Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU

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.

17/07/2025

Our 'Critique of the critique: Towards a more nuanced evaluation of current research on the health outcomes of arts-based interventions' is now out:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064525001071?dgcid=author
with great colleagues: Pier Luigi Sacco, Matthew Pelowski, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Catherine Carr, Jane Lester Bourne, Val Huet, Robyn Dowlen, Helen Chatterjee

07/07/2025

The Arts4Us event is a week behind us and the words of Bailey, WHO lead for Arts and Health and co-founder of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab is still vibrating with us: "The arts and humor is not to cure illness or misfortune, but they help you curate that life, to find your authentic personal meaning and sense of belonging." The Arts Centre EHU, Edge Hill University, Sajnani, Alexander Stapleton, Coulter, Chatterjee

07/07/2025

The Arts4Us event is only a week behind us and the words of Bailey, WHO lead for Arts and Health and co-founder of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab is still vibrating with us: "The arts and humor is not to cure illness or misfortune, but they help you curate that life, to find your authentic personal meaning and sense of belonging." The Arts Centre EHU, Edge Hill University, Sajnani, Alexander Stapleton, Coulter, Chatterjee

16/06/2025

We are counting down now for the end of year FREE event on 28th June at Edge Hill University for the Arts4Us, the largest study funded from a UK research council (i.e., UKRI) on the use the arts as support for children and young people's mental health. Presentations, workshops, performances and loads of input from our young lived experience experts will support our wonderful key note speakers: Christopher Bailey, WHO lead for Arts and Health, Sian Brand, chair of the social prescribing network and Kevin Turner, co-founder and co-artistic director of Company Chameleon. The event is FREE, but spaces are limited. Please register! https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/event/arts4us-event/
Organised under the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at EHU. The Arts Centre EHU
With collaborating institutions:
The University of Salford, University of Liverpool, University of Lincoln, University of East Anglia (UEA), The Poetry Society, King's College London, Tate Liverpool, Savera UK, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Kooth, Institute of Development Studies, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Everton in the Community, BarrowFull, Artz Centre, Alder Hey.

With wonderful team:
Beckie Clarke, Ken Fletcher, Robyn Dowlen, Pui Sze Cheung, Anna Smirnova, Miriam Sakwa, Saz Domville, Nicola Brophy, Matthew McCloskey, Anran Chen, Rhoda Madu, Keyleigh Hydland, Ella Pereira, Shaun Liverpool, Michelle Howarth, Fei Chen, Joanna Omylinska-Thurston, Scott Thurston.

Join us for an inspiring day of ideas, creativity, and collaboration as we share key findings and reflections from the first year of our research into a new digital platform supporting children’s mental health through the arts.

04/06/2025

The role of the arts and arts therapies to support the mental health of children and young people - Vicky Karkou the House of Lords

On the 3rd June 2025, Prof Vicky Karkou was part of the roundtable discussion at the House of Lords with organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Creative Health and chaired by Dr Simon Opher MP, Chair of this APPG.

If you weren't able to attend, catch up with the online event, the recording is here: https://lnkd.in/dV72r583

This created a great opportunity to talk about the role of the arts and arts therapies as support for children’s mental health. Two flagship projects were presented that fall under the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing: the Arts for the Blues, an evidence-based creative group psychotherapy and the Arts4Us, a UKRI project seeking to improve access to place-based arts activities that support children’s mental health.

Further discussion highlighted action needed to influence policy and changing services.

Edge Hill University

28/05/2025

Very few places left for the Arts for the Blues two-day training, 13 and 14 June, at Ormskirk, Edge Hill University, a model with national and international appeal and use developed by Edge Hill University in collaboration with The University of Salford. If you are interested in becoming an Arts for the Blues facilitator, this is this year’s opportunity to train in this evidence-based creative psychological group intervention:

A 2 day practical exploration of the Arts for the Blues model. This model has been developed by Edge Hill University and the University of Salford as an evidence-based psychotherapy model for depression. This is an introduction to the Arts for the Blues model- you do not need any prior experience.

22/03/2025

Move Your Body, Boost Your Brain: Dance Movement Therapy for Healthy Ageing

📅 Thursday 10 April
🕒 12pm-4pm
📌 The Liverpool Lighthouse, Oakfield Rd, L4 0UF

Join us for an inspiring public event where cutting-edge motion capture technology meets the transformative art of Dance Movement Therapy! Explore how this innovative combination fosters well-being and supports healthy ageing, all while delving into the fascinating neural mechanisms that help our brains age gracefully.

Discover how movement-based interactions can promote joy, connection and vitality at any stage of life through our live demonstrations, interactive sessions and expert talks from:
- Professor Vicky Karkou (Dance Movement Psychotherapist and EHU School of Allied Health, Social Work & Wellbeing Lead)
- Dr Valentina Cazzato (Neuroscientist)

Book your place: https://www.eventbookings.com/b/event/move-your-body-boost-your-brain-byob-liverpool

*Event is suitable for adults