Creating Cultural Citizenship? Understanding the impact of participatory arts on community health and wellbeing.

Arts and health is an emergent field that encompasses diverse art forms, settings and activities used to address a wide range of individual and social conditions. High level support has been given to the role of arts in improving health and well-being although it is acknowledged that the evidence base for the arts is in need of development. This research examines the impact of participatory arts on health, wellbeing and connectedness in communities. It uses the lens of cultural citizenship to develop a social model of arts and health. As well as elements such as rights and entitlement, cultural citizenship may include the virtues that participants and practitioners define and use to shape practice excellence. The project draws on humanities based perspective of virtue ethics to highlight aspects of policy and practice that have the potential both to support and limit health, wellbeing and connectedness through participation in the arts. It addresses three research questions:

1. How do we understand the role of community connectedness through the arts?
2. In what ways is connectivity generated through participation in arts?
3. How does community connectivity relate to health and wellbeing?

Project objectives

1. Understand the impact of participatory arts on community health and wellbeing through the lens of cultural citizenship.
2. Identify forms and conditions of practice excellence that underpin the promotion of health, wellbeing and connectivity.
3. Understand the links between arts, health, connectedness and inequalities.
4. Address issues of fragmentation and lack of connectivity that have limited research, evidence and practice in arts and health.

The research uses a mixed methods research design to explore participatory arts at three levels: the macro level of cultural policy and institutions; the exo/meso level of organisations that give direct support the arts and health field; and the micro level of participants' experiences of arts and health projects and programmes. These will be examined using literature reviews, surveys, interviews and detailed case studies. At each of level the research seeks to include three types of communities: communities of place (geographical communities), interest (health conditions, demographics, faith or political purpose) and practice (art form, activities and sector). The data analysis will trace the narratives generated through each of the levels to identify the key components of cultural citizenship for participants, service providers and members of diverse communities.

This research proposal emerged from the research development workshop 'Communities, Cultures, Health and Well-Being', organised as a part of the Connected Communities Programme. The research team encompasses disciplines including arts and humanities, psychosocial studies, social science and practice. It actively engages with key stakeholders from the arts and health field. The research will elaborate the concept of citizenship based on culture, informing key policy areas, such as health inequalities. It will identify assets and resources within the arts and health economy as well as understanding of the resources needed to ensure sustainable development. It will foster targeted and well designed community-based initiatives and services by identifying what works for whom and in what circumstances. Hence it will describe the inter-related elements of programmes that can be applied by service user and providers in particular contexts and to current and future interventions.

During the project development phase (1st February - 31st May 2012) the team will refine the methodology and undertake a scoping review of the literature. A workshop for invited participants will explore the research themes and contribute to methodological development of the proposal.

The research will benefit participants directly as well generating longer term benefits for practitioners, researchers and the wider international research community, policy makers and the general public.

Impact on participants

The research will provide an opportunity for those taking part, including participants and professionals involved with participatory arts for health activities, to connect with others to share information, knowledge and experience and to reflect on their experience. The project will also allow micro and meso level participants to strengthening their understanding of research and evaluation in order to engage effectively with stakeholders, commissioners and funding bodies. Benefits for practice will be generated by the project which will in itself foster, support and develop the emergent arts and health sector. The research will benefit participants and practitioners in four ways:

1. Fostering connections and enabling sharing of knowledge, information and research
2. Informing and developing effective practice by developing contextualized understanding of practice excellence;
3. Supporting the business case for arts and health;
4. Embedding research knowledge and skills that are appropriate to the sector, hence underpinning and strengthening an emergent discipline.

Impact on policy

The research will generate policy impacts by promoting effective planning and service delivery, identifying what works for whom in what circumstances and allowing situated understanding of the conditions and forms of practice excellence and the resources needed for sustainable development. The project will also forge connections between policy areas including arts, culture and health, identifying assets and resources within the arts and health sector for programme and project development. It will foster understanding the role of arts in generating and embedding health and wellbeing in communities and help to synthesise evidence and identify key outcomes from participatory arts for health.

Impact on researchers

Researchers and staff working on the project will gain valuable connections that will facilitate interdisciplinary exploration of shared concerns both in the short and longer terms.
There will also be benefits for the wider research community in the form of new interdisciplinary knowledge and theory surrounding cultural citizenship that might be widely applicable. The wider research community will benefit from the development of sensitive and rigorous methodologies, including arts based methods, for researching complex interventions and programmes.