HEARTS. The Health, Economic and Social impact of ARTS engagement: a Public Health Study

Lead Research Organisation: Royal College of Music
Department Name: Research

Abstract

In the past few decades, there has been a surge of international interest in the role of the arts and culture in healthcare, public health and health promotion, on an individual and community level. However, the vast majority of research studies have focused on the effects of targeted, time-limited arts interventions on particular patient groups. Yet, much of the arts and cultural engagement across the UK is not confined to specific interventions but involves a more general, ubiquitous participation that can be harder to measure through experimental studies. A select number of public health studies have found associations between cultural participation (including attending concerts, museums and galleries) and self-reported health, as well as inverse associations between cultural participation and mortality risk. However, important questions remain, and to date, there have been no large-scale public health studies examining the impact of the arts in the UK.

This project is led by the Centre for Performance Science, an internationally distinctive partnership of the Royal College of Music and Imperial College London, with an extensive track record in arts, health and social research. It explores the effect of (i) activities that involve actively 'doing' (e.g. music, dance, art, photography and drama) and (ii) activities that require physical attendance (e.g. attending concerts, monuments, museums, galleries, cinemas, heritage archives and theatre); (iii) 'home-based' activities (e.g. listening to the radio, watching TV, reading, storytelling, using arts-based apps, digital arts experiences, online music co-production). Our research questions identify the impact of the arts and culture on individual, social and economic measures of health and wellbeing, as well as explore how associations vary between different socioeconomic, geographical and ethnic populations within the UK.

To explore these questions, the project is organised into four work packages. Work package 1 will involve assessing existing data including undertaking a meta-analysis of previous studies and exploring a UK cohort study that includes some questions on the arts. However, recognising the limited data currently available, work packages 2 and 3 are based on a large-scale national survey to be carried out during our study. Open to all adults in the UK, the survey will target the general population as well as participants diagnosed with one of four major health conditions facing the UK: mental health, cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory diseases. These conditions have all previously been researched in smaller arts-in-health intervention studies but not at a public health level, and their inclusion will facilitate understanding of the relationships between culture and the individual, social and economic facets of health and wellbeing. A total of 25,000 participants will be recruited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire consisting of demographic questions, validated psychological scales and economic metrics, assessments of arts and cultural participation and self-reporting of health. Work package 2 will explore the questions with a cross-sectional analysis of these data with nested case-control studies; work package 3 will monitor a sub-section of the sample as a cohort for the following year with 6-monthly updates to track longitudinal change in arts engagement. Recognising the complexity of cultural engagement and health, work package 4 will add context to the survey data, with a sub-sample of survey participants taking part in qualitative telephone interviews to explore motivations for, and experiences of, arts engagement across the UK and how this is reported to intersect with health behaviours, perceptions and outcomes.

Through the extensive epidemiology methods proposed, an ambitious sample size and nested qualitative data, the findings promise to redefine the value of the arts and culture for public health in the UK.

Planned Impact

HEARTS will offer impact on individual, cultural, political and public health levels. This will be achieved through a multifaceted impact strategy including:

1. A high volume of peer reviewed journal articles, webinars and conference papers delivered internationally
2. Talks at a range of high-profile arts industry conferences
3. Engagement with politicians through collaboration with existing arts-and-health political groups including through the partnership with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing, the development of a political impact report and partnership work with the What Works Centre for Wellbeing which will include stakeholder events with leading commissioners and politicians.
4. Engagement with healthcare professionals within the NHS, including national public health bodies, regional teams delivering health and wellbeing programmes, arts-in-health programmes and healthcare commissioners
5. A public engagement campaign through media, arts and science festivals and the development of arts exhibitions translating the findings into new artworks, all aimed at encouraging individuals to engage more actively with the arts and culture to support their own health and wellbeing
6. An impact conference, as the culmination of the project, targeted at arts and culture organisations held at the Royal College of Music. Open to arts organisations, the session will consist of 'research bite' sessions, outlining the key findings from the 3-year study and will be followed by a series of round-table events discussing important topics such as how the data can be used to identify gaps for new service provision, to create an incentive for the public to engage more with arts and culture, to remove barriers to participation in arts and culture, and to access new funds for future programmes of work.

The legacy of HEARTS will be felt through:

1. The dataset being made public at the end of the 3-year study
2. The ongoing effects of the lobbying work with funders, politicians and the healthcare sector, which it is hoped will raise the profile of the importance of arts and cultural funding within the UK
3. The digitalisation of the exhibitions developed in conjunction with the project, as well as videos and reports for free download, enabling them to be accessed beyond the end of the funded project
4. The 'ripple-effect' that it is hoped that the public health media campaign will achieve, raising awareness among the general public of the impact of engaging with the rich artistic and cultural sectors in the UK
5. The opportunity that this project will provide for follow-up studies and future arts activity, including in particular the future tracking of the 10,000-person cohort group which could be carried on either annually or biennially if promising data are found, turning this initial project into an ongoing cohort study.

Publications

10 25 50

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Fancourt D (2019) Cultural engagement and incident depression in older adults: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science

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Fancourt D (2019) Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children. in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

 
Description Recent years have seen a surge in international interest on the role of the arts and culture on health and wellbeing, both at an individual and collective level. Despite this, a majority of the existing studies have measured the impact of art interventions on specific patient groups taking place within controlled trials over limited time periods. However, for many individuals within the UK, their engagement with the arts is not restricted to measured environments but is instead part of their everyday lives. Much of the existing research has also failed to explore the subjective experiences of cultural engagement for mental health and wellbeing, and there is a distinct lack of large-scale public health studies examining the impact of the arts in the UK. The HEartS project aimed to address these knowledge gaps through exploring the subjective experiences of cultural engagement for mental health and wellbeing outside of measured environments. These aims were achieved through three main work packages. The first sought to explore existing datasets, analysing data to facilitate understandings of the relationships between culture on individual, social and economic facets of health and wellbeing. Recognising the limited data currently available, work package 2 focused on creating largescale national surveys to generate new research datasets. Finally work package 3 concentrated on conducting ambitiously scaled qualitative research projects on the arts in health, contributing to a field that has been dominated by relatively small-scale studies.

