Freelance Contract (4 days across May and June 2023)
Fee: £1k
Deadline: 5pm on Friday 5 May
Are you based in the North East and thrive on connecting the dots?
Are you linked into the arts/ heritage and community sector?
Do you want to be part of growing a North East culture/health and wellbeing community that is representative of the region?
Collaborations III: Artists & Social Prescribing (in person)
13th April, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Southbank Centre
The Arts and Health Hub and the Southbank Centre present their next event focusing on the theme of collaborations. This event focuses on participatory artists working with cultural and health partners within a social prescribing context.
CHWA is thrilled to be part of the The Curating for Change (CfC) Museums Strategic Disability Network – a supportive framework for museum sector organisations and those
Image
Illustrations by MJ Barker
What would it mean to ‘queer’ creative health? Why might we need to, and, if so, how? I was given the opportunity to first delve into these questions through a PhD scholarship I completed in 2019. My literature review explored longer histories of the field of Arts in Health as part of exploring its relationship to people and place.
Salary: £35,420, full-time (Maternity leave cover)
Maternity cover: June to December 2023 (inclusive)
Application deadline: 5pm on Monday 24 April
Apply for funding to create and test collaborative models for the integration of cultural, community and natural environment assets into health and care systems.
Please complete this survey and send it on to your networks!
You can hear this as an audio file here and download it as a pdf here.
Image
Lady Kitt, Sarah Li, Art Matters Now, 2022
At the moment I’m working with a Craftspace, a brilliant organisation based in Birmingham, who have commissioned the project Drag Declares Emergency. We are launching a digital exhibition and series of resources this week as part of the project so my main focus is on that.
Job Description: North Regional Lead, Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Salary: £35,000 pro rata, 0.6FTE (3 days per week)
Job Description:
Administrator - Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance
Salary: £25,000 pro rata, 0.6FTE (3 days per week)
Application deadline: 5pm on Monday 27th February
Image
ACAVA_s Grenfell Memorial Community Mosaic - Walking as One workshop (c) Zute Lightfoot. Courtesy ACAVA - Lorna Gemmell
Creative health - or arts and health, or culture, health and wellbeing - has made steady progress this year in an unstable and extremely challenging context; it may not always feel this way, but across government, particularly local government, and in funding and commissioning organisations, recognition for and commitment to creativity and culture in support of health and wellbeing is steadily
Image
Our Earth Your Choice team at Festival of the Earth 2021. Photo by Ant Robling for One to One Development Trust.
On Friday 25th November, we came together with award partners, panellists, shortlisted projects and people from across the sector to celebrate the CHWA Awards 2022 shortlist. We heard uplifting stories of creativity, innovation, compassion and community.
Image
The Local Government Association has produced two significant pieces of guidance focused on the role of social prescribing - and culture and sport in particular in supporting local health priorities and improving health outcomes.
We are acutely aware that along with some great news for socially engaged creative and cultural work, there have also been some We're delighted that Arts Council England has offered to fund us as an Investment Principles Support Organisation in the 2023-6 funding round. We’re proud to be recognised for working with the amazing collective of organisations and freelancers that drives the creative health movement. We are acutely aware that along with some great news for socially engaged creative and cultural work, there have also been some painful disappointments. We’d like to reiterate our offer of support for creative health organisations and freelancers; please get in touch with us direct if you'd like to discuss what might be most useful for you moving forward.
Image
The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG) Creative Health Review will highlight the potential for creative health to help tackle pressing issues in health and social care and more widely, including health inequalities and the additional challenges we face as we recover from Covid-19.
Image
Tom Wren, Creative Lives
Calling all creative groups across the UK and Ireland: The annual Creative Lives Awards are now OPEN for entries!
Image
Sheffield based artist, Tomekah George, to create bespoke artworks for the CHWA Awards 2022 winners
Image
This October, we’re highlighting a few activities led by our members and regional champions for Black History Month. You can also watch our conversation with Dr Errol Francis about his work across mental health, culture and research at the bottom of this page.
Image
Nicola Naismith reflects on the Practising Well Conversation Series in collaboration with CHWA and supported by the AHRC earlier this year, which provided a vehicle to explore findings from her most recent research with the wider sector.
Image
Tina Blaber
Our existence is embedded in culture – it’s all around us – and I think the need for this, as social creatures, is an inherent part of our make-up, as human beings.
Image
The Artists’ Represent Recovery Network is a professional development programme open to 10 London-based, freelance, ethnically diverse artists working in arts & health in a participatory or community setting.
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) is looking for a short-term Fundraising and Development Manager to support the organisation between December 2022 and February 2023.
The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) has led a response to the Government’s recent consultation to inform a new 10-year mental health plan, working closely with CHWA and the LENs (lived experience network). The organisations together highlighted the vital role of creative health in preventing, managing and treating mental ill-health and recommended changes that could be made in the healthcare system to make it easier for people to feel its benefits.
Image
Research shows that singing is beneficial for health and wellbeing, and not just in a general sense. Singing can provide specific support to those with a variety of conditions (some of which are discussed on Scotland’s Singing for Health website).
Image
Cooper Art Gallery
Personal Experience (Lewis)
This is a blog about the Cooper Art Gallery. My name is Lewis and I'm going to share my experience of the art gallery from an in-person perspective. The Cooper Art Gallery is a gallery that features beautiful old artwork from sculptures, seascapes, river views, and palaces to bridges. The Cooper Art Gallery features some unique paintings and masterpieces.
At a recent WhatNext? meeting the cultural thinker Suzanne Alleyne asked this question of Arts Minister Lord Parkinson:
"As we know, there is a very small subset of society that holds power in the publicly funded arts sector. Research shows that human beings fundamentally don’t like change, and that often those in power do not want to share it with those who don’t have access to it. What do you think the steps are that we need to take together to change this?"
This partnership event was co-devised by colleagues at Keele University, Staffordshire University and Age UK Oxfordshire, as part of the Age of Creativity Festival 2022 and Creative Later Life 2025.
Creativity & Wellbeing Week ran from 16-22 May 2022. You can read about hundreds of organisations' work and events on the main site, here - and watch videos from some of our headline events below.
See below for recordings of the following events:
Image
Carol McNicoll leading a workshop for The Repair Centre Portraits of Recovery 2022
This article is by Mark Prest, Founding Director of Portraits of Recovery, sharing insights into their most recent project, The Repair Centre
For 11 years, Portraits of Recovery has been inspiring and supporting people in recovery from substance use from Greater Manches
The Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA), funded by Arts Council England, is working with arts, health and wellbeing consultant Jane Willis to develop a Quality Framework with the Creative Health sector.
Image
Rosie Dow, Board Director of the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance and Programme Manager for ‘HARP’ at Nesta, explains what this arts and health innovation programme has been about, and what they’ve learned
Image
Rosie Dow, Board Director of the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance and Programme Manager for ‘HARP’ at Nesta, explains what this arts and health innovation programme has been about, and what they’ve learned
Image
Feels like Home ESOL Group, Barnsley Museums- skipping at Cannon Hall
To coincide with the national event taking place between Monday 16 and Sunday 22 May, Barnsley will be hosting its first-ever Creativity and Wellbeing week led in collaboration by Barnsley Council, the Creativity, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and other key partners.
Image
Feels like Home ESOL Group, Barnsley Museums- skipping at Cannon Hall
To coincide with the national event taking place between Monday 16 and Sunday 22 May, Barnsley will be hosting its first-ever Creativity and Wellbeing week led in collaboration by Barnsley Council, the Creativity, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and other key partners.
Image
CHWA Gather In event at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Image by: Jenny Harper
Exploring a new AHRC Research Programme led by Professor Helen Chatterjee
The Covid-19 pandemic adversely and disproportionately impacted vulnerable members of society, and highlighted significant inequalities in the UK.
Image
CHWA Gather In event at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Image by: Jenny Harper
Exploring a new AHRC Research Programme led by Professor Helen Chatterjee
The Covid-19 pandemic adversely and disproportionately impacted vulnerable members of society, and highlighted significant inequalities in the UK.
Image
Forest walk (Photo: Catriona Towriss)
I collect what I find in the forest, carry it to my studio for cleaning and shaping, and then assemble it into sculptural art works. I see my art as a collaboration with nature. I create in order to explore the patterns, tones and shapes of nature, to uncover nature’s visual language.
Image
At a recent rally for Ukraine, the granddaughter of a Tartar – indigenous Crimean – woman, offered her solidarity with Ukrainians; at a small gathering in a Scottish public park, she stood next to a young Belarusian woman, and a Russian man carrying a banner for Russians against the war.
Image
© George Archer / Kids in Museums (KiM Takeover Day at the National Justice Museum)
Celebrations and reflections on LGBTQ+ History Month are taking place all around the country this February. We highlight an example here from each of the nine CHWA regions.
Engagement with museums, heritage sites and other arts and culture organisations has been linked to improved health and wellbeing outcomes for visitors. Studies commissioned by the DCMS, Heritage Alliance, Arts Council and other sector organisations have particularly highlighted benefits for children’s social development, memory function in older age, and wellbeing improvements in adults.
Image
Visitor to the Inside Out Exhibition at Fleetwood Hospital in Fleetwood. Image credit: Claire Griffiths
How one of England’s oldest Creative People and Places Projects is Growing Grassroots Artists and Makers with a DIY Attitude
By Alex O'Toole
Image
University of South Wales
Places are available for the well-established MA Arts Practice (Arts, Health and Wellbeing) course in the heart of Cardiff.
Image
Arts and Minds workshops in schools (Image courtesy of Sheila Ceccarelli)
In January 2022 the government released a Policy Paper called Levelling Up the United Kingdom. A response to the widening inequalities in the UK, the authors describe 'levelling up' as "a moral, social and economic programme for the whole of government". The paper sets out to describe a route towards creating "equal opportunities".
Image
Arts and Minds workshops in schools (Image courtesy of Sheila Ceccarelli)
In January 2022 the government released a Policy Paper called Levelling Up the United Kingdom. A response to the widening inequalities in the UK, the authors describe 'levelling up' as "a moral, social and economic programme for the whole of government". The paper sets out to describe a route towards creating "equal opportunities".
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance has come together with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing; the LENs (lived experience network), National Centre for Creative Health; WHO Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health; and University College London to submit comments on the new
This brief talk was given as part of a panel focused on music convened by Arts4Dementia in January 2022.
Facilitating the integration of arts and culture into healthcare settings
Marcus Janusz and Eleri Watson are students of Occupational Therapy at Northumbria University. They have just completed a twelve-week, role-emerging placement with Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.
Image
“The cultural and VCSE sectors have a key role to play in reducing health inequalities”
Hidden Lives, Hidden Gems is looking for contributions from creative practitioners, researchers, artists, academics and others to a workshop symposium programme, which will take place over two days in a central London location.
Image
Meet Me on The Radio poster, Entelechy Arts. Image credit: Roswitha Chesher
The ‘Discoveries in Distanced Arts: The work, wonder, and wear of remote creative programmes’ report provides insights into the impacts of Covid-19 on cultural and creative sectors and shares learning on how to develop remote creative programmes.
Image
Credit: A falcon or kestrel and one of its tail feathers. Etching by Eliza D. (Wellcome Collection)
Today I have been out on my bike. It is almost a year ago since I made a commitment to myself to go out for a ride every day that I possibly could, and to write something about what I discovered on my ride. The same ride, a different journey, every day, for a year.
Free support for Birmingham based lead artists and projects working with vulnerable clients when delivering activities against health and wellbeing outcomes in Birming
Image
Astronomy: a section through the earth, showing the atmosphere. Engraving. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY
As life began to return to normal in the UK in 2021, research by Bath University was a stark reminder that it is not only COVID-19 that is having a major impact on young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Image
Elaine Lim Newton
We are seeking applications from a health or social care practitioner or researcher with specific expertise in health inequalities, to support our strategic commitment to partnership and equity.
This month offers a chance to experience events, discussions and more around the country to mark Black History Month.
You can watch CHWA's conversation with activist and art therapist Olatunde Spence here:
This month offers a chance to experience events, discussions and more around the country to mark Black History Month.
You can watch CHWA's conversation with activist and art therapist Olatunde Spence here:
Image
CreateSpace arts for wellbeing project, Birmingham Museums Trust/Creative Health CIC/Rita Patel
Are you based in the West Midlands region?
Are you passionate about culture/health/wellbeing and ready for a new challenge?
Image
I have written for as long as I can remember. Short stories created aged ten, fictionalising life or fantasy worlds to escape to. A weekly journal scrawled in an exercise book, started aged thirteen, kept up throughout my life. A regular outpouring of emotion, record keeping and analysis.
Image
Do you believe in the power of Hip Hop and MC culture to transform health and wellbeing? &
Image
Music as Therapy International
Creativity – artistic, musical, and beyond – has a unique power to engender health and wellbeing benefits. This is the starting point for The Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance – and it is something our charity, Music as Therapy International, has championed since ou
SANE have launched another round of awards for the SANE Creative Awards Scheme, which offers up to £300 to individuals with mental health conditions (and their carers) to develop their creative potential.
