When Was Arts in Health?: A History of the Present

This book critically appraises the field of Arts in Health in the light of the recent public health crisis and so-called culture wars. A new term was coined in Britain in 2017 for this area of work by an All-Party Parliamentary Group: “creative health”. Williams sets this hopeful assertion against a darker backdrop of austerity, rising inequality and “Covid-nationalism”. Understandings of the field as a (multi)national phenomenon are examined through contested narratives that surround its origin. Using genealogical methods, Williams shows how at supra, national and local policy levels, Arts in Health is presented as an idea that transcends place and time. Arguing against this premise, post-war decades are examined to reveal hidden, mutable arts-health expressions. Examples of practice, and their recognition as such, are context dependent it is concluded – produced by political economies as well as oppositional social movements.