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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Health and Wellbeing Research Group
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DTSTART:20240101T000000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261007T100000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261007T113000
DTSTAMP:20260612T090845Z
CREATED:20260427T171413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260612T090845Z
UID:444-1791367200-1791372600@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:Stomach Ache Project: Creativity\, Lived Experience & Guts
DESCRIPTION:Please note: this event has been postponed and will be re-scheduled for the early autumn. The new date will be confirmed soon. \n\n\n\nWe are pleased to welcome the lead researchers of the Stomach Ache Project (2021 – Present)\, which is an international research project and network exploring how creative and curatorial methods can provoke new ways of representing the lived experience of digestive disruption. Reflecting on practice-research approaches shaped by lived experience of unruly guts\, lead Researcher Dr Vanessa Bartlett (Independent) and Network Co-Lead Dr Rachel Marsden (University of the Arts London (UAL) / University of Birmingham) will present the project’s development to date. Drawing on methods from creative arts and medical humanities\, the session considers the role of creativity\, embodiment and lived experience in exploring different digestive worlds. After the presentation\, Vanessa and Rachel welcome conversation about how creative methods can bridge gaps between scientific knowledge and everyday lived experiences of gut health issues. We welcome practitioners\, creatives\, researchers and students\, also those interested in justice\, equity\, diversity and inclusion in complex interdisciplinary fields.  \n\n\n\nBiographies  \n\n\n\n\n\nDr Vanessa Bartlett is a visual art curator\, arts and wellbeing specialist and occasional artist. She brings art and people together to explore how equality\, ethics and social justice are influenced by the medical and technical systems that shape our lives. She specialises in curating exhibitions and creative projects that explore themes of mental and physical health\, disability justice and ethics and practices of care. She was Mckenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication (2020-2023)\, and Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law (2024-2025)\, at University of Melbourne \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr Rachel Marsden is a curator\, researcher\, and educator whose work focuses on creative health and social prescribing\, practice-research and creative methods\, and inclusive pedagogies and ethics of care\, informed by her lived experience of dynamic disability. She is currently Research Fellow in Creative-Public Health as part of an NIHR SPHR Transdisciplinary Fellowship with the University of Birmingham and Keele University (PHRESH Consortium) (2024-27)\, and Senior Lecturer in Creative Education at University of the Arts London (UAL). At UAL\, she recently co-founded IRL (In Real Life): Lived Experience Lab\, a new research collective. She is also Regional Champion (West Midlands) for the Culture\, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (UK). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue: In person & online. Details to follow asap.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/stomach-ache-project-creativity-lived-experience-guts/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260624T150000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260624T163000
DTSTAMP:20260624T135548Z
CREATED:20260617T134547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260624T135548Z
UID:462-1782313200-1782318600@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:Creative Health\, Participation and Systems Change
DESCRIPTION:Creative health is increasingly recognised for its role in improving wellbeing and reducing inequalities\, but what does it take to embed these approaches within health and care systems without losing the relationships\, creativity and community voice that make them effective? \n\n\n\nIn this interactive session\, Jayne Howard and Dr Jane Hearst will draw on practice\, research and national developments in creative health to explore three key questions: whose knowledge counts in shaping wellbeing\, how we sustain community-centred approaches\, and what meaningful participation looks like within health and care systems. Through discussion and shared reflection\, we’ll consider how creative health can contribute to more inclusive\, participatory and preventative approaches to health and wellbeing. \n\n\n\nFacilitators \n\n\n\nJayne Howard \n\n\n\nJayne Howard is Head of Programmes at the National Centre for Creative Health and Founding Director of Arts Well CIC. With senior leadership experience spanning the NHS\, public health\, education and the VCFSE sector\, including as Director of Public Health for Central Cornwall\, she brings expertise in the national creative health landscape and its contribution to health and care system priorities. Over more than 20 years\, she has led\, advised on and championed creative health programmes\, fostering collaboration across sectors to address health inequalities\, improve wellbeing and strengthen prevention. Jayne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts\, an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Public Health\, a qualified workplace coach and mentor\, Action Learning Facilitator\, and collector of post-graduate qualifications with an MA in 20th Century Art and Design Theory and two Postgraduate Diplomas in English Literature and Professional Writing.  \n\n\n\nDr Jane Hearst \n\n\n\nJane is a Doctor of Creative Health\, known for her work integrating the arts into healthcare systems. She currently serves as the Research and Policy Manager at the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and creates film and book content under her professional brand\, Creative Synthesist. As an Honorary Research Fellow at UCL\, she works on the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities (MCA) programme\, where she uses Implementation Science approaches to identify barriers and limitations to developing Creative Health infrastructure. She was celebrated as Entrepreneurial Collaborator of the Year at the Real Entrepreneurs’ Awards 2025 for her work in supporting Creative Health network development across the11 Integrated Care Systems in the Midlands region. She is the author of the 2025 Routledge text\, A Creative Health Communication Framework: Addressing the Compatibility and Marketability of Mental Health and Wellbeing Services – a book which features work from her PhD in Creative Health – and editor of the upcoming publication Creative Health in Systems: the People\, Priorities and Challenges Shaping Integration.  \n\n\n\nJane would describe her work as pragmatic\, creative\, and nonpartisan; informed by entrepreneurial practice and systems change theory. \n\n\n\nThis event will be online only. Please register here.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/creative-health-participation-and-systems-change/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260617T123000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260617T140000
DTSTAMP:20260612T092234Z
CREATED:20260612T091921Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260612T092234Z
UID:458-1781699400-1781704800@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:Emote VR Voicer
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Adinda van ‘t Klooster will be talking about the Emote VR Voicer project\, made possible with AHRC Catalyst funding. She will show the research that has gone into developing this system that aims to improve wellbeing through active voice participation reflected in changing animations. The Emote VR Voicer recognises vocal intonation and the emotional subtext of spoken language and uses this to decide which emotion is most prevalent at any given time in the person interacting with the VR art game. \n\n\n\nFind more information at: https://performanceresearch.mmu.ac.uk/2025/11/10/emote-vr-voicer/ \n\n\n\nDr. Adinda van ’t Klooster is an international artist and Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her practice and research work with digital media including VR\, sound\, light\, animation and interactive performance.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/emote-vr-voicer/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260422T040000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260422T043000
DTSTAMP:20251219T180539Z
CREATED:20251219T180538Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251219T180539Z
UID:418-1776830400-1776832200@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-design Lecture series 2025-2026: Session 5. Pioneering Creative Health: How Greater Manchester Is Harnessing Culture and Creativity to Tackle Inequality and Improve Wellbeing
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Julie McCarthy is Strategic Lead for Creative Health at NHS Greater Manchester\, leading the world’s first Creative Health City Region Strategy. Her work focuses on how culture can address health inequities through cross-sector collaboration. \n\n\n\nTopic: Greater Manchester is the first region to launch a Creative Health Strategy (2022)\, aiming to harness creativity and culture to address inequalities and improve residents’ wellbeing. The talk highlights how culture is a pillar of the region’s Live Well approach\, supporting healthier communities\, economic growth\, and innovation. It will showcase collaborations and new opportunities for partnership.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2025-2026-session-5-pioneering-creative-health-how-greater-manchester-is-harnessing-culture-and-creativity-to-tackle-inequality-and-improve-wellbeing/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260318T150000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260318T163000
DTSTAMP:20251219T175902Z
CREATED:20251219T175901Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251219T175902Z
UID:412-1773846000-1773851400@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-Design Lecture Series 2025-2026: Session 4. Well-making Together
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Dr Mah Rana\, Royal College of Art. Mah is Tutor (Research) at the Royal College of Art and Research Fellow in Language and Cognition at UCL\, specialising in phenomenological approaches to lived experience\, care and craft within dementia contexts. \n\n\n\nTopic: Mah presents findings from a PhD case study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand a daughter’s lived experience of caring for and crafting with her mother\, who is living with dementia. The talk discusses how recorded video serves as interview stimulus and how fore-conception (assumptions and prior experiences) shapes retelling. Mah also reflects on how re-engagement through video footage allows participants to reconstruct narratives in their own terms.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2025-2026-session-4-well-making-together/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260225T140000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260225T160000
DTSTAMP:20251219T180048Z
CREATED:20251219T174228Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251219T180048Z
UID:410-1772028000-1772035200@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-design Lecture Series 2025-2026: Session 3. Co-Designing Through Play: Remixing Ideas\, Stories\, and Systems
