Research helps arts in health move forward. More than thirty years of international evidence suggests that art can contribute to health and well-being. Dutch researchers are contributing to that body of knowledge and bringing it into practice, policy, and education
What arts in health research looks like
Arts in health is studied from several scientific traditions.
Life sciences research asks what art does for health. For instance, what live music means to a patient recovering from surgery, or what creative movement can offer someone living with dementia.
Social sciences research asks what arts in health means in people's lives. How does a group museum visit shape the way someone with chronic pain experiences that pain? What does joining a choir do for people living with dementia, and for those who care for them?
Humanities research focuses on reflection and meaning, for example: the role of the artist in care; questions of ethics and aesthetics; and what it means to make art when you are ill or caring for someone you love.
What is already happening
In 2024, the long-term care provider organisation Cordaan, with the Museum van de Geest, funded a chair of arts in health at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management. Later that year, another appointment was established at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, focused on Arts & Wellbeing.
Researchers across the Netherlands are working on a national research agenda for the coming decade. The questions driving it: how can programmes survive beyond an initial project phase? How do you make effects visible? And what does arts in health mean for healthcare staff and medical education?
Research in this field is supported by ZonMw, the SPRONG Creating Cultures of Care project, the Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie, Lang Leve Kunst, and Welzijn op Recept.
For researchers
Are you a researcher? Connect with what is already happening in your field, and outside your discipline. Can your expertise catake an existing question further, or open up a new one? Collaborating across disciplines, and connecting research and practice, can make for a richer body of research.
Read more and get involved
A great deal is published internationally on arts in gealth. These resources can help you explore the field further:
- Books about arts in health
- Academical journals
- Pilot: meet artists in the hospital
- Rapport: next steps in arts in health-network
- Interview: Evidence for the arts in UK public health
- News clip: role of the arts in health
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