To browse Academia. This report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health, and Wellbeing highlights the therapeutic value of the arts in promoting health and wellbeing. It argues for partnerships between arts and health organizations to improve access and address policy challenges, such as social isolation and mental healthcare. The report outlines barriers to the recognition of the arts' contributions to health, emphasizing the need for a shift in attitudes towards integration of arts in health and social care.
This paper will explore the concept of value in the arts and its relation to the development of arts and health activity in the UK. There is a vast literature base dedicated to the topic of value and social impacts in the arts sector, and it has been an ongoing point of contention between artists, academics, commissioners, government and all other stakeholders of the arts for many years.
We will explore some of these debates in the first section of this paper to articulate the complexities of the topic, before then honing our attention to cultural health intervention. Its orientation is practical and methodological and it translates and examines the idea that the arts can have a healing effect and promote well-being. In the literature, it is consistently described as multifaceted in terms of the research disciplines, practical programmes and concrete activities that are included, as well as their aims and focus.
What unites the varied programmes and activities is the interest in the significance of the arts to health and well-being.
This chapter is an analytical introduction to the Arts and Health field and is not an exhaustive or systematic overview. The hope is that the chapter will engage and intrigue and lead the reader to explore further, for example via the extensive reference list.
