In summer 2020, we ran the HARP Covid-19 sprint to enable small teams to design and test socially distant arts and health activities with groups of people particularly at risk due to the pandemic.

Read more about the HARP Sprint.

By supporting arts and health organisations to design, test and prototype new ideas, the programme will help them to respond to the opportunities and challenges they face.

We will work with arts and health practitioners, health boards in Wales and artists to design, test and scale arts and health interventions that have the potential to improve people’s health and well-being and contribute to a more connected, better resourced ecosystem.

HARP will bring Y Lab’s expertise in innovation and research in public services to help address the question of how best to embed, sustain and scale the use of high quality arts interventions in healthcare, and address key health challenges across Wales.

Y Lab’s research, conducted with stakeholders in both the arts and health in 2019, indicated that innovation is needed across the whole ecosystem of arts and health, from evidence gathering to service development and changing organisational cultures. We also know that change in healthcare will be most effective and long lasting if it is driven by the people who are closest to patients (and, of course, by patients themselves), with the right support from senior leaders and a culture of collaboration.

The impact of this programme on the patients, staff and systems involved will be studied by Research Fellow, Dr Sofia Vougioukalou. The findings will be used to inform future service development for arts and health far beyond the teams and organisations involved. We see this as a project that will benefit the whole ecosystem of arts and health in Wales.