ARTS & HEALTH HUB ‘SUPPORT HUB’ PROJECT - END OF 3-YEAR FUNDING
May 2026 – We have come to the end of our 3-year funded Support Hub project, providing a range of support programmes across London, Manchester, and nationally online, for artists working in creative health. Led by Daniel Regan (co-Director of the Arts & Health Hub), my role in this project was that of producer, alongside running several of the online and Manchester based programmes.
Across 2023-2026 the Arts & Health Hub delivered the Support Hub, an extensive project supporting artists in exploring health and wellbeing in their practice. This has involved 4 key programmes running across London, Greater Manchester, and nationally online, including:
Peer to peer mental health groups for artists with lived experience.
Confidential group reflective supervision for participatory artists working in stressful environments.
Peer to peer professional development groups to support artists to push their practice forward.
1-2-1 mentoring for early career artists (within their first five combined years of practice).
Dr. Susan Potter was commissioned as the external evaluator on this programme and her final evaluation report, as well as her executive summary can be found by clicking the links below. These have then been designed by Liberty Antonia Sadler. It includes stats like 284 people taking part in questionnaires related to the programme, of which 85% were female and 67% identified as disabled. And stats like 40% of participants gained new opportunities from taking part - which was never a target, but a really great outcome nonetheless.
Sonia Boué, a neurodivergent artist and mentor across the three years talked about how being clear and specific in the callout regarding what she could offer as a mentor, led to a great fit for a selected neurodivergent mentee each year. Across her mentoring she helped artists: unpick assumptions and what might be needed in each situation, to learn how to filter information shared, to decode the art world, and to feel truly understood from the inside." The evaluation report delves into these findings more, but also shows the importance of free programmes like this being vital as artists cannot afford this support.
The Support Hub was generously been funded by the Mayor of London, Baring Foundation and Arts Council England. With additional partnership support from London Arts & Health, Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance, QUEERCIRCLE, Team London Bridge, 53two and Hoxton Hall.