The Creative Health Network has been established by Future Arts Centres and Battersea Arts Centre to connect arts centres already delivering creative health activity, creating space to share learning, strengthen leadership and develop new approaches to working with health and care partners.

Lincoln Arts Centre joins organisations including Southbank Centre, Brixton House, artsdepot, Cast, Midlands Arts Centre and The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre in the inaugural 2026–27 cohort.

The network will explore areas including social prescribing, working with the NHS, evaluation, funding and investment, co-creation and how arts centres can build stronger evidence for the contribution they make to neighbourhood health. The programme will run from October 2026 to May 2027, combining monthly online sessions with in-person gatherings at Battersea Arts Centre.

For Lincoln Arts Centre, the opportunity builds on a growing programme of Creative Health work developed with artists, communities and partners across Lincoln and Greater Lincolnshire.

The Centre’s annual Prescribing Change programme brings together artists, young people, health and wellbeing organisations and researchers to explore the role creativity can play in supporting mental health and wellbeing. Recent work has included partnerships with organisations including Zest and Data Culture Change, alongside the development of new creative approaches to working with young people and health services.

Lincoln Arts Centre’s 2025 Impact Report highlighted Creative Health as an important part of its wider work to connect culture with communities, research and regional partnerships.

Ben Anderson, Creative & Executive Director of Lincoln Arts Centre, said:
“Creative Health is an increasingly important part of what we do at Lincoln Arts Centre. We’re interested not just in the projects we can deliver, but in what happens when arts centres are properly connected to the wider systems around health and wellbeing. We’ve been delivering 5 years worth of research and development, to understand the mechanics and governance of our local health infrastructure in our very rural and dispersed place.”

“There’s a huge amount of brilliant work happening across the country, but we don’t always get the chance to step back, share what we’re learning and work out what could be done differently. Being part of this first cohort gives us that opportunity. We’re looking forward to learning from the other arts centres, sharing our own experience from Lincoln, and thinking together about how we can make the case for creativity as part of healthier communities.”

The national network reflects the growing role arts centres are playing in supporting communities through creative activity. Across the cohort, organisations are working with people including young people, older adults, refugees and asylum seekers, people experiencing mental ill health, disabled and neurodivergent people, people living with dementia, carers and communities experiencing health inequalities.

Future Arts Centres, a national network of more than 180 arts centres, established the network in response to the growing range of creative health work taking place across the sector and the challenges organisations face around evaluation, strategic partnerships, visibility and long-term sustainability.

The Creative Health Network will begin in October, with learning and insights from the cohort shared throughout the programme.