A GUEST BLOG BY DR FRANCES WILLIAMS
This guest post by Dr Frances Williams argues that the field of Arts in Health needs safe spaces and new platforms for critical reflection and democratic decision making, particularly when faced with a seemingly rising tide of privatisation of public services.
Dr Frances Williams completed her Phd on the topic of arts, health and devolution at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2019.
This is a repost (with permission) of Martyn Reed’s powerful recent post on Facebook. Reflecting at first upon Nuart’s recent struggle with Stavanger authorities to overturn a decision to significantly reduce funding for the globally important Street Art festival, Martyn calls for artists of all kinds to organise together collectively as a radical act so that we create the changes needed in our post-Covid lives.
This new guest post by Nick Mahony, Stephanie Bolt and Russell Todd, argues that the people excluded by “arts and culture” in the UK are the same people who are all too often excluded from and marginalised by everyday life . They argue that now – as we approach the 100th anniversary of Raymond Williams’ birth – is the time to rediscover his radical calls for collectively creative, democratic change at every level of our society.
I am really pleased to be able to share this extremely powerful, thought-provoking guest blog by Rosie Priest. It’s a personal account of how art can be part of everyday life as well as a challenge to the superficial rhetoric of institutional art as a vehicle for “transformative change”.
Rosie Priest is a PhD candidate at the University of Stirling, working with the National Galleries of Scotland’s outreach programme to explore “Collaborative Art and Transformation”, whilst also working as the Creative Learning Associate for Stellar Quines Theatre Company.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In Stephen’s last guest blog in this series, he demonstrates that a highly cited arts and health paper is a ‘fairy tale’ that has cast a collective spell over the field. Stephen wishes he had published this debunking in 2008. Now, 12 years later, here it is…
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In Stephen’s penultimate guest blog, for now, he provocatively argues that, sometimes at least, ‘research in arts and health can produce findings that are banal, trivial or spurious’. His final guest blog in this series will be published tomorrow.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
This is the third guest blog by Stephen Clift. Here he asks questions about the value, relevance and usefulness of some research into ‘arts and health’, and wonders how such examples were funded and why they garnered such favourable, unquestioning reviews.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
In this second guest blog by Stephen Clift, he questions the WHO scoping review of arts and health (Fancourt and Finn, 2019), particularly its headline: ‘Arts ‘crucial’ to reducing poor health and inequality’. Here, Stephen asks if the existing body of evidence really supports such ‘grand claims’.
A GUEST BLOG BY DR STEPHEN CLIFT
This guest blog by Dr Stephen Clift calls for a thorough appraisal of research about how art might contribute to health and wellbeing and argues for greater critical debate about arts and health practice and research.
Stephen Clift (BA, PhD, PFRSPH) is Professor Emeritus, Canterbury Christ Church University, and former Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
This is a response to Anna Francis’s article entitled ‘Artwashing’ gentrification is a problem – but vilifying the artists involved is not the answer . It includes comments from myself, Emily Jost, Rab Harling and Ewan Allinson.
Your Life But Artwashed, Stephen Pritchard, 2017.
Stephen Pritchard
Artwashing is a serious business and it is not something that’s planned or financed by artists. … READ MORE
