Collating a field: Inside the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Health

DrNJHolt
4 days ago
9 min read

From community choirs and dance programmes to arts in hospitals and museums, arts-based activities are increasingly being recognised as valuable tools for supporting health and wellbeing. The field of the arts and health has grown rapidly in recent years, bringing together researchers, practitioners and artists from around the world to explore how and why arts-based methods can make a difference. This blog post introduces the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Health, the first handbook to synthesise work across this emerging field and offer a critical overview of its development.

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Introduction

As a psychology undergraduate with a love of the arts, I spent much of my spare time painting, singing and creative writing. At the time, I never imagined that these personal interests would one day lead me to edit a collection of research exploring the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing.

Yet this is exactly where my journey has taken me with the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Health, a volume that brings together international perspectives on how arts-based methods can support health and wellbeing.

Working with co-Editors (Victoria Tischler, Sofia Vougioukalou and Elisabetta Corvo) and 76 international colleagues, this was a three year-long process, beginning with working out how to scaffold the content and what topic areas to cover. Inviting authors, reviewing and editing chapters, was a time consuming but enjoyable process, working with experts from across the globe and weaving together a text that will hopefully be useful for this emerging field.

The process also involved deeper reflection on the field, noticing patterns, complexities, issues of contention, debates, perspectives, gaps and trending directions, and writing about these in the book’s conclusion. In this way, developing the handbook, deepened my own understanding and insights about the arts and health.

In the following sections, I will briefly describe the main contents of the book by Section. Each summary is accompanied by a visual display of images from the book.

Section One: Historical and Contemporary Contexts of the ‘Arts and Health’

The first section of the handbook aims to lay out the field, exploring both the contexts and definitions of arts and health. Chapters examine the use of the arts for health and wellbeing from a historical perspective, reminding us that these practices are not entirely new. Key terms, such as “arts and health,” are defined, and frameworks for how the arts are used in different formats and settings are explored.

This section also situates the field within its contemporary context. In recent years, major evidence reviews on arts and health have been produced and disseminated by organisations such as the World Health Organisation, the European Union and the National Centre for Creative Health in the UK. At the same time, different organisations have highlighted the need for greater critical rigour and broader global perspectives. Reflecting this moment in the field, this section synthesises existing evidence to provide an overview of the current research base, while also highlighting gaps in knowledge. It encourages critical appraisal of the evidence, identifies key weaknesses, and draws attention to inequalities in research and the need to better represent knowledge and practice from the global majority.

Images from Chapter Four (Global perspectives on creative health) by Ranjita Dhital. On the left are photographs of Creative Health Nepal: Community Festival, Siddartha Art Gallery, Babar Mahal Revisited, Kathmandu, Nepal (November 2024). On the right are sculptures and paintings ‘Trigunas’ by Om Prakash Shrees (2024).

Section Two: Domains of ‘Arts and Health’: Impact and Practice

The arts are, by definition, varied, and here we explore this, focusing on how different art modalities can be used for health and wellbeing, chapters examine:

· Visual arts and crafts – from arts in counselling to needlework for craftivism

· Music – from music therapy to community choirs

· Drama – from puppetry for public health messaging to psychodrama

· Dance – from youth dance groups to dance interventions for Parkinson’s

· Creative writing – from expressive writing to bibliotherapy

These overviews illustrate that the arts form a diverse and versatile toolkit, that can be applied for different outcomes across a range of settings, from everyday life (individual) to clinical care.

EPICS framework (image from Chapter 6)

For example, the EPICS framework above illustrates how the visual arts can affect wellbeing and health through: Exposure (e.g., viewing artwork displayed in hospitals); Psychotherapy (e.g., using the visual arts as an expressive medium in counselling); Individual (e.g., crafting, painting or colouring in everyday life as a hobby); Communication (e.g., to convey the nature of pain through drawings in a health consultation); and Social (e.g., community art, such as social prescribing groups). Similarly, Chapter 10 presents a framework for the different ways and settings in which theatre and drama are used for health and wellbeing. It presents a spectrum of “severity,” from everyday life activities like storytelling to clinical applications such as psychodrama.

There is a great deal of heterogeneity in both the applications and the effects of arts-based interventions, reflecting the richness of the field. Although the arts are frequently used in combination, this section also highlights the distinct qualities of each artistic domain, which can influence wellbeing in different ways, whether through the visual pleasure of colour and form, the uplifting resonance of music, reflective meaning-making through words, exploration via role play, or expressive movement of the body.

