London’s Creativity & Wellbeing Week Launches @ Tate Modern Tonight

london creativity wellbeing weekToday marks the start of London’s second annual Creativity & Wellbeing Week, which will be exploring the links between the arts and good health and wellbeing.

Things kick off this evening with a talk from playwright and celebrated cultural commentator Bonnie Greer at 6:30pm in the Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium. In her own words, she hopes that:

Policy makers, health officials and practitioners and artists themselves can come together in a higher intelligence and a greater ability to create, monitor, and foster, even predict, wellbeing and good health

There will be over sixty events throughout the week including exhibitions, talks, performance and workshops that will be taking place in gallery spaces, hospitals and elsewhere, and most of which will be free. There’s a full list (including a useful map) over on the special Creativity & Wellbeing Week website.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating the profound effect engagement in the arts and creativity can have on health and wellbeing. The arts bring us alive, nourish our curiosity, help us learn – they change the places in which we are treated – and make them places we might want to be, they can improve the relationship between clinician and patient, and they give us the courage to face our own frailties and strengths.

The Creativity & Wellbeing Week is a collaboration between London Arts Health Forum (LAHF) and Community Learning. LAHF is a charity which develops projects aimed at creating new connections between the arts and health. It is supported by the Arts Council England, trusts, foundations and individual donations. They have a regular newsletter which you can sign up to here.

Tickets for this evening’s lecture by Bonnie Greer are still available and are priced at £12 (£8 concessions). You can grab them here online or by phone on 020 78878888.