Engaging with science in arts and health practice Meroë Candy, Senior Arts Advisor Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust The Wellcome The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in health by supporting the brightest minds.

Wellcome Trust Arts Awards “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” James Baldwin

Benefits for patients Knowledge and understanding Confidence and empowerment Making the link between research and practice Enabling their voice to be heard

Benefits for professionals Insight “Artists and psychologists think about the same concerns: people, perception, meaning, language, concepts, experience and culture and what that tells us about people. Working with artists has fundamentally changed my thinking about these things.” “The arts provides a different perspective on things. It’s easy to become cocooned in your comfort zone. [The collaboration] did make me think about the subjectivity of people's experiences.” 5

Benefits for professionals Methods “I’m interested in interdisciplinary collaboration for the generation of new knowledge. This was seen as eccentric at first but now it’s considered to be innovative methodology”

Benefits for professionals Communication and teaching “In my clinical practice, I use the narratives that come out of these collaborations when talking to patients and their families. They enable you to think about different ways of understanding the world and identifying shared experiences.”

Challenges Time/resources Institutional buy-in Clarity of roles – managing expectations Ownership of data and intellectual property Letting go

For more information on the Wellcome Trust Arts Awards: