Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: Ask any two people what they understand by the term 'Arts in health' and you are likely to be given very different answers.Most commonly, people may talk about cheering up hospital corridors with reproduction Monets, bringing performers from the local pantomime into the children's ward at Christmas, or giving concerts for elderly people in day centres.Well, yes.All of these are good and worthwhile activities that can help to enliven and raise the spirits of those involved.But the arts have a much broader and more substantial role to play in our health than this; a role that is being increasingly recognized within and beyond the health sector.The first thing to say is that arts in health is about more than arts in healthcare.The latter is a very significant subset of the former, but not its totality.In fact, I would argue that all art -or certainly all good art -has a health benefit.If art is about anything, it is about discovery, understanding and exploration.For the individual and the community, the experience of art as artist, participant or audience engenders a sense of who we are and of our place in the world.It stimulates and celebrates our own potential and creativity.In other words, it has the ability -as nothing else does, I think -to develop well-being, and mental and spiritual health.To an extent we perhaps take the arts and their positive influence for granted.Sometimes things can be more evident in their absence than in their presence.Imagine a community completely devoid of any creative arts whatsoever and ask if it is likely to be a healthy community.It is a question worth asking in all sorts of contexts.Take those vital communities, schools, for example.I have the dubious pleasure at the moment of trailing around our local secondary schools trying to choose the right one for our 11-year-old twin daughters.Actually, for all that it is an exhausting process, it often is a pleasure, above all in art classes, drama studios and music rooms, where the positive impact on, and enjoyment of, children participating in arts activities is manifest.Here every teacher will tell you his or her favourite anecdote of the child who has been given new purpose and confidence -new well-being -through the discovery of their talent with a paint brush or an electric guitar.So at North West Arts Board we are keen to promote and develop an understanding of the importance of the arts across a very wide health agenda.And, in doing so, we recognize the very wide range of organizations that are using the arts very effectively in their work to ensure healthy communities.Such organi
Source: Journal of Public Health
Author: M. Eakin
Language: English
Subfield: Conservation
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2018288828