Thanks for visiting the Manchester Institute for Arts, Health & Social Change (the institute) website where you’ll get an idea about our aspirations and activity. Over the last couple of years we’ve all been affected in by the pandemic which has impacted on us in different ways, and while we’re certainly not out of the woods just yet, it seems that the vaccination programme being rolled out might slowly bring about some new normality. There’s been a real shift in public understanding of the ways in which culture and the arts in all their forms, might be connected to health. The artist Grayson Perry - through his Art Club - has contributed to wider conversations about the arts and our emotional and psychological health.

We produced the Manchester Declaration before the pandemic was barely imaginable, but somehow it feels more relevant than ever today. Let’s remind ourselves of that aspiration in the declaration, that in five years, ‘Greater Manchester will be a city region where the arts and culture are seen as central to the wellbeing of its diverse residents and workforce, a global leader exemplifying the very best in arts, health and social change.’ In 2021 the report for Greater Manchester Combined Authority - A Social Glue - expanded thinking about what a Creative Health City Region might look like.

These ideas are turning into real action now and on November 2nd 2022 The Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy will be launched. You can sign up to attend this free event HERE. Instigated by Julie McCarthy, the Strategic Lead: Live Well and Creative Health for Greater Manchester Combined Authority and written by Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, this report sets out a road-map to Greater Manchester becoming the first city region in the world to realise the power of creativity, culture and heritage in addressing inequities and improving the health and wellbeing of its residents. This event is a collaboration with Creative Manchester. The full report will be available HERE after the event.

The term Creative Health is by and large subsuming what we’d previously describe as ‘arts and health’ and the whole agenda is evolving - and we are all part of its evolution. So let’s re-imagine what research, action and the world might look like when driven by a collective desire and where creativity and culture are essential elements of social change.