Scoping

In order to define how things ought to be through policy or strategy, it is vital to have a clear picture of how things currently are. In order to understand how a particular intervention has had an impact, it is important to take stock of what has happened.

Core Expertise

As a trained social researcher, Rebecca has many tools at her disposal for describing a field of action. This includes conducting archival research and literature reviews, soliciting details of activity, drawing up case studies and consulting experts. Rebecca is currently working with London Arts and Health to scope the scale, character and maturity of the creative health sector in the English capital for the Greater London Authority.

Experience: Understanding Creative Health in London

At the end of 2023, the Culture, Creative Industries and 24-hour London Unit at the Greater London Authority invited Rebecca and London Arts and Health to explore the evolution, scale, character and maturity of the creative health sector in the capital. This research formed the basis of a report, written by Rebecca, called Understanding Creative Health in London: The Scale, Character and Maturity of the Sector, which was launched by the Mayor of London on 24 September 2024. You can read more about the research here and find the full report here.

In order to produce this report, Rebecca and her collaborators undertook extensive scoping of the history and current realities of the sector, using a combination of desk-based research and interviews with 50 experts. Rebecca traced the birth of London’s creative health to the 1730s and charted the sector’s evolution in the 20th century. The main locations in which creative health activities are happening were found to be: health and care settings; community arts organisations; cultural and heritage venues; and educational settings. The artist Rae Goddard illustrated and animated timelines showing pivotal moments in each of these locations alongside national developments. The report provides a detailed consideration of present-day activity, amplifying the views of the creative health workforce.

Understanding Creative Health in London concludes with a series of reflections and four recommendations to the sector as a whole:

Advocate for continued support
Bridge the gap between health and the arts
Help support efforts to diversify the sector
Provide more support to practitioners

Experience: Creative Ageing

Between 2010 and 2019, the Baring Foundation dedicated more than £6m of arts funding to participatory activities involving older people. At the end of this period, the foundation commissioned Rebecca to identify how the field of creative ageing had developed over the previous decade. You can read Older and Wiser? Creative Ageing in the UK 2010–19 here, and hard copies are available on request.

In crafting an overview of the field, Rebecca consulted literature published by the foundation and arts and older people’s organisations and policy documents produced in the four nations of the UK. She also conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 leaders in the field, toured the country visiting exemplary organisations and oversaw a call for programme details. Rebecca found a rich seam of participatory activity in the community alongside a growing number of artists developing, discovering or returning to their practice in older age. She examined the barriers that prevented older people from becoming involved in creative and cultural activities and the ways in which these were being overcome. She gave consideration to the progress that had been made and work yet to be done. Her findings were published as a 100-page report, culminating in an extensive list of creative ageing programmes in the UK.

To find out more, or to commission scoping work, please contact scoping[at]rebeccagordon-nesbitt.org

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

Scoping

Core Expertise

Experience: Understanding Creative Health in London

Experience: Creative Ageing

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt