Creative Australia backs new arts and health initiative to strengthen community connection
Creative Australia
Creative Australia has today announced a new two-year initiative that aims to strengthen the role of the arts in health and community care, helping to improve wellbeing and support stronger, more socially connected communities.
The launch today of the Creative Health Alliance Australia coincides with National Loneliness Awareness Week (4-10 August), offering a timely and positive response to the need to reduce loneliness and strengthen social connection.
The initiative brings together partners from the Foundation for Social Health and leading researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) Justice Health Group to lay the foundations for national creative health infrastructure, delivering new tools, support structures and standards to recognise the vital role of creative practitioners in supporting individual and community wellbeing.
Creative Australia initiated the partnership in response to strong demand from the sector and growing evidence of the value of creative health.
Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette AM said:
“There is growing national and international recognition of the role the arts can play in supporting health and wellbeing. This initiative builds on that momentum, supporting the practitioners already doing this work so they can reach more people and build stronger more connected communities.”
Creative Australia Research Fellow and Manager Research Partnerships, Dr Christen Cornell said:
“Our research and sector engagement show that creative health programs are already having powerful impacts in communities across Australia, but often without the recognition and support they deserve. This initiative lays the foundations for a more coordinated and sustainable future for creative health – not as charity or enrichment, but as a core component of Australia’s public health future.”
The two-year partnership will work to deliver:
- A co-designed national quality framework for creative health.
- A practitioner-facing badge system and toolkit based on the quality framework.
- A searchable database of creative health practitioners.
- Peer mentoring, residencies, and training for creative health workers.
- A robust three-tier fundraising strategy (government, philanthropy, self-generating).
- Sustainable long-term stewardship and coalition-building across clinical, cultural, and community sectors.
Melanie Wilde, CEO of the Foundation for Social Health said:
“We’ve spent years diagnosing the problem. Now is the time to fund what works — and treat connection as essential infrastructure.
“Australia is behind and it’s time to invest in community-based, culturally relevant supports that actually work. We keep telling people to reach out. But what if there’s no one there to catch them?
“Creative Australia’s leadership support for this work is a critical first step to expanding and developing arts-based approaches as a scalable, non-clinical solution to mental distress.”
Professor Stuart Kinner from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) said:
“The latest evidence suggests that three quarters of young people experience clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety, and despite their connected digital world are some of the loneliest people in recorded history.
“However, if we can harness the talents, creativity, and hopes of our children and adolescents, we can change the world for the better. Initiatives like this represent a step towards this goal.”
As part of the Foundation for Social Health’s contribution to the Alliance, it has established a Creative Health Taskforce, led by human rights advocate Nyadol Nyuon and mental health reformer Sebastian Rosenberg. This Taskforce will work with sector leaders to address critical gaps across Australia’s arts and health infrastructure.
Media contacts:
Creative Australia
Brianna Roberts, Media Manager
Mobile: 0498 123 541
Email: [email protected]
Foundation for Social Health
Toby Halligan
Mobile: 0419 403 016
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Kath Jessop
Mobile: 0402 484 951
Email: [email protected]
More information:
What is creative health?
Creative health refers to arts-based practices that support individual and community wellbeing, grounded in evidence and delivered across diverse community health settings including education, aged care, and justice settings.
It is important to note that this project is focussed on supporting artists working in community health settings – rather than art therapy. Art therapy is a specialised field of therapy that already has established professional standards and a membership body.
About Creative Australia:
Creative Australia is the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body. We invest in and champion Australian creativity
We invest in creative people and organisations and help build audiences and markets for Australian creative work, both in Australia and internationally. Our establishing legislation, the Creative Australia Act 2023, requires us to uphold and promote freedom of expression in the arts and to support Australian arts practice that reflects the diversity of Australia. As a result, we invest in artists and organisations that represent a range of voices, perspectives and stories.
Importantly, our decision-making occurs at arm’s-length from the Australian Government minister responsible for the arts. This means that decisions on funding of artists and organisations are made independently from government.
About the Foundation for Social Health
The Foundation for Social Health (FSH) is Australia’s first organisation dedicated to addressing loneliness and advancing social connection as a public health priority. Since launching in late 2024, FSH has rapidly become a national leader in social health and creative health policy.
About Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Murdoch Children's Research Institute is the largest child health research institute in Australia committed to making discoveries and developing treatments to improve child and adolescent health in Australia and around the world. They are pioneering new treatments, trialling better vaccines and improving ways of diagnosing and helping sick babies, children and adolescents. It is one of the only research institutes in Australia to offer genetic testing to find answers for families of children with previously undiagnosed conditions.
Contact details:
Creative Australia
Brianna Roberts, Media Manager
Mobile: 0498 123 541
Email: [email protected]
Foundation for Social Health
Toby Halligan
Mobile: 0419 403 016
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Kath Jessop
Mobile: 0402 484 951
Email: [email protected]
