Reframing Critical and Socially Engaged Arts Practices from a Creative Health / Health Humanities Perspective

About the Project

Within the field of contemporary arts there has been a significant shift over the last decade towards collaborative, participatory and socially engaged arts practices that could be re-purposed for wider and specific public health needs. Such practices, which are often aligned with wider struggles for social justice, widening participation in the arts, increasing access for minority and marginalized groups and giving platforms for less often heard voices, also in include an important critical and educational dimension that seeks to enhance the social agency of those involved in them.

This project seeks to explore these possibilities at a larger, national scale. It will begin explore what can be learned from the history and practice of socially engaged contemporary art practices for creative health initiatives, and how the critical and educational dimensions of such practices can be embedded within them. It will develop practical proposals for creative, collaborative and innovate approaches to mental health, wellbeing and recovery that combine the expertise of health professionals with that of creative practitioners.

In doing so it could address one or more of the areas of priority of the Arts and Health Research Group:

1. The therapeutic use of arts, culture and humanities for health, mental health and wellbeing in the community.
2. Research to consider how the arts and humanities are applied to enable better understanding about health, wellness and illness.
3. The training of medical, therapeutic and arts practitioners in the application of arts-based approaches to mental health and wellbeing services.
4. Arts led approaches towards innovative social health solutions.
5. Innovations in data collection for quality of life and health outcomes through participation in arts-based activities.

Indicative method / methodology

The project will involve a survey of the field of socially engaged practice from a health humanities perspective asking what specific public health needs could be addressed using these methods.

It will propose a participatory arts initiative specifically designed to address the particular health and wellbeing needs of an identified group that will involve collaborations between health professionals and creative practitioners.

The initiative will be used as a test case to explore how the wellbeing effects of such initiatives can be effectively measured and assessed.

Potential academic significance and impact of research

The project aligns with the All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry into Creative Health published in 2017 which has advised that collaboration between different disciplines and practices is essential if we are to use the arts effectively within health and social care settings and by the growing field of Health Humanities, which sees arts and culture in the widest sense as a powerful but largely untapped public health resource and encourages innovative cross-cultural collaboration between the arts, humanities and health sectors.

The project seeks to have academic significance within these fields and to propose new initiatives by which these policy directives can be realised. We welcome applications from artists working in these areas or health professionals whose practices include arts-based therapies and/or teaching methods.