National Creative Health Hub
Welcome to the National Creative Health Hub
The National Creative Health Hub is a research and creative collaboration hub dedicated to advancing, embedding and sustaining creative health across West Yorkshire and beyond. We work collaboratively with communities, researchers and partners across sectors to build the evidence, infrastructure and practice needed for healthier, happier and more equitable places.
Based at the University of Huddersfield and as part of the National Health Innovation Campus, we work alongside partners and communities to realise the shared ambition of making West Yorkshire a happy and healthy place to live, and to share insights and learning nationally.
What we mean by creative health
Creative health is about connection, care and capability. It encompasses arts and culture, creativity, heritage, movement, sport, nature‑based practice and everyday creative activity that supports wellbeing across the life course.
From participatory arts and cultural engagement to gardening, making, performance and creative movement, creative health creates opportunities for people and communities to flourish — even amidst austerity and widening inequalities. We work with partners to evidence how creative health can reduce pressure on health and care systems, improve wellbeing outcomes, and contribute to vibrant, inclusive and nourishing places to live.
West Yorkshire Creative Health System
Funded by the WYCA, this region-wide initiative establishes a joined-up system approach linking networks, research, and delivery across five districts. Explore our innovative Hub-and-Spoke model driving regional change.
Capabilities Framework
Explore our structured approach to measuring creative health impacts across four interconnected domains: work, health, relationships, and community. See how we turn lived experiences into narratives that support meaningful change.
Our Values
1. Community‑centred and place‑based
At the heart of our mission is community connection. We are committed to breaking down barriers between sectors and spaces, and to bringing communities into the full creative health portfolio — from research and policy to practice and delivery.
2. A national hub with collaboration at its core
We are the first hub of our kind in the UK, proudly supporting the development of a creative health infrastructure that places collaboration, co‑creation and learning at its centre.
3. Cross-sector partnerships
Rooted in partnership, the Hub brings together local authorities, public health, the NHS, health and social care services, voluntary and community organisations, universities, charity, social enterprise, artists, cultural and creative industries, heritage, sport and the growing wellness economy.
Working with us
We welcome collaboration from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to shape healthier places. Partner with us through collaborative research, evaluation frameworks, and creative co-production.
Our Projects
Dive into the impactful, collaborative research and regional initiatives driving our mission forward. Discover dedicated activations including Creating Change, Mondays at the Museum, and Cultures of Creative Health.
Activities we help to facilitate
Hoot CPD Cultures of Creative Health
Hoot CPD Culture of Creative Health - Craft room
Hoot CPD Cultures of Creative Health - Creating a mural
Appletree Garden Spectrum People
Art House Wakefield - Wall of Pottery
Art House Wakefield - Painting
YSP Sculpture Baby
Leather workshop with Men in Sheds group