We are delighted to share that AHNNA will host the Australian launch of Professor Daisy Fancourt’s much‑anticipated new book, Art Cure, in a special webinar this Thursday 26 February at 6.15pm. Professor Fancourt has been a leading voice in the arts and health sector for over a decade, recognised internationally for pioneering work that bridges creative practice, public health, neuroscience and social research. This book points to a tipping point in how arts, health and wellbeing are being embraced globally.

Art Cure is an inspiring, meticulously researched and transformative book.  As readers would expect, Fancourt synthesises decades of research demonstrating the impacts of the arts on mental health, pain, immunity, longevity and social connection. Readers who would like to identify the evidence in relation to a myriad of arts benefits, will find the many pages of curated references of use and will discover surprising facts along the way! But the book is equally full of compelling case studies and stories alongside powerful arguments for how the arts are essential to public health, as well as to individual wellbeing.

Art Cure also thoughtfully addresses questions that have long engaged our sector: what counts as evidence, how different forms of evidence matter, how research can genuinely support artist‑practitioners, the circumstances in which arts and health approaches may not work—or can even cause harm—and how we can better understand and advocate for equity in access to arts and cultural practice and within our sector itself.

AHNNA is privileged to partner with the CREATE Centre and the HArts of Care Sydney Policy Lab node at the University of Sydney to host this Australian launch. Participants will hear directly from Daisy about the book’s insights and its implications for the future of creative health, along with our panel, AHNNA President Dr Barbara Doran, leading dance practitioner Diane Busuttil from Creative Caring, and CREATE Centre Associate Director Wellbeing, A/Prof Claire Hooker. Audience questions will be welcome. It’s free to attend but registrations are essential.

Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/webinar-66-or-daisy-fancourt-art-cure-book-launch

We hope you can join us.

If you’re unable to attend the webinar or would like to explore Art Cure further, we recommend reading our earlier interview with Professor Daisy Fancourt, conducted by AHNNA Media Officer Elyssa Sykes-Smith. The conversation offers deeper insight into the ideas behind the book and the future of arts and health.

Image credit: Art Cure, Prof. Daisy Fancourt.

Written by A/Prof Claire Hooker.

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 researcher, and Media Officer at AHNNA