The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester has been awarded a grant by Arts Council England (ACE) to evaluate the impact that cultural projects run in Manchester and Tyne and Wear have on health and wellbeing.
The gallery, which was awarded £192,101, is one of eight institutions funded by the arts council’s research grants programme, which aims to increase the understanding of the societal impact of arts and culture.
The three-year project called Not so grim up north will see Whitworth work with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (Twam) and University College London. It aims to fill gaps in the evidence on how museums impact health and wellbeing, and identify what aspects of their work in this area are successful, as well as explore how the findings can feed into national and regional health agendas.
As part of the initiative a number of its health programmes run by the Whitworth Art Gallery and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums will be assessed. These include programmes working in the areas of stroke recovery, dementia care, mental health and probation.
“We have a whole range of partners that we work with -- different shapes and sizes of museums. We want to explore different contexts. As part of the University of Manchester we have very strong links to university hospitals, whereas in Tyne and Wear museums have more engagement with community health services,” said Esme Ward, the head of learning and engagement at the Whitworth.
“We need to be able to have the conversation with health providers whether that is with the local GP or with senior staff at the NHS trust. We find narratives are very powerful, but we need to have the evidence to back up those narratives and stories.”
Among the other arts and culture organisations that were awarded money from the arts council’s research grants programme are: the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal College of Music and Yorkshire Dance. The programme is the first of its kind and has provided £1.4m for projects running between one and three years.
Richard Russell, the director of policy and research at ACE, said: “We certainly want to use the outcomes to inform the way that we build our evidence across arts and culture so we can have more informed conversations with government, local authorities and other commissioning bodies. Precisely how we do that we have not yet worked out, but we will do so with the arts organisations and museums that are involved.”
The gallery, which was awarded £192,101, is one of eight institutions funded by the arts council’s research grants programme, which aims to increase the understanding of the societal impact of arts and culture.
The three-year project called Not so grim up north will see Whitworth work with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (Twam) and University College London. It aims to fill gaps in the evidence on how museums impact health and wellbeing, and identify what aspects of their work in this area are successful, as well as explore how the findings can feed into national and regional health agendas.
As part of the initiative a number of its health programmes run by the Whitworth Art Gallery and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums will be assessed. These include programmes working in the areas of stroke recovery, dementia care, mental health and probation.
“We have a whole range of partners that we work with -- different shapes and sizes of museums. We want to explore different contexts. As part of the University of Manchester we have very strong links to university hospitals, whereas in Tyne and Wear museums have more engagement with community health services,” said Esme Ward, the head of learning and engagement at the Whitworth.
“We need to be able to have the conversation with health providers whether that is with the local GP or with senior staff at the NHS trust. We find narratives are very powerful, but we need to have the evidence to back up those narratives and stories.”
Among the other arts and culture organisations that were awarded money from the arts council’s research grants programme are: the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal College of Music and Yorkshire Dance. The programme is the first of its kind and has provided £1.4m for projects running between one and three years.
Richard Russell, the director of policy and research at ACE, said: “We certainly want to use the outcomes to inform the way that we build our evidence across arts and culture so we can have more informed conversations with government, local authorities and other commissioning bodies. Precisely how we do that we have not yet worked out, but we will do so with the arts organisations and museums that are involved.”