Through an analysis of existing data, the HEartS project has demonstrated how cultural engagement can support mental health and wellbeing across a variety of sociodemographic groups and has highlighted barriers to engaging with the arts. Using data from the National Child Development Study, HEartS research has been the first to explore longitudinal associations between creativity and adjustment in children, revealing that creative engagement is associated with a reduced relative risk of social and behavioural instability at the onset of adolescence. Further to this, using data from the Taking Part Survey, this project has demonstrated that children's engagement in the arts in school does not appear to be affected by socio-economic factors; however, participation outside of this setting was found to be graded socially, which highlights the need for the provision of arts and cultural activities within education.

Drawing on the results from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, our research has revealed the impact of the arts upon older adults. Using this dataset, the HEartS team has conducted the first large-scale, longitudinal, nationally representative study with multiple waves of follow-up, investigating loneliness within older adults. This revealed that loneliness is associated with increased severity of depressive symptoms in older adulthood, however frequent engagement with receptive arts activities was shown to be a protective factor against loneliness. The analysis of this dataset also highlights that people who frequently engaged with cultural activities have a much lower risk of developing depression in older adulthood and have lower odds of loneliness. Furthermore, HEartS research has demonstrated that long-term frequent engagement with certain arts activities is associated with higher levels of happiness, life satisfaction, self-realization, and autonomy in older adults.

Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, HEartS has also discovered the benefits of arts engagement for young people's behavioural and psychological adjustment. Our research has revealed that daily reading for pleasure in childhood was associated with better behavioural adjustment at the onset of adolescence as well as increased positive lifestyle choices made amongst children. Furthermore, arts engagement was found to be associated with higher levels of self-esteem amongst children, across all the socioeconomic and demographic groups identified within our project. The relationship between arts engagement and behavioural adjustment was also mirrored within HEartS research which utilized data from the British Cohort study, revealing that higher levels of arts ability were associated with lower levels of behavioural difficulties, with a positive association being identified between arts ability and self-esteem amongst children with higher educational abilities.

Through utilising existing datasets HEartS has also demonstrated how cultural engagement varies depending on geographical location within the UK, with lower patterns of cultural engagement being reported within less affluent areas. Our research has also discovered that cultural engagement enhances positive mental health and life satisfaction and protects against mental distress across the population, highlighting the capacity of the arts for promoting mental health and wellbeing.

The HEartS team has also used data from the Feel Good dataset to provide the first study to explore where the barriers leading to differential patterns of arts engagement lie. This has revealed that both mental and physical health can act as a barrier to the arts, with ethnic minorities and men facing more barriers in comparison to white women.

As well as analysing data from existing datasets, HEartS has additionally launched national surveys, generating new research on the arts in health. The HEartS Survey 2019, a cross-sectional nonprobability-based survey, has collected data on 5,338 adults in the United Kingdom, revealing demographic and socioeconomic information (age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, educational qualifications, living situation, household income), on trends on participatory and receptive engagement with literary, visual, performing, crafts and decorative arts. This survey has also collected information on health and social data such as self-rated health, physical activity, depressive symptoms, wellbeing, loneliness, and social connectedness. The data from this survey has revealed that higher rates of arts engagement is associated with increased levels of wellbeing, social connectedness, and lower odds of intense social loneliness. The HEartS Survey 2019 has additionally been used as the blueprint for international surveys conducted within China and Canada which will provide data on arts engagement and health on a global scale.

The HEartS project has also undertaken a survey examining the effects of COVID-19 Lockdown 1.0 on Working Patterns, Income, and Wellbeing Among Performing Arts Professionals in the United Kingdom. The findings from this survey revealed significant wellbeing concerns for respondents, in terms of finance, social factors, and mental health as well as a lack of uptake of available support for health and wellbeing. In addition, the data have demonstrated that higher self-rated health, higher rates of physical exercise before lockdown wellbeing and older age were associated with higher wellbeing and social connectedness scores, as well as lower loneliness scores. The findings from this dataset will be used in a new project, HEartS Professional, which will investigate the health, wellbeing, and financial impact of the crisis on professionals in the arts and culture sectors.

A further key achievement of HEartS is the ambitiously scaled qualitative research studies conducted within this project. Through synthesising the accounts of over 2000 music makers from 46 qualitative studies the HEartS team has provided the first meta-ethnography to scrutinize the processes through which participatory music engagement supports mental wellbeing, identifying four third-order pathways that account for how participatory music engagement supports mental well-being: managing and expressing emotions, facilitating self-development, providing respite, and facilitating connections. This research additionally suggests that people benefit from participatory music engagement by engaging with specific and multiple processes that meet their individual needs and circumstances, findings that could be used to shape future interventions.

Additionally, drawing on data from the HEartS 2019 survey, research from HEartS has used the accounts of 5,892 adults in the United Kingdom, closely matched to the national profile in terms of sociodemographic and economic characteristics, to explore the extent to which the arts made people feel socially connected. Results demonstrated that the majority of respondents (82%) perceive their arts engagement to be linked with feelings of social connectedness at least some of the time. The forms of arts engagement most linked with feelings of social connectedness were attending a live music performance, watching a live theatre performance, and watching a film or drama at the cinema or other venue. Four themes characterised how arts engagement is perceived to facilitate feelings of social connectedness through: social opportunities, sharing, commonality and belonging, and collective understanding, providing large-scale evidence of the importance of the arts. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this research was replicated at two time points with a further sample of 581 respondents. Results showed that arts and cultural engagement was perceived to facilitate social connectedness through the same four pathways that were identified pre-pandemic. The sub-themes shed light on specific ways that respondents used the arts during the pandemic, including: as a catalyst for conversations, to maintain, reinstate, or strengthen relationships during social distancing, and to facilitate social interactions; to bring people together through shared experiences and sharing of art; to elicit feelings of direct and indirect proximity to others, to connect people with common interests, to feel a sense of belonging to something, and to feel part of a collective 'COVID-19 experience' or to feel collectively distracted from the pandemic; and to learn from and about other people and to relate to others.

