Overview
Creative Australia has partnered with SANE Australia, RMIT and the CREATE Centre at the University of Sydney to deliver its Creative Health Alliance Australia project.
The project will strengthen creative health infrastructure in Australia by developing new tools, support structures and standards that recognise the vital role of creative practitioners in supporting individual and community wellbeing.
The partnership will work to deliver:
- a national Creative Health Quality Framework, usable across the many settings where arts and health practice occurs. The framework will be produced through consultation and collaboration with the sector
- a practitioner toolkit and systems for using the quality framework, including ways to recognise high quality practitioners and practice
- a searchable directory of creative health practitioners.
Creative Australia’s research and sector engagement show that creative health programs are already having powerful impacts in communities across Australia, often without the recognition and support they need.
Creative Australia research has also shown that Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) practitioners and programs are highly active in the arts and health space.
The project will help practitioners working in this field reach more people, build stronger and more connected communities, and increase visibility for this workforce within the health system.
For enquiries and more information, email HOPadmin@creative.gov.au.
Image: Holly Goodridge + Zeth Cameron, Install shot of SHRINE TO THE CHILDHOOD FRIENDSHIPS WE WISH WE HAD, 2024. Photographer: Astrid Mulder.
Creative Health Quality Framework
The CREATE Centre at the University of Sydney will be leading a sector-wide collaboration and consultation process to ensure that the Framework is fit for purpose for Australia.
The Framework must reflect the needs and perspectives of creative health practitioners (including arts-health, culture and wellbeing), be guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, ways of working, and conceptions of culture and health, and be aligned with quality, safety, competency and practice guidelines and frameworks across the settings where this work takes place.
This process is outlined below:
Creative Health Quality Framework Steering Committee
| Tully Barnett, Associate Professor in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy at Adelaide University. | Michelle Jersky, Program Manager, Arts in Health at Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick. | Joshua Pether, CEO of Arts Access Victoria, performance artist, dancer and choreographer. | Zoe Scrogings, CEO of Corrugated Iron Youth Arts. |
| Eloise Breskvar, Learning and Outreach Manager (Visual Arts) at the University of Melbourne. | Maz McGann, Arts and Culture Management Consultant operating as Play Your Part. | Amanda Quealy, CEO of the Australian Music Therapy Association. | Kitty Taylor, Community Arts and Cultural Development practitioner and Co-Director of RANT Arts. |
| Debbie Brittain, Senior Program Manager, Arts and Health at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). | Scotia Monkivitch, Founder and Executive Officer of Creative Recovery Network. | Dr Kate Renshaw, Founding Director of Play & Filial Therapy. | Dr Carolina Triana Cuéllar, Researcher and educator. |
| Diane Busuttil, CEO and founder of Creative Caring Pty Ltd and socially engaged artist. | Emily Lees, Group (National) Manager, Arts Health and Volunteers at St John of God Health Care. | Jacinda Richards, Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of L2R Dance. | Roberta Styles-Wood, Consultant and Senior Consumer Lead, working across Safer Care Victoria and her own practice. |
| Madeline Collins, Manager of Creative Health at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service. | Lena Nahlous, CEO and Executive Producer of Diversity Arts Australia. | Lizzie Rose, Co-founder of MakeShift and creative health practitioner. | Jodie Wainwright, CEO of Milk Crate Theatre. |
| Sarah-Mace Dennis, National Director of Arts and Disability Network Australia (ADNA). | Gülșen Özer, Founder and Creative Director of Soft Systems Lab and socially engaged artist. | Roberta Styles-Wood, Consultant and Senior Consumer Lead, working across Safer Care Victoria and her own practice. | Angharad Wynne-Jones, Co-Facilitator of Creative Climate, curator and creative consultant. |
| Erica Rose Jeffrey, Founding Director of Dance for Parkinson's Australia. | Shane Pavlinovich, Manager, Health Promotion Partnerships at Healthway. |
Practitioner toolkit and database
SANE Australia will lead the development of resources to support use of the quality framework, including a toolkit for practitioners and a database of those working with commitment to meet the framework standards.
Further details to follow in early 2027.
How can I get involved?
You can sign up to join a Consultation Group for the Quality Frameworks at this link.
And/or follow the project on LinkedIn.
Related research
