In September 2026, Creative Communities Policy Lead Helen Apsey took part in the Cynefin Co-Lab Policy Network event ‘How can the arts contribute to ill health prevention’, hosted at The Point in Neath Port Talbot, in Wales.
Cynefin is one of the AHRC Creative Communities Co-Lab Policy Network Awards, which create new capacity for cross-sector collaborative exchange of policy ideas relating to culture and devolution. Cynefin explores how placing the arts and culture as a frontline public service could effect a step-change for public health in Wales.
The Cynefin event focused on the enablers and barriers to creative ill health prevention, and the impact creativity has on people’s lives, health and wellbeing.
It was chaired by Rosie Dow, Head of Arts, Health and Wellbeing at Arts Council Wales, with an inspiring range of speakers, including Nerys Evans, Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health, and Hamaad Khan, International Development Associate at the National Academy for Social Prescribing, as well as case studies and panel discussions with creative and cross-sector stakeholders on the contribution of arts and creativity to the prevention of ill health.
Participants also took part in an interactive prevention workshop, to help shape policy recommendations with Rob Ashelford, founder of newydd. It enabled them to work together to co-create potential healthcare prevention approaches, considering the key role that culture can play in these across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare interventions.
Cynefin is jointly delivered by Public Health Wales, Wales Arts Health & Wellbeing Network, Arts Council of Wales, The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, and funded by the AHRC Creative Communities programme hosted at Northumbria University.
Watch recorded highlights from the event online now.
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