Wales Arts, Health and Wellbeing Programme Accepting Applications

A new national funding programme is inviting applications from partnerships of community groups, individual artists and health organisations across Wales.

Funding is available to support partnerships from across the arts, health, social care and third sectors to provide high-quality creative projects that deliver health and wellbeing benefits for the people of Wales.

Applications should be developed by a partnership/consortium of organisations and artists and must include both a health and arts partner. One of the partners will need to take the lead as the primary applicant and act as the accountable body.

The programme is particularly seeking to support creative projects that aim to address the following health challenges:

  • Mental Health – including tackling loneliness/social isolation and social prescribing schemes that aim to build resilience and address mental ill health.
  • Health Inequalities – projects that are designed to bring health and wellbeing benefits through the arts to people from more diverse backgrounds. This includes Deaf and disabled people, neurodiverse people, Ethnically and Culturally diverse people as well as those whose health and wellbeing has been adversely affected through poverty.
  • Physical Health and Wellbeing – arts projects that support improved physical health or keep people physically active through the arts during/following the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Staff Wellbeing – within the healthcare and/or arts workforce.

The following levels of funding are available:

  • Small grants from £500 to £10,000 to support new ideas within Arts and Health contexts.
  • Large grants from £10,001 to £50,000 to develop, grow or scale a successful model or embed and sustain a programme. In exceptional cases, where a programme has already been successfully developed and is ready for significant scaling-up or extends over a few years, applications higher than the £50,000 limit may be considered.

All grants cover up to 90% of total project costs.

Organisations can also apply for funding to design and deliver Arts and Health-related training in priority areas. These can be at either the Small grant or Large grant level.

The deadline for applications is 19 May 2021 (5pm).