December 2023 was a great month for celebrating our work – firstly achieving a film festival premiere of our HerStory opera film alongside an impressive array of documentary, animation and feature films at the Together! Disability Film Festival in London on 2-3 December. Each film showcased the film-making, creative and performative talents of people living with disabilities.
6th December saw the launch of the National Centre for Creative Health’s ‘Creative Health Review – How Policy Can Embrace Creative Health’; a long-awaited report highlighting how creative health can help to tackle key policy challenges across health, social care and wider systems. Our Creative Space programme supporting people living with long covid was featured within the report and as one of a range of case studies illustrating the strength and breadth of creative health provision and arts-health collaboration in the UK.
Just before Christmas, we were delighted to be recipients of a silver award made by Ipswich & East Suffolk Alliance for ‘truly living the Ipswich & East Suffolk value of compassion.’ This was in recognition of the amazing work by lead artist Marie Soul and the Cohere Arts team in the delivery of our Little Lights art cafes, supporting people living with long term & complex health challenges.
We were invited to a heart-warming evening ceremony celebrating the collaborative efforts of many dedicated colleagues across healthcare, community services and arts/culture. Congrats to Suffolk Artlink, Spot Wellbeing, Food Museum & the Green Light Trust to name but a few of our deserved fellow award winners.