Looking back: Creative Health Research at The University of Manchester

A look back on Creative Health research at The University of Manchester in the last few years, working with partners across the Greater Manchester city region.

Creativity, health and wellbeing is a key theme of the Creative Manchester research platform. In an important strand of work within this theme, we have worked closely with partners across the city region on research to support the implementation of the Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy since its launch in November 2022.

OOH illustration CYP

Artist: Doodlher (Victoria Whitaker)

AHRC-funded project Organisations of Hope (2022-2024) built a coalition of researchers and partners from across Greater Manchester to understand creative health better. This included working with Cartwheel Arts to understand more about communities’ access to creative health activities in their local area.

Findings from this research have been published in A Hopeful Day. We also wanted to understand the professional development, training, and support needs of Creative Health Practitioners across Greater Manchester (GM).

We are working on future publications from this research that reflect on the challenges of implementing a civic strategy and explore some of the distinctive approaches to creative health within Greater Manchester.

CH symposium panel 1 DB

Artist: Domenique Brouwers

To help build research networks we held Creative Health events in June 2023 and June 2024. In 2023 the Organisations of Hope Symposium focused on networks between research, policy and practice in Greater Manchester.

In 2024, our Creative Health Symposium also brought together other researchers from across the UK working on similar projects. Panels at this event focused on: Exploring the research landscape in creativity, health and wellbeing; Using creative methods to address inequalities in health and social research; and Embedding creative health research in practice and policy.

Attendees at the event also tried their hand at reflecting on creative health research through zine-making. Artist Domenique Brouwers ran a session and documented the event through visual notes.

We are continuing to work closely with our partners at Greater Manchester Combined Authority Integrated Care Partnership, NHS Greater Manchester and other universities from across the region on an ambitious 3-year programme of work (2024-2027) supported by Arts Council England.

The Greater Manchester Creative Health Place Partnership will pioneer new ways of supporting residents to live as well as they can, by creating new, community-led approaches with culture and creativity at their heart. We have also developed strategic partnerships with key partners on creative health research, regionally and nationally, from Cartwheel Arts, Manchester Camerata and Lime Arts in Greater Manchester, to English National Opera and the #BeeWell.

Look out for future reports as this work develops! For more information on any of this work please contact: creative@manchester.ac.uk.

Looking back: Creative Health Research at The University of Manchester

A look back on Creative Health research at The University of Manchester in the last few years, working with partners across the Greater Manchester city region.

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