Free Thinking Essay:Art for Health's Sake
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An apple a day is said to keep the doctor away but could a poem, painting or play have the same effect? Daisy Fancourt is a Wellcome Research Fellow at University College London. In her Essay, recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead for the Free Thinking Festival, she looks at experiments with results which which prove that going to a museum is known to enhance neuronal structure in the brain and improve its functioning and people who play a musical instrument have a lower risk of developing dementia. What does this mean for our attitudes towards the arts and what impact are arts prescriptions having ?
Daisy Fancourt has published a book called Arts in Health: Designing and researching interventions .
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio.
Recorded at the 2018 Free Thinking Festival and includes questions and answers from the audience at Sage Gateshead. Producer: Zahid Warley
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps |
| 0:21.2 | it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream |
| 0:26.1 | van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | This is the BBC. Hello, I'm Shahid Abari. I'm one of the presenters of Freethinking and I'm your host today. |
| 0:39.1 | These essays are being delivered by the new generation thinkers. |
| 0:42.3 | And the new generation thinkers are part of a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 along with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. |
| 0:50.8 | And the object of that scheme is to encourage academics to disseminate their research on radio. |
| 1:01.0 | An apple a day, they say, keeps the doctor away. But could a poem, painting or play have the same effect? |
| 1:09.0 | Research into the effects of the arts on our health is growing rapidly. |
| 1:13.9 | Lullabies can help premature babies gain weight. |
| 1:16.9 | Magic tricks can improve hand function in children with partial paralysis. |
| 1:21.7 | Singing can reduce symptoms of postnatal depression in new mothers. |
| 1:25.4 | And dance music can help people with Parkinson's to walk. |
| 1:29.2 | Over the last 30 years, hundreds of hospitals, hospices and care homes around the UK have |
| 1:34.9 | gone into partnership with artists and arts organisations to develop pioneering programs |
| 1:40.4 | putting this research into practice. But our NHS is changing. Where the focus was on |
| 1:47.6 | treatment, it's increasingly on prevention. Does this still leave a role for the arts? Could something |
| 1:55.5 | as simple as going to the theatre, joining a book club, or drawing in our own homes, play a tangible role in reducing |
| 2:02.8 | our risk of developing some of the most challenging health conditions facing us. If so, how do we |
| 2:09.6 | harness this and use it to support the health of our nation? Let's take a moment to consider a |
| 2:16.8 | condition that terrifies many of us. |
| 2:18.3 | In 1995, the artist William Utamolin was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.