Yorkshire and the Humber

Deborah Munt is a Co-Director of Ministry of Others in Huddersfield and Three Ways East in Hull as well as a freelance developer, deviser and consultant in arts and health and socially engaged arts practice.  She was the Chair of the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing before it became the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance in 2018.  She is now the Regional Champion for the Yorkshire and Humber area on the CHWA Steering Group.  She was also a Steering Committee member for the International Culture, Health and Wellbeing Conferences, Bristol, June 2017 and 2013 in Bristol. 

She has worked in the field for 23 years, devising work that enables people and places to flourish, in hospitals, health centres, care homes, mental health services and in communities, neighbourhoods, streets and in people’s homes.  She has particular interest in developing provision for culture amongst those who have had little opportunity to engage and in how the intellectual and emotional capabilities of artists, alongside their artistic ones, can benefit society at large.

El is a queer, disabled theatre maker and researcher with a lifelong passion and commitment to bringing arts practice and health together. Their Ph.D. in facilitated arts in mental health practice has brought insights into the national and international landscape of creativity and health. Combined with El’s creative practice and lived experience of disability, their knowledge bridges the worlds of practice and academia, community arts, and health. 

Their work is centred around a passion for bringing theatre and creativity to people who might not usually access the arts, amplifying voices, coproduction, and making exciting theatre experiences that speak to everyone. They have worked in arts and health across Yorkshire for 20 years and work for darts in Doncaster and Next Door But One in York, where El is part of the leadership team.