Therefore, through analysing existing datasets, launching new national surveys and conducting large-scale qualitative projects, HEartS has made a number of achievements to furthering understandings of arts in health. These include revealing the impacts of the arts and cultural engagement on children, older adults and the general population; highlighting the barriers to cultural engagement; generating a wealth of new data on the arts as well as revealing the processes through which the arts support wellbeing and build social connectedness. These findings have highlighted the importance of the arts and cultural engagement for individuals and their wider communities and has significantly expanded understandings on how the arts provide wellbeing benefits.
Exploitation Route The findings from HEartS offer major implications for those involved within the arts and cultural domains by providing insight into how and why the arts may lead to positive physical and psychological health outcomes. For instance, our research using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing dataset suggests that policies that facilitate older adults' access to arts venues and activities can support these individuals in leading happy, more fulfilling lives and maintaining positive mental health. These findings have implications for those involved in the arts, demonstrating how cultural activities can be used to support mental health, and for healthcare professionals, showing how interventions involving the arts can support the health and wellbeing of a rapidly increasing part of the population.

HEartS research on arts engagement in childhood also add to the evidence on the potential health benefits of the arts by demonstrating that building creative skills around the onset of adolescence may have positive impacts for physical and psychological wellbeing. Our research drawing on datasets which include the National Child Development Study, Taking Part and the UK Millennium Cohort Study, have revealed that creative activities including reading, arts and crafts, music-making and storytelling are associated with lower levels of behavioural instability and maladjustment, as well as higher rates of positive health choices. These findings may therefore have implications for those involved within the health or policy sectors, suggesting that the arts may be an effective tool for combatting social problems and could be put into practice.

Our meta-ethnography project is the first to explore how participatory music engagement supports positive mental health. This study departs from the majority of the existing literature on music and wellbeing, which tend to focus solely on the benefits of music, by providing an in-depth insight into the features of music which actively leads to positive mental wellbeing outcomes. These findings will therefore be of particular interest to those involved in music by expanding the knowledge on how music can contribute towards positive mental wellbeing. Furthermore, as our research suggests that individuals benefit from music by engaging with specific and multiple processes that meet their individual needs and circumstances, interventions could be created to address the specific needs of user groups, which may maximise the results of these interventions.

The HEartS team has additionally designed and launched the UKs first large-scale public health national survey, exploring patterns of cultural engagement and how they relate to mental and social wellbeing. The framework for selecting and deriving the measures used in the survey has already generated considerable interest in the wider scientific community and among relevant third sector organisations, suggesting that this framework may be used by others within subsequent research projects. This survey has additionally revealed the processes through which the arts and cultural engagement may build feelings of social connectedness. Therefore, the findings could be used to provide evidence for those looking to commission arts activities that enhance social connectedness as well as those who design and deliver them. Furthermore, as loneliness is linked to mortality as well as poorer physical and mental health outcomes, this research may be particularly relevant to those working with the health and policy sectors, as its findings could be used to inform strategies aimed at building meaningful social connections within communities.

Research conducted by HEartS has demonstrated that the arts play an important function for health and wellbeing outcomes across a variety of sociodemographic groups. Our research on the barriers to cultural engagement could be fundamental for informing future behaviour change interventions, designed to encourage arts engagement among individuals who are least likely to engage, who may have a particular need for the benefits that the arts can provide.
Sectors Creative Economy

Education

Healthcare

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://performancescience.ac.uk/hearts/
 
Description For music and arts practitioners, the research conducted by HEartS has highlighted the processes through which the arts and cultural engagement can build social connections and contribute to positive mental wellbeing, which can be used to shape the development and delivery of future arts practices. The HEartS team has shared this research at a number of engagement events, reaching an audience of over 10,000 people, with multiple practitioners reporting that these findings would be used for developing future interventions. The HEartS project has generated considerable public awareness of the role of the arts and cultural engagement for supporting health and wellbeing. Its research has featured in over 40 news outlets across the world, including in the UK, Europe and Australasia and has therefore highlighted the significance of interventions run by music and arts practitioners. HEartS research has also been used by the project's major artistic and cultural collaborators, which include the Southbank Centre and the Open Spaces Department of the City of London Corporation, to capture and evaluate the benefits that engaging with artistic and cultural activities had upon these organisations' audiences. HEartS has additionally contributed to key policy documents that have evidenced the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing. For example, the project is cited in the World Health Organization's (2019) scoping review on the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing. This report raises a number of policy considerations to support the development of long-term strategies that will bridge the health and arts sectors to realise fully the potential of the arts for improving global health. Research conducted by HEartS also features within the What Works Wellbeing systematic review, which highlights the effectiveness of interventions for alleviating loneliness and provides recommendations to policy makers wishing to develop effective and comprehensive programmes. It has appeared too in governmental reviews conducted by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education to show how the arts impact on health and wellbeing. HEartS research has been cited across multiple journals to evidence the importance of arts and culture for improved mental health and positive wellbeing. In addition, the HEartS Survey (and the corresponding dataset) will allow professionals to continue collecting extensive data about the health, economic, and social impacts of the arts, ensuring the lasting impact of this project.
First Year Of Impact 2018
Sector Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

 
Description DCMS consultancy
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description DfE Consultancy
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Elected to the steering group for the RSPH Arts, Health and Wellbeing Special Interest Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact RSPH is a national champion for the development of the field of arts and health in the UK. The RSPH Special Interest Group in Arts, Health and Wellbeing supports advances in high quality research that leads to innovative policy and practice related to public health.
 
Description Evidence to DCMS
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/734/73407.htm
 
Description New undergraduate module on Musical Care
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description WHO Health 2020 Report
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/413016/Intersectoral-action-between-the-arts-and...
 
Description WHO Health Evidence Synthesis Report
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/fact-sheets/2019/fact-sheet-what-is-the-evidence-on...
 