Image
Margaret Giller, Necklace of Stars. Photo copyright Lois Blackburn
Arts Derbyshire
Arts Derbyshire is the strategic arts organisation for the county; its 100+ member organisations include arts organisations, local authorities and public bodies with a re
Image
Today is the final day of South Asian Heritage Month (18 July to 17 August 2021). As the month closes South Asian Heritage Month on twitter has been focusing on Afghanistan.
Image
Today is the final day of South Asian Heritage Month (18 July to 17 August 2021). As the month closes South Asian Heritage Month on twitter has been focusing on Afghanistan.
Image
Oxford Botanic Garden. Photo by Ian Wallman (2017)
Exploring how social prescribing within cultural spaces can support older people’s wellbeing:
Interim summary report + invitation to end-of-study event on 20 September
An interdisciplinary team of researchers has been funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council to carry out a study to address t
Image
Shape of Change- Artwork by Shanali Perera
For the audio description for this call out created by Mah Rana, please click here.
Image
Cheryl C Edwards
A story about the growth of a virtual community that emerged from the concept of one artist in North Wales that reached very much further afield.
In the words of artists, and group members, Helen Griffiths and Pete Leonard.
Image
The Way Ahead, Barnsley Civic
Jason White, the lead for community engagement at The Civic, Barnsley, introduces The Way Ahead: a brand-new piece of public art in The Civic Barnsley’s Mandela Garden. Made up of fifteen unique road signs, the art protest piece is a collaboration between artist Caroline Cardus and four support groups for local disabled and/or neurodiverse people – ArtWorks South Yorkshire, Barnsley SEND Youth Forum, My Barnsley Too and Wednesday’s Voice, part of Cloverfleaf Advocacy.
In July 2021, SICK! Festival has a Micro-commissioning fund of £6000 for 1-3 projects by early career artists in Greater Manchester and the North West.
Image
So Many Beauties- Intercultural Music Project
Intercultural Music Showcase as part of South Asian Heritage Month- Thursday 5 August, 6pm - 7.15pm
The So Many Beauties Collective weaves a rich tapestry of sounds, drawing on diverse cultural influences.
Apply for UKRI funding to carry out a pilot study for the Mobilising Cultural and Natural Assets to Combat Health Inequalities programme
The study should focus on how to scale up small, local approaches for addressing health inequalities.
Victoria Ryves, Programme Manager for Heritage Doncaster, reports on the History, Health and Happiness Impact Report 2020/21
Download the full report here
Last week saw the 1st anniversary celebrations of m4d Radio – an award-winning internet radio stream developed as part of the Music for Dementia campaign, a national campaign calling for music to be an integral part of care for people living with dementia.
Click here for an audio description of the role and application process
As part of our Baring Foundation-funded work to understand more about what sustainable practice looks like in mental health and the arts, we are looking for a facilitator to manage and report on a series of meetings this summer.
In the run up to the UN climate summit in November, Letters to the Earth (LTTE) is gathering peoples' messages, stories and visions for a better future.
Read about how to share your own letter here.
LTTE has also built new toolkits for creating your own Letters to the Earth community or education workshop.
Image
Jonathan Parker, Man About Town, Creative Frame CIC
Using art forms such as music, photography, and painting Man About Town provides a space for men to share their experiences — combatting the rising number of men facing isolation as well as the suicide mortality rate — in Yorkshire and Humberside. According to one project leader, “the statistics are why the fund got put together in the first place.”
Zoe Brown and Sophie Mitchell from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, and Michael Cunliffe from North Tyneside Art Studio discuss their work to tackle local health priorities, including supporting people's mental health through collaborative programmes to make the museums relevant and welcom
Zoe Brown and Sophie Mitchell from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, and Michael Cunliffe from North Tyneside Art Studio discuss their work to tackle local health priorities, including supporting people's mental health through collaborative programmes to make the museums relevant and welcom
Image
Create
Carers' Week runs from 7-13 June 2021, and we are highlighting a very small selection of member organisations who support carers with their work.
Image
Yorkshire Dance's Vogue Masterclass with Darren Pritchard
This Pride Month, enjoy two short films: 'Double Life', from leo&hyde's electronic musical GUY, created with More Music, Lancaster Culture Co-op and LGBTQIA+ young people from across Lancashire; and highlights from Darren Pritchard's Vogue Masterclass for Yorkshire Dance's Dance On.
Image
Joyce Treasure / Red Earth Collective
Tuesday 15 June: A screening of a performance art video by Birmingham-based artist Joyce Treasure in response to the global pandemic and Black Lives Matter and Red Earth's Sandra Griffiths' interview with Joyce.
Image
...this report embraces culture in all its forms - blurring the messy boundaries between the amateur and the professional; the artist who cares and the health worker who escapes the trauma of their workload through some safety-valve of self-expression and pleasure.
Image
As the season of culture, health and wellbeing rolls on with this month's international conference for Culture, Health & Wellbeing, you can catch up with highlights from May's APPG meeting on the Mental Health Act here, explore events and organisations involved in Creativity & Wellbeing Week, and watch the CHWA Awards 2021.
Image
(stock image, royalty-free)
When I was a card-carrying physiologist working at St. George’s, Tooting, I would often get into passionate conversations about the importance of science versus the arts. Most of my family, being of artistic persuasion talked about beauty, expression and culture and why it is so critical to human existence. I thought of science as the quest for truth, and art as mere fluff and window dressing. To me it was no contest.
Image
Birds, Junction Arts
Bringing external professional artists into the specialist palliative care world has been a reciprocal experience. There has been significant mutual growth and understanding of meaning and purpose and a true connection and ability to understand how the arts are as important and meaningful to a person at every life stage.
Image
Singing provides a bridge between research and practice, academic and everyday life contexts. It provides an overview of current research on the benefits of singing for both mental and physical health.
Image
Maternal Journal
This month is an opportunity to link you to four fantastic programmes focusing on maternal mental health.
An Office for Students' survey has been published to consult on government to proposals to separate "High-cost subject funding: performing arts; creative arts; media studies; archaeology", which are not deemed "strategic priorities", and reduce the government subsidy that tops up student fees by 50%.
Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, DISRUPT will reimagine the role of the arts in our society.
Image
Lytisha and Jeanette discuss making their podcast "about the funny side of life with MS"...
How has this podcast affected your wellbeing?
