Blog post written by Dr Katey Warran
We are delighted to have been collaborating with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and NYU Steinhardt for the last year on the evaluation of Healing Arts Scotland (HAS). Key findings from the evaluation have been published in the Healing Arts Scotland Impact Report released yesterday, Tuesday 21 January. The release of the report was followed by a celebratory event in Scottish Parliament. In this blog, we reflect on our evaluation processes and highlights from the event.
Healing Arts Scotland (HAS) was a nation-wide festival celebrating and advocating for improved physical, mental and social health through the arts. Spearheaded by Scottish Ballet as part of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab’s global ‘Healing Arts’ campaign in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the one-week activation was launched as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and produced in collaboration with a national coalition of organisations and communities across Scotland. During the HAS week (19-23 August 2024) over 376 events happened across Scotland and attracted over 11,000 attendees.
The evaluation of HAS aimed to explore:
What is currently happening in arts and health in Scotland in relation to: 1) geographic spread; 2) health priorities; and 3) primary artforms utilised;
What the priorities for the future of arts and health in Scotland are; and
What the impact of HAS was for those attending, including understanding their experiences of engaging in HAS activities
The first two of these aims sought to use HAS as a case study to reflect on the broader arts and health landscape in Scotland and the third aim focused on evaluating the event itself. We sought to meet these aims through utilising a range of diverse and inclusive methods, including online surveys (n=156), written feedback cards (n=171), one on one interviews (n=50), online focus groups (n=7), as well as a social network analysis (n=76).
Key findings from the evaluation are as follows:
93% said they would take some form of action following their engagement in HAS (sample size: 104)
69% said they would be an advocate for arts and health as a result of engaging in HAS (sample size: 104)
92.4% would like HAS to happen again (sample size: 105)
82% gave a rating of 5/5 in their agreement to the belief that arts and cultural resources can play a role in holistic, person-centred health and social care (sample size: 105)
89% rated the usefulness of HAS for continued professional development in arts and health as good, very good, or excellent (sample size: 91)
Nearly 70% of respondents reported working with people in the category of mental illness, mental health and/ or wellbeing, 59% in community health, and 49% noncommunicable diseases. Women’s health and LGBTQ+ were the lowest reported categories, suggesting these could be areas of foci for the future. (sample size: 61). Our evaluation also showed that funding and engagement with government and health and social care organisations are key priorities, with specific mention of the importance of social prescribing as a key area to develop in the future. (sample size: 30).
Our social network analysis is still in process (and forms part of our sociological work in arts and health), but we have some initial findings showing the key themes addressed during the HAS week in relation to geographic location:
Social prescribing was the most connected theme, followed by mental health in younger people, loneliness and isolation, dementia, and then creativity in confinement.
The next step in our social network analysis will be to further explore the network structure of HAS, such as in relation to who collaborated with who and where social capital was located in the HAS network. We hope these analyses will support with improving equity in the field of arts and health in Scotland, as well as support with decision-making in relation to future HAS events.
The celebration at the Scottish Parliament included a sharing of the evaluation, as well as remarks by Sir Gregor Smith (Scotland's Chief Medical Officer), Angus Robertson MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture), Angiolina Foster (Chair of Public Health Scotland) and Christopher Bailey (Arts & Health Lead, WHO & Founding Co-Director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab). Scottish Ballet were also given a special award by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in partnership with the World Health Organization which named them a Healing Arts Centre of Excellence.
To access the full report, please click here.
For more information about Healing Arts Scotland, please click here.
We would like to thank everyone who supported this evaluation. A huge team were involved and we are grateful to every person who gave their time to this project.
This evaluation was funded by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab.
Photo credit: Andrew Perry
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