A report and briefing from What Works Centre for Wellbeing reviewing evidence on the effect of place-based arts on wellbeing.
In August 2022, The What Works Centre for Wellbeing received a research contract from Spirit of 2012 to carry out a review of evidence for the wellbeing value of arts and culture interventions in place-based cultural events and mega-events.
The research brings together a series of high-quality evidence and resources concerned with understanding the impact of arts and culture interventions on people and places, such as in Coventry where What Works Centre for Wellbeing has been advising on the evaluation of their City of Culture.
The work, done in partnership with the Institute of Cultural Capital and match funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will support policy workers and practitioners as well as those funding and delivering arts and culture interventions to maximise wellbeing impacts.
Key findings
The included studies fall all under three key themes: Museum, Community and Cultural event.
We found high-quality evidence on the positive effects of targeted museum-based interventions. Specifically, interventions with a volunteering or social prescribing component. These lead to improvements in subjective and mental wellbeing for people with low wellbeing, particularly when they:
We found that increased cultural participation through mega-events leads to:
For a more detailed selection of relevant findings that have the potential to move the evidence base forward, explore What Works Centre for Wellbeing’s briefing.
For an exhaustive discussion of findings, explore the What Works Centre for Wellbeing’s report.
The What Works Centre for Wellbeing has received a research contract from Spirit of 2012 to carry out a review of evidence for the wellbeing value of arts and culture…