WE all like to think that the arts are good for us, but are they really?

“Just how relevant are the arts if you’ve been given a diagnosis of cancer of dementia?” asks Clive Parkinson,  key speaker at the third Art of Good Health and Wellbeing Conference, running from November 14-17 at the National Gallery of Australia.

Parkinson is the director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University, the UK’s longest established arts and health unit.

He says most people cling to the professionalism and speed of a heath system that will act in our best interest, “there is a growing awareness amongst clinicians that in the face of illness and dying; that the humanities offer medicine something other than scientific reductionism.”

The conference, which looks at “The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing”, will highlight arts and health programs in hospitals, aged care facilities and community services with a special focus on mental health and creative ageing, including programs for people with dementia and their carers.

Other topics will include workplace wellbeing programs, arts and health programs for Aboriginal communities.  For example, the role the arts can play in primary and acute care, in cancer treatment, creative aging, community health, body image and obesity, respiratory disease and a number of major health areas.

Margret Meagher, executive director of Arts and Health Australia and conference convenor, says: “The National Gallery of Australia is an acknowledged leader in the field of Arts and Health practice, with several major programs under the leadership of Adriane Boag, program coordinator at the NGA.”

Boag is responsible for developing and delivering access programs for youth and community groups. She is also the facilitator of the Art and Alzheimer’s Program at the National Gallery of Australia.

Boag says: “In bringing together such a range of speakers both from Australia and overseas, we are opening up this discipline to a number of health and arts professionals who perhaps have not recognised its importance to the future of all Australians.”

At the same time as the conference, the NGA will be presenting a special Indigenous Exhibition “Good, Strong and Powerful” featuring work by Aboriginal artists with a disability, which will complement the conference theme. The conference will also showcase a number of performances and workshops from circus arts, music, film, theatre, dance and visual arts.

Registrations at the Arts and Health Australia Help Desk, Level 1 Foyer, outside James O’Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia. Inquiries to 0416 641 482