Arts & Culture

Welcome to the arts and culture pages. Within Bromley, Develop maintains a presence on the Bromley Arts Panel through Credo Creative Ceramic Designs - an independent local charity working to help individuals recover from a period of mental ill health and have the skills and confidence to return to the workplace.

Our representation and input to the panel enables us to tackle issues arising in Bromley with regard to accessing artistic and cultural activities. We have an interest in ensuring people with mental ill-health have welcoming access and the opportunity to express themselves artistically through the visual, performing arts and other cultural activities.

We should all be involved in promoting social inclusion because:

• Common mental health problems affect up to one in six of the general population at any one time. Almost everyone will know someone who has had mental health problems at some point in their lives.
• People with mental ill-health are equally capable of making valuable contributions to the arts. Picasso, Stephen Fry, Robbie Williams and Spike Milligan all lived with mental health problems and made major contributions to the arts.

In this section you will be able to find:

• Services that support welcoming access to the arts and cultural activities for people with mental ill-health.
• Events - mental health, arts and cultural activities.
• Evidence and policy - Research findings on the value of the arts to mental health and wellbeing and how to improve the organisation you work in to be more welcoming and supportive of people with mental ill-health.
• Guidance and tools that can be used to help people plan to get more involved in the arts and how to develop your organisation to offer a warm welcome to people with mental health problems.
• News - stories about people's experiences of participating in artistic and cultural activity in the borough.

If you would like more information about social inclusion and mental health, Develop can also offer you:

• Discussion Forum - A place to ask questions, find support and obtain advice about finding welcoming and supportive local arts activities or about issues relating to mental health matters in your organisation, group or society. (Available to registered site users).
• Training events about social inclusion and promoting involvement in the arts and about mental health matters generally (from handling stress and promoting mental wellbeing and recovery through to awareness training about mental illness).

For more information about our involvement in the Bromley Arts Panel, please contact: artsNET@developbromley.com

View the national database of arts bridge-building projects

View the National Social Inclusion Programme Discussion Forum on Arts