Description What Works Wellbeing: Call for evidence on loneliness
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description ActEarly: a City Collaboratory approach to early promotion of good health and wellbeing
Amount £49,970 (GBP)
Funding ID MC_PC_18002 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2018 
End 11/2018
 
Description ActEarly: a city collaboratory approach to early promotion of good health and wellbeing
Amount £6,600,000 (GBP)
Funding ID MC_PC_18002 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2019 
End 07/2024
 
Description BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants
Amount £9,787 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 09/2024
 
Description Building a Well Communities Research Consortium to address health disparities through Integrated Care Systems
Amount £203,788 (GBP)
Funding ID AH/X006271/1 
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2022 
End 10/2023
 
Description EpiArts (ii)
Amount $125,000 (USD)
Organisation Bloomberg 
Sector Private
Country United States
Start 03/2020 
End 03/2022
 
Description EpiArts (iii)
Amount $50,000 (USD)
Organisation One Florida Consortium 
Sector Private
Country United States
Start 03/2020 
End 04/2021
 
Description EpiArts Lab (i)
Amount $150,000 (USD)
Organisation National Endowment for the Arts 
Sector Public
Country United States
Start 03/2020 
End 04/2023
 
Description Grant to Support HEartS survey data collection
Amount £1,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Description Grant to support HEartS public engagement and knowledge exchange activities
Amount £5,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 07/2019
 
Description Grant to support HEartS survey data collection
Amount £8,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2018 
End 12/2018
 
Description Grant to support HEartS survey data collection
Amount £1,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Description Grant to support HEartS survey data collection
Amount £6,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Description HEartS Canada, The impact of the arts and culture on health and wellbeing, from individual, social, and economic perspectives
Amount £49,850 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2020 
End 03/2021
 
Description HEartS China, The impact of the arts and culture on health and wellbeing, from individual, social, and economic perspectives in China
Amount £14,000 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2021 
End 12/2021
 
Description HEartS Professional: The Health, Economic, and Social impact of COVID-19 on PROFESSIONALs in the ARTs
Amount £390,868 (GBP)
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2020 
End 12/2022
 
Description Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation World Health Organization (WHO) 
Sector Public
Country Global
Start 08/2018 
End 06/2019
 
Description Loneliness and social isolation in mental health: proposal for a network for cross-disciplinary collaboration and capacity development
Amount £1,014,129 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/S004440/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2018 
End 05/2023
 
Description MARCH: Social, Cultural and Community Assets for Mental Health
Amount £1,014,879 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/S002588/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2018 
End 11/2022
 
Description Music and Parental Wellbeing Research Network
Amount £24,815 (GBP)
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2023 
End 09/2025
 
Description Musical Care International Network from Policy Support Fund (PSF)
Amount £21,098 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description Musical Care International Network from Policy Support Fund (PSF)
Amount £28,801 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 07/2023
 
Description Musical care during the beginning of life research project - Policy Support Fund (PSF)
Amount £13,840 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 07/2023
 
Description Musical care international network from Enhancing Research Culture fund
Amount £711 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description Musical care international network from Participatory Research Fund
Amount £3,500 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description PhD studentship on social prescribing
Amount £70,000 (GBP)
Organisation University College Hospital 
Sector Hospitals
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2019 
End 09/2022
 
Description Philip Leverhulme Prize national award recognising the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition & whose future career is exceptionally promising
Amount £100,000 (GBP)
Organisation The Leverhulme Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 07/2021
 
Description RCM Global Challenges Research Fund: HEartS Professional China, The Health, Economic and Social impact of COVID-19 on PROFESSIONALs in the ARTs
Amount £12,500 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2020 
End 12/2020
 
Description RCM Knowledge Exchange Fund - Musical care through the lifespan: Collaborative Insights videos
Amount £7,800 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2021 
End 09/2021
 
Description RCM Knowledge Exchange Fund - Shared understanding in a museum exhibit
Amount £1,480 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 07/2022
 
Description RCM Participatory Research Fund: Music therapy data visualization tool
Amount £7,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 07/2022
 
Description RCM Policy Support Fund - HEartS Canada and China: Arts Engagement and Mental and Social Wellbeing During COVID-19
Amount £21,104 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 03/2022
 
Description RCM Policy Support Fund: Mapping musical care at the beginning of life in the UK
Amount £18,527 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 03/2022
 
Description Royal College of Music Grant (Tech Survey)
Amount £2,214 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2021 
End 01/2022
 
Description Royal College of Music Grant for Data Collection
Amount £5,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 01/2021
 
Description Royal College of Music Knowledge Exchange (Great Exhibition Road Festival)
Amount £2,000 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Description Royal College of Music Knowledge Exchange Project Fund: Identifying pathways for implementing and scaling up musical care during the beginning of life in the UK
Amount £11,050 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 07/2022
 
Description Royal College of Music Knowledge Exchange and Participatory Research Funds: Music and Parental Mental Wellbeing Knowledge Exchange Events
Amount £5,387 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2021 
End 07/2022
 
Description SHAPER: Scaling Arts-Health Programmes: Efficacy and Implementation Researcher
Amount £1,999,998 (GBP)
Funding ID 19425/Z/19/Z 
Organisation Wellcome Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 09/2022
 
Description Scaling-up Health-Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research (SHAPER)
Amount £1,999,998 (GBP)
Funding ID 219425/Z/19/Z 
Organisation Wellcome Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 09/2024
 
Description Singing Together Public Engagement events funded by Participatory Research Fund (PSF)
Amount £3,500 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2023 
End 03/2024
 
Description Singing Together Research project from Participatory Research Fund (PSF)
Amount £8,957 (GBP)
Organisation Royal College of Music (RCM) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 07/2023
 
Description Social Prescribing
Amount £25,000 (GBP)
Organisation NHS England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 04/2020
 
Description Songs from Home: Developing and testing an online songwriting intervention to reduce loneliness and enhance social connections among women with postnatal depression
Amount £37,560 (GBP)
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2021 
End 04/2022
 
Description The MedTech SuperConnector
Amount £60,000 (GBP)
Organisation MedTech SuperConnector 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 09/2019
 
Description The MedTech SuperConnector
Amount £60,000 (GBP)
Organisation MedTech SuperConnector 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 09/2019
 
