Head of Digital at London Arts and Health Anna Woolf spoke to Artist, Facilitator, Producer and Consultant Daniel Regan. Daniel is also the Director at the Arts & Health Hub, a London based not-for-profit organisation supporting artists & cultural producers in the arts and health sector to be the best they can be.
At Arts & Health Hub, Daniel and his team run events and workshops, offer peer support, commission creatives & manage an online community of likeminded artists.
Later this month, Daniel alongside artist Eve Loren will be hosting a collaborative conversation workshop between artists and health professionals in the hope of sparking new connections, conversations and opportunities between the two sectors. We spoke to Daniel to find out a little bit more about this exciting event.
Daniel, can you tell us a little bit more about your background in arts, health, creativity and wellbeing?
My background in the arts starts with my own experiences of living with mental health difficulties, starting in my early teens. I discovered how powerful and life-changing photography had become for me as a way of processing difficult experiences. Over the last 15 years I’ve been working across the arts & health sector as a freelance artist and in leadership roles across two organisations. I spent 5 years as the Director of an arts and health charity in the NHS, alongside running my own non-profit, the Arts & Health Hub.
How did the collaboration between Arts and Health Hub, Eve Loren and Southbank Centre come about?
In the midst of the pandemic the Southbank Centre’s Creative Learning team and I met to discuss potentially working together, given our shared interests in arts and health. Whilst we were individually responding to the pandemic through emergency creative projects, our collaboration ideas had to be parked. When reconnecting we were all acutely aware of how important those connections can be between the sectors, with artists meeting healthcare workers etc and vice versa. Eve Loren has been working with us at the Hub as a creative producer across a number of our artist support projects and is a fantastic facilitator and artist in her own right. Eve’s ideas and experiences raise important questions around collaborations, co-production, partnerships and power dynamics.
Do you think the pandemic has made people want to work in creative partnerships even more so, particularly after long periods of being locked down?
The artists we support are often reporting high levels of isolation, particular across the duration of the pandemic. It’s been hard for people to connect with a lack of events and discovering new ways of working and meeting people. Many of our artists are exploring health (including their own lived experiences) that would benefit from the fascinating partnerships that can come out of working collaboratively with healthcare workers, researchers, academics and scientists.
What excites you most about the potential of the event?
The potential to inspire participants across both sectors, with the opportunity to catalyse real connections and partnerships.
Finally, if people aren’t able to access the event, how might the partnerships and/or findings be disseminated afterwards?
We’ll be documenting the event and writing up our shared learning that will be published over on our blog, so even if you can’t make it, you’ll be getting an overview of the insights of those in the room.
We wish Daniel the best of luck with this brilliant event, let us know if you attend and would like to write something about your experience.
