Livewell hosts first Arts Festival

Livewell, the health promotion service provided by Plymouth Community Healthcare, is hosting a local Arts Festival throughout October 2015 to promote and celebrate mental health and wellbeing through arts and creativity.

The Livewell Arts Festival will engage local artists and communities across over fifty events in and around Plymouth this October, encouraging local people to tap into their creativity and find out how being creative can boost mental wellbeing. The festival will offer a full and varied programme of activities including dance, jewellery making, storytelling, baking, print making, painting, photography and other creative workshops, exhibitions and lectures.

A full programme of events can be found at http://www.plymouthcommunityhealthcare.co.uk/livewell/livewell-home-page...

Sarah Wyatt, Head of the Livewell team at Plymouth Community Healthcare said: “Good mental health underpins everything we do. With one in six* of us experiencing mental ill health at any one time, activities that support mental wellbeing can offer great benefit to our communities. Creative and artistic activities are well known to support a mentally healthy outlook, reducing stress and anxiety levels and helping people to regain confidence.”

The Livewell Arts Festival came about through the ideas and ambitions of the Plymouth Mental Health and Wellbeing, Arts and Creativity Forum, a local working group set up to promote mental health, wellbeing and recovery and to challenge perceptions of mental health via cultural and creative arts.