Creativity and Wellbeing Week Commissions: 2026

About Creativity and Wellbeing Week

Our national festival of Creative Health: Creativity and Wellbeing Week takes place from the 18th - 24th May 2026 and is an amazing platform to champion and celebrate creative health across the country. The festival is a partnership between London Arts and Health and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance.

This year our festival theme is “Critical Hope” (for acute times).

“Critical hope” reflects the ability to realistically assess the environment through a lens of equity and justice while also envisioning the possibility of a better future. Championed as an idea by Paulo Freire, "critical hope" is an active, necessary, and realistic, rather than passive or naive, stance against oppression and despair, deeply rooted in his work Pedagogy of Hope.

Our commission seeks applications from anyone working across the intersections of climate change, mental health, creativity, culture, health and wellbeing. How can we hold onto critical hope in our creative health work, whilst also acknowledging the difficult times we all face?

Visit the festival website to find out more.
How is this Commission being funded?

London Arts and Health, as part of Thrive LDN’s London Mental Health and Climate Coalition (LMHCC) are pleased to launch a series of commissions for Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2026. The London Mental Health and Climate Coalition will work over three years to support people and in particular Londoners in tackling climate change while also improving their mental health.

The project is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund via Thrive LDN.
What we are looking for

We are looking to fund six (6) events put on by anyone across the field of creative health looking to elevate their work during Creativity and Wellbeing Week, through the lens of “Critical Hope”.

Commissions are worth £750 and we are seeking to commission six (6):
- Four (4) within London and -
- Two (2) nationally within England.
What you will receive
- £750 payable in two amounts: 80% pre and 20% post event;
- A supportive online session exploring how to develop your event and get it live;
- Promotion and marketing of your event through Creativity and Wellbeing Week platforms;
- Support with creating assets for your event.
To be eligible to apply you must
- Deliver your event in person within London or England;
- Agree to your event attendees completing the project monitoring and evaluation form;
- Be available to deliver your event between 18-24th May 2026;
- In line with our values we will look to prioritise underserved and marginalised people recognising that health inequalities must be addressed through our work and that we prioritise equity in all our projects.
We will score applications on how they will meet the themes of our festival and how they speak to climate change and mental health.

Unfortunately applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria in their application will not be considered. We are unable to give feedback on applications.
How to apply
- Applicants must first become a free member of London Arts and Health here.
- Applicants must then complete all the questions in the jotform.
- Applications close at 5pm on the 30th March 2026.
- Shortlisting of applicants happens between 31st March - 2nd April 2026.
- Successful applicants will be informed on the 7th April.
Within the application form, there are several fields which are mandatory to complete. This will help us to make our decision. Applicants can also opt to submit a video or audio recording as their application, which must not exceed 5 minutes in length. It must fully answer all the questions in the application form. Video or audio recording applications can be emailed to: info@londonartsandhealth.org.uk and the email header must be clearly marked: “Application to Creativity and Wellbeing Week commissions”. You can use a service like WeTransfer to send your video files if they are too large to send by email.

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And finally, can you share a link to your work, organisation, practice or online profile?
Tell us in no more than a few sentences about yourself, your idea for an event and how it relates to our festival and our themes: critical hope, climate change and mental health.
Tell us in no more than a few sentences how this event will help shape your future work, connections or ideas.
What shape your event might take: where it will take place, who will attend?
Tell us your basic budget breakdown: for example what you might spend on panelists, artist/practitioners, venue hire costs or bursaries for attendees.
Can you confirm that you have Public Liability Insurance and/or DBS if relevant, or that you can use your event budget to ensure this is provided?
And finally, can you support the dissemination of your event and our festival e.g. do you have social media channels, newsletters or ways to communicate about the event?

Thank you for submitting your application to our 2026 Creativity and Wellbeing Week Commissioning process.

You can view the full Terms and Conditions here.
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