Creativity, health and sustainability: A wholearchy of learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56433/tqwpbe85Keywords:
creative health, artistic research, embodiment, collaboration, adaptability, arts educationAbstract
In order to create a learning environment which prioritises health and wellbeing we propose a focus on creativity over content as an approach to structuring support and skills development. Building on our collective experience in devising engagement activities and training programmes for students and staff at universities, arts schools, and conservatoires, we suggest ways of embedding a creative approach at the outset.
In this creative-critical paper, we offer reflections on forms of learning that grow organically, and where all elements are embedded in the system and support each other as a wholearchy rather than a hierarchy. This is learning that grows like a body, from the inside, all limbs at once, rather than sequentially. Underpinning this is what we perceive to be the threefold contribution of the performing arts to the wider field of knowledge: a grounding in embodied practice, collaboration as the main way of relating and an orientation towards adaptability to prepare practitioners for a continuously changing professional landscape. What we have learned from teaching in an arts context can be useful for people in all educational contexts.
We draw on contemporary performance literature that focuses on practical knowledge and how this knowledge emerges. We explore ideas around creativity, especially in its everyday version, as a practice that enhances wellbeing. We reflect on projects around our key themes of embodiment, collaboration and adaptability, all of them situated in the performing arts. Our interdisciplinary and practice-led approach cuts through the work we are presenting, as these projects allow for rich conversations across differing disciplinary positions.
We ask how considerations of our own creative health, and the creative health of our discipline can be entangled within our teaching and learning context, offering recommendations for future curricula (and the challenges they raise). In doing so, we examine how the performing arts are uniquely placed to provide spaces of healthy creativity for an uncertain future.
References
Neimanis, A. (2012) ‘On Collaboration (for Barbara Godard)’, NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 20:3, 215-221.
Banks, M., & O’Connor, J. (2020) “‘A Plague upon Your Howling’: Art and Culture in the Viral Emergency.” Cultural Trends 30 (1): 3–18. doi:10.1080/09548963.2020.1827931.
Barrett, E. & Bolt, B. eds. (2014) Practice as research: Approaches to creative arts enquiry. London: IB Tauris
Biggs, M. & Karlsson, H. (2011) The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. London, New York: Routledge
Borkert, B. & Skinner, L. (2021) Arts Under Attack: A Multinational Perspective on Creative Arts Education. Journal of Interdisciplinary Public Policy, 2(3).
Byron, E. (2014) Integrative Performance: Practice and Theory for the Interdisciplinary Performer. London, New York: Routledge
Cameron, J. (2020 [1992]) The Artist’s Way. London: Profile Books.
Counsell, C. & Mock, R. eds. (2009) Performance, Embodiment and Cultural Memory. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars
Deng, J., Zhou, F., Hou, W., Silver, Z., Yi Wong, C., Chang, O., Drakos, A., Kang Zuo, Q., Huang, E. (2021) ‘The prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and sleep disturbance in higher education students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis’. Psychiatry Research, Volume 301, July 2021. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113863 (Accessed: 18 September 2024)
González, L. (2021) Breath at the end of the world. Available at: https://www.lauraGonzález.co.uk/art/breath-at-the-end-of-the-world/ (Accessed: 26 September 2024)
Gómez-Peña, G. (2005) Ethno-Techno: Writings on Performance, Activism and Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge
Gómez-Peña, G. & García-López, S. (2020) La Pocha Nostra: A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society. London and New York: Routledge
Macleod, K. & Lin Holdridge, eds. (2005) Thinking through Art: reflections on art as research. London, New York: Routledge
Nelson, R. (2022) Practice as Research in the Arts (and Beyond): Principles, Processes, Contexts, Achievements. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Sipeki, I., Vissi, T., Túri, I. (2022) ‘The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of students and teaching staff’ Heliyon 8:4. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09185 (Accessed: 18 September 2024)
Spatz, B. (2017) ‘Embodied research: a methodology’, Liminalities, 13 (2), pp. 1-31. Available at: http://liminalities.net/13-2/embodied.pdf (Accessed: 2 July 2024).
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland / University of St Andrews (2024) Science, Humanities and Arts Research Exchange (SHARE). Available at: https://shareinterdisciplinary.co.uk (Accessed: 3 September 2024).
Tuffnell, M. & Crickmay, C. (2023) Body Space Image: Notes Towards Improvisation and Performance. Charmouth and Chicago: Triarchy Press
Zuleeg, F., Emmanouilidis, J.A., Borges de Castro, R. (2021) Europe in the Age of Permacrisis, European Policy Centre: https://www.epc.eu/en/Publications/Europe-in-the-age-of-permacrisis~3c8a0c (Accessed: 19 September 2024).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Claire Bissell, Emily Doolittle, Laura González

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice has made best effort to ensure accuracy of the contents of this journal, however makes no claims to the authenticity and completeness of the articles published. Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables etc which are supplied from an outside source.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.