WAHWN NEWS
Arts Council of Wales’ new Head of Arts, Health and Wellbeing sets out vision
Rosie Dow, the Arts Council of Wales’ new Head of Arts, Health and Wellbeing, has described her first month in post as “an absolute pleasure” and says it has been “a privilege” to take on the role.
Date: 17/12/2025
WAHWN invites members to shape future arts and health research priorities
Fill in our survey to shape future research priorities across the arts and health sector.
Date: 09/12/2025
Welcome to WAHWN: The Wales Arts Health & Well-being Network
Established in 2013, WAHWN (Wales Arts Health & Wellbeing Network) is the national sector support body for arts, health and wellbeing in Wales. Our work is underpinned by key legislation and drivers, including the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015, and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Welsh NHS Confederation and Arts Council Wales. Our rapidly expanding membership of 1,000 arts and health professionals, represents the arts, health and HE sectors working across the full range of art form practice in health, arts and other community settings. WAHWN is proud of its central role within a growing number of key partnership initiatives and our position to provide a national voice for the sector at a strategic level, demonstrating best practice of existing policy implementation and influencing new policies.
Looking to get started?
We’ve put together some particular resources for each of our types of user. Click here to see the resources that will help you get prepared for working, commissioning, or supporting arts in health.
Become a Member of WAHWN
Are you committed to working together to strengthen and advocate for arts as part of well-being and health? Then WAHWN is for you.
WAHWN is a strategic network for arts, health and well-being in Wales – a common meeting ground for knowledge exchange and the joint promotion of activities. Our work currently includes the development of training and development provision, resource development, research, events and advocacy.
WAHWN members will be able to:-
- Share their knowledge with others in the Network
- Post opportunities, events, news and blogs
- Connect with each other to share knowledge and develop collaborative work
- Submit case studies, research, papers, evaluation and project reports
"WAHWN provides a key role in sharing best practice and evidence how legislation and policy is being implemented in practice by the arts, health and wellbeing sector. Through working in partnership with WAHWN it has enabled and supported the Welsh NHS Confederation to share good practice and information around arts and health with organisations that we may not have reached."
Nesta Lloyd-Jones, Welsh NHS Confederation
"We are a GP practice in 19 Hills, a neighbourhood and community development collaboration in Ringland in the east of Newport in South Wales. We attended the WEAVE conference this year and since have found the advocacy, support and connections Angela and her colleagues, and the entire network of arts and health partners pivotal to our work. We know that arts can transform how we think about, engage people in and help us deliver better approaches in health and public service delivery and we look forward to further collaboration as Wales engages further in this new paradigm."
Jonny Currie, GP Partner, clinical lead Ringland Medical Practice and and Co-Director 19 Hills CIC
"Looking forward to continuing to work with this fantastic network who have played such a key role in shaping the recommendations."
Sandy Clubb, Policy Lead: Involvement, Collaboration and Culture, at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
"WAHWN are such an asset for Wales - it's great to be able to connect with the arts and health workforce through a single route and to have a national organisation supporting the development of the arts and health workforce and who are proactive in driving developments in the evidence for arts for health and wellbeing in Wales."
Emily Van de Venter, Lead Consultant, Mental Wellbeing, Public Health Wales
"WAHWN always feels warm - it is a space to listen, learn and share, a creative community of freelancing artists woven together by shared experiences wherever we might be in Wales."
Tara Dean, Creative Practitioner