How Creative Health Began
“It was simple really - we talked with Partners about the health and wellbeing outcomes they wanted to achieve, they invested, sometimes we sourced funding to match it and then we made magical projects happen. We didn’t use the word ‘consortium’ back then, but I guess that’s what we were. The highlight for me was always the last project we did, because every one of them built on learning from the one before. All we wanted was to make a difference. And we did.”
Kate Gant, former Director of UK-wide arts and health consultancy ‘creativityteam’ and co-founder of Creative Health CIC
Who Are Creative Health CIC?
Creative Health CIC set up during the early 2000s as Black Country arts officers agreed a shared priority - health and wellbeing.
Led by Kate Gant, who had previously been Head of Arts at Walsall Council, local authorities in the region united behind the company as a commissioning vehicle to bring arts and health money to the urban conurbation and improve lives through creative practice – with local people as both creators and recipients of meaningful, innovative arts and health programmes.
Artistic quality and reflective practice were the company hallmark, engaging commissioners, artists and participants in the evaluative process from beginning to end of each work programme. Creative Health CIC was never about simply placing an artist in a venue to deliver an activity.
Projects involved thousands of children and adults over the years, from pregnant women in hostels to elderly residents of care homes. All ages and abilities were engaged, some in life-enhancing participatory arts and others in creating life-changing Public Health messages.
Creative Health CIC influenced national development of quality arts and health practice. Kate was also a Director of the National Alliance for Arts and Health which became the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance
This legacy website is a snapshot of just some of those projects and an indication of the difference they made.