Creative Wellbeing: the role of the arts in promoting health and wellbeing and lifelong learning
Channel: SERA - Scottish Educational Research Association
Date: 2021-05-01

Speakers: Dr Brianna Robertson- Kirkland, Dr Bethany Whiteside, Dr Rachel Drury, Dr Angela Jaap (Chair)

Who is this online seminar for:  Teachers, school leaders, local authority staff, teacher educators, researchers and policy-makers

Seminar Overview

In a collaboration between the Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) and the RCS Research Knowledge Exchange, we are delighted to share some current research of colleagues at RCS on the importance of the arts for promoting health and wellbeing and lifelong learning. This seminar will provide short inputs from three speakers to initiate discussion.

Speaker 1: Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland

Singing for Health and Wellbeing: Scotland’s Singing for Health Network

Across Scotland, there are a range of projects which promote Singing for Health and Wellbeing. Projects such as the Cheyne Gang and Givin’ it Laldie use singing as a medium to help address issues of poverty, social isolation and poor health. While these initiatives, groups, and practitioners are passionate about singing for health, many are working in isolation with little opportunity to share their knowledge or practice with others.

This presentation will share the groundwork of a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded project, Scotland’s Singing for Health Network, which is designed to provide a space for singing practitioners and researchers to come together to share knowledge, ideas and practice. It will also outline the need for this kind of network and how the planned project outputs can be used by nurses, GPs, link workers, musicians, teachers, and anyone in the community, to learn more about how singing can be used to support health and wellbeing.

Speaker 2: Dr Bethany Whiteside

Autonomy, Collaboration, Creativity and Dignity: Evaluating Scottish Ballet’s Three-Year Dementia-Friendly Programme

Guided by the thematic framework presented in the title above, this presentation will focus both on the evaluation approach adopted (methods and means of communication drawn upon) and key findings centred on the dance and dancer centred nature of Scottish Ballet’s programme, ‘Time to Dance.’

Speaker 3: Dr Rachel Drury

Exploring the benefits of collaborative song-writing for families

Chamber Music Scotland’s Coorie Doon project works with families to help them write a song for and/or with their child. The project has been running since 2015 during which time artists have worked with North Edinburgh Pregnancy Café, Rachel House Children’s Hospice, Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children NICU and Renfrewshire Council. This presentation will explore the wider benefits in relation to health and wellbeing of Coorie Doon as a cross-disciplinary (music and creative writing) arts-based project and will consider the impact on the families and artists involved.