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Prof. Sylvester Arnab is Professor of Game Science and Ludic Design at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures\, Coventry University\, specialising in playful and remixing-based approaches to co-design\, storytelling\, and collaborative problem-solving. \n\n\n\nTopic: This interactive lecture and hands-on workshop explores co-design through the lens of playful thinking and remixing practice. Drawing from the Remixing Play framework and the What’s Your Story? empathy cards\, participants will experience how play can be used as a method for co-creating meaningful\, inclusive\, and contextually grounded solutions. The session introduces the principles of remixing play\, i.e.\, reimagining familiar games\, rules\, and narratives to address real-world challenges\, and demonstrates how storytelling and game design can foster empathy\, creativity\, and collaboration within diverse teams. Through a fast-paced\, collaborative activity\, participants will form small groups to co-design a prototype for a playful experience or game using prompts from both card sets. By the end of the session\, they will have hands-on insights into how co-design can empower communities to reframe challenges\, connect perspectives\, and imagine new possibilities through play.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2025-2026-session-3-co-designing-through-play-remixing-ideas-stories-and-systems/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251203T140000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251203T150000
DTSTAMP:20251219T172217Z
CREATED:20251219T172128Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251219T172217Z
UID:407-1764770400-1764774000@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-Design Workshop Series 2025-26: Session 2. Craftwell: Heritage craft\, climate futures and young people’s wellbeing
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Pete Coventry is Professor of Health\, Environment and Society at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research spans public health\, mental health and environmental sustainability\, with a focus on developing and evaluating creative\, community-based and nature-based interventions. He has expertise in trials\, evidence synthesis\, and qualitative research\, and has led large multi-disciplinary programmes funded by NIHR and UKRI. Pete is particularly interested in how design\, place and cultural practices can contribute to prevention\, resilience\, and wellbeing. \n\n\n\nTopic to be explored: Craftwell is a feasibility study that explored the use of heritage craft practices (e.g. outdoor crafting to make heritage objects and artefacts in natural settings) to enhance wellbeing\, nature connection and collective resilience. The project tested both the acceptability and benefits of engaging with intangible cultural heritage in group settings. Findings suggested that such practices can evoke shared cultural identity\, creativity\, and meaning-making while offering a low-carbon\, place-based alternative to conventional mental health interventions.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-workshop-series-2025-26-session-2-craftwell-heritage-craft-climate-futures-and-young-peoples-wellbeing/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251015T100000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251015T113000
DTSTAMP:20251219T160024Z
CREATED:20250920T163657Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251219T160024Z
UID:378-1760522400-1760527800@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-design Lecture Series 2025-2026: Session 1. Designing for Connection: Co-Designing Everyday Systems of Care
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Dr Leigh-Anne Hepburn\, Head of Design at the University of Sydney and Deputy Director (Design) at the Sydney Policy Lab. \n\n\n\nSynopsis: How can collaborative design strengthen the relational\, social\, and institutional ties that support wellbeing? Moving beyond service improvement\, this session positions co-design as a way to weave together everyday systems of care\, connecting individuals\, communities\, and organisations through shared making and meaning. Drawing on examples from health\, policy\, and community practice\, this talk highlights how co-design fosters belonging\, trust\, and adaptive systems that respond to people’s lived experiences. It invites participants to consider care not as a service transaction\, but as a collective\, ongoing practice of connection and reciprocity.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2025-2026-session-1-prof-leigh-ann-hepburn/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250625T153000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250625T170000
DTSTAMP:20250713T111724Z
CREATED:20250713T111723Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T111724Z
UID:357-1750865400-1750870800@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-design Lecture Series 2024-2025: Session 7 – Co-Designing with Neurodiverse People: An Embodied Creativity Perspective 
DESCRIPTION:Dr Laura Malinin is Inaugural Director of Nancy Richardson Design Center and Associate Professor of Interior Architecture + Design of Colorado State University. In this presentation\, she describes two multi-year projects where an interdisciplinary group of researchers and students engaged neurodiverse people in co-design processes to improve inclusion and engagement in community programming. The first case involved older adults with dementia and their care partners to develop community performing arts programming. The second project engaged a group of autistic youth to improve visit-ability at a science museum. The projects will be discussed using the lens of embodied creativity as a framework to explain the design and methods used in the different cases as well as outcomes. \n\n\n\nDoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lectures Series 2024-2025 \n\n\n\nThe DoWell research group offers an expanded interdisciplinary workshop and lectures series this year to provide the opportunity for colleagues to explore an exciting range of different topics\, including practices and approaches to co-designing in various health and care contexts. The format of the monthly sessions is more flexible this year\, including online presentations and panel discussions as well as in-person workshops for colleagues to get hands-on experience and get involved in the different approaches to co-design. The workshops aim to provide a forum and time for colleagues to meet\, and to foster discussion and cross-faculty collaboration.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2024-2025-session-7-co-designing-with-neurodiverse-people-an-embodied-creativity-perspective/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250611T153000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250611T170000
