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The healing power of creative arts: National #ARCseminar series ends on a high note

28 August 2025

This year, the NIHR ARCs annual national webinar series (#ARCseminar) focussed on the healing power of creative arts. Speakers from across the country explored how the arts can improve both the wellbeing and involvement in research of different communities. Three webinars ran in May, June and July 2025, to great acclaim, with about 700 attendees across the three live events.

NIHR ARCs are the network of 15 NIHR Applied Research Collaborations funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). ARCs are a research service close to the beating heart of health and social care, and support applied health and care research across the country.

These events brought together researchers from different ARCs to showcase a snapshot of varied research using creative arts.

This series was very well received. Nearly all (93%) of the surveyed attendees were ‘Very likely’ or “Likely” to recommend the event they attended to colleagues.

The audience was widely spread across the country, mostly England, with a few from other UK countries. Some attendees joined from outside the UK, e.g. from Nigeria.

Most attendees were researchers and/or health care and social care professionals. This was followed by those with a professional background in voluntary sector organisations and local authorities. Other attendees included students, artists, carers, public contributors, Music Therapists and people working in Integrated Care Systems and national research and innovation infrastructure.

Only 36% of the attendees surveyed across the three events were affiliated with NIHR ARCs. Moreover, 64% were neither affiliated with ARCs nor the NIHR more generally. This confirms that ARC research is of interest to a wide audience, including and beyond our infrastructure.

We received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback praising the events. Attendees appreciated the thought-provoking talks and the diversity of projects and approaches covered. They also valued hearing about engaging with vulnerable communities. Many fed back that the talks were delivered clearly and passionately, and that the webinars benefited from good chairing and timekeeping. Some asked for the event to be longer, a testament to the quality of the talks. Others preferred the punchy lunch-time format.

According to attendees, the events were:

“Thought provoking. Great ideas. Powerful messages.”

“Really interesting projects shared, with some powerful outputs e.g. animations. I also enjoyed hearing people talk about the experiences of the different communities they worked with and how to meaningfully connect with them”

Catch up

Did you miss any of the events this year and would like to catch up?
A summary page and a recording are now available for each of the three events.

May 2025 #ARCseminar: Improving mental health & wellbeing with creative arts

Dovetail Orchestra members playing in Bristol

The first webinar of the series explored: Improving mental health and wellbeing with creative arts. Three short talks covered research on the impact of the arts on the mental health and wellbeing of Black young people, asylum seekers & refugees, new mothers and stroke survivors. This webinar was chaired by Prof Simon Gilbody, who co-leads the Mental Health theme for ARC Yorkshire and Humber.

Attendees of the May event particularly praised:

“The diversity of topics and speakers”

“Three different angles on the creative arts – professional therapeutic, non-professional, implementation and scale.”

“The talks were very interesting and thought provoking.”

“Interesting, well organised to the point”

June 2025 #ARCseminar: Exploring lived experience with creative arts

Close up of a paintbrush painting bright watercolours

The second webinar of the series was on: Exploring lived experience with creative arts. Three short talks covered research projects that have used creative arts such as poetry, theatre and illustration, to explore the lived experiences of children in temporary accommodation, pregnant women in prisons and Gypsy & Traveller women. This webinar was chaired by Prof Caroline Sanders, who leads on Public Involvement and Engagement for ARC Greater Manchester.

What attendees have said about the June event:

“The talks were excellent – thank you. Really inspiring and many lessons for my own arts-based research on mental health in the Global South”

“Very interesting to hear different approaches and great to learn about involvement of those with lived experience, at various levels and stages”

“Engaging examples, the presentations brought the projects to life. The presenters were passionate. It was presented in an accessible way. These are important and significant projects.”

“I actually learnt something new and helpful, rather than a webinar that reinforced prior learning and skills”

 

July 2025 #ARCseminar: Creative arts for dementia

People dancing at silent disco. This picture is from The Centre for Ageing Better's Age-positive image library.

In the third and final webinar of the series, we heard from researchers on: Creative arts for dementia care. Three short talks explored research on the impact of music therapy, singing and dancing interventions for people with dementia, and using creative arts to involve people with dementia in research. This webinar was chaired by Dr Stephen Lim, who leads the Ageing & Dementia theme at ARC Wessex.

What attendees have said about the July event:

“I liked the diversity of the research and found all the speakers very interesting”

“Content was very relevant and hopeful (as a family member of someone with dementia)”

“The different speakers all had slightly different studies and it was really interesting to see the different research.”

“A good overview of the work undertaken, covering a range of topics. Presentations were delivered clearly with links to information and resources. Allocated time for Q and A. Good chairing and timekeeping.”

Stay in touch

Be the first to hear about future events. Follow  @NIHRARCs on X, @nihrarcs.bsky.social on Bluesky and NIHR ARCs on Eventbrite, and join the monthly national NIHR ARCs newsletter.

For more information and to find your local ARC, see the NIHR ARCs website.