Lytisha:
Image
Outside Edge Theatre Company’s Check-in/Check-out. Photo credit: Ali Wright)
Discover more about the winning, highly commended and shortlisted CHWA 2021 Awards projects and organisations
Image
London Arts and Health (LAAH) and the Mayor of London have launched a myth busting guide to help support the hundreds of grassroots organisations in London to become involved in the London recovery plan.
A number of groups – including the Museums Association, WhatNext? and David Tovey from Arts and Homelessness International – have drawn attention to the risks of exacerbating inequalities through the process of covid certification to access venues.
Image
The Birth Project uses the arts to explore the impact of birth, not only on new mothers but on obstetricians, midwives, doulas and birth-partners. The team at Derby University have funding to offer free training sessions/accompanied film viewings which can be tailored for different audiences, such as:
Image
Crucible artwork for Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust (BSUH), commissioned as part of Connect, the 3Ts Hospital Redevelopment Public Art Programme.
Brighton-based arts collective Nimbus have created a new website and forthcoming permanent artwork to story-tell the rich tapestry of histories of the past staff and patients of the Royal Sussex County
Image
The Lullaby Factory, Studio Weave - Photograph Jim Stephenson www.clickclickjim.com
On this International Women’s Day there is a lot to celebrate about the fact that culture, health and wellbeing is a field not just dominated by women in terms of numbers, but also more often than not led by women.
A summary of the 2021 Budget can be found here on the government's site.
The Association of British Orchestras, City of London Sinfonia & Orchestras Live have launched a report, Orchestras in Healthcare, which suggests that orchestras contribute more than £1.6m to the public health sector
Image
Culture Box
A new research study, Culture Box, is based at the University of Exeter, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by psychologist Professor Victoria Tischler. The study addresses two urgent challenges. Firstly, providing COVID-19 public health information for those with cognitive impairment, specifically people with dementia living in care homes. Secondly, alleviating social isolation and loneliness for those living with dementia in care homes, by providing them with creative activities that support wellbeing, especially in the context of long- term lockdowns and the associated restrictions.
Image
Just bounce back i by Sue Flowers 2020
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance led a 6-month project in 2021-22 funded by the Baring Foundation, to understand how we might help more people and organisations survive and thrive in mental health and the arts. Our advisory group is drawn from organisations around the UK using a range of approaches.
Image
Photograph of Glenn Gould. Creative Commons Licensed 1.0
If nothing else, the pandemic had forced us to re-consider the terms of cultural production and consumption. Too often, simple everyday forms of creativity and pleasure have been cast as competitive sport. Even the most domesticated forms of creative expression - baking or sewing - have been turned by TV commissioners into tales of winners and losers.
Image
Janet inspired by the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge collections to make figures. Photo: Wendy Daws
A graduate research study investigating museums on prescription from the perspective of the museum practitioners involved in them. Museums on prescription is part of the rising social prescribing initiative aimed at linking patients with non-medical services and resources for the betterment of their overall health and well-being.
Culture-led wellbeing: investigating the changing skills of the cultural workforce
A new ESRC DTP Collaborative Studentship hosted by the University of Leicester and University of Oxford Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM)
Image
Yorkshire Dance - Vogueing Masterclass
A shift of weight, a flick of the wrist, the pressure of hot palms pressed together – touch, trust and physical closeness are the tools of our trade as community dance practitioners. We read the language of the body to help participants develop greater awareness, confidence and ease in their bodies. All of this exists in real, three-dimensional life and can never be replaced.
Image
The National Centre for Creative Health has been formed in response to Recommendation 1 in the Creative Health
Image
UCL Grant Museum (c) UCL
UCL’s MASc in Creative Health will create a new generation of socially engaged scholars and practitioners to meet the needs of a changing health, social care and voluntary third sector, where personalised care, social prescribing, health inequity and the patient experience are mainstreamed into public health. This programme is the first of its kind in the world, both in terms of the qualification (Masters in Arts & Sciences) and the academic field of study (Creative Health).
Image
String of Hearts CIC - musicians Clive Hunte, Amina Hussain, Lucy Geddes
12 months ago, Lucy Geddes and Amina Hussain set up String of Hearts, a community arts organisation which connects older adults through music-making in their local area of Trafford, Greater Manchester. During Covid-19 they developed a music phone call initiative to support people without internet access, which is now being socially prescribed by GP practices and local organisations.
Image
'Connection I' (detail) by Norie Hatakeyama. Part of the Paintings in Hospitals collection. © the artist
CHWA is a partner in the Community COVID Research Project and we would like to learn how you are connecting with people who are vulnerable, isolated, shielding, or from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your experience will help us understand how best to reach the most marginalised members of society.
According to mental health charity Mind's analysis of NHS Digital figures, numbers for urgent and emergency referrals of people in crisis increased by 15% between March and July. Read more.
The Rugby League World Cup 2021 has teamed up with Community Integrated Care (a national social care charity) for a compeition – open to anyone who accesses social care – to design the official Christmas card for the tournament.
Image
© Greg Morrison for Dulwich Picture Gallery
This project aims to position the Tessa Jowell Health Centre as a leading model of good practice in the arts and health national policy arena, with the potential to influence and inform other health settings with its inclusive design approach and vibrant creative programme.
In our consultation for Curating for Change we have been talking to D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people about the barriers they have faced in getting work within museums. The lack of flexibility with working conditions alongside environmental barriers have been cited on several occasions as reasons for why they have not managed to access roles in the past. The move towards remote working is something that many disabled people and those with long term health conditions have been hoping for, and the pandemic has proven this is entirely possible.
Image
© Diana Serban @Battlegrounds19
I’m not often asked to write something for a blog so when Jenni Regan (London Arts in Health) asked me during a Zoom meeting to write a blog post about how St Margaret’s House has started to reopen to the public as we emerged through lockdown, I said yes. Then afterwards started to think and ponder – how do I go about this?
Image
An image of the writer Maxwell A. Ayamba
...people from minoritized communities suffer disproportionately from structural and systemic racism in education, health, jobs, housing, poor quality environments, which are all triggers of mental ill-health. Therefore, the question of leisure and recreation or accessing natural spaces is the last thing on the minds of the underprivileged, especially where the landscapes do not reflect people’s cultural origins or values.
Feed into the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Tackling Loneliness Network's task force, exploring how life can be improved for older people during the pandemic.
