Arts and Health Research Group

The long-running Sleep Through series, commissioned by the ABC, was developed by composer Arts and Health Research Group member Dr. Adam Hulbert to support sleep for infants, and is broadcast nightly on ABC Kids Listen. Honours student, Lucy Weng (EML), investigated the reception and application of this series. The group continues to explore both onsite and online applications of sound design for health, currently working with the Sydney Children’s Hospital to develop sensory spaces and, using the UNSW studios and expertise, to facilitate the patient-led Youth and Transition podcast to encourage peer support through co-design. 

Going to the cinema is a familiar activity across the lifespan and across generations, but our cinemas are not always accessible or welcoming places for people living with dementia.  A Day at the Movies: a dementia friendly film program for cinema lovers is a three-year project designed and led by Associate Professor Jodi Brooks (UNSW, Arts & Health Research Group), with project partners Dr Fincina Hopgood (University of New England) and audience development expert Karina Libbey.  

In this project funded by the ACT Government (2024-2027), Jodi Brooks and team have been creating dementia-friendly screening events and programs in Canberra with venue partner the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).  

The project is a national first and follows from a successful pilot dementia-friendly screening event that Jodi and team created for the NFSA in 2022 (an initiative supported by the ACT Government). Developed through extensive consultation and collaboration with service providers and community groups and informed by research in dementia-friendly design, the project provides opportunities for people living with dementia to enjoy a familiar social activity and connect with community, friends, family, and self. By supporting greater social inclusion for people living with dementia, this project helps counter some of the psychosocial impacts of the disease and de-stigmatise dementia by building awareness, skills, and capacity in some of our cultural organisations and local businesses. In so doing, it helps build a more inclusive and accessible screen culture.  

Youth arts are often overlooked as driving innovators of experimental arts practices in the country. COVID-19 saw rapid transformation but little attention paid to the unique role of youth arts in both serving communities of young people and developing digital and hybrid arts practices that have ongoing leverage and impact. Beyond the Digital Pivot: Imagined Futures in Digital Youth Arts Practices builds on the findings of a 2021-2022 pilot partnership between Australian Theatre for Young People, Shopfront Arts, Q Theatre and Theatre Network NSW, to investigate ongoing innovations in form, bespoke digital delivery knowledges, increased and diversified access, and interregional and international collaborations in art-making with and for young people. 

ARC Discovery Project: Future Stories is a new arts and health initiative that explores the use of co-designed virtual reality (VR) experiences with young people (12-21) undergoing hospital treatment in oncology and palliative care in a Children’s Hospital setting. The project involves a bespoke, patient-centred and creative approach facilitated by two artists-in-residence who work bedside with young people to co-design their own VR worlds. 

The Festival of Care was a collaborative arts and wellbeing initiative designed to support healthcare staff’s mental health and resilience. While arts-based recovery programs have traditionally focused on patients, this project shifts attention to those who provide care, embedding creativity and reflection into the daily culture of hospitals. Working in partnership with the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (across the St George, Sutherland, and Randwick campuses) and the Queensland Children’s Hospital, the Festival of Care delivers arts-based interventions that foster connection, communication, and renewal among staff. Developed through collaboration between artists, wellbeing specialists, and hospital teams, these programs are designed to be accessible, inclusive, and sustainable.

By integrating creative practices into the rhythms of healthcare workplaces, the Festival of Care demonstrates how the arts can play a vital and ongoing role in supporting those who care for others. 

Music can comfort and heal without requiring visual attention.  The Empirical Musicology Laboratory (EML) at UNSW was established in 2004 and has produced mounting evidence of when and where music can enhance people’s lives.  The philosophy that draws the members of EML together is that to understand music (1) it must be studied with the idea that it is listened to via the mind rather than an object that can be understood in isolation from mental processing and (2) a variety of methods should be embraced, rather than the contemplations of the lone expert.  Methods adopted by EML often gather data from listeners, performers, or composers using experimental designs and surveys and statistical analysis techniques.  EML has made important contributions to understanding the role of music in dementia, sleep, depression and anxiety. 

The Research Group are part of a community of practice with The Big Anxiety Research Centre (BARC), a unique transdisciplinary enterprise dedicated to transforming thinking and practice in mental health through creative collaboration and cultural innovation. BARC research lived experience through a distinctive combination of trauma-informed, psychosocial research and creative practice, developing the rich communications and engagement practices we need to understand, connect with, and support everyday experiences of mental health, trauma and suicidality. 

Arts-based recovery or wellbeing therapies have often been used for patient care; this project seeks to establish ways to embed arts-based care for staff in health facilities in a long-term and sustainable way. The project collaborates with South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) to enhance the well-being of staff in the health facilities across three campuses: St George, Sutherland, and Randwick.