We are delighted that David Shrigley OBE is our very first Patron of the National Centre for Creative Health. David Shrigley (1968) is a renowned British contemporary artist whose work revels in the absurd. Through drawing, sculpture, animation, and installation, he captures the strange, the awkward, and the darkly funny in everyday life.
In 2016, David attended a roundtable in the Houses of Parliament to hear the stories of people who had experienced ill-health and had found that being creative helped them. In response, David made a series of illustrations which were included in the short report Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing .
In 2020 David established Sidmouth School of Art in Devon which uses creativity as a catalyst to help people embrace lifelong learning, develop talents and skills and strengthen their health and wellbeing. You can hear David talk about the importance of the arts for our health and wellbeing here.
In 2023 David illustrated a book by Richard Layard titled Wellbeing: Science and Policy
David’s illustrations were adapted for the covers of the 2023 report Creative Health Review: How Policy Can Embrace Creative Health which makes recommendations to government for a cross-departmental creative health strategy.
Image of David Shrigley photo © Pål Hansen 2025