Image
Hear and Now 2019 in Bedford, co-produced by Orchestras Live and the Philharmonia Orchestra © Beth Walsh
An invitation on behalf of the international Music for Social Impact research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to participate in a survey of musicians in all pa
Image
Messages left on the grass wall in 'Nature Calls' - the finale exhibition of Paintings in Hospitals 'Art in Large Doses' project - Photo by Glenn Michael Harper
Changes in approaches to evaluating creative activities delivered remotely or online during COVID-19 have been prompted by increased flexibility from funders and the continuing need to find appropriate, accessible and sustainable ways to access participant experience. These are two of the findings uncovered through a recent curated online conversation, hosted by Willis Newson, Creative and Credible, Arts and Health South West and the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance, in association with Professor Norma Daykin and Dr Karen Gray.
Image
Hannah Ayre, Prescribe Culture
Prescribe Culture: a heritage-based, non-clinical mental health programme
by Ruthanne Baxter, Museums Service Manager, Edinburgh University
A national arts programme for NHS hospital staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Image
Ex Cathedra
In an extraordinary piece of timing, UK leading choir Ex Cathedra was working with Singing Medicine patients and Birmingham Children’s Hospital Chaplaincy Team before anyone had heard of coronavirus, to create what is thought to be the world’s first hospital-wide children and young people’s virtual patient choir, called the Lifting Spirits Choir.
Image
The Charterhouse (Head gardener Kate Robinson)
Here at the Charterhouse, like everywhere else, we keep trying to settle into a new ‘normal’ and then everything changes again…
Image
“Snow Leopard”, from my illustrated mind, by Kathryn Watson
I’ve never studied art; I come from a medical background and did a PhD in microbiology. My world was about numbers, statistics, looking for tried and tested patterns, and grouping things into distinct categories. Absolutely these approaches have a place, and are especially essential when needing to rapidly process large amounts of information in high risk environments. But it didn’t give me a good way to process my inner world of chaotic and conflicting thoughts and feelings. Thankfully illustration did.
Image
Branching Out, artwork by Ruth Flanagan
Do you believe in the power of creativity and culture to transform health and wellbeing?
Are you passionate about and committed to amplifying the voice of lived experience and challenging inequality?
Do you have the time and expertise to guide a fledgling organisation with co-production at its heart?
We are a group of researchers and organisations funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to understand how people have occupied themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Image
History Club, Doncaster Heritage. Photo: James Mulkeen
History, Health and Happiness’s first impact report was published this summer... the data says they can infer that “participants are experiencing new levels of connectedness and are building their relationships within their community”. Participants are also “well engaged in project activities and learning things that are new to them”.
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is working with partners across culture, health and wellbeing to build evidence of the work being done by creative and cultural practitioners and organisations around the country to support health and wellbeing during Covid-19. We are gathering this information with the following aims:
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is a national membership organisation for everyone invested in the relationship between creativity, culture, health and wellbeing. Our vision is a healthy world powered by our creativity and imagination. We are an organisation driven by the collective power of our members.
Image
Nature Cures, by Sue Flowers
I truly believe that when we normalise difference we enter a much more just and equal world. We all have mental health, that’s a fact - so shouldn’t we all acknowledge this hidden truth, accept that we might have mental ill health at some point and stop being afraid of the unknown?
Image
Dance to Health Birmingham - Andy Barker
With the health, social and economic tragedy of Covid-19, we must move on fast and on a much larger scale. We have many brilliant artists in this country ready and able to make a vital contribution.
Image
"What I've missed during lockdown", Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust
I only started the role in September 2019 so was still in the process of getting to know the trust and its service users and staff when Covid 19 stopped things in their tracks. Suddenly all the plans for joint working were put on hold as sectors shut down and the idea of actual face-to-face networking seemed strange, incongruent and old fashioned.
Image
Jasmine O’Hare for Cut and Stick Together, Arts Development Company
We would like to ask you about whether and how you have found the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance useful since our last survey (April 2019).
Image
Dancing in Driveways, Charlotte Armitage
Please see links to the available support and detailed information and guidance on who can apply below:
Image
This year will see the launch of a Singing for Health Network for practitioners, researchers and anyone interested or involved in Singing for Health and Well-being. The overarching aim of the Network is to bring Singing for Health intelligence under one roof and forge closer links between research and practice.
Image
The Arts & Health Hub is a supportive and non-competitive network for artists interested in or working in the arts and health sector.
Image
GOSH Arts
Hospital Habitats invites young people to re-imagine their hospital as an environment for wildlife, and comes out of Something &Son’s long term project The Manuals which explores a new culture where humans create rather destroy ecosystems through our daily actions. The project is open to all young people – please share it with your patients and partners: www.gosh.nhs.uk/wards-and-departments/departments/gosh-arts/resources/how-can-hospitals-become-more-sustainable
Image
John Humm, Being-Opposite-Illness. © John Humm
Each year, students on the BSc Medical Sciences with Humanities, Philosophy and Law at Imperial College London produce a project on a topic of their choice. As one of the tutors on the course, it’s always a treat for me to see the breadth and originality of these topics. ... This year, of course, was rather different. ...
Image
Tramlines 2019; Dan Bale, Open House Pictures
Steve Rimmer of SME of the Week and DigitalHealth.London Launchpad company, The Ticket Bank, explains how the company is giving free event tickets to people who normally wouldn’t be able to access them and talks about the company’s transition into NHS social prescribing and social care...
Image
Artwork by Lorna Collins
During the Covid 19 emergency many professionals in the culture and health field have pulled out all the stops to support the communities they are close to. Others have lost some or even all of their work or have been disconnected through the furlough scheme. And now, the future is at best uncertain.
Arts, Creativity and Health: A Special Issue for the Journal ‘Public Health’
Image
Crocker Museum, Sacramento, California
Seeking participants for new online study to find out.
The way artists respond to crises, the DIY reinvention of projects and activities, is often celebrated, but sometimes it looks like artists thrive in difficult conditions. Rather it is important to understand that the arts have particular understandings of improvisation. The practice of artists can sometimes be overlooked (seen as a ‘black box’), with the outcomes being the focus of evaluation.
Image
Sewing through the pandemic, Changing Lives
At Changing Lives, we support women who face the most disadvantage in our communities. We support women who are repeatedly abused sexually, physically and emotionally and then often described by other people and services as the most ‘complex’, ‘challenging’ or ‘difficult’ women to work with.
Image
Dancing in Driveways, Charlotte Armitage
A participant of Dancing in Driveways in Sheffield describes how a dance artist's gesture to help her street has transformed community spirit and health.
The Royal Society for Public Health and Beatfreaks have both pointed to a rise in mental health concerns amongst young people during covid, based on surveys of 5,000 adults and 1,500 young people respectively.
Beetfreaks also learnt that 1 in 5 young people are using creativity to support their mental health.
