Below are two free opportunities from the United Kingdom to explore the wide world of arts and health. Take a four-hour online course to delve into the complex effects of arts activities on health outcomes, or undergo 10 weeks of practical training in arts-based research.

Arts, Culture and Heritage: Understanding their complex effects on our health

The Royal Society for Public Health (UK) is producing a new, 4 hour online course. A set number of accounts will be available free to early career researchers and community organisations. Artists could also apply for free access.

On completion, you will understand:

  • What ‘health’ is and the evidence for the influence of arts activities on health outcomes.
  • The barriers people face to accessing arts activities and how interventions and policies can be designed to help overcome them.
  • The active ingredients or components of arts activities that may lead to health and wellbeing outcomes.
  • The biological, social, psychological and behavioural mechanisms through which arts activities can affect mental and physical health and wellbeing.
  • The contextual factors or moderators that influence how the arts affect our health.
  • How researchers can adopt the principles of complexity science to examine the effect of arts activities on health.

For more information, see:

The Complex Effects of Arts, Culture and Heritage on Health
This course aims to increase knowledge and understanding of how community resources, including arts, culture and heritage activities can improve our physical and mental health and wellbeing.

The course is an outcome of the fantastic MARCH project, “Transforming our understanding of how social, cultural and community assets can support mental health”.

You might be interested in various associated projects, such as the connections between archaeology and mental health (here), or The Baring Foundation’s report providing an overview on participatory arts programmes offered by the NHS to people with mental health problems (here).

Research Methods: A Practical Guide to Peer and Community Research

If you are interests in how arts can be not only a method for health and healing, but also for inquiry, take a look at this free course, developed on purpose for those in the arts and health sector. This course is a practical, ten-week learning experience from King’s College London provides an overview of all aspects of research, with the principle aim to support and empower people to conduct their own research to initiate positive social change.

For more information, see:

Research Methods: A Practical Guide - Research Methods Course - FutureLearn
Get an overview of all aspects of research and develop your own ethical research project to initiate positive social change with this practical course from King’s College London.

 

Feature image by Burst
Posted by Holly Davison