Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU

19/01/2026

A new exciting announcement from the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU: The arts can lead to a healthier Wales: £588 Million Annual Impact on Health and Productivity https://arts.wales/news-jobs-opportunities/how-arts-power-healthier-wales-ps588-million-annual-impact-on-health-and
Tendered by the Arts Council of Wales and with colleagues from the University of Bangor we have calculated the economic benefits from arts engagement. This report creates a compeling arguement of why the arts and arts psychotherapies do not only contribute to improving people's mental and physical health, but also lead to important economic benefits. These benefits can be seen across art forms and across age groups!

We help people to make, present and exhibit the arts. We work with artists and organisations to reach as many people as we can. And we research the ways we can protect and sustain creative activities in Wales.

03/01/2026

Updates from the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing! Happy New Year to all! EHU Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, Edge Hill University

19/11/2025

A unique, online opportunity to become an Arts for the Blues facilitator and/or supervisor! Training dates are now out: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/.../research-centre.../events/ for our flagship evidence-based creative psychological intervention currently in routine delivery in trusts, schools and chanrities. Developed by Edge Hill University and the University of Salford, we are running, for the first time, not only a two-day practitioners' training (https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/industry/continuing-professional-development/arts-for-the-blues-two-day-initial-training/) but also a two-day supervisors' training (https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/industry/continuing-professional-development/arts-for-the-blues-supervision-training/).
EHU Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, Joanna Omylinska-Thurston, Scott Thurston

Edge Hill University offers a programme of events that will open up conversations, enrich, entertain, excite and educate. Find out more.

03/11/2025

Back in September, we filmed something special... and tonight you get to see it!

Tune in to ITV Granada Reports tonight at 6pm to catch Prof Vicky Karkou talking about all the great work happening at the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at Edge Hill University!
Edge Hill University; EHU Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine

29/10/2025

So many things to be proud about!

Professor Vicky Karkou provides an update on the past year's work by the team at the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing.

27/10/2025

News from the Arts4Us project! With exciting outputs, events and a questionnaire that needs your input! Edge Hill University

22/10/2025

Help us reach our sample target! If you are working with children and young people your opinion matters:
📝Invitation to complete a frontline staff user questionnaire
The Arts4Us project is exploring how to improve access to arts activities that support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. If you work in arts/culture, education, local authority, or the VCFSE sector, we’d love to hear from you! Take part in a questionnaire or focus group to share your insights on:
✅ The current provision of arts activities for young people
✅ What young people enjoy (and don’t!) about arts participation
✅ Digital access to arts for mental health support
✅ Barriers and facilitators to participation
✅ How we can reach the most vulnerable young people
Your input can help shape better access to creative opportunities for young people!

Online surveys is a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys. Run by Jisc, online surveys is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK...

10/10/2025

As our celebration for the Mental Health Day, we are able to publicly announce our new NIHR funding to develop the Arts for the Blues as a digital mental health intervention for children and young people. With this NIHR funding, e-Arts-for-the-Blues will remove barriers of distance and access, providing therapists across England with engaging, flexible digital creative tools to support children remotely.
https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2025/10/nihr-funds-edge-hills-digital-mental-health-initiative-for-children/

Happy mental health day!
Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU

On World Mental Health Day, Edge Hill University is proud to announce it has been awarded significant funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to develop e-Arts-for-the-Blues, a first of its kind digital creative therapy platform for children referred to mental health....

02/10/2025

This week, our team gathered with our incredible Arts4us Co-Investigators for a vibrant and productive planning day.

We reflected on progress, mapped out next steps, and true to the project’s spirit, made space for creative expression to spark fresh thinking 🎨🗣️📝

Here’s to a year of continued curiosity, collaboration, and innovation! 💡🔍EHU Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine

13/09/2025

A taste of the end of year event for Arts4Us under the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing Vicky Karkou

Coverage of the first annual event for the Arts4Us project, hosted by the Research Centre for Arts & Wellbeing at Edge Hill University on 28th June 2025.

06/09/2025

Join us in our efforts to collect the views of frontline staff working with young people: https://youtube.com/shorts/PGY7FYT768M?si=lu22MX9grKfIMDDY
The Arts4Us project, a project under the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU, is exploring how to improve access to arts activities that support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. If you work in arts/culture, health and social care, education, local authority, or the VCFSE sector, we’d love to hear from you!

📝 Take part in a questionnaire or focus group to share your insights on:
✅ The current provision of arts activities for young people
✅ What young people enjoy (and don’t!) about arts participation
✅ Digital access to arts for mental health support
✅ Barriers and facilitators to participation
✅ How we can reach the most vulnerable young people

Your input can help shape better access to creative opportunities for young people! Sign up below:
https://lnkd.in/gBnqWuxy

Please share with anyone in your network who might be interested!

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

31/07/2025

A taste from the end of year event for the Arts4Us project https://youtu.be/DhRLqGSsL_g?si=VrPAQPtDo3xWTT2a EHU Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine; Miriam Sakwa; Sara Domville; Nicola Brophy; Anna Smirnova;
Matthew McCroskey; Kayleigh Heyland; Beckie Clarke; Shaun Liverpool; Ken Fletcher; Pui Sze Cheung; Christopher Bailey; Sian Brand; Kevin Turner

Coverage of the first annual event for the Arts4Us project, hosted by the Research Centre for Arts & Wellbeing at Edge Hill University on 28th June 2025.