‘Art Psychotherapy: Innovative practice and new perspectives’ (working title) aims to capture the range of current activity in the vanguard of Art Psychotherapy practice and research. It will be co-edited by Helen J
In April and May 2020, 220 culture, health and wellbeing organisations and practitioners responded to a survey about their work, coordinated by:
Image
Creative Aging International (CAI) was started with the ideas of “making with” and “making for” at its core.
Image
‘Dads and Sons’ performing at ZoieLogic Dance Theatre’s Headfunk 2019 Photo credit: Matt Pear
A conversation between Victoria Hume (Director, CHWA) and Liz Ellis (Policy Project Manager, National Lottery Heritage Fund)
Victoria: This year in a beautiful piece of synergy, Creativity and Wellbeing Week, theme Positive Futures, runs alongside Mental Health Awareness Week, theme Kindness.
Image
"What I've missed during lockdown", Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is gathering evidence of the sector's response to covid. See this page for more information.
Image
"What I've missed during lockdown", Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is gathering evidence of the sector's response to covid. See this page for more information.
Image
Manchester Museums
Kids in Museums is a charity funded by Arts Council England as a Sector Support Organisation for the museum sector.
Image
Our Day Out, Creative Arts East
In 2017, CAE received Spirit of 2012 funding to deliver Our Day Out, a unique dementia-friendly creative arts initiative for rurally-isolated older people. The initial three-year programme (2017-19) provided opportunities for people to engage creatively through fortnightly dementia-friendly, inclusive and interactive music and movement workshops in rural communities across Breckland and North Norfolk.
Image
Live Music Now: A Choir in Every Care Home
At Live Music Now, our work at hundreds of care homes, hospitals and special schools stopped immediately because of the necessary and vital separation.
Image
Creativity & Wellbeing Week (18-24 May 2020) is giving us a snapshot of amazing work happening across the country. Working to our festival theme of Positive Futures, some of our contributors have organised digital events, and many others have told us about their work and organisations.
Image
Geraldine Montgomerie
by Geraldine Montgomerie, Project Support Officer | Leeds Arts, Health and Wellbeing Network
Results from the survey will be added to this page as we analyse them.
--------------
Image
Performing Medicine is a charitable organisation delivering creative training programmes for healthcare professionals and students. In the last few days Performing Medicine has published its Circle of Care – "a relational framework for care" – and new guidance for NHS staff wearing PPE, based on advice from actors used to working in heavy costume.
Image
Signs of Life by Rachel Howfield Massey. Photo credit: Pete Massey
Health inequalities due to social determinants have all too often been neglected by policy makers and now inevitably the most vulnerable are the worst hit by social isolation and its consequences. No-one is claiming that connection to nature can compensate for this serious, structural inequality, but it may help ameliorate some symptoms of anxiety, loneliness and stress.
Image
High Peak Community Arts’ Project eARTh; participants working with artist Caro Inglis
Suddenly, it seems that all art is about health.
Cultural organisations and creative practitioners everywhere in the world have been responding to covid-19 with the huge variety of perspectives that you might expect. Some responses are critical, some are there to promote health guidance, some take a longer view of how the virus reveals about humanity...
The APPG – co-chaired by Baroness Deborah Bull and Chi Onwurah MP – is working with King’s College London, University of Edinburgh and the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (led by Nesta) on a year-long project looking at ‘what works’.
On 26 March we published a brief snapshot report on the culture, health and wellbeing sector and its immediate concerns for the short and longer term.
Image
Mah Rana
' I enjoy creating a well-making space in my mother’s home where both my mother and I can breathe, de-stress, and attend to self-care through acts of creativity.' A reflective blog from artist/researcher and carer Mah Rana exploring the power of creating well-making spaces in unsettling times.
Image
42nd Street
Conversation between Hayley Youell and Julie McCarthy, Great Place Manager for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, 16 April 2020
Image
Matt Roberts for Air Arts
All of our staff are working really hard at the moment and need to feel our immense gratitude for what they do. So many people are going above and beyond and we wanted to celebrate those people who were inspiring others and being such a positive force so we decided to turn them into super heroes.
Image
MS Ottoman Turkish 3. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
…if you’ve self-isolated over years as I’ve done, you do slow down to a very, very different pace.The following is an interview with Gilly Angell, a founding member of the LENS group, from 31 March 2020
Image
Equal Arts Carers’ Cultural Adventures’ Group flying their handmade Korean flags. Photographer Dani Giddins
All of us are still thinking through the implications of this immense international crisis. In the spirit of offering up questions and sharing what is currently influencing our thinking, we're sharing here a few blogs and articles, and works of art, from people who have been taking a step back and reflecting on the experience and implications of covid-19.
UCL Behavioural Science & Health has launched a study into the psychological and social effects of Covid-19 in the UK.
The Health Foundation and the Institute for Health Equity have launched their report Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On, showing that health inequalities are increasing. Culture remains largely absent from its the recommendations, although the report
While great strides have been taken in research into participant experiences of Arts in Health, there has so far been very little exploration of practitioners’ perspectives (Naismith, 2019). This study will investigate the experiences of Arts in Health practitioners/ artists working in health, social care and participatory settings.
While great strides have been taken in research into participant experiences of Arts in Health, there has so far been very little exploration of practitioners’ perspectives (Naismith, 2019). This study will investigate the experiences of Arts in Health practitioners/ artists working in health, social care and participatory settings.
Image
Participants at the Winter School, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (c) Bart de Nil
From Monday January 27 until Friday January 31 2020 professionals from Belgium, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, Italy, United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Canada gathered at Great Museum North: Hancock in Newcastle for a unique training week on the deployment of cultural heritage for outreach activities with a focus on wellbeing.
As many of you will have seen, Arts Council England has published its new strategy: Let's Create. Like the National Lottery Heritage Fund's strategic funding framework (published last year) it is full of references to health and wellbeing. This has not come from nowhere. The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance would like to acknowledge the hard work of all our members and partners, and everyone else who took part in the ACE consultation process, whether they went to meetings or responded online, and made the case for considering health and wellbeing, as well as supporting the broader shift towards inclusive, participatory creative and cultural practice. All this has led to what Nicholas Serota refers to in his introduction as "the dissolving of barriers between artists and the audiences with whom they interact".
Image
There is now substantial research and evidence, which shows that taking part in performing arts activity brings benefits for older people living longer. TV programmes such as the BBC’s Our Dementia Choir illustrate beautifully the power music can have in reducing the impact of symptoms such as depression and agitation, and in turn the isolation that those living with dementia feel. These improvements in quality of life can often be greater than any symptom control provided by drugs, which are hugely expensive to the NHS over the lifespan of an individual’s illness.
