WEBINAR ON ART IMPACT FOR HEALTH AND UNDERSTAND HOW UNIVERSAL THE IMPACT OF ARTS IS AND ARTS AND HEALTH WORK TOGETHER
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WHIS streamed an international webinar to discuss the opportunities for the Arts to support the Sustainable Development Goals. Hosted by Isabelle Wachsmuth, the panel looked at the advancement of research on the impact of art for health and explored examples from across the world which showed that art-based interventions and practices improved the health and wellbeing of participants and created dialogue in ways people can speak to each other.
Social prescribing and creativity not only saved my life it transformed it beyond any recognition of what it had been previously. Coming from being heavily medicated, bed-bound most of the time, no hope of ever working again and with my children as my carers, “a simple art class” has got me free from all medication, free from mental health services and working in the NHS. Creativity is universal it has no boundaries, no restrictions, no religion, no gender, no identity but it helps people find their identity, their hope, their freedom but most of all their lives.
Debs Teale - Lead Peer Support Development Coordinator, South West Yorkshire NHS
The Evidence is clear that participation in the arts is a powerful way to initiate physical and emotional healing. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to chip away at our sense of personal and community wellbeing, we increasingly rely on the arts to counteract ongoing anxiety as well as the adverse effects of isolation. This is especially true for children and youth who have suffered deterioration in several mental health domains including depression, anxiety, irritability, and attention span. While educational systems are justly concerned to make up for lost time in all subjects, the arts must be accorded priority status in schools and community programs to ensure that a return to inclass learning does not exacerbate any of the ill effects of the pandemic. The arts are essential to the recovery process.
Larry O'Farrell - Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University. Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Network for Arts and Learning
