'Where Art meets Health' - Symposium / Panel Discussion

Birmingham School of Arts presents ‘Where Art meets Health’ - a symposium that brings together diverse art & design practitioners, all working at the interface with health. With panellists from differing backgrounds offering varied perspectives this will facilitate a lively discussion with critical corners. Each panellist will in their 5min address pose, and shed light on, a central question which, in turn, becomes a prompt for the panel discussion that follows.

Invited panellists and their central questions:

Regan McDonald is a Public Health Research Officer leading on Ikon Gallery’s Creative Health programme in collaboration with Birmingham City Council Public Health. Through partnerships with Birmingham’s universities, libraries, health spaces and prisons, he is working to develop an evidence base for, and bring community-led research on arts and health, to the forefront of gallery practice. McDonald has recently co-curated  What are the Odds? Ikon Creative Health. 
Question: What does ‘good’ look like when curating an exhibition where art and health meet?

Jaskrit Dhaliwal-Boora is a visual artist with a socially engaged practice, working with communities on global issues. She is interested in celebrating underrepresented stories while examining visual representations of gender, ethnicity and place. Her practice highlights how creativity can positively impact health and wellbeing, as seen in Fractured Landscapes and how we heal,  her current exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Question: How can the intersections of nature, creativity, and recovery help us heal from trauma?

Dr. Pamela Whitaker is a researcher and lecturer in Art Psychotherapy at Belfast School of Art. She specialises in creative and cultural health, ecologies of care and promoting environmental assets for health promotion. 

Question: How does public practice art therapy inform creative health?

Stephen Stapleton launched Healing Arts in 2020 in collaboration with the World Health Organization to support an art-world response to the pandemic; and in 2023, co-founded the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, to measurably improve health and wellbeing through the arts at a global scale. He is interested in an artist-led model which bridges cultures as well as promoting healing , empowering artists to bring their ideas from the edge of society to its centre. 

Question: Why include health and wellbeing as a pillar of 21st century arts education?

Jason Bruges is a multidisciplinary artist and designer, based In London. Since 2021, he has been Visiting Professor to Birmingham School of Arts. His studio creates interactive, technology driven artworks for the built environment including transport and healthcare settings, amongst others. Using a mixed-media palette, his artworks bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to the everyday experience, with a focus on restoring calm and wellbeing in urban spaces. 

Question: How can we create a sense of wonder and awe in healthcare settings to help reduce anxiety and promote healing?