Professor Bungay will explore the potential impact of the arts on a person’s mental wellbeing and physical health.

Professor Bungay has been working in the field of Arts, Health and Wellbeing research for the past 15 years. Having started her career in the NHS as a radiographer, she was then awarded a research fellowship to undertake an NHS funded PhD at the University of Kent with research focussed on health services delivery. Later, when working as a Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, an opportunity to undertake a secondment in the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health led to a shift in direction, resulting in a passionate interest in investigating how the arts impact on people’s health and wellbeing. Her research interests encompass a range of cultural and arts activities and specifically the participatory arts and everyday creativity.

In this presentation Professor Bungay will outline her research to date specifically focussing on Arts, Health and Wellbeing and will explore the potential impact of the arts on a person’s mental wellbeing and physical health. Hilary has a MA is Health Services Research and a PhD in Social Policy, and is based in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care in ARU. Her research is applied and inherently practice focussed, and she actively embraces an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, working across professional disciplines with health and arts practitioners alike. To date her research and evaluations have been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). She has published widely in a range of international journals with her work featuring in the influential Creative Health Report and the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the evidence base for Arts and Health.