Image
“D-IAGNOSIS! Arts to Preserve Wellbeing” has been commissioned from artist Jane Frere by Arts 4 Dementia.
Image
Creative Potential CIC
The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance in partnership with Derby City Council is looking to commission an East Midlands' artist to create artworks for the CHWA 2020 Awards
In partnership with Arts Development at Derby City Council we are offering 10 free spaces to attend A Culture of Care to freelance creative practitioners and carers who live, or whose practice, is based in Derby.
Image
Photo by Charlotte Armitage for Creative Recovery
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is joining forces with the Network for Arts, Heritage and Design in Hospitals, Arts & Health South West, and London Arts & Health to be on the new Julie's Bicyle Acceler
Summary: This workshop will explore key principles and methodologies for evaluating arts for health and wellbeing programmes, examining the opportunities and challenges linked to embedding evaluation best practice appropriately, creatively and robustly.
Image
Live Music Now: LIBOR concerts 2017-18
by Alan Dix, Artistic Director 509 Arts
This was originally a talk given by Alan at the Creative Arts and Dementia Conference, MAC Birmingham, on 24 September 2019. The featured image above is from Live Music Now's LIBOR concerts.
The University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine is working with Ulster University to map the range of arts and cultural practices with patients in palliative care internationally.
Please find responses linked below from:
The Museums Association on all the parties' manifestos
Image
Parkinson's dance class, Pavillion Dance South West
The Foundation has published two significant new resources for creative ageing: Around the World in 80 Creative Ageing Projects and
Deadline: 16 December 2019
A new National Social Prescribing Special Interest Group is calling for case studies focused on activity to support the early years and 1001 days agenda and/or new mothers. The case studies will be used to compile a national handbook for commissioners on how culture can promote wellbeing in these contexts.
Image
Yorkshire Dance: Lucy Suggate's Swarm Sculptures at Juncture 2016 ©AndyWood
For the last 18 months I have had the pleasure of working with the World Health Organisation on their developing agenda around arts and health. This month, we have released the largest evidence report ever published on arts and health.
Image
A new review of evidence has been published by the World Health Organization. The synthesis report, written by Daisy Fancourt and Saoirse Finn "aims to close this awareness gap by mapping the current available evidence in the field of arts and health."
The report focuses largely on the WHO European Region and collates results from over 3,000 studies.
The Repository for Arts and Health Resources was originally created by Angus McLewin and Stephen Clift of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health, on behalf of the RSPH Special Interest Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.
Image
Tom Bailey (Arts & Minds Leeds)
The Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network (LAHWN) hosted a vibrant and well-attended network event this October and generously offered us a workshop space to explore climate change with members of the network, following up on ideas generated by our
Image
Nick Ewbank Associates were commissioned by Voluntary Arts to produce this review for BBC Music Day 2019. The paper includes discussions of the physiological benefits of music; music and empathy; and the value of music participation for both personal wellbeing and social cohesion.
Key findings the paper highlights include
Image
Hold Exhibition at FACT Liverpool, by Invisible Flock, images Ed Waring
"This is why we use technology and are constantly drawn back to it, by thinking of it in a malleable way, like a medium, it allows us to uncover new aesthetics and new ways to approach conversations and real world interactions."
Image
Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
Kyunghee Kwon, program coordinator of the educational community development team at the South Korean Arts and Culture Education Service (KACES), met the Health and Wellbeing team at the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge this September to learn more about their work.
Image
Astronomy: a section through the earth, showing the atmosphere. Engraving. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY
We're summarising here some of the discussions that took place during our first twitter chat – especially for those of you who are not on twitter (or you can find the chat on twitter here).
Image
Arts Council England / Zuhura Plummer
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance's official response to the final draft of Arts Council England's strategy is attached here.
Power and Privilege in the 21st Century Museum was devloped through the Museums Association Transformers: Diversify programme. The report aims to provide practical tools for transforming museums.
Image
KIMA: Noise by Analema Group, 2019
How do urban noises affect our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing?
From 6-8 September a new participatory art project ‘KIMA: Noise’ will explore the effects of noise on well-being through an interactive installation at Maxilla Space, North Kensington.
Image
Morgan Salisbury, Meltdown Tracker
A blog by Morgan Salisbury
You’re walking round a museum, and the noise in the entrance area echoes and makes you feel like you’re in a swimming pool of random noises, pain jutting at your ears. You turn your collar up and think about getting out the ear defenders buried at the bottom of your rucksack, then realise there’s no room to put your bag down to rummage.
Image
Land Sea Light Koan by Liliane Lijn
I write this short reflective piece as I retire from my role as manager of Healing Arts for the Isle of Wight NHS Trust at the end of August 2019, having arrived to work with the then Isle of Wight Health Authority in June 1986.
Produced in response to the growth of the youth climate strikes in the UK, this new guide from Kids in Museums is designed to help museums support youth climate activism and collaborate with young people on events, exhibitions and debates. It was produced in partnership with Climate Museum UK, the Happy Museum Project and Julie's Bicycle.
Image
Arts and Minds workshops in schools (Image courtesy of Sheila Ceccarelli)
The APPG for Arts, Health & Wellbeing, Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance and Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network have partnered to publish a briefing for Integrated Care System planning.
The Directors of Age of Creativity and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance have co-written a new article for Age UK's magazine, EngAGE.
Read the article here (p.16)
Image
Image by Ben Gregory
The Slow GIF Movement seeks to make online space more inclusive with gently looping GIFs.
Rhiannon Armstrong, supported by The Space and Unlimited, is pleased to announce the launch of The Slow GIF Movement on 15 August 2019, to coincide with National Relaxation Day.
The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance has published new guidance for artists and arts organisations interested in working in criminal justice settings, Enhancing arts and culture in criminal justice settings – a partnership approach.
The Health Foundation has published an assessment of the Prevention Green Paper by David Finch.
The final regional dissemination events for Creative Health were held in Reading on 2nd May and in Ipswich on 16th May. You can watch the Reading event on YouTube and find out more about both in the APPG Annual Report (see below).
Image
Arts and Minds workshops in schools (Image courtesy of Sheila Ceccarelli)
"Fullscope" brings together seven organisations who support mental wellbeing in children and/or young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Fullscope is a 3-year programme to improve provision, establish clearer opportunity pathways, and have national significance in influencing the sector as a whole.
