In this session Dr Christen Cornell will introduce you to Creative Australia’s recent work in the field of arts, mental health and wellbeing – or what is typically called ‘creative health’ in the UK.
Creative Australia is the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body. Since 2022, the organisation has led a series of research initiatives seeking to better understand and communicate the contributions of arts participation for mental health, and to identify the professional development needs of practitioners already working in this space.
These initiatives have included a 4-month Arts, Creativity and Mental Health Policy Development Program, which engaged practitioners, researchers, lived experience advocates and policy makers across various portfolios, and resulted in a series of policy recommendations published in Connected Lives: Creative solutions to the mental health crisis.
In November 2023, Creative Australia published Creating Wellbeing: Attitudes and engagement with arts, culture and health, a research report that provided insights into who is accessing the arts to improve their health and wellbeing, and how Australians feel about the idea of ‘arts on prescription’.
Across 2023, the agency also engaged in three research partnerships to better understand the skills required for successful arts and mental health programs – along with the support structures, training and accreditation, and quality frameworks needed to ensure that this practice is safe and sustainable for all involved. This work was published in Creative Solutions: Training and sustaining the arts for mental health workforce, and remains an area of focus for the organisation. Creative Australia is conscious that its work in arts and mental health occurs in the context of growing support for social prescribing, and the increased need for a ready workforce were those institutional innovations to occur.
Dr Christen Cornell is Research Fellow and Manager, Research Partnerships, at Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council for the Arts). In this position, she conducts and facilitates research to support the Australian arts sector, to advocate for the value of arts and culture, and to advise the Australian government on arts and cultural policy.
Before working at Creative Australia, Christen was a lecturer in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, working in cultural studies, cultural policy, Inter-Asia cultural studies, and urban and housing studies. With over ten years’ experience in the tertiary sector, she also has a background in arts and culture, working as Manager of Rights and International Sales at Allen & Unwin publishers. Christen is also a Chinese speaker, living and working in Beijing for periods between 2001-2011. Between 2008-2015 she contributed articles on contemporary Chinese art to a number of art publications and worked as a freelance Chinese-English translator for several Sydney galleries.
Webinar timing: 1:00 – 2:00 pm AEST
Access to the recording of this webinar: A recording of this webinar will be available through the CPD Webinar Library, but for the best experience and the opportunity to ask your questions, join us live. Everyone who registers will be advised via email as soon as the recording is available. Members have unlimited access to the recording, and non-members will have access for 6 months.