Arts and health improves lives

In November 2022, Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Museums held a symposium highlighting a range of brilliant creative activities happening in surgeries, daycentres, museums and hospitals across Sheffield and South Yorkshire. The audience for the event included people working in Sheffield and South Yorkshire’s cultural and health sectors, as well as politicians and policy-makers from across the region.

The symposium aimed to improve awareness of the benefits that arts can bring to health and wellbeing. It provided opportunities for connection and inspiration and explored how the culture and health sectors could work better together.

The event highlighted a need for greater connectivity between health and culture practitioners and identified an opportunity to progress this through the development of an Integrated Care Strategy for South Yorkshire.

As a first step, a paper has been prepared that evidences the benefits of interventions in the arts for the health and social care system and summarised the opportunities for the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Strategy. The Dance On programme run by darts is included a key case study for the positive role and social values the arts plays in community health. 

To learn more about the report, click here.