Description The health and social impact of arts engagement in Canada: A survey study (Large Scale)
Amount £22,000 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Strategic Priorities Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2020 
End 05/2020
 
Description The health and social impact of arts engagement in China: A pilot survey study
Amount £5,500 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Strategic Priorities Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2020 
End 12/2020
 
Description The health and social impact of arts engagement in China: A pilot survey study
Amount £4,000 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Global Challenges Research Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2020 
End 12/2020
 
Description Understanding the changing picture of social relationships and well-being: A collaborative research network between the UK and Japan (UK-Japan SWAN)
Amount £46,912 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/S013539/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 07/2021
 
Description WELLCOMM
Amount £299,904 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/T006994/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 04/2022
 
Description What is a good city in the context of the Global South: The role of the arts in social-cultural urban infrastructure
Amount £199,904 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2022 
End 03/2024
 
Description ZikMus- Using Music to Meet the Psychosocial Needs of Families Affected by ZIKA Virus
Amount £49,994 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2019 
End 03/2021
 
Title The HEartS Arts and Health Toolkit 
Description The HEartS Arts and Health Toolkit consists of three parts: (a) Arts and Cultural participation (looking at which activities were undertaken, how frequently and with whom) (b) Mental and Social wellbeing measures (c) Open questions exploring the reasons why participants feel particular arts activities make them feel connected to other people 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The HEartS Arts and Health Toolkit is a newly designed survey which allows researchers to collect extensive data about the correlation between artistic engagement and social wellbeing. 
 
Title HEartS Professional Survey: Charting the effects of COVID-19 lockdown 1.0 on working patterns, income, and wellbeing among performing arts professionals in the United Kingdom (April-June 2020) 
Description These data were collected using the HEartS Professional Survey from performing arts workers in the United Kingdom in April-June 2020. HEartS Professional was designed as a multi-strategy data collection tool with two main purposes: (1) to chart working patterns, income, sources of support, and indicators of mental and social wellbeing in order to identify trends in the effects of the lockdown at the time and (2) to explore the individual work and wellbeing experiences of performing arts professionals in their own words, in order to identify the subjective effects of lockdown in terms of challenges and opportunities. The survey covers six areas: (1) demographics, (2) information on illness or self-isolation related to COVID-19, (3) work profiles and income, (4) changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic, as well as sources of support, (5) open-response questions about work and wellbeing experiences of lockdown including challenges and opportunities, and (6) validated measures of health, wellbeing, and social connectedness. HEartS Professional is an adaptation of the HEartS Survey which charts the Health, Economic, and Social impacts of the ARTs (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gdj). 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The HEartS Professional Survey will allow researchers to collect extensive data about the health, economic, and social impacts of the arts on performing arts workers in the UK in April-June 2020 . 
URL http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.s7h44j14z
 
Title HEartS Professional Survey: Charting the effects of COVID-19 on working patterns, income, and wellbeing among performing arts professionals in the United Kingdom (April-May 2021) 
Description These data were collected using the HEartS Professional Survey II from performing arts workers in the United Kingdom in April-May 2021. HEartS Professional II is an adaptation of the HEartS Professional I survey which was used in April-June 2020 (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s7h44j14z). Both surveys were designed as multi-strategy data collection tools with two main purposes: (1) to chart working patterns, income, sources of support, and indicators of mental and social well-being in order to identify trends in the effects of the lockdown at the time and (2) to explore the individual work and wellbeing experiences of performing arts professionals in their own words, in order to identify the subjective effects of lockdown in terms of challenges and opportunities. The survey covers six areas: (1) demographics; (2) information on illness or self-isolation related to COVID-19; (3) work profiles and income; (4) changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic, as well as sources of support; (5) open-response questions about work and wellbeing experiences of lockdown including challenges and opportunities; and (6) validated measures of health, wellbeing, and social connectedness. The HEartS Professional surveys are adaptations of the Depression, loneliness, online survey, pandemic, performing arts professionals, Social Isolation, UK adult sample, well-being, Work which charts the Health, Economic, and Social impacts of the ARTs (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gdj). 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx2v
 
Title HEartS Survey 2019: Charting the health, economic, and social impact of the ARTs 
Description The HEartS Survey 2019 is a cross-sectional nonprobability-based survey of 5,338 adults in the United Kingdom in 2019. It contains data on demographic and socioeconomic information (age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, educational qualifications, living situation, household income), trends in participatory and receptive engagement with literary, visual, performing, crafts and decorative arts, spending on arts and cultural activities, as well as health and social data such as questions about self-rated health, physical activity, depressive symptoms, wellbeing, loneliness, and social connectedness. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The dataset is currently being used within the HEartS research team. It has also been viewed and downloaded by researchers internationally for further analysis. 
URL http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.3r2280gdj
 
Description HEartS and St Martin-in-the-Fields 
Organisation St Martin-in-the-Fields
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The HEartS team is currently conducting an ethnographic study with a music group for individuals experiencing homelessness run by St Martin in the Fields, investigating the social impact of these music groups. The findings will be used to support future workshops and may serve as justification for these music making groups.
Collaborator Contribution St Martin-in-the-Fields provides the HEartS team with access to a music group for the homeless population, giving us the opportunity to conduct a qualitative study on an under-explored population which is often resistant to the presence of researchers.
Impact Whilst there are yet to be any outputs from this collaboration as the research project is still in process, it has resulted in a multi-disciplinary study, involving those charity and academic sectors from sociological and musical backgrounds.
Start Year 2019
 
Description HEartS and The Southbank Centre 
Organisation Southbank Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The HEartS team and The Southbank Centre collaborated during the first Creative Health Conference which officially launched National Creativity and Wellbeing Week. Two members of the Hearts team were part of an interdisciplinary panel discussing how the arts could be used to address social isolation and loneliness.
Collaborator Contribution The Southbank Centre provided a platform for HEartS to publicise and disseminate our research across a diverse multidisciplinary audience, from backgrounds including the general public, social research, policy, the arts and healthcare.
Impact The panel's audience discussed gaining new knowledge on the role of the arts for well being, which resulted in some reporting a change in their perspectives which acknowledged the importance and impact of the arts.This collaboration was multi-disciplinary bringing together artists, practitioners, funders and policy makers in the arts and health sectors.
Start Year 2019
 
