Celebrating Creative Health
On Wednesday 20 May 2026, King’s College London and the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) hosted the event Celebrating Creative Health held in honour of the Rt Hon. Lord Howarth of Newport CBE.
If you were unable to join us, you can zoom in on the wonderful illustration by Dr Pen Mendonça to find out about some of the themes that were discussed. You can read the keynote speech by NCCH Patron, Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey OBE, here. She was then 'in conversation’ with William Sieghart CBE about poetry and health. This was followed by a panel discussion in which NCCH trustee, Dr Guddi Singh, gave an inspiring talk on Should creativity be promoted as a health behaviour and if so how can we best encourage the public to engage? which can be read in full here.
The panel discussion included contributions from NCCH Patron, Dr Phil Hammond and the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health, Dr Simon Opher MP.
Further Information
The Rt Hon. Lord Howarth of Newport CBE was the founding Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing from 2014 to 2024 and the founding Chair of NCCH from 2020 to 2024. Lord Howarth's book, Begun, Continued: A Personal and Political Memoir, chronicling fifty years of politics, activism and creative health in which he had been engaged during his lifetime, is now available as an eBook or as a paperback via Waterstones.
A huge thank you to our partners, to King’s College London for hosting us and providing the refreshments. King’s College London was a research lead in the APPG’s two-year inquiry (2015–2017), Creative Health: the Arts for Health and Wellbeing. The launch of the Creative Health Review in 2023 was hosted by King’s College London at the Science Gallery London.
Thank you also to Creativity & Wellbeing Week partners, the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and London Arts and Health, for supporting us and enabling the Big Issue to be sold. You can still buy a copy, with our Patron David Shrigley's illustration on the cover 'Extract the Juice from Everything'.
