Research in Arts and Wellbeing (RAW)

Our research explores how the connection between arts therapies and arts and health can influence the healthcare experience by changing perceptions and practices within healthcare settings.

Our aims

The overall aim of this work is to improve the experience of patients by placing wellbeing and quality of life at the forefront of investigations and providing opportunities for people to exercise their voice towards mutual recovery and social support. We are secondarily interested in the arts in public health.

Our research

The Birth Project

In The Birth Project, led by Professor Susan Hogan, obstetricians, midwives, doulas, birth-partners and new mothers were given the opportunity to explore their experiences of compassion fatigue, stress, birth suffering and post-natal readjustments using the arts. This involved phototherapy, photo-diaries and art elicitation in groups, which then joined together in ‘mutual recovery’ events in which perspectives were shared, primarily through elucidation of the art works produced.

Birth Shock! Is an extension of The Birth Project, that uses film to explore the experience of birth. The aim is to share insights with practitioners and the broader public and embed the films into future training.

Therapeutic Arts and Creativity

Exploring the intersection of drama therapy and education, Dr Clive Holmwood’s work builds on his recent co-edited book, Learning as a Creative and Developmental Process in Higher Education - A Therapeutic Arts Approach and its Wider Application.

Clive Holmwood and Visiting Professor Sue Jennings published in November 2020 The Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy. The handbook by has brought together international research and case studies on play across the spectrum, including a small research project Clive carried out in a school using neuro dramatic play. Additionally, Clive co-edited the The Routledge International Handbook of Therapeutic Stories and Storytelling in February 2023 with Sue Jennings and Sharon Jackties. This again brought a range of chapters on the use of stories from around the world by leading practitioners and academics including two chapters written by Clive Holmwood, one on the impact of Covid-19 and the other, a small scale research project looking at the use of therapeutic stories with children under the age of five. 

Clive Holmwood’s most recent research project, which is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project, is entitled ‘Creative Support: Building Bonds Through Play for People with Early Onset Dementia and their Caregivers’. It looks at adapting Jennings Neuro Dramatic Play with people with early onset dementia. The project in collaboration with Gemma Collard-Stokes from Derby and Alison Ward from the University of Northampton is over two years from February 2022 to February 2024.

Mobilising Cultural and Natural Assets to Combat Health Inequalities - Art at the Start! 

A recent call from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and AHRC focused on community research to address health disparities. The project is being developed by Josephine Ross (University of Dundee) and co-investigated by Professor Hogan. This project is interested in the arts as part of perinatal care. This project will facilitate cross-partner collaboration with a view to establishing one (or more) community asset hubs, articulating hub structure and membership; scope whole or part of an integrated care system (or devolved equivalent) to understand the range of services, scale of provision, key stakeholders and existing partnerships; explore different collaborative models for integrating co-production into the improvement of health systems.

Join us

If you would like to find out more about the research in this area, join the research cluster or are applying for a PhD in this area, please contact Professor Susan Hogan for more information.