Below you’ll find links to research undertaken over the last decade. This is currently being updated and to find a fuller account of individual and collective research, please visit the profile pages of staff members.
In 2017 Arts for Health hosted the first public launch of the research report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health & Wellbeing. The report - Creative Health - was compiled by former Arts for Health Research Associate Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and can be found here.
Over 2019 we are conducting an in-depth study of the state of arts, health and social change activity across Greater Manchester and looking to informing future developments. More details will be published on the Manchester Institute for Arts, Health & Social Change website. This work is in collaboration with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Between 2015 and 2018 Clive Parkinson worked closely with the Australian artist Vic McEwan on a project exploring sound based in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. You can find out all about this work at www.theharmonicoscillator.com. As part of this work, Clive wrote the book Critical Care, details of which can be found here. Over 2019 and 2020 Parkinson & McEwan are working towards an experimental theatre piece exploring the extremes of anxiety and grief for delivery in October 2020.
With the generous support of the Great British Sasakawa Fund, Arts for Health is exploring the similarities and differences in approaches to the lived experiences of dementia. A collaboration between Kindai University and Manchester Metropolitan University, this work is setting the scene for future collaborations around this growing area of concern.
A new report from Arts for Health reveals that engaging with the arts and culture generally has a positive long-term effect on health and wellbeing.
Arts for Health at MMU is a partner in one of five projects that will see university researchers, community groups and national charities and trusts working together to explore community health and wellbeing, community engagement and mobilisation.
We will soon be working on an exciting collaborative evaluation of arts interventions with a community NHS partner exploring new methodologies for better understanding arts impact and value.
Arts for Health continues to work with the Lithuanian Artists Association; the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and the British Council in arts and health research, development and practice in the Republic of Lithuania. Please see the report of activity of 2012, Menas žmogaus grove (PDF).
In 2004 Arts for Health was awarded a £385k Invest to Save Project (ISP) grant from HM Treasury to develop the evidence base around the impact of the arts on public health across the north-west region. To find out more about this work, click here to visit the archived Invest to Save Project website.
Arts for Health are lead researchers on a 'Creating Wellbeing' project being led by the Greater Manchester Arts and Health Network (GMAHN). The project aims to raise awareness, through arts and creativity, about steps to mental wellbeing. Creative workshops are to be carried out in four districts of Greater Manchester, namely Oldham, Rochdale, Trafford and Stockport. Workshops with specific groups across the community will generate artistic images that will capture peoples imaginations on why creativity is good for wellbeing. These message or images created will be aimed at the general public and will appear in a variety of town centre and key travel routes in each district. This will coincide with World Mental Health day on 10th October 2009. Arts for Health will be working alongside GMAHN and the artists involved to explore and evaluate changes in wellbeing as a result of involvement in the project.