Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2026: events commission

Our national festival of Creative Health: Creativity and Wellbeing Week takes place from the 18th – 24th May 2026 and is an amazing platform to champion and celebrate creative health across the country. The festival is a partnership between London Arts and Health and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance.

This year our festival theme is “Critical Hope” (for acute times).

“Critical hope” reflects the ability to realistically assess the environment through a lens of equity and justice while also envisioning the possibility of a better future. Championed as an idea by Paulo Freire, “critical hope” is an active, necessary, and realistic, rather than passive or naive, stance against oppression and despair, deeply rooted in his work Pedagogy of Hope.

Our commission seeks applications from anyone working across the intersections of climate change, mental health, creativity, culture, health and wellbeing. How can we hold onto critical hope in our creative health work, whilst also acknowledging the difficult times we all face?

We are looking to fund six (6) events put on by anyone across the field of creative health looking to elevate their work during Creativity and Wellbeing Week, through the lens of “Critical Hope”.

Commissions are worth £750 and we are seeking to commission six (6):