Artists’ Care research collaboration findings: Supporting artists in challenging and complex settings

The Artists’ Care project is funded by Arts Council England, the Lightbulb Trust’s ‘Greenlight Project’ fund, and Research England, and is a collaboration with three partner organisations who provide music and creative arts projects in challenging and complex settings – Irene Taylor Trust, Good Vibrations and Hear Me Out, and two research organisations with specialisms in researching arts projects in such settings – the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Wolverhampton.

The Artists’ Care project arose from an awareness that for many who work in secure settings, promoting the mental health and wellbeing of those they work with may come at the cost of maintaining personal mental health and wellbeing. Despite this, there are no recognised standards and poor evidence concerning what works to support artist well-being. The research collaboration seeks to answer the following question: “How can supervision and care for those working in challenging and complex settings be structured, funded and embedded within organisational structures to ensure that artists and frontline staff are appropriately supported, maintaining the quality of their work and sustaining careers?”

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? 

Burnout is widely documented in relation to health and social care professions and has been attributed to working environment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the impact of working in settings where there is a risk of experiencing secondary trauma can lead to high attrition rates for the artistic workforce. Research has found that the quality of care provided by health and social care professionals is significantly impacted when their own health and wellbeing are at low levels.

The artistic workforce are often freelance professionals and there are challenges surrounding providing support for a geographically dispersed workforce. If artists are not able to provide their own care and support, such as through family and social networks or privately financed therapeutic care, they risk burning out and leaving the workforce. This impacts the diversity of the workforce as much as it does the quality that comes with a consistent and healthy workforce.

THE REPORT

The report published by the University of Wolverhampton presents evidence of the ways organisations and individuals seek, offer and engage in care and supervision to support artistic work in challenging and complex settings. The report provides insights into how organisational structures and governance create opportunities for providing care for staff and the lived experience of being a freelance musician.

The next stage of the project will involve the design and testing of bespoke Artists’ Care programmes to better support artist well-being. We look forward to sharing the on-going findings of the research with you as the studies progress.

Find out more and read the report here.