How the arts can help us talk about health

Jane Hearst and Regan McDonald in Conversation

Jane Hearst, Research and Policy Manager at the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and Regan McDonald, Ikon Gallery’s Public Health Research Officer, reflect on Ikon’s recent exhibition, What are the Odds? Ikon Creative Health and explore how creative spaces can make health information more accessible and meaningful.

This conversation is based around an article by Jane Hearst and Regan McDonald Creative Health Communication and Curation: lessons from Ikon Gallery which was developed as part of the UKRI-funded Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities programme.

Regan: From the perspective of the NCCH, what is creative health and why does it matter?

Jane: NCCH defines creative health as ‘creative approaches and activities which have benefits for our health and wellbeing’. If I were to give some examples of what that means in reality, it could be making art, gardening, being creative with your cooking – anything that makes us feel less stressed and more connected, and things that improve your physical health.

There are things like singing for asthma and COPD, dancing to prevent frailty and how looking at art in hospital helps you recover faster and experience less pain.

Jane: We’ve chosen to talk about ‘health communication’ today. How would you describe what health communication means? And how can the arts help us do it differently?

Regan: I would say, at its core, health communication is about helping people make informed decisions about their health. This could be about feeding your infant, about quitting smoking – these are obviously loaded topics that are complicated in our real lives and I think sometimes traditional messaging can miss that.

The arts can open that conversation up and create space for participation, reflection, curiosity and lived experience, so health messages feel less like instructions and more personally meaningful.

Regan: With that in mind, what do you feel the core skills might be for people wanting to take a more creative approach to communicating health?

Jane: Well, if the creative approach is focused on two-way conversation and critical reflection, then leaders need to have strong facilitation skills – making sure everyone gets to contribute and encouraging people to think from other people’s perspectives.

I’d say it’s important to be able to back up that grounded knowledge from individuals and communities when sharing it back with health leaders, so that lived experience and scientific evidence complement each other and become stronger than the sum of their parts.

Jane: One of the things I really liked about What are the Odds? was how it aimed to blend public health narratives with those of artists and communities. Can you tell me a bit more about why the Library of Birmingham was the right place for that conversation?

Regan: I mean, for starters, I love the library… I’ve grown up in them and I think at a time when Birmingham’s libraries are under threat, it’s important to me to play a part in supporting them. I think they have this amazing ability to draw in a little bit from every walk of life.

I often encounter this assumption that they’re just for books, but they are used for various reasons, from seeking advice to support with education, welfare, social services etc.

This balances really well for me with the way we’ve shared different perspectives in the show; using the space however you feel comfortable is exactly what we wanted and what the show needed. Maybe a bit unusual for a gallery, but one visitor even set up a tripod and took a job interview in there!

I suppose health doesn’t belong to anybody and it’s important to me that people who might not usually feel comfortable visiting somewhere like Ikon Gallery still feel like these conversations are for them.

Regan: How do you think all the creative health work Birmingham artists are doing ties into a wider conversation about arts, health, and communication more generally?

Jane: There’s a real buzz about creative health at the moment. The evidence is getting stronger, we’re seeing more support in Government and more health systems interested in bringing in creative approaches.

At NCCH, we play a key advocacy role to these senior leaders, and case studies – like the work in cultural organisations across Birmingham – have been super important in helping us to show that this works in the eyes of both health leaders and members of the public.

It’s one of the key reasons we chose to research Birmingham’s work through the research programme Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities, so that we could share the insights you’ve all gained in your roles as Public Health Research Officers in Residence! It’s been really inspirational, and it looks like 2027 will see us doing more work into ‘Creative Health Communication’ as a result.

Jane: What drew you to health communication as a focal point for Ikon’s creative health work?

Regan: I’m really drawn to this idea that artists, with communities, are able to not just pass on or absorb information about health but instead work together to shape how health is understood. Through curation and visual storytelling, I think we are able to give more power to those whose voices are often the least heard in a way that’s really quite compelling.

Regan: What do you think needs to happen next if we want creativity and culture to become a bigger part of public and clinical health?

Jane: Well, just as we saw in Birmingham, where the Public Health Research Officers in Residence – like yourself – have been able to help join up work between cultural organisations and the public health team at the Council, NCCH are developing sector support roles of our own.

We, at NCCH, call them ‘Creative Health Leads in Systems’ and their role is to help people become familiar with what creative health is, what evidence there is that it works, what partnerships make it flourish, and how to get services off the ground.

There’s been a multi-million-pound investment into the NCCH programme, which signals a really exciting time for the field – helping to make those vital connections and open up opportunities for the public.

This is an edited version of the conversation.