Touchstone Loves the Arts is the home for all Touchstone’s work within the arts for mental health and wellbeing. We support service users and members of communities that Touchstone serves to develop projects, workshops, and other arts interventions with the aims of promoting well-being and preventing mental health issues through creativity across West Yorkshire.
Touchstone Loves the Arts is committed to asset-based working and looks to support service users and community members who are artists, musicians, dancers, poets, and writers of all types to develop and share their creative practices in the mental health sphere. We know there is a wealth of creativity amongst Touchstone’s service users and West Yorkshire’s diverse communities, and we work to support their empowerment, development, and growth.
Asset-based working means starting with what is strong, rather than what is wrong. Touchstone Loves the Arts uses this approach to develop service users’ and community members’ own creative practices to share with others rather than only offering interventions by already established practitioners. We believe this is an important step in working towards greater access and participation in the arts across West Yorkshire.
The service is founded with an ethos of cultural democracy and a commitment to diversity and inclusion in arts for mental health. We are particularly keen to support projects with creatives from underrepresented communities. In line with Touchstone’s values, Touchstone Loves the Arts works to overcome barriers to inclusion in the arts through developing work alongside BME, LGBT+, disabled, neurodiverse, and migrant creatives as well as those who live with mental health conditions.
The project also seeks to create strong partnerships with organizations across West Yorkshire working towards the same aims. If you would like to work in partnership with Touchstone Loves the Arts either to develop your practice in arts and health, or as a partner organization please get in touch via the contact details at the side.