Description UK-PRP 
Organisation Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR)
Department Born in Bradford
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Due to the MARCH Network receiving funding, Fancourt was invited to be a co-investigator on the UK-PRP ActEarly programme led by Bradford and UCL. THe grant of £6.6m was received and £137,000 has been given to the MARCH Network to hire a post-doctoral researcher to undertake evaluations of the roll-out of an Arts Council Creative People & Places programme in Bradford.
Collaborator Contribution Fancourt will hire a post-doc to complete new research as part of ActEarly and the Arts Council England CPP programme.
Impact Multidisciplinary - public health, psychology, social science, medicine, arts, humanities.
Start Year 2018
 
Description What Works Centre for Wellbeing - new research collaboration 
Organisation What Works Centre for Wellbeing
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Through MARCH we have developed a formal partnership with WWCW that has resulted in a new grant of £300,000 from ESRC.
Collaborator Contribution WWCW have supported the development of MARCH as a network well as our new application.
Impact Funding of £300,000 from ESRC
Start Year 2018
 
Description #ArtsCan 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Fancourt led a half-day workshop for arts and cultural organisations on the impact of arts on health, including work from the MARCH Network, which led to increased knowledge of the evidence base reported and increased collaboration between cultural partners.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019
 
Description 'An Introduction to Arts and Health': Seminar for Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust Members 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This seminar, led by Breathe Arts Health Research, introduced members of Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust to arts in health and included evidence from the HEartS project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Arts Council England Strategy Forum 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Fancourt presented on MARCH to key staff from Arts Council England, to inform their funding activity relating to arts and mental health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Arts engagement and its wellbeing benefits for older adults: findings from the HEartS project (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This talk and following workshop was part of the conference co-organised by UK-Japan Social Wellbeing Across Ageing Nations (SWAN) Network and International Longevity Centre UK for academic and policy stakeholders interested in understanding social wellbeing in ageing populations from a cross-cultural perspective.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Arts, Play, Health: Playful music and musical play. Keynote at the Arts Play Health conference (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The keynote included reflections on the intersections between arts, music, and play including evidence of how participatory music enhances wellbeing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Arts, health and wellbeing in the United Kingdom: A large-scale survey 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a brief online presentation as part of a day of discussion about urban health and wellbeing and the arts. This international and interdisciplinary event was organised by the British Academy funded Arts in the City project which is also using our HEartS Survey as the basis of some of its own data collection work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://performancescience.ac.uk/artsinthecity/
 
Description Associations between arts engagement and wellbeing in older adults in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (Melbourne, Australia) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation was given on the HEartS project and findings from the secondary data analyses which sparked a discussion on ways to capture arts engagement on the population level.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Breakfast Film 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Fancourt was filmed for a BBC Breakfast piece on creativity and mental health, which led to more organisations signing up to MARCH and reporting collaborations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Proms Plus 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Fancourt spoke at the BBC Proms for a live audience on music and mental health and it was broadcast on BBC Radio 3
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Radio 4 interview 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interview as part of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholia on social prescribing and health
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Radio London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact BBC Radio London interview about music festivals and health for BBC World Music Day
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Radio London interview 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact BBC Radio London interview about social prescribing and health
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Brief Encounters session at Imperial Lates - February 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Singing Together project presented as part of the Imperial Lates 'Brief Encounter' event on 8 February 2024, participation was by the general public, students and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description British Academy Loneliness Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Fancourt spoke for a public engagement event at the British Academy on arts and loneliness, which led to new contacts with policymakers and reported new awareness from the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Cheltenham Science Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Fancourt spoke for a public engagement event on singing and mental health that was broadcast on BBC World Service
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Digital GERF (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A presentation on a a piece of research being conducted followed by a panel discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Do the Shuffle: Exploring reasons for music listening through shuffled play, Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A website was created to accompany the Do the Shuffle research project, highlighting the key findings from the study and providing visualisations of the coded data. The website also contains a download link for the study's raw data, therefore incorporating a level of interactivity which allows the audience to replicate the results of the project and further the analysis of the study.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL http://miguelmolina.me/dotheshuffle/index.html#about
 
Description Evidence backed impact of music on wellness (Deloitte) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This talk shared findings from the HEartS project with Deloitte professionals.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Get Creative Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact MARCH led two citizen science experiments with the BBC as part of their Get Creative Festival, which led to nearly 100,000 people taking part, contributing new research data and learning about the evidence on creativity and mental health and wellbeing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019
 
Description HEartS study and KIMA: Voice - An interactive arts installation at the Great Exhibition Road Festival (London, UK). 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Collaborating with international interdisciplinary artists, the HEartS team hosted an interactive art installation for attendees at the Great Exhibition Festival. Using visual software participants were able to view the characteristics of the sound they created, synchronising their voices with strangers and peers to create tonal harmonies. This encouraged participants to reflect on the level of connection they felt with others through the arts, prompting discussions how the arts influenced well-being, relationships and health. Attendees reported gaining knowledge on how research translated into practice, voiced a greater understanding of the arts-in-health and requested further information on the HEartS project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/event/voice-connecting-through-visual-sound/?backto=it...
 
