Training Events
WAHWN February 2026 Network Meeting
Date:
19-02-2026
Location:
Online
Cost:
Free
Summary:
Join us for our February network meeting to learn more about how the arts are addressing health inequalities and the potential to develop arts and health focused solutions. Book your place here
Content:
Thursday 19th February
10 – 11.30am
Partnership Approaches to Tackling Health Inequalities
Join us for our February network meeting to learn more about how the arts are addressing health inequalities and the potential to develop arts and health focused solutions. Alongside sharing examples of arts interventions, we will be joined by Dr Kathrin Thomas, member of DEEP END CYMRU – a Wales wide network of GP practices and practitioners working in areas of high deprivation and committed to tackling health inequalities.
About the speakers
Dr Daisy Fancourt
Dr Daisy Fancourt, researcher and professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London (UCL), widely recognised as a leading international expert on the links between social factors, arts & culture, and health. social prescribing, loneliness, social isolation, and community engagement. As well as Director of the WHO (World Health Organisation) Collaborating Centre on Arts & Health, and advisor to several WHO committees and UK government bodies.
Dr Kathrin Thomas, DEEP END Cymru
Dr Kathrin Thomas is a retired GP and Consultant in Public Health. Kathrin has focused on tackling health inequity, both working as a family doctor in the most deprived communities in Liverpool and the South Wales Valleys, and in a variety of strategic public health roles. She is a Bevan Commission Senior Fellow focusing on maximising the health sector contribution to tackling health inequities. She is Co-Chair of the UK Faculty of Public Health Special Interest Group for Primary Care and Public Health and a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners Health Equity Special Interest Group.
Sarah Milligan, Gwella
Sarah Milligan is a Creative Artist Practitioner and Director of Gwella, an Arts in Health and Medical Humanities organisation based in South Wales. Since founding Gwella, Sarah has delivered projects across the Swansea Bay region that support improved wellbeing and social outcomes for communities from Bridgend to Mumbles, with a strategic focus on Neath Port Talbot following the closure of TATA Steel. Sarah holds a Master’s degree in Drama and previously volunteered as a listening volunteer with Samaritans, an experience that led her into the field of Arts in Health. Most recently, she concluded Heads Up, a ten-week initiative funded by Arts Council of Wales Arts, Health and Wellbeing Lottery Fund that supported participants into positive progression, with two individuals moving on to college.
Das Clarks
Over the past year, Arts Council Wales, Cardiff & Vale Area Planning Board and G4S have supported Das Clarks to deliver their project, Creative Roots. Our participants include residents and staff of Parc prison and service users, friends and family members, staff and volunteers connected with drug and alcohol recovery services in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Creative Roots aims to nurture and improve the mental wellbeing of those involved by engaging them in creative, mindful and enjoyable activities within the supportive company of others. The project lives in the relationships between people, hands, materials, imagination and the various places we call ‘the studio’ for the duration of each session. Exhibitions are an important part of the project since they elevate, celebrate and share out participant’s and our own artwork. Our next major exhibition launches at the Wales Millenium Centre on Sunday 22 February. The Das Clarks Creative Roots team, a collective of Newport-based freelance artists including Gareth Clark, DAR Rogers, Marion Cheung, Bill Chambers, Jo Haycock and Marega Palser.