Cynefin 4 - How can the arts help widen access to health benefits of nature?

Claire Terry, Grow Well

Claire Terry is a project officer with the charity Grow Cardiff. She helps to deliver the Creative Grow Well project over the winter and leads on the organisation’s evaluation and development work. This has recently included working on cultural competence within the charity and moving them towards becoming a trauma informed service.  
She is an Occupational Therapist of 26 years experience, the last 12 of which, have been in nature based work aligned with Social and Therapeutic Horticulture. 
Since the early 1900’s, OT’s have helped people to engage in meaningful occupations that enrich their lives; to create identity, connection with others and build a sense of belonging. The profession's roots in creative activities, handicrafts and gardening have been an inspiration in her professional skill set of engagement, rehabilitation and remediation across the spectrum of age, life stage and health and wellbeing needs.  
Connection with nature has bridged her professional and personal life and working with natural materials has become her own wellbeing go-to over the years, through clay, textiles and latterly green woodwork. The natural environment, even in dense urban areas, provides respite and regulation to many and an opportunity to work in partnership with nature.

Clare Bailey, Chief Executive Officer of Amser i Siarad

Clare Bailey is Chief Executive Officer of Amser i Siarad, a small North Wales mental health charity that provides 1-1 support, therapeutic groups, and wellbeing support within local communities. Clare played a leading role in establishing and developing services across Anglesey and Gwynedd, creating accessible support in everyday community settings and overseeing the organisation's move to Galeri, Caernarfon. 
A passionate advocate for the role of creativity in mental health and wellbeing, Clare has championed the use of the arts to tackle stigma, amplify lived experience, and create opportunities for connection and recovery. Her commitment to arts-based approaches began with a community filmmaking project in 2006 and has since shaped many of the organisation's innovative wellbeing initiatives. 
Alongside her leadership role, Clare is a qualified counsellor and delivers a range of mental health training programmes, including ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). She is also a practising artist, working primarily in photography and film, and brings a strong belief in the power of creative expression to improve wellbeing, build resilience, and give people a voice. 

Isla Horton, Director and co-founder of Grow Cardiff

Isla Horton is the Director and co-founder of Grow Cardiff, a grassroots charity established in 2015 to create and sustain community gardens. A qualified youth and community worker with over 30 years of third-sector experience, Isla has spent nearly two decades living and working in Ely, west Cardiff. 
Grow Cardiff uses an asset-based approach to challenge urban inequalities and improve local health and well-being through community gardening - connecting people with nature and one another.  The charity nurtures the existing skills and interests of local people struggling with their mental health and wellbeing, loneliness and isolation, working together to transform urban plots into vibrant nature hubs. As the gardens grow, so do the people. Their operations span three main workstreams: Health and Wellbeing, Education, Mentoring/consultancy. 
Grow Well is Grow Cardiff’s year-round social prescribing project run in partnership with local primary care clusters. Through weekly sessions facilitated by the staff team specialising in social therapeutic horticulture, patients and local people are referred or self refer to community gardens to improve their well-being. To support those who prefer not to garden outside during winter, the sister project Creative Grow Well brings nature indoors from November to February, connecting participants through nature-inspired arts and crafts.  For more information visit: Grow Cardiff 

Megan Cumming, PhD researcher in Environmental Psychology at Swansea University

Megan is a PhD researcher in Environmental Psychology at Swansea University, exploring the relationship between psychological flow and physical environments.  
Drawing on her experience as an architectural designer, florist and amateur gardener, she is interested in using creative arts both as a research method and as a means of reconnecting people with nature. She is a member of the Sustainable Wellbeing Research Group at Swansea University and the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey. 

Melanie Wotton, Arts in Health Project Manager, Arts and Heritage Team at Swansea Bay University Health Board

Melanie Wotton is Arts in Health Project Manager within the Arts and Heritage Team at Swansea Bay University Health Board, and is passionate about the enormous benefits and impact of arts in health, both within hospitals and within our communities. Melanie has worked in the sector since 2012, as a commissioned artist, as the University Hospital Llandough Hearth Gallery Coordinator and as an arts in health coordinator since 2019. 
 
Recent arts in health programme focus include delivering integrated creative, food and 
nature‑based activity for children and young people (CYP) living in 
communities experiencing high levels of multiple deprivation in the Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot region, and also delivering the Dance to Health programme in the Afan Cluster. 

Professor David Sheffield, Professor of Psychology at the University of Derby

Professor David Sheffield is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Derby and is a registered health psychologist. Over a career spanning more than three decades in the UK and US, his research has focused heavily on the intersection of human psychology, physical health, and the environment. He is a leading researcher in the field of nature connectedness, exploring how people’s psychological relationship with the natural world impacts their health and well-being as part of Derby's Nature Connectedness Research Group. His work focuses on Psychological Well-being, particularly developing interventions that move beyond simple nature exposure to foster deep, emotional connections that improve mental health.  Since he began his PhD in 1991, he has maintained an interest in how social and physical environments impact physiology, cognition, health and behaviour. 
 

Steffan Jones Hughes, Director, Oriel Davies, Newtown

TBA.

Helen Chaterjee, Professor of Human & Ecological Health, University College London

Helen Chatterjee is Professor of Human & Ecological Health at University College London; she is also currently the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Programme Director for Health Inequalities. Her research includes biodiversity conservation and evidencing the impact of natural and cultural participation on health. Helen ran museums at UCL for 15 years and is a Founding Trustee of the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH). She has written 5 books, including: 'Touch in Museums’ (2008), ‘Museums, Health and Well-being’ (2013), ‘Material Connections: From Object-Based Learning to Object-Based Well-being’ (2020), ‘Gibbon Conservation in the Anthropocene’ (2023) and over 100 publications. In 2021 Helen and UCL colleagues launched the world’s first Masters in Creative Health and she currently leads a national research programme called ‘Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ in partnership with the NCCH. Helen received an MBE in 2015 for Services to Higher Education and Culture 

Ami Marsden, sculptor and social practice artist

Ami Marsden is a sculptor and social practice artist. She works mainly within socially engaged art practices, community projects, and public engagement. She partners closely with local councils, both primary and secondary schools, and public bodies to develop site-specific, educational art installations. Her focus is on local environments, nature and our connection and relationship with the natural world.

Emily van de Venter, Consultant in Public Health and Interim Director of Health Improvement with Public Health Wales

Emily van de Venter is a Consultant in Public Health and Interim Director of Health Improvement with Public Health Wales. She has worked in Public Health for over 15 years and whilst her experience is broad, she specialises in population approaches to promoting mental health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities, building on expertise gained from her BSc Neuroscience and MSc Public Health. She works closely with Welsh Government, NHS and non-health partners to support the implementation of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wales, 2025-35.

Emily leads the Hapus programme which aims to inspire and enable people to take action to improve mental wellbeing, taking a positive psychology-informed approach to motivate individual and community
level action to protect and improve mental wellbeing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Emily led on preventing and controlling outbreaks in workplaces within a Local Authority area in England. This role gave her insights into ways of working in a range of business and witnessed the dedication of business to protect the health and wellbeing of their employees.