Therapeutic Landscapes: Creative Placemaking, Folklore and Wellbeing

About the Project

Who is this for: creative and health practitioners wishing to explore artistic practice within discourses of socially engaged art practice, placemaking and folk cultures, and to benefit from the emerging professional opportunities for artists working in the field of creative health. We would particularly welcome practitioners working in the Midlands or South West.

Why Worcester: The two-day symposium ‘Therapeutic Landscapes: Ritual, Folklore and Wellbeing’ held at the Art House studios in 2024, a collaboration between the Folk Cultures special interest group and Arts and Health research group, has created a unique focal point for a local, national and international network of practitioners, institutions and organisations that are engaged with promoting wellbeing and therapeutic engagement with place through creative interpretation of folk cultures. We would like to build on this network to create a distinctive strand of practice research at UW.

What is unique about this offer: The intersection of wellbeing with folk cultures is under-researched and yet has profound and wide - reaching implications for understanding the role creative placemaking has in combatting isolation and poor mental health. Aligning the innovative speculative and experimental approaches to placemaking that artistic practice enables alongside awareness of the ethical dimensions of the social prescribing for wellbeing agenda and the policy landscape of local public health initiatives creates an opportunity to forge new knowledge bridging healthcare, social policy and creative practice.

What will it involve: Creating and testing a robust model of ethical socially engaged artistic practice research informed by theoretical discourses surrounding the study of creative health and folk cultures.

Supervisory team:

• Dr. John Cussans Arts and Health Research Group lead. Course leader BA Fine Art and Psychology.
• Desdemona McCannon Principal Lecturer Illustration, Folk Cultures Special Interest Group Lead.

Research Group: Arts and Health Research Group

Application Process:

To begin the application process please go to: https://www.worc.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/applying-for-a-phd/.

The Interview:

All successful applicants will be offered an interview with the proposed Supervisory Team. You will be contacted by a member of the Doctoral School Team to find a suitable date. Interviews can be conducted in person or over Microsoft Teams.

For further information or an informal discussion on this project, please contact: Dr John Cussans j.cussans@worc.ac.uk