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Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2019

Participating in arts and creative activity can lead to happier, healthier lives.

Participating in arts and creative activity can lead to happier, healthier lives.

Thrive LDN partnered with London Arts in Health Forum for Creativity and Wellbeing Week, between 10-16 June.

With over 200 events taking place across London, the aim of the week was to highlight the positive impact that participating in arts, cultural and creative activity can have on mental health and wellbeing.

The week kicked off with a Creative Health Conference at the Southbank Centre that included keynotes from both the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive. The event was attended by over 700 people from across the arts, health and academic sectors.

Here, Gillian Moore, Director of Music at the Southbank Centre, introduces the conference:

Thrive LDN’s main activity for the week involved attending creative events based around the issue of mental health, speaking to artists and participants about their mental health journey and the ways in which being creative has helped them. Here, composer and musician Douglas MacGregor discusses his project, Songs of Loss and Healing:


The Thrive LDN team also visited the BRIT School’s Year 12 Visual Art & Design end of year show, Temporary, to explore how the topic of mental health had influenced some of the students’ work.

Students Paige and James discussed their projects with Thrive LDN:

The week concluded with a conference at the Wellcome Collection. Making it Mainstream – Creativity and Wellbeing in the Media which focused on how the impact that creative or cultural activity can have on health and wellbeing is being portrayed in the mainstream media. The speakers included television producers and presenters involved in making shows such as the BBC’s Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure and Darcey Bussell: Dancing to Happiness.

Sir Sam Everington, GP at Bromley-By-Bow, Chair of NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group and Chair of the London Clinical Commissioning Council, gave a presentation on social prescribing:

Further information

  • A full round up of all the events which took place during Creativity and Wellbeing Week, London-wide and nationally, is available online here.
  • Visit the Thrive LDN website for more information about their work.