Arts & Health Check Up, Check In 2018, a national networking event led by artsandhealth.ie / WHAT

Find what you’re looking for 

The site is regularly updated with news, opportunities and events. If you have an upcoming event or opportunity, or project news you’d like to share, head over to our Submit News page.  

The latest research 

Our national and international resources span over 20 years of research in the field of arts and health. You will find guidelines and toolkits to support your practice, policy documents, research and evaluation reports across different artforms and health contexts, essays and documentation of arts and health projects, videos and podcasts produced by the arts and health community, and useful links to national and international organisations.

Points of View

Explore the opinions and personal stories of health service users, health workers, artists, arts and health managers, and researchers in our Perspectives, which are commissioned on a quarterly basis.

Our online Conversation series brings together artists, healthcare professionals and others working in the field of arts and health to provide insights into projects and partnership working, and to discuss topics with particular resonance for the current times. Upcoming conversations are added to our Events page.

Check out the Conversations page for recordings of these events and interviews with healthcare professionals who are developing and championing this work.

Get inspired!

Our monthly commissioned case studies showcase a variety of arts and health projects and programmes to support peer learning. The diversity of artforms, health contexts, partnerships and structures gives an insight into the full range of arts and health practice.

The Bursary Archive houses documentary films, podcasts, publications, long-form essays and visual chronicles that have been funded by the artsandhealth.ie bursary since 2013, offering powerful, candid and poignant insights into arts in healthcare.

Find out what’s happening in your area 

Check out our Directory of organisations and contacts to find out who is operating in your area. You will find contact information for regional arts and health programmes, HSE initiatives, local authority arts offices with an arts and health remit, national resource organisations, cultural institutions and networks.

The Directory is updated on a regular basis. If your organisation or programme is not included here, please request a Directory template from info@artsandhealth.ie

Stories from the Well-Field: Maureen, Tess and puppets at Bantry General Hospital. Sharon Whooley’s short observational film was funded by the artsandhealth.ie documentation bursary. Image credit: Kevin O’Farrell.

Sectoral Development

We encourage sectoral development via networking, training and conversation events. Check out Events for upcoming initiatives.

The artsandhealth.ie documentation bursary is an annual award funded by the Arts Council and the HSE, to encourage high quality, creative documentation of arts and health practice and to create a greater national understanding of the nature of this work. In 2020, shifts in practice due to the pandemic moved the focus of the bursary to an artist-centred enquiry reflecting on personal approaches to arts and health practice. Applications for the bursary are published in April of each year on the Opportunities page.

Are you seeking advice or support? 

Get in touch with the team at Réalta who manage the national arts and health website: email info@artsandhealth.ie or phone 051 842 664. We are happy to arrange an advice session by phone, Zoom or in-person at the Centre for Arts + Health in University Hospital Waterford.

If you are interested in developing arts experiences in health and social care settings, head over to our Advice page for information and prompts. Each section covers some of the common queries we receive from artists and health professionals.

The launch of artsandhealth.ie in October 2011 at Dublin Dental University Hospital: L-R: Sarah Tuck, former Director of Create; Orlaith McBride, former Director of Arts Council Ireland; Claire Meaney, former Assistant Director and now Director of Waterford Healing Arts Trust; Jimmy Deenihan, former Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; Orla Moloney, former Head of Arts Participation at the Arts Council; and Mary Grehan, former Director of WHAT and now Children's Health Ireland Public Art Curator.

Background

The need for a national independent resource to meet the current and evolving needs of those involved in arts and health was identified in the Arts Council’s Arts and Health Policy and Strategy (2010). Waterford Healing Arts Trust and Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts, were selected through a process of open competition to receive Arts Council funding to develop the website with the support of an editorial panel. The website was launched in 2011 and has been managed by WHAT (now Réalta, the national resource organisation for arts and health in Ireland) since that time. Learn more about the development of the site here.

The website was redeveloped in 2021-22 to provide a better user experience for our visitors. This redevelopment was funded by the Arts Council Capacity Building Support Scheme 2020.

Editorial Panel

The Editorial Panel ensures long term, transparent and viable structures inform the work of artsandheath.ie. The Panel’s role is advisory and strategic. It makes recommendations on the tactical direction of the site in terms of content so that it is open, fair and transparent in its editorial decision making. The managerial details and processes rest with Réalta.

The panel is designed to ensure broad and fair representation of the range of stakeholders and interests. You can learn about current members of the panel here

Feedback

We understand the need to review and consider how the website functions and the relevance of the content published on an ongoing basis and welcome your feedback and suggestions. Get in touch with Emma Eager, project co-ordinator: info@artsandhealth.ie

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