Description HEartS study and Symbiosis - Interactive arts installation and a HEartS information stand at The Great Exhibition Road Festival (London, UK). 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In collaboration with a local artist the HEartS team hosted an interactive art installation at the Great Exhibition Road Festival where the audience were able to visualise and synchronise their breathing patterns. This exhibition sparked questions on the wider HEartS project and prompted discussions on how arts impacted on individuals' well-being, relationships and health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/event/symbiosis/?backto=itinerary-3
 
Description HEartS survey by Arts and Humanities Research Council 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Arts and Humanities Research council launched a press release publicising the HEartS team and our research. This led to a number of requests for further information and resulted in audience members seeking to participate in the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://ahrc.ukri.org/newsevents/news/national-survey-launched-by-centre-for-performance-science/
 
Description Health Ageing Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Fancourt presented on MARCH to researchers and third sector organisations and led a workshop developing new research ideas on ageing and mental health
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description How arts engagement can support social connectedness: Results from the HEartS Survey. Presentation at ICMPC-ESCOM2021. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The talk focused on results from the HEartS Survey showing how the arts support social connectedness, and included discussion between the presenter and the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description How arts engagement can support social connectedness: Results from the HEartS Survey. Presentation at ICMPC-ESCOM2021. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The talk focused on results from HEartS showing how the arts support social connectedness, and included discussion between the presenter and the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description How do we address social isolation and loneliness through art- A panel discussion at the Southbank Centre's Creative Health Conference (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Two members of the HEartS team (Rosie Perkins and Ula Tymoszuk) were panellists at the Southbank Centre's Creative Health Conference. The researchers contributed to the panel asking 'How do we address social isolation and loneliness through art?', discussing interventional and epidemiological work from the Centre for Performance Science that focuses on the arts and loneliness/social connection. The audience reported gaining new knowledge on Arts-in-Health and the panel sparked questions and further discussions afterwards.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about/press/press-releases/uk%E2%80%99s-first-and-largest-creative...
 
Description How participatory music engagement supports mental wellbeing: Reflecting on the process and findings from a meta-ethnography (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation on a recently published paper followed by a Q and A discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description How participatory music enhances wellbeing (The Power of Music in Health and Social Care Conference, Canada/UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The talk focused on results from a meta-ethnography showing how participatory music enhances wellbeing and included discussion with the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description How the arts support mental wellbeing: Using large-scale qualitative data to evidence processes of change (Goldsmiths, London) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact This talk shared findings from the HEartS project with an audience of students and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Interdisciplinary perspectives on enhancing performance and productivity (Epsom Downs, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Discussions about the role of arts, in particular music, in promoting greater understanding of cultural variations in health, wellbeing and social relationships
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://schoolsallianceforexcellence.co.uk/Portals/0/Running%20order%20slides%20-%20all%20presentati...
 
Description Interviews for national news 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Fancourt gave 16 interviews to various BBC radio news channels including BBC Front Row on creativity and mental health, which led to a number of written responses on new knowledge and plans for new projects.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Invited presentation to staff at Deloitte (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was an invited talk at a wellness event for Deloitte staff, at which evidence of the impact of music on wellbeing was shared and discussed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Learning to perform and learning from performance (Kings College london) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact This talk shared findings from the HEartS project with student dentists.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Musical Care International Network - Inaugural Meetings January 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Musical Care International Network: Inaugural meetings held on 18th and 21st January 2022, Hosted online by RCM, and City University London
The 42 delegates from 24 countries included musical care practitioners (music therapists, community musicians etc), heads of practitioner organisations, and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Musical Care International Network - Working Group Meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Working group meetings took place on 17, 18, 19 Jan 2024 and were hosted online by RCM, City University London, and The Australian National University. The
45 participants were musical care practitioners (music therapists, community musicians etc), heads of practitioner organisations, and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Panel presentation at the Music and Social Intervention Research Network Symposium (York, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Group discussion on what impact is in music interventions and how it can be measured
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Participatory Art as Means for Social Connectedness, talk for Audience Research in the Arts Conference, at The University of Sheffield with the Analema Group (Sheffield, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A presentation about how to evaluate social impact of the arts engagement. Multiple audience members reported new understanding of naunces within social impact and how to measure it.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Participatory Art as Means for Social Connectedness, talk for EVA: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts with the Analema Group (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation about how to evaluate social impact of the arts engagement followed by a discussion on different aspects of social impact relevant in new media, digital arts engagement
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Participatory music for mothers and babies: Perinatal Clinical Network meeting (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation to practitioners working in perinatal mental health on the role of the arts and music in health, and particularly the impact of participatory music making for mothers with postnatal depression.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Performance in music, medicine, and beyond (Boston MA, USA) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact Discussions about the role of arts, in particular music, in promoting greater understanding of cultural variations in health, wellbeing and social relationships
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Poster at the 15th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition / 10th triennial conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (Graz, Austria) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A poster was presented on multi-modal communicative behaviours in music therapy as markers of depression
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation about HEartS and the role of arts in understanding subjective, social experiences at the launch of the UKRI Mental Health Plus: #MHloneliness (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation about HEartS and the role of arts in understanding subjective, social experiences. The presentation promoted the project and helped to establish potential collaborators.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation about the HEartS project at What Next? (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation on HEartS project and discussion on most pressing research questions to address in the field of arts and health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at FLUX Networking event including speakers from key organisations within the field of the media arts (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on HEartS project objectives and avenues for collaboration was presented.Two collaborations were established as a result of this talk, involving further research and public engagement work, both concerning the role participatory arts play in social connectedness and wellbeing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at SEMPRE conference 'Collaboratives approached to music and wellbeing' (Leeds, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on HEartS project objectives and avenues for collaboration was presented. Possible collaborations were discussed with research teams in the UK and Australia on: i) an exhibition on music bringing together and dividing communities: past and present; ii) Minute of Sound roll out and its effect on belonging in children
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at Turtle Song 10 Year Anniversary (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Evidence on music and mental health was presented and HEartS was introduced
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at the Responding to Change: Perspectives from Qualitative Health Research Workshop (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A discussion paper was presented outlining the need for new qualitative methods to understand the processes of change in arts-in-health interventions
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Press release of Do the shuffle: Exploring reasons for music listening through shuffled play 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A press release was published which outlined the key findings from a large-scale study on the reasons why individuals downloaded and kept certain songs on their portable devices. The press release contained links to the research paper and interactive website created during this project, increasing public engagement with both of these outputs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/do-the-shuffle/
 
