PLACE. Creative Health, Communities and Cultural Heritage

The concept ‘place’ is crucial for what we do with cultural heritage, as the nature, identity and sense of a place determines how heritage is perceived and engaged with. Especially when it comes to creative health there is a strong focus between place and health inequities. This conference explores place based approaches to creative health and cultural heritage.

You will hear from practitioners and researchers (or a combination of both) about how they combine cultural heritage and place, be it a method or an actual physical place, to improve the wellbeing of individuals and tackle health inequities.

The symposium is open to everybody interested in creative health.

Programme:

• Welcome and introduction by Dionne Hood, Head of Service Bradford Libraries.
• Bruce Davenport (School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University) and Sonja Kielty (Bradford Museum & Galleries) on place making, volunteers and resilience.
• Cheryl McGeachan (Human Geography Research Group, University of Glasgow) on people, place and objects.
• Bart Marius (Director Dr. Guislain Museum, Belgium) on his museum as a place of care and an asset for the community and a mental health hospital.
• Chris Sharp (Keeper Leeds Industrial Museum) on the museum as a place of sanctuary.
• Bart De Nil (University College London Arts & Sciences) on public libraries as social infrastructure.
• Estelle Cooper (Bradford 2025) on Bradford 2025 creative health projects.

At the end we are going to launch the enrollment of a new an international training event in Glasgow on Place and Creative Health from 9 till 13 March 2026. And also the call for contributions for the 3rd International Conference Culture & Mental Health on 26 an 27 November 2026 in Ghent (Belgium).

Practical Info:

• Where: Bradford City Hall, banqueting hall Get directions with Google Maps
• When: 14 November 2025, 13h – 15h (doors open at 12h30).
• Registration: Attendance is free, but we ask you to register

This symposium is organised by UCL Arts and Sciences and Bradford Libraries

Photo: (c) Balder Deschildre

Host or Publisher Dr. Guislain Museum