Resources for visual artists working with art, health & wellbeing

Illustration by Grace Collins

Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) is the sole free-to-join membership organisation for creative health across England. They provide networked, collaborative advocacy, support and resources, supporting health and wellbeing for all through creative and cultural practice. The alliance is based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and brings together Regional Champions, the LENs, and the APPG on Arts, Health and Wellbeing.

National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) advances good practice and research, informs policy and promotes collaboration, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems. It plays a pivotal role in promoting collaboration to enable creative health to become integral to health and social care and wider systems. Helpful roundtables on various creative health topics can be found here: https://ncch.org.uk/themes-and-roundtables

Prescribe Arts This site enables social prescribers to find high quality arts programmes that provide health and wellbeing outcomes. It also offers support to the arts and health programmes listed and is useful for members of the public who wish to find programmes to self-refer to. Programmes to attract new participants and to join their developing community of practice.

Artists Practicing Well Report by Nicola Naismith The phrase ‘caring for the carer’ – where the individual offering the support, encouragement and care to another is often in need of those same things in order the stay safe and well – is applicable in this context. If the arts are positive for participants, so too should they be for the creative practitioners delivering them. The Artists Practising Well* research report focuses on support for practitioners, and not the evidence base of the effectiveness of arts for health and wellbeing.

Regional case studies by organisations working with art, health & wellbeing

Arts for Blues is a new evidence-based creative and psychological therapy for depression that encompasses movement, drama, music, visual art and writing. The project is led by Prof. Vicky Karkou, Director of the Research Centre for Art and Wellbeing at Edge Hill University.

Bluecoat | Where the Arts Belong (thebluecoat.org.uk) is in partnership with Belong and funded by Arts Council England, Where the Arts Belong is a groundbreaking project providing enriching arts experiences in specialist dementia care villages across the North West.

Hospital Rooms (hospital-rooms.com)   has undertaken a number of acclaimed projects, completed in some of the most challenging mental health settings. For every project they carefully select artists according to the needs of each community and they work closely with patients, staff and the NHS Trust to create unique, quality and site-specific artwork.

House of Memories is a museum-led dementia awareness programme that offers training, access to resources, and museum-based activities to enable carers to provide person-centred care for people living with dementia. This award-winning  programme was created by National Museums Liverpool.

Portraits Of Recovery (PORe) is a pioneering visual arts charity based in Manchester, inspiring and supporting people affected by and in recovery from substance use (Recoverists). By working collaboratively with leading contemporary artists, people in recovery, and communities in recovery, we share the human face of the recovery experience – breaking down barriers and promoting inclusion.

Helpful regional case studies by visual artists working with art, health and wellbeing

Holding Time by Multi-Disciplinary artist Lisa Creagh is a project creating a different new language for breastfeeding, and in this way challenges the cultural stigmas surrounding it.

Rest (Is A Political Act) – Metal Culture by Nicki Colclough, Manchester based-artist and CVAN NW F&E participant explores how art can address social issues, with a focus on care, wellbeing and the environment. Rest (Is A Political Act) is an ongoing research project exploring the value of rest, the relationship one has to the act of resting, and the wider theme of Care in the Arts.