Arts in Health Short Course - Lisa Phillips, Go & See Microbursary 2025-26
03/04/2026 | Author: Lisa Phillips
The course explored the connections between creativity, wellbeing, and healthcare settings, offering both theoretical and practical insight into arts-based approaches to health.
This course has provided a contemporary academic and professional perspective on the arts and health sector. It has strengthened my capacity to design and facilitate workshops for diverse communities, grounded in current research, sector best practice, and critical reflection. Additionally, it has offered valuable opportunities to connect and collaborate with other practitioners working within the field.
The course was structured around a series of themed sessions exploring key dimensions of Arts in Health practice. These included: defining What is Arts in Health?; examining its historical development and key contributors; identifying where Arts in Health takes place across different settings; articulating the rationale and value underpinning the field; and exploring how Arts in Health is implemented in practice.
The practical components were further examined through three interconnected strands: creative processes (creating), applied settings and environments (contexts), and relationship-building and collaboration (connecting).
The programme also addressed approaches to evaluation and impact measurement within Arts in Health practice.
Sessions combined lectures, facilitated discussions, and breakout group work, with recommended reading provided to underpin theoretical understanding and critical engagement.
The course deepened my understanding of key theoretical frameworks underpinning Arts in Health, highlighting the core principles and critical debates that shape the field.
It provided valuable space to revisit and critically reflect upon my previous professional experiences, enabling me to contextualise my practice within broader theoretical and sector-based perspectives.
Through group breakout sessions and weekly discussions, I engaged with case studies, shared lived experiences, and learned from the diverse insights of peers. This collaborative exchange strengthened my ability to think critically, articulate practice-based knowledge, and consider multiple approaches to engagement within Arts in Health settings.
This course has significantly broadened my professional development beyond my day-to-day teaching and facilitation practice. It has expanded my understanding of the Arts in Health sector, providing a more comprehensive and strategic overview of the field.
It has opened up new avenues for continued study and future professional growth, encouraging deeper engagement with research and evolving practice.
The experience has also widened my perspective on my existing work, prompting me to reconsider the content, structure, and approaches I use within sessions, and to apply more critically informed and reflective methods to my practice.