Description Press release of the HEartS survey launch by Arts and Humanities Research Council (online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Arts and Humanities Research Council has advertised the launch of the HEartS survey generating a lot of interest in the wider research community and increase the number of study participants.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Service evaluation in music therapy: Introducing a Nordoff Robbins questionnaire. The Nordic Music Therapy Congress (Stockholm, Sweden) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The audience was interested to hear about a new questionnaire for use in service evaluation. They asked specific questions about its use and requested that it be made publicly accessible. The paper presenting the research leading up to the questionnaire as well as the questionnaire itself has now been written and is about to be submitted for publication
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Shared understanding in music making: Case studies in music therapy improvisation (Leeds, UK). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A talk was given on a research project in the field of music and health which uses approaches more typically associated with traditional basic research, and puts these in the context of music therapy research. Audience members voiced an interest in establishing some collaborative research projects, with many attendees requesting for further information on HEartS.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Shared understanding in music therapy improvisation (Cambridge, UK). 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 30 professional practitioners attended a talk about research on shared understanding in music making with a focus on music therapy improvisation. Implications of the work for practice were discussed (especially in terms of supervision of practising music therapists) as well as future collaboration opportunities.We discussed possibilities of future collaboration - bringing methods used in the reported study to work on understanding music therapy sessions. The audience also reported a change in views in talking about the implications of the work for supervision of music therapists. In addition requests were made for further information after the talk and I was invited to give a similar talk at another venue to reach a slightly different audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://aru.ac.uk/cambridge-institute-for-music-therapy-research/whats-on/shared-understanding-in-mu...
 
Description Sing for Mental Health, talk at the Three Choirs Festival (Gloucester, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A presentation on singing for mental health, including description of qualitative findings from the HEartS survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Singing Together Project as part of Science Museum Lates, October 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Sing with a Stranger event held at the Science Museum in London 2023 as part of the Singing Together project. The event was attended by members of the public and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Singing for Maternal Mental Health, roundtable at the Great Exhibition Road Festival (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A round table bringing together clinicians, researchers and practitioners to discuss singing for maternal mental health
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/event/singing-maternal-mental-health/?backto=whats-on
 
Description Talk on Musical Care to MA/MSc Students at UCL, October 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Talk entitled 'An introduction to musical care' delivered to PG student at UCL on the Arts, Nature, Wellbeing module offered as part of the MA/Sc in Creative Health, October 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Talk: Musical care during the beginning of life: access, barriers, and experiences at "Revisiting Evidence", University of Oxford, 17th May 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Talk entitled 'Musical care during the beginning of life: access, barriers, and experiences at "Revisiting Evidence", delivered to an audience of medics, psychiatrists, arts therapists, arts organisations, evaluation and impact researchers at University of Oxford on 17th May 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description The HEartS summit brought together arts, health and policy partner organisations to exchange knowledge and contribute to the project's strategic development (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The HEartS summit provided an opportunity for project partners and supporters to meet, find out about completed activities and participate in group discussions informing project's strategic development. Three main questions of interest emerged from the day. "What is health for us and our organisations?"; "Who are and should be our audiences?"; and "How do we measure impact?". Plans for moving forward and maintaining dialogue has been proposed and agreed. Separate meetings with certain partners (Southbank Centre, Young Vic) to discuss closer collaboration followed this event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description The Health Benefits and Challenges of Music Engagement 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The talk focused on the health of musicians as well as the ways that music supports societal wellbeing, and included discussion between researchers and practitioners.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description The Second Musical Care International Network Meetings - May 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact These sessions took place on 18, 19, 24, and 26 May 2023 and were hosted online by RCM, City University London, and The Australian National University. The audience comprised of 70 participants from 27 countries: musical care practitioners (music therapists, community musicians etc), heads of practitioner organisations, and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description The arts and wellbeing during and after COVID-19: Perspectives on social connectedness and the future of the cultural workforce (Prague) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This talk shared findings from the HEartS and HEartS Professional projects with an audience of musicians, researchers and the public in Prague, at an event about the role of music in times of crisis.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description The health and wellbeing benefits of music engagement (The University of Utah, online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact This talk shared findings from the HEartS project with an international audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Thinktank on Singing and Maternal Mental Health (Suffolk, UK). 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A thinktank held at was held at Snape Maltings in Suffolk to bring together clinicians, practitioners, researchers and funders to discuss singing and maternal mental health. Actions included plans for roll-out of singing workshops and further research for mothers with postnatal depression in London as well as development of training and support for facilitators.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Trends in social and cultural engagement measurement in the UK: socio-political context and practical research examples (Online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This talk was part of the seminar series run by UK-Japan Social Wellbeing Across Ageing Nations (SWAN) Network which aims to bring together social epidemiologists researching social and cultural engagement and its wellbeing impacts.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description UK-Japan SWAN advisory board meeting (London, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Discussions about the role of arts, in particular music, in promoting greater understanding of cultural variations in health, wellbeing and social relationships.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description UKRI Mental Health Plus: #MHloneliness sandpit event for investigators (Windsor, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Discussions about the role of arts in understanding subjective experiences such as loneliness, and possibilities for future interdisciplinary research outputs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description What Next? Public Lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Fancourt presented to arts and cultural organisations about the work of MARCH and opportunities for arts and mental health.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description What is missing in the literature on music therapy in educational settings? The Nordic Music Therapy Congress (Stockholm, Sweden) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact In the discussion that followed the talk, the practitioners and researchers in the room said that this talk was illuminating for them - they had learned not only about what existed in the literature but what a multi-disciplinary team considered essential for understanding music therapy better and thus be able to develop research projects that will be more directly impactful for the field.

There were requests for more information in the form of a journal paper, which - as a result of this request - has since been written and is about to be submitted for publication.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Where Music and Language Meet: Shared Understanding in Music Therapy Improvisation, at the Annual meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse (New York City, USA). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A Symposium was held concerning the non-literal and nonverbal aspects of dialogue. This event was reported to be popular among the conference attendees and lead to in-depth discussions on what music therapy is like and the assumptions held about shared understanding in music therapy and other communicative contexts. This event led some audience members reporting a change in viewpoints and opinions, with many voicing that they had learnt new information about music therapy. Furthermore plans were made to begin a collaborative research project with a co-presenter.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Working group of the AHRC Music and Social Intervention Network (Aberdeen, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A working group of the AHRC Music and Social Intervention Network, focusing on reappraising the role of music interventions
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018