Final yr’s Scotland-wide competition linking arts, tradition and healthcare has proven how the humanities would possibly assist to “reimagine our nationwide mannequin of well being and social care” in response to the Scottish authorities’s chief medical officer.
The glowing verdict by Gregor Smith coincided with a report revealed this week on the Scottish parliament outlining the influence of the Therapeutic Arts Scotland (HAS) competition held final August. It was the primary of its form to cowl a whole nation, following a sequence of comparable city-only festivals.
The week-long occasion in August 2024, produced by Scottish Ballet and the Jameel Arts & Well being Lab in collaboration with the World Well being Organisation, noticed 376 separate actions happen throughout Scotland—from the bustling Central Belt to the windswept islands of Shetland and Orkney. They comprised workshops, displays, panel discussions, coaching classes and performances. One occasion, held within the lobby at Orkney’s Balfour Hospital, concerned NHS workers and dancers residing with a number of sclerosis collaborating in a spontaneous dance flash mob.
Total 401 artists had been concerned and it attracted greater than 11,000 guests. To placed on the competition £470,000 was raised by way of grants and in-kind help from the likes of the Edinburgh Competition, Scottish Ballet and the Jameel Arts and Well being Lab in addition to smaller donations.
The influence report acknowledged that the competition had created new connections between arts and well being practitioners, whereas a nationwide communications marketing campaign reached over three million individuals, offering elevated consciousness of the humanities on well being in communities round Scotland. In a survey of individuals, 89% rated the usefulness of HAS for continued skilled improvement in arts and well being pretty much as good, excellent or wonderful, and 93% stated they’d take some type of motion following their engagement with the competition.
Following the competition, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer has included arts integration inside Scotland’s Life like Medication technique and Manira Ahmed, the chief officer at Public Well being Scotland, stated studying from HAS can be fed into determination making on the authority: She says: “The ability of non-public tales and the chance to take part in cross-sectorial dialog led to new partnerships and methods of working. Public Well being Scotland are reflecting on HAS and incorporating studying as we help Scotland’s well being and care system, guaranteeing that Scotland turns into a spot the place everybody can thrive.”
Cross-sector influence
The report comes after a turbulent interval for arts funding in Scotland, with a latest survey discovering that 11% of Scottish museums and galleries feared they may have to shut throughout the subsequent 12 months. A draft funds revealed by the Scotland’s authorities in December pledged an additional £34m for arts and tradition for 2025-26. Additional readability on the funding panorama is predicted later this month when Artistic Scotland is because of announce its new long-term programme.
Talking after the launch of the report on Tuesday, Stephen Stapleton, the founding co-director of Jameel Arts & Well being Lab, advised The Artwork Newspaper that HAS might contribute to a rise in funding for the sector. “The statements by policymakers had been very clear that Therapeutic Arts Scotland goes to result in actual motion: to unlock extra funding for the humanities and a severe integration of the humanities into the Scottish nationwide well being system,” he stated.
This sentiment was strengthened by well being professionals who stated that arts and tradition have, for too lengthy, been missed for his or her optimistic influence on bodily and psychological well being. David Caesar a advisor in emergency medication at NHS Lothian, says: “The humanities play a significant function in stopping sickness, sustaining well being and selling restoration. As an emergency doctor, it’s apparent that that is a vital ingredient in Scottish tradition if we’re to maneuver away from our over-reliance on medical options to whole-person issues.”
The competition organisers now plan on making it a bi-annual occasion, with the following version going down in 2026. Angus Robertson, the Scottish authorities’s cupboard secretary for structure, exterior affairs and tradition was happy to see it returning. He says: “The breadth of labor highlighted the numerous function of arts and tradition in selling wellbeing and optimistic well being outcomes. It’s occasions like this that help the shared studying and collaboration required for the Scottish authorities’s ambition to harness the transformative potential of tradition for communities throughout Scotland and past.”