The Fullscope consortium is:
Image
Audience at Creative Arts East touring event. Photo: Trish Thompson
‘There is growing evidence that engagement in activities like dance, music, drama, painting and reading help ease our minds and heal our bodies. It is most encouraging to see just how much potential and ambition there is for joined up action on this vital work in Norfolk.’ Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England.
The APPG for Arts, Health & Wellbeing and Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance have produced new guidance for for STP and ICS Planning, available here.
Image
We envisage a country transformed by its culture and at the same time, constantly transforming it: a truly creative nation in which we all can play our part. (Shaping the Next Ten Years: Draft strategy for consultation, p.6)
Image
Climate protests on Waterloo Bridge, April 2019
We invite members' comments on our draft declaration and resources. Read more here
Image
by Douglas Noble, Strategic Director for Wellbeing, Live Music Now
Image
Elaine Bedell, Chief Executive of the South Bank Centre, introduces the Creative Health conference
Over 500 events later and Creativity & Wellbeing Week is officially a national festival...
Image
The Culture, Health and Wellbeing international conference (CHW21) is on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd June 2021.
During the global crisis, the arts and creativity have helped us navigate uncertainty and been agents of hope. The conference will provide a space for exploring our individual and collective experiences and articulating a vision for the future. Our conference themes are Inequality, Power and Sustainability.
Image
Singing in Care Homes; Live Music Now and Creative Inspiration Shropshire Community Interest Company
We like big numbers here at BBC Music Day HQ.
14 million on radio. 13 million on TV. 1000 live music events across the UK. 100 external partners. 100 BBC production teams across TV, radio and digital.
And we want to build on that this year – with your help.
Image
Joseph Mallord William Turner
'Look at Paintings', a free website which innovatively partners techniques of Mindful meditation with Art Appreciation, with the aim of producing immediate benefits to the viewer, has now gone live.
Image
Creative Industries Federation logo
The Creative Industries Federation and Arts Council England have together launched a new report, Public Investment, Public Gain. The report makes case for the central role that public investment in arts and culture plays generating commercial returns across the economy.
Image
Creative Health CIC’s Still Lively Programme (Celebrating Age, ACE/Baring Foundation), image by Ming De Nasty
Wednesday 26 June is National Writing Day, led by First Story - a national literacy charity, working with 55 partner organisations. #nationalwritingday
Image
The Life Zone Gallery at Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
The Art Fund's new Calm and Collected report has set out the ways in which museums could - and already do - impact our wellbeing.
A new £62 million fund has been announced by Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright. The fund will support heritage in high streets. The funding includes:
Image
Messages left on the grass wall in 'Nature Calls' - the finale exhibition of Paintings in Hospitals 'Art in Large Doses' project - Photo by Glenn Michael Harper
Friday 17 May, Newcastle Centre for Life
In January 2018, Perspectivesin Public Health published a Special Issue on Arts, Health & Wellbeing focusing on the content of presentations from the Culture, Health & Wellbeing International Conference held in Bristol in June, 2017.
Te Ora Auaha: Creative Wellbeing Alliance was launched launched in April 2019 by Carmel Sepuloni, New Zealand Minister of Social Development and Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. Te Ora Auaha: Creative Wellbeing Alliance Aotearoa is made up of individuals, groups and organisations across the arts, health, youth, social and education sectors.
Creative Freedom has published a Manifesto for Mental Health in Arts Professional to address the difficulties of maintaining mental health in creative and cultural careers. Colin Beesting, founder of Creative Freedom, says
Image
Breathe Arts Health Research, Melodies for Mums 2018 - photo by Leigha Fearon
A sincere thank you to everyone who filled out the Alliance's annual survey. You can find a summary report here. In total 99 people filled out the annual survey. We do not have permission to share comments publicly, so we have just included statistics here.
Responses to Arts Council England’s strategic proposals for 2020-2030 have been published by the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance, and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing. A number of the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance’s partners are also signatories on its response.
Image
Framing the Future, Paintings in Hospitals
What is the past, present and future role of arts in health?
As part of Paintings in Hospitals' 60th anniversary celebrations, the organisation is convening a panel to consider the past pioneers and future innovations of visual arts in health and social care.
Image
Susie Tate projects, photo by Carrie Calvert
A new national network has been set up for anyone who takes responsibility for arts, heritage and design in hospitals. The group is being hosted by the NHS national performance advisory group and letters will be sent to all hospital arts managers in the UK and all NHS trusts for people to sign up.
Image
Fabric Lenny (made for the Cultures of Health and Wellbeing conference 21-22 March)2019
We are thrilled that over 3,600 of you have signed up to be members of the Alliance and receive this monthly bulletin. This is our first annual survey. To help us support you, please fill out this short survey, which covers general questions about the Alliance, its new website and the bulletin.
Image
Tin Arts performing at Cultures of Health & Wellbeing (21-22 March 2019, Great North Museum: Hancock)
The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance's first annual conference ended with a bang - a whole load of bangs in fact - on 21 and 22nd March at Great North Museum: Hancock, with a performance from The Lawnmowers Beat This!
Image
David Shrigley
Alex Coulter, Director of Arts & Health South West, continues to provide the secretariat and project management for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG), on behalf of the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
Image
Tin Arts performing at Cultures of Health & Wellbeing (21-22 March 2019, Great North Museum: Hancock)
I have been thinking about cooperation a lot lately. The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance is a small organisation in terms of resource – but in terms of partnership and collaboration its reach is enormous. Over 3,000 people have now signed up as members, along with almost 70 partner organisations.
Image
Errol Francis delivering his keynote at Cultures of Health and Wellbeing
The Alliance ‘s first annual conference, Cultures of Health and Wellbeing was held at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums in Newcastle on the 21st and 22nd March 2019.
Image
David Shrigley, Sing Your Song
London Arts in Health Forum and the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance are working together to expand Creativity and Wellbeing Week into a national event, building on its enormous success across London. Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2019 will run from 10-16 June 2019.
Image
Messages left on the grass wall in 'Nature Calls' - the finale exhibition of Paintings in Hospitals 'Art in Large Doses' project - Photo by Glenn Michael Harper
The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance is a national organisation representing everyone who believes that cultural engagement and participation can transform our health and wellbeing.
We are developing a new statement of values and would like your help to answer the following questions:
Image
Yorkshire Dance: Lucy Suggate's Swarm Sculptures at Juncture 2016 ©AndyWood
Matt Hancock’s speech on 6 November – ‘The power of the arts and social activities to improve the nation’s health’ – is enormously significant.
Image
Victoria Hume
The UN has told us that we have 12 years to sort out climate change. This is the largest health and wellbeing – and indeed cultural – challenge we face.