Head to Head update; Case Studies; Boxed In; AfH Visiting Research Fellow and some thoughts on Melancholia

UPDATE on the free Head to Head event at MMU on Thursday 30th June
This event is part of the Critical Mass events being delivered with partners at the Centre for Medical Humanities, Pioneer Projects and Open Art and is open to people across the Northern Region. As we have limited places and are oversubscribed, we will be allocating places in the order we received them. Please note that we hope to contact everyone who’s shown interest next week, with details of venue and time if applicable.
Thanks everyone for your interest.
http://artsforhealthmmu.blogspot.com/2011/05/arts-and-health-head-to-head.html 

Call for case studies on how culture and sport have helped tackle the social determinants of health - Deadline Friday 17 June 2011
LG Improvement and Development is commissioning a further series of case studies on how services supported by local government can help improve health and reduce health inequalities by tackling the social determinants of health. This time the case studies will focus on culture and sport. So if you have any good practice examples of health benefits arising from social, economic or environmental improvements as a result of arts, museums, libraries, heritage, outdoor recreation, sport or leisure activity, we would like to hear from you.

We’re interested in changes in the various factors that determine people’s behaviour and act as barriers to healthy living. They could be improvements in early child development and education, employment and working conditions, the built environment, social inclusion and social mobility. Examples could range from culture and sport activity that improves health in the workplace, gets young people into education or enables the development of social skills and networks. As long as you have evidence that the changes in behaviour resulting from participation in cultural or sporting activity have led to improvements in health, you may have just what we’re looking for.

The purpose of the case studies is to show decision-makers the value of culture and sport to health and wellbeing, and encourage more commissioning of cultural and sporting activity.
Please send a short summary of your potential case study and contact details to angela@awatsonassociates.co.uk  or call 01827 714733.

We’ll follow up the selected case studies in more detail in July.
SUBMISSION DATE: by Friday 17 June 2011
For case studies published last year including on regulatory, planning and transport services see http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=17413136 
BOXED IN at BLANKSPACE 20th-26 June
BOXED IN presents work from The Big Painting project by the Art to Life groups and other selected work from separate projects and groups across Manchester. Art to Life are weekly art and life skills groups for learning disabled adults from Manchester. During the week of the exhibition Art to Life groups will be holding their regular sessions in and responding to BLANKSPACE.

Click on the image below for more details.


Royal Society for Public Health
Arts and Health Awards
The Royal Society for Public Health Arts and Health Awards marking significant contributions to research and practice in the field of Arts and Health are now in their fourth year. Previous awards have recognised excellent work in the fields of music and health, arts and mental health and arts and health inequalities.

This year, the awards will recognise important contributions of outreach programmes undertaken by arts organisations (e.g. theatre companies, orchestras, opera companies, museums, art galleries, dance companies) to the wellbeing and health of their local communities. The award will recognize substantial achievements in:
  • Innovative initiatives undertaken by arts organisations to foster health and wellbeing in healthcare and community settings
  • Original contributions to research and evaluation focused on the contributions of music and arts organisations to health and wellbeing in healthcare and community settings
More details at:
http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/about-us/policy-and-projects/projects/arts-and-health-award-2011.cfm 

Visiting Research Fellow at Arts for Health
I am thrilled to announce, that Dr langley Brown has been awarded a Visiting Research Fellowship at Arts for Health and he'll be dedicating much of his time to the huge Arts/Health archive. I'll look forward to people meeting Langley.
http://www.artsforhealth.org/archive