Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland (ACHWS) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) providing information and support for anyone working across arts and culture, health and wellbeing in Scotland.
Building on extensive evidence and research, we advocate that the arts can provide enormous benefit to our health and wellbeing, both for specific patient populations in healthcare settings and through integrating culture into our everyday lives.
Our main focus is to create a network of experience and expertise that is open for anyone to join, including artists, organisations, healthcare providers and researchers, and we take a broad understanding of both the arts and health. Accordingly, we seek to connect research, policy and practice, and to be a collective voice for arts and health in Scotland. We do this through running regular meetings and events, providing resources, and supporting professional development, as well as a range of other activities.
To join up, and subscribe to our mailing list, click here.
Current ACHWS Board Members are:
- Lucy Casot, CEO, Museums Gallery Scotland [Treasurer]
- Anne Crandles, Community Link Worker Network Manager, NHS Lothian
- Chris Fremantle, Cultural Producer, Lecturer and Researcher
- Robbie McGhee, Associate Director, Art in Hospital [Chair]
- Barabara Gulliver, Artistic Director, Art in Hospital
- Chris Kelly, Projects Coordinator, Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust
- Len McCaffer, Arts Officer West Lothian Council
- Fiona O'Sullivan, Deputy Director of Children's Wellbeing, ECHC
- Claire Stevens, CEO, Voluntary Health Scotland [Secretary]
- Jan-Bert van den Berg, Director, Artlink Edinburgh
- Katey Warran, Research Fellow in Social Science, MARCH Network
ACHWS is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation no. SC050848. Our constitution can be found here.