Selected images from the book: Top left: Needlecraft (crochet) by Sophie Olson; Top right: Participants in the You Can Make Some Noise program, SONY You Can Centre, Brisbane from Chapter Seven (Music, health and wellbeing) by Genevieve Dingle and Christa Powell; Bottom left: photograph from Dance to Health, a dance programme for prevention of falls, from Chapter 9 (Dance, health and wellbeing) by Angela Pickard; Bottom right: Basavaraju and his team perform Corona-Maari across tribal hamlets (a theatre public health strategy in Chamarajanagar, India) from chapter Ten (Theatre, health and wellbeing) by Nisha Sajnani and colleagues.

Section Three: Across the Lifespan: ‘Arts and health’ practice with specific populations

This section focuses on specific populations and the way that the arts can be used to help with different issues experienced across the lifespan. This begins with perinatal mental health (where, for example, singing with babies may increase bonding) and ends with palliative care (where the arts have been used to support individuals to review their life story). It considers how the arts can be used with children and young people, adults in the workplace, adult mental health, in the context of migration, trauma, and with older adults (where there are promising outcomes relating to cognition, agency and communication). It also covers the use of the arts in the context of noncommunicable diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease and cancer) and for supporting individuals living with chronic conditions.

Images: Top left: From Chapter 12 (Creativity, arts and the mental health of young people) by Katherine Boydell and colleagues, “Creating in response to deep looking at artworks”; Top right, from Chapter 16 (The arts in the prevention and management of chronic health conditions) by Jennifer Baxley Lee and colleagues, “Painting: University of Florida Health Shands Arts in Medicine program”. Bottom left: From Chapter 13 (From the edge: using excessive arts for mental health support of forcibly displaced people) by Lydia Gitau & Caroline Hochstetter, “Bilateral Drawing with Music”. Bottom right: From Chapter 11 (Arts and perinatal mental health) by Rosie Perkins and Kate Rose Sanfilippo, Artwork from The Birth Project.

Section Four: The Arts within Allied Health and Other Professions

Here we focus on specific health and allied professions – where the arts are used within existing professional frameworks or settings. This shows the broad range of applications of the arts for health and their use in major institutions in society, including criminal justice settings, hospitals, schools, museums and by the media. We also look at the use of the arts in occupational therapy, psychiatry, public health and social prescribing (other texts exploring the use of the arts in psychotherapy in depth).

Images: Top left, from Chapter 23 (Arts in hospital) by Marion Lynch and colleagues, The Art of Healing, Lagos, Nigeria (Photo by Jochi Photography). Top right, from Chapter 20 (Arts in psychiatry and mental health research) by Kamaldeep Bhui and colleagues: Artwork from the ATTUNE programme. Bottom left, from Chapter 24 (Arts in Criminal Justice) by Laura Caulfield: Display of artwork by children from Sandwell Youth Justice Service at the Southbank Centre London as part of the Koestler Awards. Bottom right: from Chapter 24 (Arts in education) by Penny Hay, “School Without Walls”.

Section Five: Theoretical issues and perspectives

This final section reviews models and mechanisms, and looks the arts and health from different theoretical perspectives: sociology, psychology, biology and epidemiology. This section stands out as one of the most innovative in the handbook, presenting first-time overviews of key areas in arts and health and charting the field’s development. Chapters explore both theoretical perspectives and emerging insights into how and why the arts impact wellbeing, moving towards a deeper, process-level understanding. In addition to theory, this section highlights practical developments essential for advancing the field, supporting effective, ethical practice and best practice, alongside rigorous and equitable evaluation and research.

Conclusions

The arts and health is a burgeoning field, with lots of work to do, conflicting positions (e.g., advocacy and critique) and interdisciplinary perspectives to navigate. We hope that this collection of works represents this complexity and develops shared understanding of different assumptions, methods, and approaches. Gaps, debates and issues for further research are discussed in the book’s conclusion. For example, there is a need for more consideration of the limits and potential risks of the arts. Not all activities are beneficial for everyone, some may increase stress, provoke anxiety, or fail to communicate health messages effectively. Music or other creative interventions can sometimes heighten sadness or rumination, and social factors such as difficult group dynamics can make experiences negative. For this reason, arts-based interventions need to be used thoughtfully and ethically, supported by research and careful evaluation. Transparent reporting, including negative or null findings, helps identify what works, for whom, and in which contexts, ensuring the arts are applied safely and effectively to support health and wellbeing.

We hope that the handbook supports and encourages both the use of the arts for health and critical reflection on the field and will be useful for practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and students.

Links to the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Health