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The paper comprises an evaluation of the inclusion of art‐related education within a health promotion course for student nurses, which ran for four cohorts from 2001 to 2005, and a description of a project to introduce art into a clinical skills laboratory as part of the course.

The art‐related aspects of the course were evaluated by analysing qualitative comments from a questionnaire completed by a total of 83 students from the four cohorts. In addition, lecturers were invited to write their reflections. Only the 2003‐2004 cohort worked on the clinical skills laboratory art project in which students acted as a focus group, and later carried out interviews with patients.

The art‐related education was positively evaluated by most students, and appeared to have increased their awareness of health care environments. For some, it had promoted emotional awareness, empathy for patients and had been a therapeutic and enjoyable experience. A specification for art work to be introduced to the university's clinical skills laboratory was produced.

Using the arts in pre‐registration nurse education is relatively new in the UK, and this work provides an example of its potential to encourage empathy among student nurses for the experience of patients in health care settings. The paper provides an example of how art work could be introduced into health care settings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how participation in creative arts activity can enhance public mental health and wellbeing. It is informed by both the author’s clinical practice with service users and carers and by research.

The approach taken is to draw selectively on research in the field of creativity, creative arts and wellbeing, focusing in particular on the use of music and creative writing, and to incorporate learning from clinical experience to explore what is understood about the health and wellbeing benefits of creative arts activity.

There is evidence that creative arts activity is beneficial to mental health and wellbeing. Arts activities that involve active participation appear to offer the greatest benefits. Creative arts participation can help people with diagnosed mental health difficulties to recover from mental illness. Moreover, creative arts activities can also promote wellbeing in the general population.

The paper does not provide a comprehensive review of the literature in this field.

The paper suggests that if nurses and other mental health professionals are to play a full role in facilitating flourishing then they will need to learn more about using creative arts in practice and will need to become involved and encourage others to do so.

The paper suggests it is important that creative arts activities should be participatory, so they become a vehicle not only for self-expression but also for participation in groups and communities, increasing connectedness and social inclusion.

This paper fulfils a need for a wider understanding of the health and wellbeing benefits of creative arts activity.

Group art therapy involves art-making, which has been used throughout human history to symbolise struggle and transformation with group support. The purpose of this paper is to discuss two recent papers on how and why group art therapy may be helpful.

A search was carried out to find recent papers on group art therapy, with a focus on how and why it may be helpful.

One paper reported on 119 accounts of why group art therapy may be helpful. Five things seemed specific to group art therapy: using artworks to express experiences symbolically, connect with others, place confusing feelings outside oneself, and be playful, and following a set routine with others. The other paper reported in detail on group art therapy sessions with people who had a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Group interaction became most supportive when the art therapist clearly focused on people’s thoughts and feelings about artworks made by group members.

It has been unclear how group art therapy may help people. Understanding this means researchers can do more rigorous research on it. The two papers discussed represent probably the largest synthesis of different sources on how group art therapy might work, and the most detailed observation of what happens in practice. Both papers suggest group art therapy uses art to symbolise struggle and transformation with support from others, thus normalising this process and including those going through it rather than marginalising them. Parallels can be drawn with older healing rituals, in which crisis and struggle were viewed as normal.

Older adults often navigate periods of disruptive transition, such as rehousing, that can be understood in terms of ritual transformation, a concept that describes changes to the social self in terms of deconstruction, liminality and reconstruction. Music therapy can assist older adults’ movement through these stages. This paper aims to engage theoretical perspectives on ritual to consider the social and cultural transformation of these residents of a long-term care nursing home.

Ethnographic theory and literature on the ritual process are used to reflect on one music therapist’s (first author’s) experience providing music therapy to older adult residents of a long-term care nursing home. The therapist facilitated a collaborative “healing story” whose performative aspects engaged the residents in their own healing process. These experiences culminated in a group songwriting experience with a resident choir ensemble.

The healing narrative involved aspects of the person, selfhood, relationship and culture more than elements of physicality or functional abilities. Music therapists working with older adults may find this theoretical perspective informative in interpreting resident behaviors and needs, identifying and addressing therapeutic goals and fostering a healing narrative.

Care and interventions for older adults are often guided by the biomedical model of aging as an illness. While sociological and psychological theories of aging offer alternatives, these are not always prominent in interventions. This exploration of aging and transition as ritual transformation offers one such needed and insightful perspective to inform practice.

This chapter summarizes a therapeutic art-based education project in Houston and two United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees resettlement camps in Burkina Faso, a small landlocked country in West Africa. The project, which was developed and led by the authors, Be the Peace – Be the Hope, was born from a spirit of hope and concern for the plight of children; particularly, for the mounting numbers of children displaced by war and conflict. Many of these children now live in resettlement camps. The ages of the participating students ranged from 8 to 22 in the camps. Many participating Houston middle and high school students had arrived recently in the United States and several had been refugees themselves.

Arts and cultural activities have been illustrated to be beneficial for mental health service users. The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of museum visits and engage in arts activities for mental health service users.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 mental health service users in Denmark. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data and theoretical lens of sociological theories of institutional logics was employed to explore the findings.

These benefits are perceived to include empowerment and meaning in life, which are two of the core principles of recovery; arts engagement can, therefore, be a useful tool in recovery. The findings also show that the experience of visiting a museum was not always positive and depended upon the interaction with the museum educators.

The service users identified arts engagement as creating meaning in life and empowerment, which are two element in the conceptual framework, CHIME (an acronym for: Connectedness, Hope and optimism, Identity, Meaning in life and Empowerment), that describes the human process of recovery. The findings also highlighted that if museums want to engage positively with people with mental health problems and contribute to their recovery then the training of staff and the improvement of institutional approaches to support working with vulnerable people are essential.