Arts on the brain: unlocking the critical health benefits of creativity and culture
05 October 2022
A new report – Arts, Culture & the Brain – published by academics Dr Daisy Fancourt and Dr Jessica K Bone from University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, links creativity and culture to a range of health benefits, including greater resilience and motivation as well as improved mental health and life satisfaction. It also draws attention to evidence that suggests creative activities strengthen relationships between parents and their children, with the greatest benefits for people living in areas of the highest deprivation.
The report goes on to describe the fundamental elements of arts engagement which make it impactful on our health, exploring the mechanisms within the brain that respond when we take part in creative activities. The report’s authors call for arts organisations to take these findings forward, ensuring that future programmes are tailor-made to improve our self-esteem, confidence and life satisfaction.
Through our comprehensive arts engagement programme at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, we create bespoke projects for specific clinical areas in our hospitals. From April 2021 to March 2022, we ran nearly 150 creative art workshops and over 850 art and music therapy sessions – in total, 1,500 patients and NHS staff members took part in our arts activities during the year.
Here are just a few of the creative activities that have had the biggest impact in our hospitals in recent years.
1. Massage and Melodies
In partnership with Music in Hospitals & Care, Massage and Melodies aims to use the positive sensory experiences of touch and music to relax both parent and baby once they have been discharged from our neonatal intensive care units. Promoting the benefits of connection, communication, sleep and digestion, the project invites families who have been recently discharged from the units to take part in a series of virtual workshops, which involve a baby massage class led by an occupational therapist with lullabies performed by a professional singer. Delivered during the Covid lockdowns, the project provided a virtual space for isolated families to come together. One parent told us the sessions had been “fundamental to her confidence as a mother” and had helped with the transition from neonatal intensive care to normal life.
2. Sunil Gupta, Songs of Deliverance, Part I and Part II - an artist in residence project in collaboration with Studio Voltaire
Artist Sunil Gupta spent a year working in residence at Charing Cross and St Mary’s hospitals. Recruited via an open invitation, LGBTQIA+ people from the adult HIV clinic and gender affirmation surgery service were invited to collaborate and spend time with Gupta. The resulting series of photographic works present portrayals of his collaborators’ lives, their experiences of receiving care and the relationships and transformations that occur in the process. This series of artworks is now on display in our temporary exhibition space at Hammersmith Hospital, platforming the voices of our patients. The project has impacted both the participants themselves and the visitors who view the exhibition while passing through our hospitals. One participant told us the project “helped bring closure and healing” to shame and stigma they had previously experienced. A member of hospital staff who viewed the exhibition said: "I’m a member of the LGBTQ+ community (a gay woman), and seeing the words and images so prominently on my way out of the hospital really stopped me in my tracks. I was very pleasantly surprised to see such a bold statement of trans celebration and inclusion and I'm very pleased to see such strong support for the community."
3. Art and Wellbeing workshops
Our Art and Wellbeing programme has been running for several years and is one of our most popular workshops with patients. Led by artist Marenka Gabeler, the monthly sessions take place at Kindred Studios in west London and are open to current and former patients as well as NHS staff. Each session is inspired by a particular piece of art, providing a relaxed and friendly space for participants to reflect on an artwork and channel their own creativity in response. Regular attendees have commented on the importance of these groups, noting in particular the positive impact of being able to meet others with health conditions. “It’s a great opportunity to learn new things from Marenka and also connect with other attendees,” one patient, who had been receiving treatment for cancer, told us. “I’ve learnt a lot and it’s been good for my wellbeing after a difficult few years.”
Feeling inspired? You can read more about our arts engagement programme here.
Arts, Culture & the Brain: A literature review and new epidemiological analyses was published by Arts Council England in August 2022. To read the report in full, you can visit the Arts Council England website.
Image (top): Sunil Gupta, Songs of Deliverance Part II, 2022, Installation view at St Mary’s Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity, Image Zoë Maxwell
