A creative proposition for health and wellbeing

There is not a day that passes when we do not think about our health and wellbeing. We hear through media channels that this year’s flu will be especially virulent and of the latest cancer research. As creative practitioners, we are not immune from ill health and our work practices sometimes contribute to physical injuries, stress and anxiety. However, we also respond to the lived experience of health, disease and wellbeing through a myriad of creative endeavours and collaborate with medical and health workers to integrate art projects within health settings. Arts in Health colleagues in the UK have worked extensively with the public health and social care sectors, local government and politicians to establish collaborations, organisations, research centres and parliamentary groups and reports. These activities have contributed to and noted the positive impact of culture on human health and called for accelerated funding and support for creative practice within health and social care settings and the integration of creative practice and medical humanities in art and health education. This article discusses the extensive and significant reports on art and health published by the World Health Organization (2019), the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (2017) to discover whether insights and recommendations from these reports could be adapted into an Australian context art and health policy and project context. Furthermore, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are also surveyed to explore how the SDGs can inform an arts and health agenda which could operate internationally and within Australia.