The State of Arts and Health Policy in Australia: Current Landscape and Future Directions

The Arts Health Network NSW/ACT (AHNNA) in partnership with the ‘HArts of Care’ ‘node’ at the Sydney Policy Lab and the CREATE Centre are delighted to invite you to our upcoming policy webinar.

Expert panellists will share their current understanding of the situation, followed by an interactive Q&A session facilitated by AHNNA President and HArts of Care policy node co-lead A/Prof Claire Hooker (USYD) and Prof Katherine Boydell (Black Dog Institute).

Guest panellists:

Brigitte Uren, Program Director Arts, NSW Health Infrastructure
Hon Susan Templeman MP, Member for Macquarie and Special Envoy for the Arts
A/Prof J.R. Baker, Chair, Australian Social Prescribing Institute of Research and Education (ASPIRE)
Kerri Glasscock, Director of the Sydney Fringe, Chair of the Creative Communities Council, and will soon be joining Create NSW as Executive Director

This session will map current policy related to arts and health in Australia and propose actionable next steps for the field. Our panel will explore three critical questions:

How can we promote equitable access to arts and cultural activities that support health? Can/should we establish arts engagement as a recognised health behaviour?
What possibilities exist for reimagining funding models for arts and health initiatives?
What role does evidence play in policy development, and what types of evidence should we prioritise given current constraints?

Our ultimate goal is to identify the actionable possibilities within reach for advancing arts and cultural practice within health policy frameworks in Australia.

Photo: Elyssa Sykes-Smith, featuring art produced at drop-in body mapping workshops at One Farrer Place in Sydney. This project is a partnership between Black Dog Institute (Arts-based Knowledge Translation Lab) and DEXUS.