London Plus has recently launched a new project which will support the Arts, Cultural, and Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sectors to identify and communicate the impact of creative health activities.
In this blog, find out more about one of the organisations involved in this project – London Arts and Health.
What does London Arts and Health do?
Primarily, we work in sector advocacy. We look at the opportunities in the arts and health sectors and help to make them happen by bridging connections. This can be in funding, as well as connecting opportunities with freelancers, artists, non-profits, and so on.
We also have our own national event called Creativity and Wellbeing Week. Every year we release important research, and bring together organisations, highlighting their events and other opportunities for artists.
What are your values?
We have been working in the space of creative health for over 20 years now, and our core values go towards supporting freelancers and artists who might not have access to opportunities, but do brilliant work.
How do you make a difference to people’s wellbeing?
A lot of our work focuses on supporting people who implement creative health and wellbeing services. We have various projects, like a social prescribing network, global majority artist support, and so on. We directly support organisations and people who improve wellbeing through the arts. So, we have a very important role to play in ‘helping people to help others’.
Is there a project or initiative that you are particularly proud of?
The Artists’ Represent Recovery Network is a year long project for independent artists who work at the intersection of arts and well being. They deliver arts-based work to communities, particularly marginalised groups.
In this project we train people in raising funds for their work, so things like what kinds of grants they can apply for and the kinds of funding opportunities that are out there. We also offer training for them to sharpen their skills in art and community project delivery. This year we are focusing on getting more people from the global majority involved.
Another project we are really proud of is the London Creative Health City Building it Together website, which is a gateway to fostering Creative Health connections throughout London. Here we curate resources to support individuals and organisations facilitating creative health activities, projects, and research. Our main tool in this portal is the Creative Connections map, which helps people locate creative health services in their local area.
Why did you decide to get involved in our Creative Health Impact project?
We see this tool as integral to the work we do, it really aligns with our values and goals. We think that this framework will be really helpful for organisations. For example, it can help with streamlining evaluating processes and negotiating with funders. We really see the importance of the framework and are excited to be involved.
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Creative Health project: find out moreYou can also read more about the Creative Health Project on the London Arts and Health website.
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