In an article in September's issue
of the magazine Literary Review Alexa Hazel (2019) wrote about how, in
2014, small pieces of printers' type were found washed ashore on the banks of
the River Thames. These were the products of one T J Cobden-Sanderson who, in
1900, founded Doves Press. When a business partner tried to appropriate the
Doves Press type for commercial use, Cobden-Sanderson cast all 2,600 pieces of
type into the river rather than allow his creation to be sullied by commercialism.
Hazel suggests the miraculous reappearance
of pieces of Doves Press type after more than 100 years illustrates that
"what's frivolous and a little mad can have surprising endurance" (2019: 64). A propos, she quotes Norman Potter, the
English cabinetmaker, designer, poet and teacher. In his book Models &
Constructs Potter wrote: "the long-term effects of small creative
happenings tend to be underestimated."
I like to believe this is true, especially
as most of my own creative enterprises - improvisational music workshops with a
handful of participants or small gigs where I perform to tiny audiences in 'cosy'
venues - could be best described as small creative happenings. It would be comforting
to think they had a longer-term effect which might go on resonating after the music
ended and people had gone home.
If you're seeking harder
evidence of the lasting beneficial impacts of the arts, you could do worse than to look to a recent report published by the World Health Organisation (Fancourt
and Finn, 2019). The WHO report is the largest scoping review ever published on
arts and health and synthesises the global evidence on the role of the arts in
improving health and wellbeing. It includes findings from over 3,000 peer-reviewed
published studies and identifies a major role for the arts not only in the
prevention of ill-health and the promotion of health but also (more surprisingly)
in the management and treatment of illness across the lifespan.
When it comes to prevention and
promotion, the report finds the arts can, for example, affect the social
determinants of health (e.g. developing social cohesion and reducing social inequalities)
as well as helping to prevent ill health (by enhancing wellbeing and
reducing the impact of trauma or the risk of cognitive decline.) In terms of management and
treatment of existing conditions, it found the arts can help many groups of people,
including those experiencing mental illness (e.g. by supporting recovery from perinatal
mental illness and after trauma and abuse) as well as people with neurological disorders
(including autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, degenerative neurological disorders
and dementia). The full report can be
read here.
References
Fancourt, D. and Finn, S. (2019).
What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and
well-being? A scoping review. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe;
2019 (Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report 67).
Hazel, A. (2019). Printing
on Ice, Literary Review, September 2019: 64.
Potter, N. (2008). Models & Constructs: margin notes to a
design culture. London: Hyphen Press.
