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The power of nature and creativity

For Mental Health Awareness Week, John McMahon explores how this year's theme - nature - can relate to creativity, and how both support mental and emotional wellbeing.
24 May 2021

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Mental Health Awareness week Nature

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) - an annual UK-wide campaign to foster understanding of how we can take care of our own mental health, and support that of others too. Led by the Mental Health Foundation and supported by a wide range of other partners, MHAW signposts resources, activities and services. It also seeks to stimulate conversations about mental health and the things that can affect it - not only amongst friends and family, but in workplaces, in the media and across government. There’s a different theme each year, and this time it’s ‘nature’. 

Over the past year, as so many of us have grappled with the anxiety and isolation wrought by the pandemic, engagement with nature has been a crucial form of solace for millions – helping people to feel engaged and energised, as well as soothed and centered. As I wrote last year, creativity has also been embraced on an incredible scale, for similar reasons. 

We’ve seen an explosion of evidence too, over the last 10 years in particular, that shows how both nature and creativity respectively can not only serve as foundations for positive mental and emotional wellbeing, but also how they can support people experiencing both chronic and acute mental ill-health. Continuing this theme, Arts Council England and Natural England are both currently partners to an AHRC-funded research programme at University College London to explore the health and wellbeing benefits of both creativity and nature during the pandemic. 

Sculpture of a cartoon clown with head in hands
KAWS at Yorkshire Sculpture Park © Jonty Wilde

As well as being deeply nourishing ‘stand-alone’ pursuits, we can find nature and creativity closely intertwined in many places. Indeed, the oldest figurative art yet discovered (painted 40-50,000 years ago, in both Indonesia and Southern France/Northern Spain) depicts the animals our forebears would have hunted (or avoided!). Similarly, the earliest known cache of man-made musical instruments - found in Southern Germany, and also thought to be over 40,000 years old - include flutes fashioned from bird bone; it seems a small leap of imagination to contemplate our ancestors choosing this material not only for its physical properties, but out of a desire to capture and channel the essence of birdsong itself. 

Many great artworks of more recent centuries have also drawn inspiration from flora and fauna, landscapes and sea-scapes. I invite you to consider some of your own especial favourites - personally, I gain great joy from the designs of William Morris; the visionary landscapes of Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious; the nature writing of Nan Shepherd and J.A. Baker; and the birdsong-inspired compositions of Vaughan Williams and Delius. 

The arts can also drive engagement with nature. Commissions through the Trust New Art programme draw additional visitors to the landscapes protected by the National Trust. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park offers a similarly harmonious balance of the natural and the creative. Meanwhile, the folk musician, author and environmentalist Sam Lee - through his Singing With Nightingales project - seeks to bolster conservation efforts to restore the habitat of this most musical seasonal visitor, and foster wider care for the environment.  

Nature and creativity also combine strongly in the arts and health sphere. Lord Howarth of Newport, chair of the new National Centre for Creative Health, has framed this powerfully, noting that ‘growing awareness of arts and health falls within a wider philosophical and societal shift around how we care for ourselves, each other and our planet.’ 

Last month’s Culture, Health & Wellbeing Awards contained a Climate category, which included Be-Coming Tree, who produce live arts events that link personal wellbeing with ecological restoration. Cartwheel Arts, meanwhile, were nominated for their work to connect community arts to themes like local food growth and wildlife protection. 

Three people talking and laughing in front of artwork at the William Morris museum
William Morris Gallery, Social Fabric: Afirican Textiles © William Morris Gallery

And of course, many of the projects supported through the Thriving Communities Fund (our partnership with the National Academy for Social Prescribing, Natural England and other agencies) combine arts, culture and heritage with the natural environment to enhance the mental health of individuals and communities. 

In Plymouth, for example, the Argyle Community Partnership, the Theatre Royal and Plymouth Healthy Minds have developed a programme of nature-based, arts and other activities to support those experiencing loneliness and mental ill health. Meanwhile, the London Arts in Health Forum is supporting Organic Lea’s ‘Moving in Nature’ project, which combines gardening, forest bathing and nature conservation alongside craft making and other creative activities. 

As Covid-19 restrictions continue to ease, it remains vital that we don’t lose the space to care for our mental health – so check out the tips at the MHAW website. If you’re using nature to support your own wellbeing, why not share on social media, with the hashtags #ConnectWithNature and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek. If you’ve thrown creativity into the mixer, why not let us know by triple-tagging with #LetsCreate, too?