Dr Claire Hooker

As I wrap up my final year as President of the Arts Health Network NSW/ACT, I’m filled with gratitude and pride. I’ve really felt that this year has been transformative for AHNNA, in part because we’ve worked across the whole sector for our common goals.

Creating Impact

At the risk of corporate-speak creeping into this article, I can say that we’ve really extended our reach and our effectiveness in 2025. A lot of this came from dedicated behind the scenes work: we’ve completely overhauled our website, our operations, the way we run events, our communications systems. That’s meant we’ve doubled our membership and our income, which in turn means that we can do more work for our members.

Our national policy webinar in June drew 225 registrations, to hear Special Envoy for the Arts the Hon Susan Templeman MP, the Australian Health Infrastructure Alliance/ NSW Arts and Health Lead Brigette Uren, the incoming Executive Director of CREATE NSW Kerri Glasscock, and Director of ASPIRE A/Prof J R Baker, discuss policy directions for Arts and Health. You can find the recording on the CREATE Centre YouTube channel.

We’ve continued to promote our Profiles project – with 15 new member Profiles shortly to hit our website! We’ve partnered with SPHERE to support a series of practice exchanges through their Lunch and Learn program. And we continue to discuss extensions of The Cad Factory’s mini mentorships program.

Building the Future: Arts and Health
Our flagship event on September 26 was a standout day that attracted over 160 online attendees, 115 in-person participants (from around Australia, too), and an additional 40 livestream viewers from South Australia. The energy was uplifting, the conversations rich and thoughtful, and often difficult – as they should be. These conversations really served to underscore for me how important our mission to share knowledge and connect the sector and enable grass roots conversations about the issues that matter to us, continues to be.

What’s next? That’s up to our new Executive team, who we can’t wait to introduce you to! Ideas include meetings and collaborations where we work together – maybe to co-develop creative videos for our Profiles, or to share our practice; extending mini mentorships to health professionals who would like to learn how to access and incorporate the arts into their practice; and capitalising on our strengths and role to continue to voice our concerns and hopes at a national level.

Last But Not Least – Thank You
To our Executive Committee, our volunteers, and every member of this incredible sector: thank you. Your commitment, creativity, and generosity have made these achievements possible. Everyone in this Network is quite extraordinary, and Network allows us to see and benefit from this. It is the greatest privilege of my life to have your trust and to have served you in some way.

Slogan for 2026: “Together, We Make It Happen.”
Join us, stay connected, and help shape the next chapter of arts and health. Whether through membership, volunteering, or sharing your expertise, your involvement matters.

See you in 2026,

Claire Hooker

AHNNA President 2025

 

Images: AHNNA

Written by Dr Claire Hooker and posted by Elyssa Sykes-Smith

  • Dr Claire Hooker is Senior Lecturer, Health and Medical Humanities; Director, Bioethics program, Sydney Health Ethics, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
  • Elyssa Sykes-Smith is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and climate psychology researcher, and Media Officer at AHNNA.