Open University Health and the Arts Research Group

Missed this but looking forward to catching up on the series arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/successful-n...

The NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) June 2025 newsletter The national newsletter from across all the NIHR ARCs. In this edition: ARC events across England for Dementia Action Week, launch of #ARCseminar series on the healing power of creative arts, national...

Explore the June roundup of top stories from all 15 of our NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs):

mailchi.mp/nihr/june-20...

including the latest research news, resources, blogs, events, training & more from ARCs across the country

Join the newsletter here: tinyurl.com/ARCsnewsletter

NIHR National Institute for Health and Care Research #ARCseminar (Picture of people dancing at silent disco from The Centre for Ageing Better's Age-positive image library)

Don't miss the final national #ARCseminar of 2025

Wed 9 July - Creative arts for #dementia
eventbrite.com/e/creative-a...

Short talks explore the impact of music therapy, singing & dancing interventions for people with dementia & using creative arts to involve people with dementia in research.

Creativity, Creative Arts, and Neurodivergence Conference Co-hosted by Creative Interactions and Contemporary Cultures of Writing at The Open University, together with colleagues from Falmouth University and Northwestern University in Qatar, this event will ...

Looking forward to this conference next week - programme now available, online and in London. Creativity, Creative Arts and Neurodivergence fass.open.ac.uk/research/gro...

Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing How does engaging with the arts affect our health and wellbeing? This collection explores how the arts can help with a healthy society. 

Really excited to share this collection of freely accessible articles from colleagues working across Health, Wellbeing and the Arts at the Open University: www.open.edu/openlearn/he...

Creativity, Creative Arts, and Neurodivergence Conference Recent research on neurodivergence and creativity posits that persons with neurodiverse traits have heightened access to creative thinking. We invite you to submit proposals for papers, panels, and ha...

An interesting conference on neurodivergence and the arts which I am co-hosting with colleagues at
@openuniversity.bsky.social and @creativeinteract.bsky.social now open for registration fass.open.ac.uk/research/gro...

Do books have the power to heal us? Podcast Episode · Ideas · 2025-06-02 · 54m

Congratulations to colleagues in English, who have published exciting work on the history of bibliotherapy - access the podcast (from 11:30) podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/d... and book www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Call for chapters: Health, Wellbeing and the Arts in the Nineteenth Century. Particularly chapters on music, dance and visual/ material arts, as well as topics from beyond Europe. Please send abstracts, expressions of interest, or queries to rosemary.golding@open.ac.uk by Friday 2 May.

Photo of white woman, with short, cropped blond hair and black glasses, sitting at a table in front of a grey laptop. The background looks like a cafe, and is blurred.

🚨 Members only event

Join our #ShutUpAndWrite session on Friday 14th March 11:00-13:00 (GMT) for 2 hour structured writing time.

Lost the zoom details? Email us before 5pm on Thursday so we can re-send BSGcreativeSIG@britishgerontology

#AcademicWriting #MembersOnly

Survey on Arts, Health & Wellbeing Training and Higher Education

Survey on the possibility of an Arts Health Wellbeing MA for Scotland: app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/robertgord...

Health and the Arts group update I posted some time ago about the flourishing Health and the Arts research group at The Open University, which now numbers over 70 academics from across all four faculties of the University and beyo…

Some updates on our current projects musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/2025/02/27/h...

Get ready for Creativity and Wellbeing Week- find out what's in store for this year and how you can take part 💙
Join us on Mar 10 to know more!

Book your ticket here: bit.ly/Gettingready...

📷 by Michael Aiden Photography

An amazing day with the Hoxton Creative Health Network thinking all about writing a manifesto ✍️

Having a manifesto can be a really useful tool for communicating your aims, values and mission.

The SSHM Lecture 2024 Why Astrological Medicine Doesn't Work: Reflections on How to Write the Histories of Science and Medicine.

📢New online event📢
The SSHM Lecture 2024, 2 December

Prof Lauren Kassel, 'Why Astrological Medicine Doesn't Work: Reflections on How to Write the Histories of Science and Medicine'. Registration👇
eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sshm-l...

#HistMed #HistSci #HistSTM #RoyPorterPrize #Skystorians 🗃

Reflecting on Academic Creativity Last week I had the particular pleasure of running two very different events which both ended up focussing on the role and importance of academic creativity. The research group I lead at the Open U…

Reflections on two events I was involved in running last week, which highlighted the value of creativity for academics: musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/r... @beinghumanfest.bsky.social

Delighted that my article on music at the Crichton Royal Institution during the mid-19th century is now published and open access: academic.oup.com/ml/advance-a...

Health, Wellbeing and the Arts in the Nineteenth Century day 2 To read about day 1, click here. Our conference has now concluded, and it’s been another fascinating day, again offering a really rich variety of presentations across art forms, geographies, time p…

Tired after a super conference - thank you to all our wonderful speakers. So much to ponder on, and some fascinating connections made. musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/2025/01/10/h...

HWA19C Conference Health, Wellbeing and the Arts in the Nineteenth Century conference Online, hosted by The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK We look forward to welcoming you to the online conference on &#8216…

Final reminder about this free, online conference on the history of arts, health and wellbeing which takes place Thursday/Friday of this week. All details and booking here: musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/hwa19c-confe...

@ougradsch.bsky.social, @serenissimaj.bsky.social PGRs, this course looks great!

🗞️ Consuming arts and culture is good for health and wellbeing, research finds | via @theguardian.com amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theg...

Engaging with arts improves quality of life, increases productivity and creates financial ‘dividend

#artsinhealth #artsky

Cfp Creativity, creative arts and neurodivergence 18-20 June London/hybrid call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/11/...

How can we best capture the impact of cultural activities?

These essential reads explore what the Evaluation Principles can look like in practice.

Recommended reading for anyone wanting to carry out robust, people-centred evaluation.

www.culturehive.co.uk/CVIresources...

[Image: dark blue background with white text "BSG Creative Ageing SIG Symposia 2025 Call for papers - Deadline for submissions Friday 20th December (5pm GMT)" Top left and bottom right flash starlight within quarter circle in corners, orange and turquoise]

📢 Call for proposals for our annual #CreativeAgeing symposium ✨️ at the British Society of #Gerontology Conference, 25–27 June 2025

Care, Creativity, Connection & Change

Submit Expression of Interest by 20 Dec docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#Gerontology #Ageing #Creativity #CommunityOfPractice

Who wants to join in the @muahi.bsky.social Intersectional Humanities Summer School? Register your interest here: www.maynoothuniversity.ie/arts-and-hum... #arts #humanities #europe #race #class #gender #sex #crip #disability @irishhumanities.bsky.social

The Open University

Great to have our latest blogpost up, from Lauren O'Hagan on the health and wellbeing benefits of online music fan sites: fass.open.ac.uk/research/gro...

I'm excited to be involved in planning this conference on neurodiversity and creativity: call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/11/...

HWA19C Conference Health, Wellbeing and the Arts in the Nineteenth Century conference Online, hosted by The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK We look forward to welcoming you to the online conference on &#8216…

Booking link and abstracts for January's conference on Health, Wellbeing and the Arts in the Nineteenth Century are now available here: musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/hwa19c-confe...