The Place of Creativity in Public Health: Perspectives from DPH
The Place of Creativity in Public Health: Perspectives from Directors of Public Health
In September 2024, we hosted two roundtable discussions exploring The Place of Creativity in Public Health; the first of which featured Directors of Public Health (DPH). The event came about in response to two of our Creative Health Champions – Justin Varney and Matthew Pearce – calling for our Midlands Creative Health Associate to support more focus on Creative Public Health at NCCH. Since this conversation, five more Directors of Public Health have joined the NCCH Champions Network, and two others have connected to our work. This signals a movement towards Creative Public Health leadership in the Midlands, which we hope will continue to grow over the coming years.
Opening Performance - Bollyqueer
Opening our event, was a trio of dancers from Bollyqueer – a dance group for LGBTQIA+ people, which removes the unnecessary gender restrictions of Bollywood dancing to make it more inclusive of this gender-expressive community. A Creative Health service at heart, Bollyqueer helps LGBTQIA+ people to experience the joys of this popular South-Asian dance form, without sacrificing aspects of their identity or their safety in the process.
Bollyqueer was founded by Leicester-born creative, Vinay Jobanputra. The classes run regularly in Birmingham and London, with guest spots appearing elsewhere around the UK. You can watch their opening performance below:
Roundtable Discussion - Directors of Public Health
Chairing our panel on Creative Public Health was Ivan Browne, Professor of Public Health at De Montfort University and Associate Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Ivan was previously the Director of Public Health for Leicester City Council, which meant that alongside his charisma and well posed questions, he was able to offer valuable insights of his own.
Joining him was Justin Varney, who was the Director of Public Health for Birmingham City Council at the point of recording. Justin is known across the field of Public Health for his dedication to the arts and for spearheading one of the first Creative Public Health programmes within Local Authority. During his leadership, Birmingham City Council have created Public Health Researcher posts within four Cultural Institutions, enabling the development of quality evidence of Creative Public Health and better community engagement. Moreover, the city is one of the first to be developing a dedicated Creative Health Strategy. For readers who are interested in developing their own Creative Health strategy or incorporating Creative Health into existing policy, you can join one of NCCH’s webinars of Developing Creative Health Strategies. Justin has recently become the Regional Director of Public Health for the South-West region.
Another Creative Health Champion who joined us on the panel was Stephen Gunther, Director of Public Health for Stoke-on-Trent. Stephen joined our network this year and is interested in incorporating Creative Health activities and approaches into his plans for Stoke-on-Trent’s 100-year anniversary in 2025. Alongside this, Stephen has been leading the advocacy for a Creative Health Research Network, which motivated the inclusion of our second panel on the day. His Public Health Consultant, Padmanabhan Badrinath, has helped to facilitate Creative Health Lunch and Learns across Stoke-on-Trent Council and is supporting the development of research partnerships.
The final panellist joining us in discussion was Laura French, Consultant in Public Health at Leicester City Council. Laura kindly came on behalf of our newest Creative Health Champion, Rob Howard, who is Director of Public Health for Leicester City Council. Both Rob and Laura are keen music enthusiasts, and this is likely to be one of the areas of focus in their future work in Creative Health. Additionally, Rob is interested in the indirect benefits of creativity, such as bringing people together to reduce isolation, and reaching people with health messages that are more relevant, culturally sensitive and meaningful.
To view their discussion in full, click on the video below:
The second roundtable of ‘The Place of Creativity in Public Health’ which featured researchers from across the Midlands can be accessed here >>
About the Midlands Roundtable Series
The ‘The Place of Creativity in Public Health’ roundtable was the third of a four-part series of roundtable discussion events showcasing Creative Health leadership in the Midlands and beyond.
To access other event recordings in the series, please visit the NCCH website at www.ncch.org.uk/news and scroll down to our blogs section.
Or visit and subscribe to our dedicated NCCH YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/@nationalcentreforcreativeh3512/playlists
These events and blog records have be organised and written by the Midlands Creative Health Associate, Jane Hearst. To discuss work happening in the Midlands region, email: jane@ncch.org.uk
