About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

The Arts & Culture Finance team explored how organisations in their portfolio and beyond are using art and culture to achieve health outcomes for their communities

Arts & Culture can have a profound impact on our health and wellbeing, with the pandemic throwing into sharp relief how much we rely on creative expression and connection in order to feel good. The Arts & Culture Finance team explored how different organisations are working with the health sector and different types of beneficiaries, the opportunities they’ve embraced and the challenges they have had to overcome from a business and investment perspective.

They were joined by Victoria Hume, Director of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance and Thomas Hardy, Learning & Participation Director at Saffron Hall who has been leading on Together in Sound – a music therapy project for people living with dementia.

Topics covered included:

  • The different routes in to working with the health sector
  • How to measure impact with care for the participants
  • The policy landscape
  • How social investment can play a role in supporting creative social enterprises

Speakers

Victoria Hume

Victoria Hume is Director of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance. She is a composer, researcher and project manager specialising in culture, health and wellbeing, and was an arts manager for the NHS for 15 years. Victoria also worked in South Africa for some years, establishing a module in hospital-based performance for the University of the Witwatersrand and receiving a distinction for a Masters in Music and Health Communication focused on hospital-induced delirium. She is a Research Associate in the Medical Humanities at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social & Economic Research), working with the Medical & Health Humanities Africa Network.

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy is Learning and Participation Director at Saffron Hall Trust and has responsibility for a wide ranging programme of work across schools and communities, including Together in Sound – a music therapy project for people living with dementia and their companions run in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University. Thomas is an arts education professional with over 20 years’ experience in the sector including at the Barbican, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Sadler’s Wells.

Part of
Figurative