News and Blogs

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News

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black and white head-and-shoulders photograph of a man looking straight at the camera and smiling
The Staff and Board at CHWA would like to pay tribute to Alan Howarth, Lord Howarth of Newport, after the announcement of his death on 10 September. Like our friends at the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH), we will miss him, and want to acknowledge the enormous impact that Alan Howarth had on our creative health world through decades of support.
Edinburgh University is looking for individuals and organisations to participate in the IMAGINED research project survey.
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A white woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a wooly jumper smiling at the camera standing sideways on against a brilliant blue background
Meet our new Events and Programme Lead, Lara as we find out what a typical day looks like in her new role.

Blog

We know we live in an unjust society. Systemic racism, ableism, sexism, ageism, class discrimination, transphobia, discrimination on the basis of religion… it’s all (arguably) more visible than it’s ever been.
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a man sitting at a desk writing in a diary with a pen with an open laptop in front of him
House of Memories is a well-established and award-winning dementia awareness programme, created in 2012 by National Museums Liverpool. Now a new online dementia awareness course has been positively evaluated for use with Higher Education nursing students, as evidenced through a successful pilot with Liverpool John Moores University. 
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Indian woman with long brown hair looking at an older white woman with short brown hair, both seated, reading with a cup of tea against a bright green bookshelf
Photo by Marcia Chandra, courtesy of The Reading Agency
Written by Gemma Jolly, Head of Health and Wellbeing, The Reading Agency

Stories of lived experience

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an abstract digital artwork with a dark background featuring bright prin, blues and fine points of yellow light in the centre
‘Untitled’ By Casey Francis (Mad Truth)
...through creativity we can transform adversity to beauty and in the process transform ourselves. We can create our own lives as if we are creating a work of art. Instilled within all of our experience are layers of meaning, understanding and connection. Art is empathy, it is communication. Art allows us to step outside of ourselves, and see something inside that we could not recognise because of our external circumstances, our pain, our fear, our doubt.
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Venn diagram showing the intersections of 'queer, 'creativity' and 'health'
Illustrations by MJ Barker
What would it mean to ‘queer’ creative health? Why might we need to, and, if so, how? I was given the opportunity to first delve into these questions through a PhD scholarship I completed in 2019. My literature review explored longer histories of the field of Arts in Health as part of exploring its relationship to people and place.  
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Tina Blaber with guitar against a wall
Tina Blaber
Our existence is embedded in culture – it’s all around us – and I think the need for this, as social creatures, is an inherent part of our make-up, as human beings.

A Day in the Life

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A group of teenagers seated on the floor during a workshop run by Claire Newton
Photo by Rich Kenworthy
I do find when I work from home it’s easy to just keep going until you’re exhausted but I make sure I have breaks where I might just sit in the garden with a cup of tea for 5 minutes, do some yoga at lunchtime or go for a long walk at the end of the day to switch off.
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Two children cooking at Norfolk libraries
Kiddy Cook event, Norfolk libraries
Part of my role is ...supporting libraries so they can deliver health and wellbeing activities, ranging from regular groups such as colour me calm, to one off activities like wellbeing days with the library smoothie bike!
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one of Jennie's works of art: Home of the microbes  / Small Planet, children's drawings, vegatable papyrus, waxed paper and recycled perspex, by Jennie Pedley. Part of Art of the Gut residency at the Quadram Institute, supported by public funding from the Arts Council England and Norfolk County Council #artofthegut
Small Planet, children's drawings, vegatable papyrus, waxed paper and recycled perspex, by Jennie Pedley. Part of Art of the Gut residency at the Quadram Institute, supported by public funding from the Arts Council England and Norfolk County Council #artofthegut
My days are spent experimenting with visuals in the studio and exploring scientific/health research ... A few days each term I work as a physiotherapist at a school for Deaf children in London. I also support a young person in my family who recently developed a couple of autoimmune diseases.

International

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Hear and Now 2019 in Bedford, co-produced by Orchestras Live and the Philharmonia Orchestra © Beth Walsh
Hear and Now 2019 in Bedford, co-produced by Orchestras Live and the Philharmonia Orchestra © Beth Walsh
An invitation on behalf of the international Music for Social Impact research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to participate in a survey of musicians in all pa
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a woman discusses a picture at the Crocker Museum with a group of seated women
Crocker Museum, Sacramento, California
Seeking participants for new online study to find out.
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logo for Dawn Chorus
Creative Aging International (CAI) was started with the ideas of “making with” and “making for” at its core.