Lauren O’Hagan discusses her engagement with online fandom sites, and ways in which they can contribute to improved mental wellbeing. 

Kerry Jones explores the use of the arts in research about and for young people during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as new projects working with bereaved fathers and carers.

Can reading fiction help improve our skills of empathy, and how might that be achieved? Psychologist Rose Turner surveys the evidence and asks where research might focus next.  

The Loss Project uses creative activities to support people and communities experiencing grief and loss. Carly Attridge and Claire Henry discuss some of the different approaches they have used.

Naomi Holford and Sara Clayson’s project explores the ways in which fanfiction can help young people’s wellbeing. Narratives of sexuality, gender and disability create an important space for engaging with aspects of identity and representation.

We’re writing today about a project in development; an evaluation project with charity Arts for Health Milton Keynes. Their work fits well with this research group.  Not only are they based in Milton Keynes University Hospital and are local to The Open University campus, but their work focuses on fostering the health and mental health benefits associated with participation in the arts.

Nicholas Canny and Simon Holland discuss the development of their interactive tool, Harmony Space. The tool is intended to give access to musical experiences for those with no training, including people with disabilities. 

Rosemary Golding introduces the Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain Network, which seeks to bring together historians and practitioners in order to find new connections and research directions.

Poetry and creative writing offer new forms of expression in the most difficult of human experiences. Patrick Wright introduces his collection of poems inspired by experiences of disability, illness and the loss of his partner.

This blog post describes a project using art to help women living in sheltered domestic violence refuges in Guyana. The women created boxes exploring their skills and aspirations, shared experiences, built communities and founded businesses.

Music was widely used by the Victorians to improve mental health in newly-founded lunatic asylums, via concerts, dances and ad-hoc music making. This post explores some evidence from contemporary published articles.

The ‘Take Five to Age Well’ programme demonstrates ways in which we can adopt new lifestyle factors to affect ageing. These include aspects where the arts can affect both mental cognition and social engagement. 

Introducing the Health and the Arts Research Group, our activities to date, and the scope of our work. We draw academics from across the University with research interests in the intersections between health and arts.