DTSTAMP:20250713T112648Z
CREATED:20250713T112646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T112648Z
UID:359-1749655800-1749661200@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-Design Lectures Series 2024-2025: Session 6 - The Gallery\, Material and Wellbeing
DESCRIPTION:Dr Lynn Setterington and Dr Dena Bagi\, DoWell\, Manchester Metropolitan University\, discuss their gallery-based practices\, which aim to improve/maintain the wellbeing of those involved in working with craft materials.  The pair\, who practice as an artist-academic and pedagogical designer in the gallery context\, will explore material-based engagement methods used in the gallery context. They will also touch on the gallery as a space for healing/wellbeing. Lynn talks directly about her ongoing project at Gallery Oldham\, and Dena presents the outcome of her PhD\, Clay Pedagogy. Both projects explore how collective material-based making in the gallery space can aid a healing journey or general wellbeing. \n\n\n\nDoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lectures Series 2024-2025 \n\n\n\nThe DoWell research group offers an expanded interdisciplinary workshop and lectures series this year to provide the opportunity for colleagues to explore an exciting range of different topics\, including practices and approaches to co-designing in various health and care contexts. The format of the monthly sessions is more flexible this year\, including online presentations and panel discussions as well as in-person workshops for colleagues to get hands-on experience and get involved in the different approaches to co-design. The workshops aim to provide a forum and time for colleagues to meet\, and to foster discussion and cross-faculty collaboration.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lectures-series-2024-2025-session-6-the-gallery-material-and-wellbeing/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250430T033000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250430T170000
DTSTAMP:20250713T110729Z
CREATED:20250527T141828Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T110729Z
UID:334-1745983800-1746032400@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-design Lecture Series 2024-2025: Session 5 - Designing for children with brain conditions from client initiation to manufacture stages
DESCRIPTION:Designing for children with brain conditions from client initiation to manufacture stages \n\n\n\nWednesday 30 April 2025\, 3.30-5pm\, Online Session \n\n\n\nDr Ross Head\, University of Wales and Cerebra Innovation Centre\, UK \n\n\n\nDr Ross Head\, is the Design manager for Cerebra Innovation Centre\, and is responsible for leading an innovative team of product designers to create beautiful\, functional\, bespoke products for children with brain conditions for the national charity Cerebra. In this talk\, Dr Head will discuss the process from client initiation\, through the design and manufacture stages using case studies to demonstrate successes\, failures and best practice. \n\n\n\nDoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lectures Series 2024-2025 \n\n\n\nThe DoWell research group offers an expanded interdisciplinary workshop and lectures series this year to provide the opportunity for colleagues to explore an exciting range of different topics\, including practices and approaches to co-designing in various health and care contexts. The format of the monthly sessions is more flexible this year\, including online presentations and panel discussions as well as in-person workshops for colleagues to get hands-on experience and get involved in the different approaches to co-design. The workshops aim to provide a forum and time for colleagues to meet\, and to foster discussion and cross-faculty collaboration.
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/dowell-co-design-lecture-series-2024-2025-session-5-designing-for-children-with-brain-conditions-from-client-initiation-to-manufacture-stages/
CATEGORIES:DoWell event
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250219T133000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250219T150000
DTSTAMP:20250713T110611Z
CREATED:20230822T141444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T110611Z
UID:58-1739971800-1739977200@dowell.mmu.ac.uk
SUMMARY:DoWell Co-Design Workshop and Lectures Series 2024-2025: Session 3
DESCRIPTION:Beyond Access: Disability Culture Changing Design \n\n\n\nby Dr Bess Williamson\, North Carolina State University College of Design\, USA \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this talk\, Dr. Bess Williamson\, author of Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design\, shares ways in which disabled designers and activists are changing design approaches to accessibility. From Universal and Inclusive Design\, to Disability Justice\, these new practices centre on the lived experience of disabled people and their contributions to design. \n\n\n\nThe DoWell research group offers an expanded interdisciplinary workshop and lectures series this year to provide the opportunity for colleagues to explore an exciting range of different topics\, including practices and approaches to co-designing in various health and care contexts. The format of the monthly sessions is more flexible this year\, including online presentations and panel discussions as well as in-person workshops for colleagues to get hands-on experience and get involved in the different approaches to co-design. The workshops aim to provide a forum and time for colleagues to meet\, and to foster discussion and cross-faculty collaboration. 
URL:https://dowell.mmu.ac.uk/event/call-for-papers-symposium-on-sustainability-teaching-in-higher-education-approaches-methods-and-perspectives/
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