Wales and Greece Put Arts at the Center of Health Policy
Two governments are moving the arts closer to the clinic. In Wales, the new culture and sports minister, Heledd Fychan, has said she wants arts and health programs funded by the Arts Council of Wales to be embedded in the NHS. In Greece, cultural prescription is no longer an experiment at the margins: it has been folded into national healthcare policy.
Fychan, appointed after Plaid Cymru’s victory in the Senedd elections in May, told BBC’s Politics Wales that she wants creative health to become part of the Welsh health system. A Welsh government spokesperson said the administration will commission a review of investment in culture, the arts and sport under its First 100 Days plan, with the aim of informing a gradual increase in spending tied to a broader shift toward preventative health and wellbeing activity across government.
Wales is not starting from scratch. The Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh NHS Confederation signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017 to share research and shape policy around the health benefits of the arts. Since 2022-23, the Arts Council says it has invested £6.8 million in grants in the arts and health space. The two bodies are now working on recommendations for the new government.
Greece has gone further. Its cultural prescription scheme, embedded within Greece 2.0, the country’s national recovery and resilience strategy, is now statutory policy. Health professionals can recommend arts-based activities for people living with depression, anxiety and related conditions, directing them to galleries, theaters and community arts spaces as part of mental-health support.
The shift reflects a wider policy turn in the UK and beyond. Stephen Stapleton, co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, said that as the NHS moves toward prevention and community-based care, the arts are well placed to play a larger role in health-system reform across the four UK nations. In June, the lab launched the second edition of Healing Arts Scotland and the first citywide Healing Arts campaign in England, Healing Arts Birmingham, with events at Birmingham Symphony Hall and Ikon Gallery.
That Birmingham program also marked the launch of UK Arts & Health: The Time is Now, a national policy brief developed after an April parliamentary roundtable at the House of Commons. The gathering brought together policymakers, clinicians, researchers, cultural organizations and artists to examine how creative practice can support public health.
The policy case is also being strengthened by research. Studies by Daisy Fancourt at University College London have found that arts engagement, including museum visits, can reduce symptoms of depression. For governments looking to move from treatment to prevention, the arts are increasingly being treated not as an accessory to care, but as part of its infrastructure.
