2020 was our first year of funding Arts and Mental Health. Examples of what we have funded so far, include:
- grants to 87 organisations who specialise in working engaging people with mental problems in arts and creativity
- 37 grants to support participatory artists from Global Majority communities in arts and mental health
- 32 grants to support more men to engage in creative mental health
- a joint programme with the Arts Council of Wales to support arts and mental health in the seven NHS health boards.
Over the long-term we know that:
- this programme will run for at least five years across the UK with over £1 million available each year
- the opportunities available each year are likely to vary as we intend to collaborate with other funders to develop and extend the programme
- the major focus of the programme will be on participatory art, where trained artists work with people without their training to develop their creative skills.
All funding rounds will be announced on this website and you can keep up-to-date by signing up for our Arts newsletter.
This programme is supported by two Arts Advisers, Sabra Khan and Daniel Regan. Sabra is the producer of the BEDLAM Arts & Mental Health Festival and the Executive Director of Sampad South Asian Arts. Daniel is the founder of the Arts & Health Hub network, and a photographic artist.
From 2010 until the end of 2019 our Arts programme funded Arts & Older People, making grants of around £6 million and leveraging a similar amount in match-funding through partnerships with other funders including all four Arts Councils in the UK. If you would like to know more about this funding, King’s College London published a wide-ranging review of the development of the creative ageing sector at the end of 2019 called Older and Wiser? You can also explore our funded projects database or read our case studies.
We also have a small number of ongoing commitments in the creative ageing sector – more about these here.