Recent research and resources

Te Ora Auaha’s website has a hub for research and resources related to Arts, health and well-being. New material is being made available regularly. Here is a sample of some recent additions we think are particularly relevant at this time:

• Our friends at the UK Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance have brought together a brilliant collection of COVID-19 related resources for arts and wellbeing  organisations and practitioners here https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/resources/coronavirus-resources-practitioners-and-organisations, including this guide to working online safely https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/guidance-working-online-and-online-safeguarding

• Arts and Health South (West AHSW) and the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance convened a number COVID related arts, wellbeing and COVID related webinar. Find link to those here.

• Find a link here to a webinar focused on Arts-based Strategies for Organizing Communities and Strengthening their Social Fabric convened by The Policy Link team in the US.

• Find a link here to a brilliant overview of arts-based initiatives promoting wellbeing in Tasmania 

• Check out this comprehensive collection of online and offline creative activities designed to stave off isolation and keep your mental health intact from the UK March Network  Arm chair gallery experiences of arts, live streamed performances, concerts, literary offerings, festivals, makers workshops, resources and creative challenges, a calendar of diverse dance classes, ‘secret sofa’ film nights, virtual tours of museum and heritage institutions, and collaborative ensemble rehearsals open to anyone who plays a musical instrument to join in. 

• This link will take you to a project report and evaluation study from the ‘Creativity in Mind’ project, led by 64 Million Artists https://64millionartists.com/. The project provides daily online creative challenges to keep us ‘curious, connected and creative’. Though commissioned before the COVID-19 pandemic, the research provides a timely evaluation of an initiative delivered online, and answers questions many of us are now asking about the distinctiveness, challenges and benefits of digital creative mental health promotion projects. 

• Hot off the press! Early insights from a new UK-based research from Dr. Daisy Fancourt into the emotional impacts of COVID-19. The research is still ongoing but you can register for weekly updates here https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/new-research-on-emotional-wellbeing-impacts-of-covid-19/. Please note the research insights are specific to COVID in the UK socio-political environment and are unlikely to translate fully to the Aotearoa context.

• Local research highlighting the ways in which singing in schools contributed to wellbeing in schools affected by the earthquakes in Christchurch has now been published and we hope that open access versions will be available on the ToA website soon:

• The Art of Recovery documentary charts some of the achievements and challenges faced by the arts Christchurch’s recovery from the 2011 earthquakes. The film especially highlights the powerful role artist-led, community-powered participatory placemaking (or tactical urbanism) projects played supporting wellbeing and building community.

• The Arts and Health Network (ACT) in Australia has some great reading and resources including this article about the significance of supporting Aboriginal artists and communities during COVID-19. In this article about Art in times of Crisis, Jill Bennet, ARC Laureate fellow and UNSW Professor of Experimental Arts highlights how the arts help us to deal with complex mental health and emotional challenges, and articulates why investment in arts-led recovery is important. She also describes the fascinating EmbodiMap, ‘a therapeutic body mapping tool that uses Virtual Reality to allow users to engage with and map their feelings, thoughts and emotions’. EmbodiMap has been developed through the ARC funded Lab called fEEL (felt Experience & Empathy Lab) which has brought together psychologists and art specialists to work together to develop practises that are beneficial in a whole range of mental health, trauma and anxiety contexts.